Prams Perfect Prams

 Welcome to the part of the hobby which I love.  To recreate a heap of old, unloved scrap into a beautiful lady who shows us how she looked when she was new and carried someone's newly born infant in safety and comfort has always been my dream, and now I have had the good fortune to be able to do it for myself.    I have long admired the talent of  people such as Susan "Clovergem" and Alison Murfett and have watched their creations with wonder.   It has taken years of patience and hard work to get to a standard I am happy with but there is always room for improvement and perfection is the ultimate goal!

Here are a few examples of my "projects" over the years.  I can sit and look at the mistakes I made which, to me, are glaring examples of inexperience but they have been made with love so that's my excuse!

This is a SilverCross "Rose" dolls pram which I bought as a wreck and which was delivered to me in this condition, so no nasty surprises there.

And this is how she turned out, after several coats of white coachpaint which was my first attempt at coachpainting.

My own Wilson Antibes "Bird of Paradise" was a poor, neglected old lady when I first saw her.  She had been allowed to decay quite a lot before I eventually bought her and it was with relish and quite a bit of gusto that I set about restoring her to an elegant and unmistakably beautiful pram.   This is the only photograph I have of her before I started work and it was captured from a video taken at 2007 Wolverhampton Steam Show.

Luckily I didn't have to replace the upholstery, it was the only thing on the pram which didn't need work!

I asked my sprayer, Dave, if he would put some coachlines on for me and gave him the colour.  He used the stickon ones in ivory I got from a guy who cuts them with a computer program but Dave didn't have a pattern to copy so he used his imagination and I have to say I really like where he has placed them.  It seems to give more elegance to the pram.

THE DUCHESS OF WESTMINSTER'S MILLSONS PORTMAN

I was approached by Karen, the PA to the Duchess of Westminster, a few months ago who asked if I could recover the hood and make a new apron and just generally spruce up the old pram which had been used for several generations of the family at Eaton House in Chester.   Naturally I considered it an honour to be asked to do this work for them and these are the results!

I removed the wheels and gave them a good scrub, including the tyres.   I recovered the hood and apron in a deep navy marimo-type fabric to match the paintwork, piping the apron and added two new leather fobs which fit over the buttons on the sidebars.  I gave the who pram a really good clean and then polished it until it gleamed.   New straps were added, all the working parts were greased and the Millsons is now ready to carry the Duke and Duchess' next grandchild!   Needless to say I am very proud to have been asked to do this work particularly as I was born and brought up in Cheshire not far from where this pram will be used.

Pat.

November 2005 I bought a SilverCross Dolls Pram. I went to collect it and while I was there I saw to my amazement a very old babies pram planted up with Begonias. The gentleman said I could have it if I wanted it, so I duly went to collect it three days later. Here is a photo the day I collected it.   Lynda

 I will update with any work that goes on.

August 2006

Here you have the same pram more or less complete. I just need to build a brake for it. I believe this was the forerunner to the SilverCross Viceroy, if you have any idea of the model name please let me know.   Lynda

Restoration of a SilverCross Equerry

You can see the whole restoration on my website www.classycanopies.com but I will just show you how you can make an old discarded pram into something usable and also make a style statement into the bargain!