Little newbie!

This little one arrived yesterday from the UK having been adopted from Ebay a couple of weeks ago.  She was, in fact, a 'he', a Gregor with white elastic in both arms and legs, so I believe dates to about 71-72.  The poor boy was in a bit of a mess.   Firstly, he was FILTHY!  His face and body were really dirty and his brunette hair was awfully 'crunchy' and falling, so I removed it easily as it was literally breaking off at the roots.  However, that wasn't even the worse of his problems.  He had a nylon stocking/sock over his head which had a very unpleasant odour about it....but worse was to come.  The sock, once removed, had a clear and distinct dirty footprint on it!  As you can imagine, I was NOT impressed.  So the boy has now had a thoroughly good scrub but he still smells weird, like some sort of 'gone off' floral smell, which is quite cloying and unpleasant.  So I think he'll need to have the 'cat litter' treatment done on him in the hope that it will go away.

In the meantime, I restrung his arms as the elastic had gone all loose and I put a wig on him and he is now a 'she'.  I have also bought another wig for her and soon she will have outfits of her own.    I think she's a cute, shy little thing and think she'll fit in perfectly here with the rest of the dambuster dolls!

New outfits for Devlin and Liesl...

Today I was going to make a start on an outfit for Emilio, but then Devlin came to me and politely (he's always very polite!) reminded me that I'd said he was next on my list for new warmer clothes!  So I made him a new blue hoodie to match his eyes.  I was going to make him some new long trousers too but ran out of time....but he did get some new socks which I made from a mobile phone pouch!!!  

I don't think little boys are usually so well co-ordinated, but he looked so sweet that I wanted to keep him that way!  (Lovely turquoise sandals by the late great Jean Jensen).

Yesterday I made this outfit for Liesl, my little later Gotz Wibke.  She's been patiently waiting whilst all the others got their warm weather outfits.  The trousers are made from fine needle cord that I got from Norway.   The lovely knitted beanie was made by a dear friend of mine in the US.

Hola....

Mango just stopped by to say 'Hola!'....

A bit of body swapping!

Back in the summer I bought a brunette Gregor head from Ronny with the intention of using him for rerooting practice.  Ronny told me that he'd had a bit of a hair cut but his hair wasn't falling at all.  I thought that when he arrived, I'd remove his existing badly cut hair and practice on him before starting on my bald Sasha.

Ahh but as we all know, the best laid plans....so the Gregor head arrives and even with his untidy hair I can see he is handsome.  His eyes are beautiful, a very hazel brown, and soooo dreamy!  How could I not immediately fall for his roguish charms!!  So me being me, I put him to one side and started straight away rerooting my bald Sasha....no trial runs for me!!! 

In the meantime, Gregor head has sat around...well as much as you can 'sit' without a body...and just looked handsome.  But I kept looking at him and thinking that I really must get him a body, and wondered if there was anyone in my collection who could do without theirs!  And once the seed was sown, well I just kept thinking about it...and so today, Jojo, my mid 70s blond girl, became 'just a head' and the Gregor head now has a body!!  I know I'm naughty to do that to her but she is my least favourite and hopefully I'll put her head on Ebay for someone else to love!! 

So Gregor has become Emilio!  He is currently wearing a sock on his head to try flattening his unruly hair, but if you squint at the photo you can almost imagine he is wearing not a sock, but a nice black Dollydoodles beany!!!  OK, so you need a very vivid imagination!!!

And yes, those are little eyelashes that you can see, but I just pencilled them in carefully so that I could see what he'd look like as a girl....I've since removed them!

Tomorrow he will hopefully get an outfit of his own!

What do you think?  Isn't he gorgeous?

Does my bum look big in this....?

I'm slowly changing my dolls into their warm weather gear!

This is Lati Yellow tanned Aladdin Cookie, resin ball jointed doll.  16cm of pure sweetness!!!

Her name is Oreo!

Crocheted hat by Simply Kir;

Jumper by my friend, the late Maisydoats;

Jeans by me!

Biking....

I just realised that all my blog posts recently have been a bit like "this is what I'm working on...." so I decided that although these photos are not new, I thought I'd share them on here instead.

These dolls are tiny, each of them are only 14cm tall and are made of resin and all ball jointed.  Four of them are made by Elfdoll and the other, the blond, is from Dollmore.  I love this size as they fit relatively well with 1/12th (dollshouse) scale items.  The scooters are made of metal and are actually ornaments but fit these girls perfectly!

And so on to my next project!

A dear dolly friend of mine in the US, asked me if I would customise her Blythe (an FBL Simply Chocolate) as she didn't like the shiny faces that stock Blythes come with.  I received the head when we were still at the coast,  but as my customising tools were here at home, I've not been able to work on her until now.  I made a start on her straight after I finished my Sasha reroot, which was probably not a great move as my hands were already a bit tender in places, and customising involves quite a lot of carving and sanding!  However, I got stuck in and have just finished her today, she is now ready to rejoin her body back in California!

Work done:
Completely remove the shiny surface of the face;
Remove old eyelashes and replace with newer more natural ones;
Remove and replace four sets of eyechips;
Carve the philtrum, lips, chin and give her a softer rounder nose, add nostrils;
Sand and colour eyelids using several layers of chalk pastels;
Boggle eyelids;
Lift eyes slightly;
All new makeup using chalk pastels and several layers of MSC sealant;
Wash, condition and trim hair;
Create 'sleep' eyes;
Add new pull charms for eye changing and sleep eyes.

The stock doll with eye mechanism removed:

Uncustomised faceplate with makeup removed:

Sanded and carving done...now for the major sanding to smooth those lips!

The finished result:  Brown eyechips by Cool Cat Collection:

Eyelids coloured using several layers of chalk pastel, lovely new soft eyelashes:

Pink/mauve forward facing eyechips by Cool Cat Collection:

Side facing icy blue eyechips with silver foil backs by Brainworm:

Front facing deep turquoise green eyechips also by Brainworm:

Little burnished copper bird and bow adorn the eye changing pull cord:

Little Matryoshka doll with 'made with love' tag adorn the sleep eyes pull cord:

Comparison of 'before' and 'after':

Vidal Sassoon? More like Edward Scissor Hands!!!

I have spent the majority of today fiddling with the hair on Bailey, the little once brunette girl, who I've just rerooted.  I looked on You Tube for videos that might help show me how to cut layers into her hair, because the only style I can cut is a 'bob'....and really, what is the point of rooting all that long hair if I'm then going to cut it into a short style straight away?  Well I found loads of videos on how to cut layers but to be honest, I really am too cack handed to do it.....so in the end, I cut about 4 inches off the length of the hair, then I decided to cut in a short wispy fringe.  However, because she has the slightest of side partings, the 'wispy' didn't work, so she now has a somewhat regular, if skewiff, fringe!!!  However, in the photos below her hair is damp because I've been trying to get it to lay flat....

....and the darn hair wouldn't, so now she us sporting a 'nifty' beret in the hope that the band, which is relatively tight, might help her fringe to lay flat as it dries.  Tomorrow I'll trim it level again, if it's sitting flat that is!!