Machine Washing Your Doll?

When I got white body Samantha I was VERY NERVOUS about washing her body. I ran across this interesting article from JUST MAGIC! Joy writes about washing your doll either in sponge bath or by hand. Both sounded less intimating but I knew I needed a more drastic approach for Samantha. You can see the article in it's entirety here but I will share a little about what she suggested. 

This makes me very nervous...I am not sure that I can do this...She also has an article on re-stringing and that's when washing just the muslin body would make the most sense to me without having to put the limbs in the wash too.

Machine washing sounds a little intimidating and does run a small risk of getting water into the hollow limbs or of saturating the body stuffing so much it doesn't dry properly. (I wouldn't try this in the summer if you live in a humid place and don't have air conditioning.) However, some doll lines, like Götz Precious Day (which are almost identical to American Girl in construction), make a selling point of being machine washable. 

I decided to machine wash the body. To do so, the head must be removed, to avoid getting the eyes wet, which would cause rust. I tightened the tie after removing the head, to lessen the possibility of stuffing falling out.