Cutie Pops Chiffon Makeover

I thrifted Cutie Pops doll a while back. The doll I got is Chiffon, and she is missing her accessories. I mentioned getting her on this past entry. Tonight I decided to work on her.

Here she is:

Her beanie is from a The Children's Place plush doll. When I bought the plush doll at the thrift store, I wasn't even thinking of Chiffon. This is the plush doll I'm talking about:

The doll had no sweater and scarf, but her beanie and pants were intact. The pants, though it is somewhat loose, went to Fred. The beanie went to Chiffon, and it fits her perfectly!

I removed Chiffon's detachable yarn hair, and tuck it under the beanie. I just didn't feel like gluing it down.

Chiffon is missing her cupcake pops, but I thought a simple pink scarf would be a nice replacement accessory for her. The scarf came from the lot of dolls I bought from an online seller.

Her eyes are just made of cardboard and card stock. I got the cardboard cutout from Princess Malucia's box. I actually made three sets of eyes with different designs, but only the striped pink design matched Chiffon's colour scheme. I drew thick lines on the bottom of the cardboard eyes using a black marker for her eyelashes. I stuck some clear tape over the design as a protective layer and to give the eyes some gloss. Then I attached the cardboard eyes using bits of a wooden dowel. Surprisingly the wooden dowel fits Chiffon's eye holes. I only had to trim down the wooden dowel to size and use hot glue to stick it to the back of the cardboard eyes. 

I can't photograph Chiffon from any angle, by the way. Photos have to be taken from the front of the doll, because her cardboard eyes are not curved, so in some unfortunate angles, her real eyes can be seen and the cardboard eyes seem to be floating from her face.

I really liked how Chiffon turned out. I don't mind displaying her with her eyes closed at all times. I think she looks serene and at peace this way. The feeling is quite infectious, haha.

/I put her in tights after writing this entry, and it looks good on her. I think she needs something on her arms as well because a sleeveless dress can't do anything against the cold.

Work In Progress: Hannah Montana Inspired Dress

I couldn't continue working on the Furisodeshon outfit because I need motivation, and I'm still thinking of how to construct the top of the dress, so I pushed it aside and started working on another project that I've been meaning to do.

So I made it pretty obvious in the title of this entry that I'm working on a Hannah Montana inspired dress. I've always wanted to make a dress from Hannah Montana The Movie, specially the cowgirl outfit Miley Stewart is wearing in the second half of this video:

But I figured it would take me a while to make attach different fabrics together for the outfit. So I thought of doing another dress from the same movie:

Look at that sparkly fish scale dress! Amazing concert outfit! I thought I could do something like that.

So I wrapped my Hannah Montana Liv doll hybrid with plastic, then drew a simple sleeveless dress on the plastic using a black marker.

Then I carefully removed the plastic then cut along the outline of the dress. Then I transferred my patterns on an old greeting card. I had no idea how to make adjustments to the darts on the chest pattern so I just winged it, hoping it will work out.

I used sequins to adorn a piece of fabric. I didn't use the exact colours. In fact, I also used blue sequins. Because I have two kinds of green sequins, the dominant colour of the dress is becoming green, but the green is like sea foam green and fits the fish scale design of this dress.

I could have used a darker fabric and a black thread, but I have loads of this cheap white fabric, so white fabric it is.

I'll only do the sequin thing on the front of the dress. Then the back will just be plain fabric, a la budget Barbie clothes, haha.

Anyway using sequins is a good and bad thing. Sequins are really shiny and nice to look at, but it takes so much time to sew them on the fabric one at a time. I think I worked on this patch for more than three hours! Also, the colour of the sequins fade when the sequins are touched often. I tried using clear nail polish to seal a sample sequin and I think the nail polish has melted the paint away. Then I remembered I have a varnish/sealant, so I used that by brushing a small amount on the sequins with a nail polish brush, and it somehow worked restoring the colours, but I don't know how else to repair the faded sequins. Oh well.

The back of this patch is so messy because of all the knots and stitches I made, but I plan to add a lining to the dress anyway, so it's not so bad.

I can't wait to finish this dress and give my doll Hannah the outfit she deserves. I'd be able to complete her once I finish the dress. I still plan the dress to become removable, just in case something happens that would require me to undress her.

September Thrift Haul

I decided to come back to the thrift store today, and found these three items:

Ever After High Raven Queen Thronecoming doll, Frozen Olaf toy, and a Madame Alexander x McDonald's Wendy as The Big Bad Wolf!!

Raven, oh wow. I have a bootleg Raven. I can't wait to fix this Raven then compare it to my bootleg version. She's missing her left hand, but that's OK.

Olaf, well, I have a Elsa and Anna doll so I thought it would be fun to add Olaf to their tandem.

And The Big Bad Wolf! I've been looking for this for so long. I have Little Red Riding Hood, so I see that there would be a sweet reunion soon.

And these are the dolls I left behind.

Frozen Elsa doll with her right hand chopped off. But it lights up, and her crown is still secured to her head. I was thinking of getting her because I have a spare Elsa body, but what would I do with her after the body transplant then? I couldn't think of anything, so I left her behind.

An Irwin Sailor Moon doll! And look at all those random clothes she's wearing.

Her tiara is missing, as made obvious by the two holes on her forehead. I was supposed to get her, but I found out that she's expensive, so I let her go.

A Mattel Cinderella doll ready to go horse riding. Her legs are sculpted, even her boots. I like that her look is not as feminine as the other Cinderella dolls out there. She's just as expensive as Sailor Moon so I didn't get her either.

Backpack-Shaped Pencil Sharpeners

On this blog entry, I posted about these pencil sharpeners I bought that are shaped like backpacks. I thought they are perfect for dolls so I bought four of them. I finally got around to adding straps to them.

I'm too lazy to pull out my glue gun and use it tonight so I thought of just stringing the backpacks. I remember I bought 2 coloured bra straps, as seen here, and I haven't even touched them for a long time. I was thinking of using them as doll suspenders but the chance and inspiration never came around, so I thought it would be best to use them for this hack.

Sorry, I didn't take pictures of each step I took, but basically I just removed the pencil sharpeners inside the plastic cases, then I strung each bra strap on the back of each bag, then I tied it into a knot and hid the knot inside the bag.

Here's Meygana posing with the bags for me:

I worked on the pink bag and pink strap first. I picked Meygana because she was the most accessible to me at the time, and her side glance would help her model the bags.

Meygana the school girl, yes?

I think it fits perfectly. Because the straps are elastic, I think it would also fit my other dolls.

Pink backpack with Frozen Elsa design.

Green backpack with the other pink strap and Frozen Elsa and Anna design.

Meygana and her yellow backpack. I think this colour combination suits her.

Yellow backpack with blue strap and Frozen Elsa design.

Blue backpack with the other blue strap and Frozen Anna, Kristoff and Sven design.

I still have to work on the tiny Shopkins backpacks. It's inevitable for me to use the glue gun and glue down ribbon straps on them. Just do it, Jamie, do it!

Lottie's New Red Skirt

I made some sort of bubble skirt for Lottie.

I just used the red fabric I bought for making the Furisodeshon outfit that I'm still working on.

I was watching the movie Pixels when I was sewing the skirt (I still am), so I grabbed my Pixels arcade cabinet tumbler for the photo.

Lottie is a bit big for the arcade cabinet, but she loves it and doesn't care much about the scale. Maybe I need to make her a chair so that she can play Donkey Kong comfortably.

Her white socks are getting dirty, haha. She is not wearing her shoes because they come off easily at times and I don't want to lose them, hence the dirty socks.

Lottie will need more clothes so I'll make her some soon.

Work In Progress: Furisodeshon Doll Costume

I'm done with Rhian's skirt.

Fabric can really make or break an outfit. The red fabric is sheer and has a net quality to it. It's not fun to sew so I didn't work on the pleats I really wanted for the skirt anymore. Her hem is turning into bacon, curling like crazy so I was wondering if I should iron it, with care of course because I don't want to burn the fabric.

I decided to not add a long white strip to her skirt, as seen on the actual costume here. Maybe I should just paint it with white acrylic paint. Hmm.

I also made a simple petticoat with white tulle, but the tulle I have is not the soft kind. It still works, I guess, because the tulle gives volume to the skirt.

I'm thinking twice about Rhian modelling this dress. She looks too serious for the outfit. I still would like to continue making the top of the outfit. If I decide to switch models, I might choose Midge or Kira because their face seems happier. 

Planning To Sew

I'm trying to make a doll costume but I do not have the motivation to sew yet. Anyway, I just cut some fabric and taped everything down with masking tape onto a doll body to see how it would look like. Here's Rhian:

Hahaha, poor girl. I'm so sorry, my dear Curvy Barbie!!

Before this, I made a rough sketch so I can figure out the different parts of the outfit:

I really want to recreate this:

It's Kyary Pamyu Pamyu in her Furisodeshon music video. She's so cute here, and I love the song! Check it out!

I love this song because the lyrics are simple, but it makes me think about life. It's basically about someone celebrating their twentieth birthday (hatachi in English means 20 years old) and contemplating about it. Are they still a child? Or an adult? Is it happy being an adult? Is it sad? Is it something to be grateful? Stuff like that. I'm way past this age though, but I still think about adulthood like it's so foreign at times. Like, am I really ageing? Hahaha. This song is actually my favourite from Kyary, so I want a doll that is wearing her costume in the video. But I'm not a master of sewing. I just do what I can do with what knowledge I have from my grade school sewing classes, lol. 

Those red fabric pieces I cut up are not going to waste (I hope, hah!). They are measured circular cutouts with seam allowance that I can already start working on, except the ribbon on her head. That's just scrap fabric. Of course I can make a better bow than that, lol.

I'm still thinking about how I'm going to construct the top, if I want to dive into quilting, which is a daunting task but seems to be very fulfilling in the end. I also have the option to just glue down triangle cutouts onto white fabric with fabric glue, but I feel that I would be taking the easy road when I can do better. So quilting it shall be, I guess.

I'm not in a hurry to finish this. I mean, it took me a while to make Hit Girl.

This video will definitely help me out. I made this request to someone I follow on YouTube and they granted it! They made a Furisodation dress out of coloured paper!

I think it's cute, plus the doll they used is a Jianidi doll, which I have been ogling at the toy store for months already but couldn't bring myself to buy.

Good luck to myself! Hahahaha!

DohVinci Fail

I'm entirely convinced that DohVinci is not worth it. It's been two weeks since I made ears for Li'l Pinkie using DohVinci.

Before

 

After

OK this is not a good 'After' shot, but I only have my webcam at the moment.

Before

After

Before

After

If you could only see the After shots much better. Basically, Li'l Pinkie's ears are still sticky, gooey and wet. It didn't dry up at all. The doh has my fingerprints all over them because I kept touching the thing to check if it's already dry. Apparently not. I'm ready to scrape her doh ears off of her head and replace it with something more solid. DohVinci, sadly, is frustrating.

I'm not going to stock up on the stuff anymore. I don't know what else I can do with the other bottles of DohVinci I have, now that I know that it doesn't dry up and harden. Either this weather we have in the Philippines is just not right for DohVinci, or it just doesn't work.

Red Ranger's New Hands and More Hybrid Dolls

So I found new hands for my Red Ranger!

I found these hands at a Japanese thrift store. I think they are S.H. Figuarts hands? The holes of the hands are too big for Red Ranger's wrist knobs, so I used masking tape to thicken the knobs. It worked!

Red Ranger playing rock, paper, scissors with himself.

Power! Energy! Yeah!

So this is how babies are made.

STOP.

LET'S DANCE! *tsugs tsugs tsugs*

FIGHT ME WHERE I CAN SEE YOU! WHERE ARE YOU??!

SHHHH... Let me think for a second.

I don't know what Red Ranger is doing here.

Red Ranger trying to be formal, I guess.

Speaking of transplants, look what I did to my Liv dolls:

I decided to do body transplants to three dolls I think would look nicely together.

Left: That's Mary Kate Olsen. I broke her neck plug when I was removing her head, aww. And her neck hole seems to be much smaller than Barbie's, so she's looking like a giraffe over there.

Middle: Sharpay Evans from High School Musical. My friend got her for free from a lot of dolls she recently bought. She didn't want her and decided to give her to me. She's also looking like a giraffe because of the small neck hole. I wonder why she has a tan. I don't remember Sharpay being tan like that.

Right: Hannah Montana! I got her in a Barbie body first, but I decided to transfer her head to a Liv body, and oh boy, Hannah already has two neck plugs lost inside her head. I couldn't pull them out because her vinyl is very tough.

So now I have two hybrid doll groups with Liv bodies: Mattel Disney princesses, and these TV personalities. Soon I'd like to photograph them in one place.

Technical Error

My blog is currently under construction because I've been getting an error message when I try to view my blog. I had to change my blog template (Yep, goodbye, Robots background!), and for some reason, my blog roll is also causing a problem. It's so weird. I hope I can put it back so that I only have to refer to it and not via email or feed reader for my blog subscriptions. Sigh.

I'm putting this entry under "ideas" because I don't have a tag called "I hate technology" or something like that.

/My solution for my missing blog roll is to create a new one on a new blog. I know, such a hassle. Here it is: http://jamiestoyblogtest.blogspot.com/. I don't have a feed reader (RIP Google Reader from three years ago), so I check out new entries from my blog subscriptions on my blog roll.

My First Doll Day

Recently I met up with my friend and we brought along some of our dolls. I must say, it was a fun doll day!

My friend and I unboxed our new dolls: a Ryan doll for her, and a Curvy Barbie for me. Here's Curvy, or should I start calling her Rhian now, heh.

My friend was too excited to open Ryan's box, so no picture of him in the box, haha.

Oh and I brought 2 sofas, but it wasn't enough for all the guests. Aww.

Back row: Nikki, Barbie, Barbie, Asha, Barbie, Zombie Alice

Front row: Ken, Belle, Lottie, Cloetta (My friend would like to continue calling her that even though it's a misidentification and it should be Angelic), Rhian, Barbie

I normally go for the headache pose for Asha, because she likes showing off that she can touch her face or head, LOL. Here she is with Nikki and her fabulous animal print dress.

Rhian, Asha, Nikki and Ken. My friend bought 4 new doll stand and we used them right away.

The gang at the other end of the table, because the lighting on this side is much better.

It was nice that Zombie Alice was full when she arrived at doll day and didn't crave for brains.

Belle was like, Uh hi.

My dear Lottie, with her Tita Barbies!

More Barbies!

"Cloetta" basking in her own awesomeness. On the floor.

Asha maintained her "Oh I have a headache but look at me and my fabulous coat" pose.

Nikki and Ryan. I feel that there's somewhat a spark between them. Don't you think so?

Rhian needs a comb, lol.

Look who caught up with the gang: Elsa and a puppy dog!

Elsa hasn't taken a shower and a hair spa yet. Her hair is a mess.

Lottie and her Tita Zombie Alice. Alice can get quite overprotective of the young one.

That's why Lottie is fond of her.

Zombie Alice: Lottie, you've been a good girl. As promised, I didn't eat you. And we'll attend the next doll day.

Lottie: Oh wow you're the best, Tita Alice!

I actually had more dolls with me that day, but they weren't dressed up and needed washing and styling.