I worked on my Basaak doll a little this weekend. I painted the back of her head plate with an owl. I really love owl pictures.

I had to spray her head with Krylon art sealant to get the paint to stick. I added some lower eyelashes while I was working on her. After I painted her head cap with silver and gold ink and acrylic Plaid paints, I sealed her 2 more times. I like it but was never a big fan of tattoos. It looks like a tattoo. I have her original hair in curlers now and it is being hot washed and set for 24 hours before I put it back on her. I like the boyish little short wig I put on her because it shows the painting I did. I signed her too.

I had to change her cord again, because her eyes kept jamming. I finally figured it out what I had done to cause this. I used tacky glue to put in her gold eye chips I made especially for her. The chips had slipped at an angle and weren't flush with the eye, so they jammed and then I would break the cord.

Her eye changing mechanism is working smoothly at the moment.

I noticed too that I have trouble remembering which screw goes inside the head plate and which ones go outside. Sounds crazy but they are slightly different.

I'm washing her little dress too. This is makeover day for her. 

She has a couple of little bruises in her legs. I think that's where the wire is that clicks their knees. I had old Barbies with bendable knees back in the old days. They often times got those marks on their legs and they didn't come out. I tried toothpaste with whitening and it still doesn't come out. I still like keeping her on the original body. She wears Barbie shoes and stands on her stand well. She isn't floppy like some of the re-bodied dolls I've had. Her name is Owl.

 I got a Minerva McGonagall doll from Walmart. This doll is from the Harry Potter dolls. I don't know if she can wear Barbie stuff yet, because I haven't taken her out of the box. But it looks like she could share some things.  I was thrilled because she is more of a mature Barbie to me. I would like to do a diorama with all different customized Barbie dolls or similar sized dolls.  I also discovered a new doll to pre-order from Mattel's Barbie.com site. It is Iris Apfel. There are 2 versions of Iris. One looks like  the mature Iris and the other looks like the younger Iris. They are pricey for Barbie but would make a nice Christmas gift, since they ship Dec. 21, 2018.

I found a really good deal on the WWE dolls and got a cute one for about $7.50. I found that those dolls can share some Barbie stuff but their feet are large. They have what is called the athletic build. I can't wait to see if I like them and what shoes they will share. They are very articulated dolls with lots of head sculpts different from Barbie even. I can see Minerva dressing like Iris.

I hope to post some pictures soon.

More Belle

After I found the Barbie body that matches my Belle doll's skin tone, I spent a little more time styling her hair. I did a hot wash and style for her hair. I removed the widow's peak and tiny wisps around her forehead. The hot wash and styling softened the hairline just the way I liked. I ordered a new Divergent Tris on Amazon. They are not exactly like Made to Move Barbies but they have very delicate looking joints and are not so athletic looking in my opinion. I made Belle some earrings and am working on her necklace and dress. She's in her Barbie kitchen posing nude right now.  

  

 What a head of hair she has.

Barbie Divergent Tris doll head swap with Disney Belle Beauty and Beast doll

It has been a month since I posted anything. I have had some not doll related things to do called work. I did work on a Disney Belle doll a little bit when I could. I washed a ton of glue out of her hair and it's still stiff. I liked the style so I left it a little bit stiff to hold the big curl. I touched up her color and gave her a Divergent Tris Barbie body. That way she can pose well and wear Barbie things. The skin color looks good with the doll head. I pierced her ears too. 

The Divergent Tris body is very poseable. I love the delicate Barbie hands on this doll. Her fingers are not all together like Made to Move. I tried a bunch of Barbie shoes on her to make sure she wears lots of Barbie things. Her old body could fit a few of the Barbie shoes but not all. It seems her feet were wider.

 The hairline is still a bit harsh. I think I would like to work on it more. I added some little wisps to the sides, using false eyelashes. 

 I really love the French braid and big curl. 

 I love the Barbie hands that have some separate fingers. I noticed even Made to Move has the hands with fingers all together. 

 Barbie heels fit the doll well. She can't wear flats but that's okay. I like her.

 The Divergent doll body has shorter looking feet. I did notice a bit of difference in her feet and the other Barbies I have. Some shoes look like her feet got trimmed off. I still like her. 

I noticed the legs are strung together inside with something that looks like a black rubber band. I really loved this, because her range of motion is really great. I always wondered what's inside Barbie's legs. This is one I can see. It rained a little while I was working outside. I got little drops of water in my pictures. 

Her old body I tried to fix.

 Her knees are wide apart when sitting no matter what I did to her legs.

Now that I found the body I want for my Belle, I want to continue to dress her and call her Belle.

Making cute things for an Imda 1.7 sized doll.

 I worked on some cute felt elf clothes for my dolls these past few days. I still need to put some type of buttons on the outfit. I made the tiny doll a puppet of his own. I don't have a wig to fit it but that's on the list to do. This was harder than the other 1/8 th scale dolls. The doll is tinier in some ways than the other dolls I have for my log cabin doll house. 

Hurricane Florence and Dolls

I got this cute little recast doll a while back. I noticed while looking at other dolls like her she had a gap in her mouth that was wider than the factory doll. I decided she needed some teeth. I used my art supplies to make her some teeth, freckles, blush her nails and furnish a little wig for her. I think she is supposed to be a littlefee Ante, or was? I can't seal her yet due to the hurricane weather here in NC where I live.

I was almost about to let go of this doll, because she was just another cute doll. I like to see what makes for a good doll and see how they work. Then after that, if I don't see anything else about the doll that's a keeper, I sell it.

I was pleasantly surprised that she had all her magnets, which is not always the case with recast dolls. Her head cap started getting loose but I put a super tiny thin magnet in between the two head cap magnets to shim it up a little. This helped a lot. It turns out the part that inserts into the back of her head is a mm too short to reach all the way to the other magnet.

At first I couldn't get her head to pose upward but I adjusted the hook inside her head to the front of the head instead of the back, pulled some of the stringing out as far as I could and it worked. The stringing was too tight in the upper body, so when I adjusted it, the legs started holding poses better too. The little cog things in her legs I thought were worn down, fit just perfect when the stringing is adjusted.

The wig I crocheted during the hurricane, because I couldn't sleep. I then sewed eyelash chenille around and around till I reached the very top peak. It is quite tedious but it seemed to suit the little doll better than anything I had to fit her. She looks boyish and will probably transform into a little Ante boy. To make the wig cap, I used black #10 thread and a 2.5 mm aluminum hook. I began a chain of 46 stitches. My crochet is pretty tight, so it could possibly be more or less stitches for different people, even using the same threads and hooks.

Ante has a 6.5 in. wig size, which would be a size 6-7 doll wig. I have read that Ante has a slightly larger head than other Littlefee dolls. I don't know I only have this one.  

The next row was 46 sc (single crochet). Then I went around 3 rows of dc (double crochet) After that I continue to double crochet, and decrease every 4th stitch. Decreasing "excessively" works with dolls because they are so small, and no one is going to see the extra decreases underneath the wig.

Note: I taught myself how to crochet when I was around 12 years old. So later in my life I found out there are rules to decrease every other row or something. 

I try the wig on the doll every round or so, because I don't want it to peak like a witches hat. As soon as it covers the head sufficiently I seam across the top of the wig from side to side of the rows to keep it flat to the head. Tie off the string, and weave in the ends. I start sewing at the bottom where I used the single crochet around. I like having the stitches a little more dense where I am going to start the first row of hair or yarn. These rows will overlap tightly, so no one will see the wig cap. I don't sew very straight lines. I go with what is the most intuitive. I noticed the wig seems fuller and more natural if it is a bit wavy going around and around.

I think I should rename this doll Andy. I love him now and want to keep him and make him an elf outfit for Christmas.

I was really happy to see the doll fits with Barbie furniture better than my 5stardoll Mia. This gave me another reason to keep the doll. I really love dollhouse sized dolls. Mia is going to be pretty upset. I hope she doesn't pull a Robert the Doll on me.

I tried the same outfit on all of my 1/8 scale dolls.

The hat is tight on Secretdoll and the sleeves too long. The shoes are also too big, but her feet are a bit smaller about 7/8" long and narrow.

 The hat fit Lati Yellow doll with her wig. The clothes were a bit too big also.

Impldoll Verne fits the hat well with his wig on. His paws are a bit large and had to be worked down into the sleeves carefully. The shoes fit well also.  Verne is my best poser right out of the box. 

The sleeves are long on Tyltyl but I discovered I could roll them up a little. The shoes fit well enough they don't repeatedly fall off the doll. 

 The same situation happened with my PongPong doll. The sleeves are long. The top is big enough to be a dress. The hat fits with a wig on. The shoes keep falling off. 

 I didn't even try it on the Imda 1.7 sized doll. The hat is too big even with a wig. The overall outfit really doesn't work for me without the hat.

Overall I have found that if I want the outfit to fit the doll, it has to be made with the doll in hand. There is no one size fits all scale for everything on the dolls I have on hand.