About shipping a Bye-Lo Doll

About shipping aBye-Lo Doll

First, let's take a look at what can happen to poor baby Bye-Lo if the head is not properly prepared for shipping. This picture illustrates a gemon hazard of shipping antique dolls without securing the sleep eye mechanism inside the head.

The Bye-Lo doll's head is attached by means of a flange-style neck ( a small ridge or lip) designed to fit down in to the neck opening in the cloth body. The fabric around the neck opening is pulled up and secured around the flange edge of the neck by either tightly wrapping heavy thread or cord several times around the neck and tying into a knot at the shoulder seam or by sewing long running gathering stitches along the upper edge of the fabric and pulling the thread tightand sewing the seam closed at the shoulder seam.
Note the long running gathering stitches in the fabric around the neck on this Bye-Lo doll. To remove the head, carefully cut the gathering stitches at oneshoulder seamtaking care not to cut into the body material, then gently release the head.

Old cotton crochet thread often found at yard sales or thrift storesworks great for re-attaching the head of a Bye-Lo doll or similarily attached flange-neck bisque doll heads with cloth bodies.

Note the round piece of cardboard ( or sometimes a wafer-thin piece of wood) in the body at the neck opening. This helps keep the stuffing from entering the head cavity and interferring with the sleep eye mechansim. If the cardboard ismissing when you receive your dolly, simply fashion a new one from thick paper or cardboard. Use the neck opening on the doll head to make the pattern - place the doll head on paper and trace around the opening at the neck for the right size.
Ideally, when shipping almost any antique doll with glass eyes ( sleep or non-sleep) the inside of the head should be stuffed with soft tissues to prevent the eyes from rocking and violently opening and closing during shipment. Normally the inside of the doll's head can be accessed by removing the wig and pate at the top of the head. For Bye-Lo dolls, the only secure method of securing the eyes is by removing the head.
I do not recgeend placing tape over the doll's eyes to prevent movement - this often causes the front of the glass eye to break away with the tape, leaving the back of the eye attached to the rocker mechanism.
To stuff the head with tissues, place the head FACE DOWN on a soft surface so that the eyes are OPEN and the lead weight attached to the eye rocker machanism is resting against the felt pad at the chin area as seen below. Use care when stuffing the head - and when removing the tissues - so as not to dislodge the eyes from the plaster holding the eyes in place at the temples. The inside of the head should be firmly (but gently) packed with tissues or soft paper andhave enoughpadding insideto prevent any movement of the eyes and eye weights.
This is what the inside of a Bye Lo Baby's head looks like. There is plaster holding the eyes in place at both temples. The plaster was applied wet and formed around the glass eye in such a way as to allow free movement. Remember, if original, this old plaster is 75-85 years old and fragile. A bumpy ride in shipping can cause the plaster to fall away from the bisque, releasing the glass eyes AND the lead weight that makes the eyes sleep. If allowed to tumble about freely inside the head, this lead weight will break the eyes, cause chips to the eye rims and in the worse case scenerio, will shatter the bisque head entirely.

PS: Please, never violently shake your Bye Lo Baby to force the eyes to open. Treat your bisque baby doll like a newborn and gently "burp" the baby by patting on her back until the sleepy eyes open.Shaking any bique doll to force the eyes to open risks breaking the eyes.
Beloware photos of a perfectly prepared and shipped Bye Lo Baby doll I received from okay Powerseller, SEWANDSO1. Thank you, Marie!







Note thedoll's head is stuffed with tissues and wrapped again in a layer of tissue paper