The new girl gets a dress...

I thought I'd better quickly make my new girlie a dress this morning as, firstly we were going out for lunch and I wanted to take her with me to show my friend who owns the restaurant.  She is another dolly lover, although not a 'collector' and enjoys seeing my dolls.  And secondly, if I didn't make something now, I knew the poor girl would be waiting for ages.

A couple of days ago I bought a little girls dress at Primark, the Irish clothing chain who are also here in Spain.  Their clothes are not always of the best quality, but their children's clothes are often really cute.....and I guess you get what you pay for.  The dress I bought, which is made of a nice blue chambray fabric with 'broiderie anglais' was only five euros and I should be able to get a couple more doll dresses out of it, which is great!

I used part of the dress for the 'skirt' part and I made the simple lined bodice with blue and white gingham.  I added four little white buttons to the bodice for added interest.

 And I took a couple of photos of her with Ellie, who was my first Little Darling.  You can get a much clearer idea of her skin tone in these photos:

And finally, because I just couldn't resist, here are some more of the 'new girl'....who still needs a name, something Spanish I think :)

 I hope you all have a lovely weekend and a great week ahead :)

The Little Darlings family.....

A few of my friends have asked to see all of my Little Darlings together so that they can compare them, so I thought I'd share some photos that I took today of all four of them and also with little Pip, my Ten Ping!  There are quite a few photos, so I hope you're not in any rush ;)

L to R: Finn (#2 sculpt painted by Pat Green), Reece (#2 sculpt factory painted Ana with enhanced eyes by me), Ellie (#1 sculpt painted by Dianna Effner) and Gem (#2 sculpt painted by Dianna Effner)

Below the girls have moved around in the line- up and you can see the differences to their 'skin' tone.   Gem, the new girl, now shown second from left, has a darker skin tone than Ellie and Finn, but is very similar in shade to Reece, the factory painted girl shown second from right.

Here, below, are my three #2 sculpt girls together, L to R, Finn painted by Pat Green, Gem painted by Dianna Effner and Reece, factory painted girl.  Although all three girls are the same sculpt, the #2 or the 'Asian' sculpt as I believe Dianna originally named it, because of the different ways in which they've been painted, they look fairly different.  Finn in particular looks less Asian, maybe purely because she has lighter eyes, as we tend to associate darker eyes with Asian people.

The two brown eyed #2 sculpts, Reece left (factory painted) and Gem (painted by Dianna Effner)  Seeing the two girls side by side you can see that they do look very Asian with their lovely almond shaped eyes.  Some people don't consider the factory painted girls to be of the same 'calibre' as the handpainted ones, and although I appreciate that a lot of work goes into the handpainting of the eyes, I have to say that I'm incredibly happy with my little factory painted girl.  As far as I'm concerned she is every bit as lovely as the handpainted girls!  :)   Although I admit I'm prejudiced! 

Below we have my two girls painted by Dianna Effner, Ellie the #1 sculpt on the left and Gem, #2 sculpt on the right.  Dianna painted Ellie in February 2014 and Gem is an older girl, having been painted in November 2010.  The difference in their 'skin' tone in this photo is very obvious to see.  Ellie has a lighter 'rosier' complexion whilst Gem has a more olive skin tone.  Both girls have brown eyes but Gem's are definitely very dark, almost black and her eyebrows are very fine compared to Ellie's thicker, darker ones.  I do feel very privileged to have both girls as I believe the waiting list for one of Dianna's handpainted dolls is at least 2 years!

Here are some individual photos of the girls ~ Gem:

Ellie, not a great photo though!

Gem again!

Reece, looking very serious!

And Finn, looking startled!  I have struggled with finding just the right wig for Finn and have another currently on order.  I hope that when it arrives it will be perfect for her.  I don't like the wig in the photo below, it looks too 'big' for her although it is her size!!

Finally, as requested, we bring little Pip (Ten Ping by Ruby Red Galleria) into the equation!  She looks very tiny in comparison to the Little Darlings but I do think with her Asian look she makes a cute little sister for Gem! 

 Sisters!

I hope you've enjoyed seeing all the girls together and the comparisons.  If you'd like to see any other comparisons then please let me know in the comments and if I can, I will do them for you!

Thanks for looking and gave a great weekend!

Vinyl doll comparisons....

A couple of people showed some interest in comparisons between my vinyl dolls, so today I stripped off their outfits and took some photos.  The dolls who participated are Tanya from Maru & Friends, Zwergnase Junior Marlene, Anke by Sylvia Natterer from the Gotz Limited Edition Anniversary set (50 sets worldwide, released in the year 2000), 1968 Sasha Redhead and finally Little Darling #1 sculpt by Dianna Effner.

The first photo shows a height comparison: (left to right, Sasha, Anke, Marlene and Tanya, with little Ellie in front)

Next up we have the bigger of the dolls, I love the different skin tones.  Two of them are wigged (Anke and Tanya) and two of them are rooted (Sasha and Marlene):

 Side view of the four bigger girls:

Little Darling Ellie joins the big girls again for another sideways view (Ellie of course, is wigged):

Four of the five girls have handpainted eyes:

Here are closeups of their handpainted eyes:

First we have Ellie.  Her eyes are handpainted by Dianna Effner herself, I'm very lucky to have this girl!  Her eyes are just so beautiful that people are often fooled into thinking they're actually glass eyes!!!  Even her lashes are painted on.

Next we have Sasha by Sasha Morgenthaler, she is a redhead from 1968 and I believe her eyes, if not entirely handpainted at that time, would have had a lot of hand finishing:

Next we have Anke, she represents a member of the Gotz family and came as a set with her family of Ewe, Jakob and Ana.  Her eyes are handpainted by Sylvia Natterer.

Then of course we have Marlee, who is a Zwergnase Junior Marlene, her eyes are handpainted by Nicole Marschollek-Menzer....thanks very much Jenni!!! 

Finally, of the five girls I'm showing here, Tanya by Maru & Friends.  She has lovely inset acrylic eyes.  I'm not usually a great lover of acrylic eyes but have to say that these eyes are particularly nice with a lot of detail to the irises.

Kendal was surprised to learn that Tanya can wear shoes made for Sasha seeing as she is so much taller than Sasha.  So here is a comparison of the two girls' feet, Sasha on the left and Tanya right.  Tanya has a lot more detail to her feet than Sasha, who has a higher instep.

I thought that having smaller feet, Tanya would be difficult to stand on her own, but so far she has proved me wrong!!  Here she is modelling Boneka sandals in Sasha size:

And here Tanya and Nuria, my Redhead 1968 Sasha, are modelling lovely T Bar sandals by the late Jean Jensen.  Obviously Tanya on the left and Sasha on the right:

Now a few photos of the two Dianna Effner dolls.  Tanya, along with the other Maru & Friends girls, was designed by Dianna Effner, and Ellie is my 14 inch Little Darling #1 sculpt, designed and painted by Dianna.

Both girls have very similar body shape with one main exception.  The Little Darlings have their neck/head joint at the head and the bigger girl, Tanya, has hers at the bottom of her neck.  I prefer the look of the Little Darlings because the joint can't be seen, but both girls pose their heads really nicely and can hold the poses well.   They even have the same, quite steeply, sloping shoulders, and their leg joint at the hips is very similar.

A side view of both girls:

"Hello! Are you my new big sister?"  Both girls have such cute profiles too!

"Yes!  That would be me!" says Tanya!

I hope, despite their size differences, the two girls will become firm friends!!

I hope that this comparison of vinyl dolls will prove useful or helpful to someone!! :)

The Long and the Short of it! Doll comparison photos.....

I was taking some comparison photos and thought that someone might find them useful. 

I've included a mixed selection of dolls, including my biggest doll, Vienna, my Volks SD10 Nana, right through to my tiniest doll, Twig, my Elfdoll Min del Re! 

From left to right:

Vienna, Volks SD10 Nana - approx 57cm resin ball jointed doll
Loulou, Kaye Wiggs Light tan human Layla - approx 45cm resin ball jointed doll (tall MSD)
Sasha, Unoa Sist - approx 43cm resin ball jointed doll (slim MSD)
Wren, 1969 Kilt Sasha - 15.5 inch vintage vinyl doll
Ellie, Little Darling #1 sculpt by Dianna Effner - 13 inch vinyl doll
Olivia, Primavera Olivia Blond by Helen Kish - 12 inch jointed plastic and vinyl doll
Paisley, Bohemian Peace Blythe - 12 inch plastic doll, customised
Faun, Volks YOSD Megu - approx 29cm resin ball jointed doll
Samantha, Elfdoll Hana Angel - 20cm resin ball jointed doll
Nora, Lati Yellow tanned Pirate Lea - 16cm resin ball jointed doll
Twig, Elfdoll Min del Re - 14cm resin ball jointed doll

And here are a few comparisons for Dee in particular, showing Sasha and the Little Darling by Dianna Effner:

Wren and Ellie

 

And finally, for another friend who asked, here is a comparison showing a slim MSD (Unoa Sist), Iplehouse KID Lonnie, Fairyland Little Fee Ante and Lati Yellow tanned Lea:

Leona, Sasha & Fiona, with little Nora in front