Just before I moved Naomi got me a doll from The Bargain Shop, a secondhand shop in her town. I think that Oatlands was once a Mecca for doll collectors because several times in the past she’s found old dolls in there or bought them for me from other collectors in the town. There was even a doll museum in the old flour mill at Oatlands when I first visited Tasmania twenty or so years ago.
With all the stress of moving I didn’t get a chance to have a good look at this big baby. I just knew it was an Ideal doll because Naomi had seen the markings. The doll ended up staying at Naomi’s house for the past 6 months until she had room in the car to bring it here.
That was when I got around to googling Ideal Baby dolls 1972 and realised that it was Baby Crissy. All the markings are correct although I can’t be sure of the exact age of the doll because apparently they carried the same markings for all the years they were made including when they were reissued in the 1980s. There were some Baby Crissy dolls made in the early 1990s but as I understand it these were smaller dolls, about 18 inches long, which did not have the grow hair feature. In fact they were Baby Crissy in name only and not reissues of earlier dolls.
I read that the early Baby Crissy’s were soft stuffed vinyl and the later ones were hard vinyl but the vinyl hardens with age so an early one may be hard while the article I read says that some later ones may appear to be softer. Not a big help for working out the age of the doll if she is not in her original outfit.
Baby Crissy seems to have had a tough life. Her eyelashes are gone but worse than that she has had a serious haircut. Her ponytail is completely gone and many of her hair plugs have been cut in the front. I actually thought she was a little boy when I first saw her.
I am now thinking about what to do. I think that my immediate solution will be a hat. I’ve read two articles about replacing the ponytail. One said it was really easy. The other said it was really hard. I think I could possibly do the ponytail. You access the inside by taking an arm off. Actually, the loss of her front hair worries me more than the missing ponytail. I always thought it a bit unrealistic that a baby would have that much hair but the cut hair at the front is harder to disguise. I don’t think I could get her head off and the vinyl is really hard so I am doubtful about trying to get a needle in there. Of course there is the option of a wig but I’m not really keen on that idea as Baby Crissy is meant to be a grow hair doll. Or there is Dr Kitty at the Hobart Dolls Hospital, but I think that option will be left for now because of the hassle of getting her there. She does occasionally make trips to the north so maybe I’ll wait and consider that if I’m not happy with my own solutions.
I have given Baby Crissy a bath and washed and conditioned what is left of her hair. It felt coarse and stuck up everywhere so I felt the conditioning would settle it down. She wasn’t really dirty, just a little dusty from storage. Her eyes look brighter now. I’ll have to see if I can do eyelashes myself. That would be helpful as a lot of the old dolls need them.
Her little outfit is quite cute so I might let her keep it. Baby Crissy is 22-24 inches long and can wear real baby clothes which is what her outfit is. I may look amongst my stash for something warmer for winter though and see what I have in the way of hats. Later I may buy her something from an Op Shop or make something. She would probably look nice in yellow too.
Later:
I went downstairs and found my stash of big baby clothes. When I was volunteering at the Op Shop I often brought home newborn size baby clothes in case I got a big baby doll to redress for the shop. When I left I took most of what I had back. There were one or two really cute little outfits that I wish I’d kept but I don’t put modern baby clothes on my vintage babies and the Netta’s are all boys. Anyway I had a few things that had come off other big dolls so Baby Crissy has a temporary outfit. I admit that I mainly chose this because of the hat. When the local Op Shops in Wynyard reopen I’ll see if I can find a nice little outfit for her. She can have a floppy sunhat when the weather warms up.
I must say that Ideal made some very nice dolls. I do have a regular Crissy and Giggles from the 70s as well as Two Shoes and Posie Walker, and of course there are Naomi’s two Tearie Dearie dolls and our shared vintage Ideal Shirley Temple. An Ideal family you might say.
More About Crissy:
http://crissyandbeth.com/babycrissy.html – A very good resource for Baby Crissy lovers.
http://crissytown.8thman.com/fcrissy_baby.html – Another good Baby Crissy page which is part of a whole Crissy website.
Dolls, Dolls, Dolls 
I can see her in a pretty baby bonnet. 🙂
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I intend to find her something a bit more girly even if I have to knit it myself.
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I think as long as Crissy can wear a hat, she looks lovely ^^ Maybe you could make her a little sun bonnet?
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She might well make a lovely Christmas doll, I have the grown up Crissy dressed up for Holidays. I started collecting Ginger dolls to be her friends and I think I would love to find the baby version. What a sweet happy baby she seems! Thanks for sharing.
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She’ll look pretty in pink and a hat can cover the drastic haircut, although, despite this she now looks more like a baby. Babies don’t generally have long ponytails. This was why I was never keen on baby dolls in the seventies, they had too much hair (think Tiny Tears and First Love) Your childhood baby doll Theresa looks much more like a baby, as do the baby dolls of this time.
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I agree. I’m not really that worried about restoring the ponytail except as a doll restoration project perhaps. I would like to replace the missing plugs but if I can’t I’ll just keep her in hats. I think pink goes nicely with the auburn hair.
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I actually picked this doll up on “Whole Town Garage Sale Day” We have this every year around November. If I don’t have to work I go to all the garage sales. When I found this doll it was sitting in quite a nice but modern push chair. I actually was thinking of the push chair as something for Vanda’s dolls to use and the doll was a bonus.I thought a bargain getting the two for under twenty bucks.I know it was cheap. She came from a doll collector I had bought from before. Vanda actually has a few dolls bought from this lady’s garage sales. I can’t remember which. I usually check out the shops and garage sales, bag a bargain and give them to Vanda when I am free to visit. I have a lot of fun looking for stuff for each of us. Love the thrill of the chase and bagging a good bargain or finding that one item I’ve been looking for.Haven’t done much this year because of the stupid Covid 19. Just starting to get out and about again now.
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I wonder if they will hold the garage sale this year.
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Whole Town Garage Sale Day has been planned for November. If I have not moved I will go and see what I can snap up.
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Probaby worth arranging a trip back for if you are here.
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I used to garage sale w/ my dad when he was more active, or donate dolls for some of his.Now or until Covid, my hubby and I were doing swap-meets in San Diego and I bought serveral items from Dave/YUP from (Storage wars). Last time I went I rescued an unmarked crier baby doll.I just got a Madam Alexander crier from E-bay so think the upright stroller is brilliant.
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You must miss those events as much as we miss markets. My husband used to love Storage Wars. I know those shows are all fake and scripted but is Dave really the way he appears on the show?
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Maybe you can cover the front of her head with some shorter hair from the ponytail. I haven’t heard of any Baby Crissy dolls having soft bodies, but maybe they were all hard in the U.S.
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I’m only going by the descriptions I read and by soft I didn’t mean a cloth body but is referred to as “stuffed vinyl”. If I decided to fix her ponytail I’d use any extra hair for the front plugs but have never rerooted a large hard headed doll.
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I only know of one body here, and it’s just regular plastic.It’s not soft at all, in any way, shape, or form! About the ponytail, I thought maybe you could just cut the front of the ponytail short,and avoid rooting altogether.
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That’s an idea, if I do her ponytail I’ll try that.
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The baby Crissy has a lovely face. She is really beautiful.
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The Crissy family dolls do have pretty faces.
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I enjoyed to visiting your blog. Very nice information.
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Glad you liked it.
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