Jem Looking Like Gwen

So I did a blog entry earlier about the upcoming Kuu Kuu Harajuku doll line. While I was browsing Google Images for the blog post, I found this image of Gwen Stefani, and thought to myself, "This outfit looks familiar..."

Then I realised that my Jem and The Holograms doll has a similar outfit.

Haha. OK now I'm truly convinced that I shouldn't paint Jem's shoes anymore into a different colour.

Ready For Transport

I've been decluttering lately and figured that I should already set aside the dolls that don't need my immediate attention or look somewhat complete to me. They will be transported to my new place soon.

Disney Store Pocahontas and Aurora (Sleeping Beauty)

Both Pocahontas and Aurora were from the thrift store. I bought them nude and their hair was frizzy so I had to boil wash and even trim their hair a little. I got Pocahontas' dress from an online seller, and Aurora's dress from the thrift store recently. I love the length of Aurora's dress. And I'm glad it cleaned up well because when I bought it, the white collar was brownish.

My unarticulated Jasmine would be glad to be reunited with them.

As much as it's fun to dress up my Liccas, I'm quite satisfied with them wearing matching maid outfits.

Bratzillaz' Meygana Broomstix. I really like her side glance. I don't have any ideas yet of what I could add to her look. Until then, she's getting stored and later on displayed.

Jem from Jem and The Holograms. I finally trimmed off her skirt, but I got lazy to hem the skirt so I just taped it down, lol. I also do not want to paint her shoes magenta anymore. She's a big girl, so she's going to stay behind the smaller dolls and her shoes will be hidden from view anyway when I get around to organising my doll shelf.

I'm thinking about Zombie Alice if she should stick around until Halloween because... Halloween. I mean, who would be the one to eat brains during this day when she's not around, right?

My three male dolls. Gaah look at Justin Bieber's crazy looking eyes due to the glare.

Pierre is wearing the outfit he was wearing when I bought him from an online seller. I still haven't made him a nice dark coat to go along with his outfit, but I'm not in a hurry, you know.

I don't have a lot of Ken stuff, so Justin and Fred ended up with baggy shirts and loose shorts/pants which I tightened by tying the loose waistband with rubber band.

So remember my two Liccas earlier? I made them wear uniforms. Too cute.

This bright blue outfit is made of fabric and felt cloth! That's why the jacket looks stiff.

Lastly I decided to dress up a rescued Barbie Fashionistas doll and made her wear a 2011 Holiday Barbie dress meant for a Model Muse Barbie. I'm glad it fits her. I have a problem with that shoulder strap though because it's quite difficult to put it on her shoulder so it ends up hanging on her arm, but that's OK. I had to use a saddle stand for her because if I use a generic Barbie stand, then the stand gets caught up in the skirt and I couldn't display the skirt properly. Underneath, Barbie's feet are somewhat floating. I already made her wear Barbie clone heels but she's still floating a bit. Could it be that Model Muse dolls are much taller than regular Barbies? I have no idea because I've never seen a Model Muse upfront together with a Barbie to be able to make a comparison.

Barbie's earrings are her stock earrings, and her necklace is just a ball-and-chain key chain I wound around her neck twice.

I still have other dolls I've put aside that I haven't photographed yet such as Jenny, Mimi, Twilight Sparkle, Chiffon, and Simba Cinderella. Soon. The dolls above are not going anywhere just yet anyway. They're just stored in two reusable bags, ready for transport right now.

What I have left in my toy box now are the rest of my Barbies, my Liv doll hybrids, some bootleg dolls, and my broken Monster High and Ever After High dolls. I consider my Barbies and Liv doll hybrids as models so they do not have permanent clothing, while my Monster High and Ever After High dolls need work on their replacement arms and new handmade clothing before I set them aside. I still have a lot of work to do! After I'm halfway done, then I can finally move on to making a backdrop for photography, and even simple dioramas to make my doll photos more interesting. So many plans, hey.

Jem: A Work In Progress

I finally made a dress for Jem last night but I think I have to adjust it some more.

Aww it looks like a trench coat or a robe. I made the neckline like that because I was thinking of a kimono when I was sewing the dress.

I didn't give enough room for the sleeves because I figured that I will just display her on the shelf so she can just stand up with her arms on her sides. Besides her modified hands are biking hands so even if I bent her arms, it wouldn't look like she's holding a mic, but a bike handle instead, as seen on this post.

I cheated by making a tube top out of a piece of fabric I wrapped on her chest and secured it with masking tape, which is hidden under all that fabric.

I will have to shorten the hemline so that it would show off her thighs, and change the way the hemline looks because it's supposed to go downwards the opposite way, as seen on her original dress:

Photo from Mego Museum

I tied a sheer blue grey ribbon around her waist as her belt because that's all I have.

Her shoes are still not done. Those are just Ken clone shoes and I'll have to paint them in magenta.

Jem came in her original tights so that's cool because I don't find it easy making doll pants and other types of bottoms with leg holes.

I love her hair. I made her light pink hair pop out more by painting them with pink hair mascara which I demo'd here. Her hair doesn't feel stiff even with the hair mascara. That's because I carefully applied the mascara on her hair and didn't put a lot to colour it. Then when the mascara dried, I brushed her hair with a dog brush, which is a must have for your doll arsenal.

I will make a microphone for her to hold later, after the dress has been adjusted.

Jem Doll Burrito

I haven't found time to finish the dress for my Hasbro Jem doll, so I thought that if I posted my progress report here, I'd feel motivated to continue working on the dress.

Look a pink doll burrito! With pins all over it!

I thought I could make a simple dress for Jem that looks like this:

This is the Integrity Toys Jem doll, by the way.

Also...

Jem didn't come with her hands when I thrifted her, so I cut off some fake Betty Teen biking doll's hands and inserted it through her arms. The fit of the pegs I carved was not good so I wrapped masking tape around them to make the pegs thicker, et voila, her new hands are now secure. But they are forever in the biking position, haha. Hasbro Jem was designed to hold a microphone though, so maybe this might work. I added a bracelet on her left wrist, by the way. I don't know if I want to paint her new hands to match the rest of her body, or paint them a different colour to make them look like gloves. Hmm..

For the shoes, since Hasbro Jem is such a big girl, she can fit into bootleg Ken loafers. I plan to paint those purple (magenta?) with glitter to match her new outfit.

I want to add that I like Hasbro Jem's moulded collarbone. Doll makers tend to forget that humans have a clavicle because their focus tends to be the area placed much lower than the clavicle, which is kinda sad.

Doll similarities

I see some resemblance. I'm not sure if you see it, too.

When I saw this photo of Bratz Catz Sasha, I really liked it, but it reminded me of another doll.

It reminded me of Clawdeen Wolf from the Sweet 1600 line. But if it could be because of the tuxedo top. Sasha isn't wearing a tuxedo but she has a bow tie and her top is black and white so it did give me some tuxedo vibe. Both dolls are super cute too. I would love to have a complete Bratz Catz Sasha doll.

Also this version of Clawdeen is like a nod to American singer named Janelle Monae because she wears a lot of tuxedos.

Since I've been on a Jem and The Holograms kick lately, I browsed this website called Rock Jem and checked out all the 1986 Hasbro dolls. One of their pages are dolls that look similar to the Jem and The Holograms line and Monster High was mentioned. Operetta was singled out too because her look resembles Kimber Benton!

Haha isn't that nice. But I like Operetta. She's the first Monster High doll I got!

I added the Tonner doll on the left for this comparison.

Speaking of Monster High, have a look at Gigi Grant from the 13 Wishes line. Doesn't her outfit look a bit like Synergy's?

Pic from Constantine Hannaher

Those sleeves! The black fabric below the sleeves! The gold detailing! The boots!

The similarity of how the sleeves were cut is suspicious!

And for the last comparison... I saw this Kenya's World doll (Beverly Hills) on a doll blog and thought SHE LOOKS SO FAMILIAR. WHERE DID I SEE THIS OUTFIT BEFORE??

Then I made a trip to the toy store and found this.

Oh man... Everything was copied!

Jem and Cassie

I like finding surprises when I go thrifting. I feel happy when I get really surprised by the stuff I find.

Anyway, I found... dun dun dun... a vintage Jem and The Holograms doll, and an old Lollipop Girls doll! My tall girls!

Jem was in the usual pile of dolls. When I found her and saw she is missing her hands, I thought twice about buying her. And her size is a disadvantage because she's such a big girl and I don't think I have doll clothes that would fit her, but I got her anyway because I like Jem. In fact, it's such a coincidence that I found her because I've been looking recently at Jem and The Holograms fashion dolls online. Their clothes and total look are so much fun. Jem here has her original tights. This is fine because I hate making pants. I can probably sew her a new outfit that would match the tights. Heck, I can probably recreate her original outfit.

Oh Jem's earrings light up! She has a switch on her back to turn it on and off. That's cool.

Cassie the Lollipop Girl was in a toy box full of plastic toys, and I only saw her when a guy grabbed and placed her back from the toy box because he was rummaging the box for other toys. I immediately grabbed Cassie and never let go! Cassie is missing her signature lollipop, her left thumb is bent, and her right foot has bite marks, but REGARDLESS! I want her!

/Oh shoot, I realized that Cassie is not Cassie at all but BRIGITTE. I didn't notice she has orange lipstick and not red. Oh well, I will still call her Cassie.

Jem's face is dirty. So is Cassie's but the dirt is manageable.

Another shot of the girls' dirty faces.

Jem, now without her tights, and Cassie. Both Jem and Cassie's hair are in good condition. Their hair just needed a wash and a good combing to make them look in top shape again.

Both of them can swivel at the waist. Their knees are the click type. Even Jem's elbows click when you bend them.

Here is Cassie after being washed and styled. She is wearing a pink Daiso kimono and Winx Club red pumps.

I thought her weird hands and joints would be difficult to deal with, but she can actually hold interesting poses thanks to those hands and joints. Cassie is so lovely. She's my favourite doll at the moment.

No pic of Jem after being washed and redressed because her temporary dress now just doesn't suit her personality and purpose, and that is to rock out in style. And I still have to think of a way to replace her hands so that I can complete her.

Jem's feet are so big. She can actually fit into Ken shoes. No kidding.

I got both of them for P350. What a deal!

[The dolls in the background: Madeline Hatter, Burger King Anastasia, Sindy Trendy Girl, Kitty Cheshire, Honey Swamp]