*Cleaning My Little Ponies*

The first thing you should do when you find a pony is clean it really well. One, the dirt doesn't look good, and two, it may have bacteria or other things on it. I recommend a fine tooth, unbreakable comb (for all those snags) like the kind you can get at hotels for brushing the hair, as it makes it nice and smooth. I usually start out the cleaning with a green scrubie and some dish soap. A tooth brush also works very well.  You can scrub pretty hard, just make sure not to scratch the finish. Lots of times, most of the marks will come off this way.  You may have to work awhile on some areas, but it is less harmful and abrasive to the pony than chemicals. To remove smells in ponies (such as smoke) you can put baking soda in a bucket or a sink, fill it up with water, and let the pony soak in it.  For a So-Soft, try Woolite, and scrub it around in light circles with a toothbrush on the pony.  Do not use nailpolish on them unless you want to take their fuzz off.  If you finish scrubing the pony, and some of the marks still do not come off, then you can try other means.

Most of the marks that will not come off with scrubbing will come off with nail polish remover. Just put some on a cotton ball or kleenex and rub on the affected area. Be careful, though, as it will remove symbols and cheek blush, particularly glittery ones.  The only thing you can do to clean glittery symbols is take a very soft toothbrush with soap on it and scrub gently around it.  If nailpolish remover does not work, there are some other things you can try.  Comet also works, when made into a paste and applied to the mark.  Goo Gone, a citrus cleaner, works to lighten really dark marks.  It doesn't usually make it all go away, but helps to make it less noticable.  In my experience, DON'T use bleach.  It can leave little dots on a pony from where it affected the plastic.  It's okay to use, if you are really desperate, in a solution with water.  Here are some other things to try:

• Toothpaste
• Citri-Solve
• Windex
• Murphy's Oil Soap
• Lysol
• 409
• Lemon Juice (for yellow marks)

*Plush Ponies*

To clean a plush pony, just throw it in a pillowcase, and tie it at the top.  Make sure to braid the hair so it doesn't come out or get tangled.  Wash it and dry it just like normal clothes.  Once it comes out, if there are still stains or marks, use carpet cleaner to lighten or remove.

The first step in this long process is to decide what you are going to replace the mane with. You can use regular pony hair, suggestivly from a tail, or from a pony with a really long mane like a Brush 'n Grow. Also, you can use fake hair, like the stuff that people use to create streaks in regular hair. Try www.tartblossom.com or a wig shop for some of that. Other than that, you can get a large doll at Goodwill or a second hand place that has long hair and dye it. Sometimes you can even find a doll with the color hair you want and you won't have to do anything to it.

If you are going to use doll hair, It's best to choose a doll that has hair in separate "roots" on it's head, similar to the plugs of the hair on a My Little Pony. Make sure they are about the same size, as this will make separating it easier. Shampoo and comb the hair thouroughly before using. If you are going to dye the hair, it's best to do this before putting it into the pony, so you don't risk getting dye onto the pony. See farther down the page for directions on doing this.

Next, follow the direction for whichever kind of hair you are using. Then go to step two.

Steps for using a tail or a streak: Comb the tail through with water until it is soaking wet. This is important, as it insures that the hair will not separate during the process. Section the hair into "plugs" about the size of a normal plug of hair. Cut each of these as close to the base as you can get. Carefully tie a knot at the bottom of the strand of hair; you now have a single new plug of hair. Continue this until either the tail is used up or you have enough to do the new pony's mane.

Steps for using doll hair or a regular My Little Pony mane: Comb the hair through with water until it is extremely wet. Now, section out a single plug of the hair. Cut this single plug as close to the scalp as you can. Tie a knot at the very end of this plug. Continue this until you have enough plugs.

Step two: Prepare the pony you are going to put the hair in. You will need to remove the head to do this. Some ponies, such as the earlier ponies, will have heads that will pop off by themselves if you pull on it, but sometimes you will need to cut it off. Use an Exacto knife to very carefully cut around the plastic on the neck, using a gentil push and pull motion. Be EXTREMELY careful, because it is quite easy to cut yourself while doing this, as I have done before. Chop off what is left of the mane, and pull out what you can't cut with a tweezers or crochet hook from the inside.

You will need a wire beading needle with a very large eye, which you can get at a beading store, and possibly some very strong thread. Take one of the plugs of hair and make the end without the knot into a point using some water. Push the tip through the eye of the beading needle, and pull it through. Center the needle eye on the strand. Bend the needle so it curves up so it will be easier to poke it through the pony's head. Tilt the head so you can see up inside it. Push the needle through the first hole in it's head, and pull it out on the other side. Yank the hair the rest of the way through, and make sure the knot is secure. The eye of the needle will be flattened, so open it up again by sticking a pen into the eye and pushing it over the pen. It will now be open again. Continue this process going down the head systematically.

If you can not get the hair onto the needle the above way, tie a short peice of string aroung the center of a hair plug. Then tie the other end of the string aroung the needle eye, using several knots. Then push the needle through like above, and the hair should pop through since it was attatched by the string to the needle. This takes longer, but if you are using hair that has some split ends, it may be hard to get it all through the eye of the needle.

After all of the hair plugs are filled, cut the hair so it is even. Then you can style or curl the hair however you want.

Remove all of the hair that was left in the head of the pony you are using by pulling it out with tweezers. Be careful not to rip the holes in the plastic by pulling out more than one plug at once.

First, comb the tail through with water untill it is nice and wet. Then separate it into a small section, about the size of a normal plug of hair. Cut the section of hair right at the base. Its really important that the hair is really wet through this, so it doesn't separate. Tie a knot at the end you cut off by making a big one knot, and sliding it along until it tightens at the end of the hair. That way it all stays together. Continue to do this with the rest of the tail, until you have lots of these little "plugs"

If you are using a pony's mane instead, simply comb the pony's mane through untill it is really wet and cut each individual plug of hair (make sure the mane is really wet!) right at the base of the plug and tie a knot in it like above.

Then, to get the hair into the ponies head, you need a really long, skinny, beading needle. Take the needle, and poke it backwards, eye part first, through the first plug hole in the pony's head. Stick it through so that it pokes out the pony's neck hole. Then, put a string through the needle hole, and center the needle between the two ends of the string. The string should be about 6 inches in length. Then, put the middle of one of the hair strands betweeen the two ends of the string, and tie the string around the strand, so it is sort of attatched to the needle. You will need to make several knots to secure it, and it helps to send one of the string ends back through the needle eye and tie it around the hair again. Then, poke the needle back through the plug hole in the pony's head. Pull hard, but slowly and gently untill the hair pops through the hole. Pull the rest of it through, and make sure the end is secure.

Continue this untill all of the plugs are full. Then, you will have to cut the hair untill it's the right length. It may be just right, but will probably need to be evened out.

Replacing the tail is much easier than the mane. Remove the head as shown above, take a crochet hook, and reach it inside the pony. Put the hook part through the hair of the tail below the washer, and pull until the tail comes out. Leave the washer on the tail, as it helps it to stay in. Now, take the new tail that you are planning to put in. Take some thread and starting at the washer end, wind it all around the tail until it's bound up strait with no loose hairs. Make especially sure the end is not loose. Now, stick the end of the tail back through the pony, and out the tail hole. Pull on it lightly to makes sure it's all the way through, and then unbind it. Brush it a couple of times, and then it will be exactally like a normal tail.

If you are using doll hair to make a tail, just wet the doll's hair, take a bunch of about the same length peices, cut it at the base of the scalp, and tie it in a knot at the end. No washer is needed since the knot is so large. Then, follow the directions above to get it back into the pony.

To dye the hair (mostly light colored), RIT dye works very well. It's available at many stores, even just drug stores. Prepare the dye, but leave out half the water to make it double strength. Dunk the hair of the pony (or doll if you are dying hair) into the dye until the desired color is reached. If you are just going to be using the pony for hair, you can dunk the whole thing in.

Other than that, to dye the hair you can also use Acrilic paint, mainly the Liquitex brand. To do this, squeeze some paint into the bottom of a cup. Fill the cup up 3/4 or the way with water, and stir until smooth. Lie the pony (or doll for hair) out on it's back on top of some newspaper, and spread the hair out. Take a very fine-toothed comb, and begin to comb the paint water into the hair. Continue combing and putting more paint water into the hair untill 15-20 minutes has passed. Allow the hair to dry by hanging it upside down by it's feet. Be sure to put newspaper under her so the dye water can drip down. In 24 hours, comb her hair through, and it should be ready to use.

Materials:

• Small Sharp Strait-edged knife (used for scraping)
• Finger Nail Polish Remover (alot)
• Old toothbrush
• Paint thinner
• Greazed Lighting
• Poor conditioned So-Soft (the worse the better). The lease amount flocking on the pony the easier it is to remove.
• Old rag gloves (keeps chemicals off hands. Very Important)

Preperation:

First remove the head and tail. This serves two purposes:

1. Let's you clean the inside and
2. easier to remove the fur.

Deflocking:

Despite what people have said, fingernail polish remover, greazed Lighting, and paint thinner did NOT harm my So-soft's symbol or eyes. It did fade the blush. It is recommended that you use a pony you don't mind messing up first.

Get the fingernail polish remover and toothbrush. Rub the remover into the fur and let sit for a few seconds. Most of the fur will rub off by itself. Get the knife and GENTLY scrape the flocking off, being careful not to cut or scratch the plastic. Re-apply the remover as needed, but don't go crazy with it. This will take some time. It took me about 45 min. to get all of the flocking off.

Deglueing:

The flocking is easy to remove, but the glue holding the flocking is another story. I used the toothbrush and applied all three chemicals to soak the glue, but don't let the chemicals sit on the painted areas, this may cause fading. Use the knive to scrap at the glue. The glue is very sticky and a pain to get off. This is very time consuming. Both flocking and glue is hard to remove around the legs, hoofs, and head. Just keep working at it, and eventually it'll come off. It is very important to work in a well ventilated area, especilly with the paint remover.

Afterward:

Use soap and water to wash the body. It will smell of the chemical, but most the smell will air out within a day. Make sure everything is completely dry before you put the pony back together. This will prevent tail rust and mold.

Although Summer Wing ponies have very strong wings, some have had them cut or broken off. To replace them, you need another pony with wings, or you can try to reproduce them somehow yourself.

Take an Exacto knife and slice carefully around the little square on the back of both of the ponies. once you are sure you have gone all the way around, take a pencil and push up on the clear plastic thing that is attatching the wings from the inside. After awhile, the whole square, including the wings, will pop off of the pony's back. Do this to both of them. Take the winged square and the pony you want to put them in. Tilt the large, clear plastic thing on the bottom of the square so it goes part way into the pony. Now all you have to do it push gently until it pops back in. If you were carefull when cutting, you won't be able to tell it was removed.

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If you want to change the whole color of the pony, again, it's best to use RIT dye. That way, no brush strokes are left. But the problem with this is that you have to dye the hair as well. If you want to do this, than it works fine. Other than that, you can remove the tail and try to keep the pony's mane out of the dye, or just count on replacing the mane. Using RIT dye produces nice, bright colors, and the longer you leave it in, the darker it gets.

Also, acrillic paint or model paint works. They leave brush strokes, but if you smooth it out it can look good. Some effects are only attainable using paint. For a symbol or eye touch-up or re-do, just use a very fine brush dipped in acrillic paint. Make sure the kind you get is permanent so it won't wash off.

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~*The Garden*~