Vintage Monkey

So the other day I went to an estate sale and I feel like I made out like a bandit! Sitting on a tiny chair was this vintage stuffed monkey, the kind with the rubber face, hands, ears and feet from around the 1950s or so. I was so excited and even more so when the lady said she'd let me have him for $1! Oh and then she went and threw in a second monkey (not nearly as pretty, in fact rather creepy) even older than the first one and not charge me for it. I also picked up a set of Noritake china that has a rare pattern, a sweet old hat and a purse - all for $10!! Talk about awesomeness!

Now these guys each needed some work and I spent a lot of time attempting to clean them up. The monkey with the rubber parts had years of dirt accumulated on him. I used toothpaste and a baking soda paste to scrub all the rubber parts and bring them back to their natural color. Check out my picture with the before and after shoes!



In addition to needing the rubber cleaned, both needed the fabric/fur cleaned up and to help eliminate some odors. I searched forever to find ways to clean these guys and the best solution I found outside of taking them to a professional shop is to rub a baking soda paste all over them or shake them in a bag of baking soda and then to rub that off and it'll help deodorize them and take off some surface dirt. I still think these are both worth taking to a professional cleaner and doll repair place to have some of their joints repaired, a better cleaning and a few stitches where parts are lose, but I'm not sure I want to invest in that if I'm going to sell them. If they don't sell and I choose to keep them I think I'll look into getting them fixed up and then displaying them somewhere that the dogs can't reach!