Lowell woman restores AG and MAC dolls to beauty
By Emma Palova || Contributing writer
8/18/2024
Once you have an American Girl (AG) doll, they keep coming, so says Phyllis Ewing, of Lowell, who borrowed a doll from her sister, Patricia, ten years ago. All she wanted was to make a dress for her granddaughter, Gracy's doll.
"I got attached to my sister's doll, Julie," Ewing said laughing during a recent interview.
Soon, the dolls came from thrift stores, online and donated by family and friends, even from trash. Now, they've found their home on the tiered-shelves, in the corner of Ewing's living room between two windows. The two doll collections AG dolls and the Magic Attic Club (MAC) proudly represent a piece of Americana in their craftsmanship and beauty. The 18-inch dolls are similar in concept, yet different; the only thing they have in common is the heighth. The AG dolls are soft-body play dolls with the theme of history, while the MAC dolls are all vinyl, carrying the theme of fantasy.
So, AG dolls portray characters like Julie Albright 1974, Kirsten Larsen 1854, Josefina Montoya 1824, Addy Walker, twins Isabel and Nikki Hoffman, Courtney Moore 1986, Melody Ellison 1964, Maryallen Larkin 1954, Molly McIntire 1844 and Nanea Mitchell 1941, just to name a few. AG doll of the year, for 2024, is Lila, with gymnastics practice outfit. The AG doll favorite is Marie-Grace, with a soft cloth body, with stuffing.
MAC dolls were released in a soft launch in 1994, as a slightly more inexpensive doll for children who weren't as interested in history as much as fantasy. Most of the MAC's collection skewed to modern clothing and accessories, which, at the time of the MAC's debut in 1994, American Girl did not offer. MAC dolls filled in the gap for a modern doll.
The Magic Attic Club is about a group of girls who discover a trunk of dress-up clothes in an attic. When they look at themselves in the magic mirror, they get transported to a different time and land where the clothes came from.
Ewing proudly took off the shelf beautiful blonde Chloe, dressed as Elsa from Frozen, whom she bought online. She is made of hard plastic and ranges in price from $120. She also has American Girl Doll of the Year, Nikki, whom she made the dress and shoes for. The American Girl Dolls have bodies made of cloth and hard plastic limbs held on by rubber bands.
Ewing learned how to repair dolls online and by practice; she knows how to sew to make dresses for the dolls. Doll Rebecca had her limbs loose with marks and holes in her body. "When the limbs are loose, I open them up and go in and tighten them, and I stitched the holes," she said.
At the thrift shop in Treasures, Ewing has a bin where the staff puts the discarded dolls. At pick-up time, most dolls look like they should have been thrown away a long time ago, according to Ewing.
"I take them out of the trash at the thrift store and fix them," she said. "They have no eyelashes and their legs are loose."
"I bring them home and work on them and take them back to the Toy Department. Baby dolls, other than American Dolls, run $3 to $4. 18-inch American Girl dolls are $50, new dolls are $130. They are collectors' items.
Ewing has worked at the Thrift Shop as a cashier before Covid, and started restoring dolls for the Thrift Shop after Covid. "I've always been a big fan of before and after," she said. "It's very satisfying to see what they can be."
Based on her restoration hobby, Ewing penned a book, Being Restored. Since she does not have a computer, she handwrote the novella in a black notebook, including the suggested graphic on the front cover.
Watch for story and podcast about Ewing's novella
