Fashion Fun & Blythe Friends

If I reported how many hours I spent preparing late on a Friday night so I could take pictures of each Blythe (and now, each Barbie, Frog and Tom, Dick & Harry, it seems), some one of you would try to have me committed. So, suffice to say, the photo shoot took much less time than the preparation. But then the after-work--editing, uploading, emailing, Flickring, blogging, etc., took the better part of an eight-hour day!

Some of the results are above. I recently received a few lovely things via trades with other Blythe fans (fanatics). In red in the middle, cream mohair Molly wears an incredibly detailed and well-made coat and dress set with hairpin by Trio, which I got from Trish in the U.K. by trading a crochted set by Blanki seen here.

Jane, below Molly, wears a lovely peachey orange hat I received from Judy in Canada in a trade. She sent tiny socks she had made and this perfect hat in exchange for a blue Madeleine coat I had, and some other stuffs.

Daisy is wearing a darling dress made out of cut-up vintage curtains; the fabric I either got in a trade or at a thrift shop. The dress was made by Pistachio Libby, "our" seamstress and tailor on Etsy, and now an IRL (in real life) friend I recently met up with for a play day. I asked her to make a "1978 Gunne Sax Prom Dress," and she interpreted that perfectly!

Phoebe is in a tennis outfit by Bon Bon Blythe that I got second-hand on Plastic Paradise, along with the V-Smash tennis racket, bag and can of tennis balls. She's keeping up her tomboy act so far.

In the same PP sale, I got the amazing new hair/scalp for Joey, at the very top. Joey grew up! See her before here and here! Now she's all sassy with a "leather" Harley Davidson vest snatched from Barbie, a tulle tutu, fishnets, purple suede motorcycle boots from Cool Cat and a shiny silver Barbie jacket with purple fur. Next thing I know she'll want a tatoo. The scalp is from a Disco Boogie. Excellent cutting job, Mnemone!

Black bob Bunny is looking rather stylish in slim black flares, a black Megipupu top with delicate crochet edging, and a standout purse from the lovely Diana at La Boutique. The bag is a scale replica Louis Vuitton Murakami roll bag. Makes Bunny look like a million bucks- or at least a couple thousand!

Lastly, FROG in a Kelly top and Strawberry Shortcake shoes and tights, admires the tiny Barbie house ornament by Hallmark while one of the LPS dachshunds checks it out also. Hey, don't your toys play with toys?

A W.I.P.: Work in Progress

My new Save the Animals is getting a major overhaul on my vacation. So far I've sanded away her shiny face, painted her eyelids, changed all her chips (from blue, green, gray and brown to green, red, purple sparkle and Hello Kitty glitter sparkle, the latter two from Milky Way Blythe on Etsy), pulled out her stock eyelashes and replaced them with sideswept lashes with glitter rims, added sleep eyes and changed her pull rings.

I've gotten her put back together successfully--always a scary moment--and now I'm finishing her green mohair reroot, after painting her Cool Cat scalp. The mohair is from a sheep on the farm of Elizabeth's Fiber & Yarns in Washington state. Re-rooting was temporarily halted about 1:30 a.m. today when I stabbed my hand instead of the scalp with the very sharp embroidery needle.

The lips you see above--a combination of a lip sticker and nail polish--have already been sanded off again as I saw how crooked and lumpy they were. Time to try again soon. Hope to have her done this week. Then she will need a name!

Behold! A Bevy of Blythe Manor Beauties

There was a lot of commotion this week at Blythe Manor. Actually it started a little over a week ago, with the arrival of a blank Cool Cat scalp and three ounces of loose purple and blue mohair from Phillaine. I knew I wanted to give it a try, because I had been decidedly underwhelmed by the arrival of my lavender-haired Factory Girl, Polly.

I think Polly was a Takara Lilac Blythe anyway, but her thin hair and weirdly-colored eye chips just weren't cutting it around all the pretty girlz here. I thought sanding some of the shine off her face would help. Then I decided to add some pastel chalk and oil pastel blush. Then her lips needed to be a different color. So after many rounds of sanding and painting, touching, messing up, sanding, re-painting, using gel pens, acrylic paint, nail polish and more, I was finally able to leave a plump set of pink lips alone, long enough for them to dry.

I knew I wanted her to have a beauty mark, and I got lucky that my wildness with a marker actually worked. But she still wasn't looking that exciting. Then two things happened: I saw the leftover mohair from Phillaine's new girl for sale on Plastic Paradise, and I saw the results of a first re-root by ellabellasmommy on Flickr. She did a great job, and it looked so cool! I decided after Googling (or should I say ogling?) a few tutorials that I could do this.

After about four solid days of threading strands of mohair through a tapestry needle, and using a thimble to help me poke them through a thick plastic scalp (maybe that's what's wrong with men- they have thick plastic scalps. Oops, I digress....), voila! Polly's scalp had a full head of mohair. Well, almost. In all honesty, out of respect for my first-ever mohair job, I have to admit I started the mohair a little too thick, holes too close together, so while that looked great, I sorta ran low on mohair at the end. I came up with a working solution that satisfies me, and if I ever decide to find more of the exact mohair, her scalp will easily come off for me to add more. Meanwhile, I don't think I will spill how I solved the problem.

Then there was the matter of figuring out how to get her stock scalp off; never had done that before either. Was not in the mood to break her face after all this work! Also, I wanted to create four sets of unique eye chips, using the flat clear and colored chips I ordered from Cool Cat as well as the foil stickers, designs, nail stickers and other paraphernalia I had gathered. So I made some pink skully chips, purple and green with cross-eyed tiny pupils, dark purple size gaze chips with a white fleck and no-pupil grey, white and blue flower chips. Can't believe I did that either!

I had no patience for changing one set per day as I had done in the past, to avoid other new chips coming loose inside the head, and since her head was already off and open, I changed all the chips at once, which was so much easier! What was not so easy was painting her eyelids. I decided I wasn't about to remove the eye mechanism, since I didn't know for sure how to route the pull-string when putting it back in. So, word to the wise, painting eyelids when the eye mech is in the face is not easy. It is messy; the eye shadow gets messed up, and if you mess up the lids, you run the risk of getting them too thick when you re-paint, causing the paint to be scraped off every time you change her eyes.

After several hours of this nonsense-I must have painted, sanded and re-painted 10 times- I finally was able to leave well enough alone and again get satisfaction long enough for them to dry. I nearly messed it all up again when I tried to add white dots-which had to be re-done several times also. Add stabbing in extra eyelashes with an Exacto knife is also apparently an aquired skill that I hadn't acquired. And just to add to my "never-done" work ethic, I started messing around by painting the tips of her eyelashes white for sparkle. Sheesh!

During all this action with Polly, you'd never know that Miss Bridgette Hansen, the beautiful pink mohair, had arrived Saturday from PP and all points north. I gasped when I saw her and her beautifully-detailed outfit by Devout Dolls--the same outfit featured in the December 2009 issue of Haute Doll magazine. But, I wouldn't let myself touch, photograph, change or enjoy Miss Brigette until I had cleaned up my days-old Polly mess, and I was determined to have her done before I went to bed on Sunday night. Success. And then I found myself trying to photograph Brigette at midnight! Note to self: there is NO photo lighting that is good at midnight.

I have no plans to mess with anything about Brigette, from her name to her chips, even though she has two sets of pink and two sets of gray, they are gorgeous! And her name....she was named Brigette by her previous owner, Blythe friend, Deb Hansen, and since I used to have a nice next-door neighbor Bridget Hanson, well, it all works. I think Bridgette and Polly will be fighting for the spotlight as my glorious, candy-colored mohair sisters. And perhaps Joey (remember this Joey?) will be Brigette's little sister.

Meanwhile, on Thursday of this same exciting mail week (that's yesterday as I write this), Wednesday the Mondrian arrived from Down Under. I had had a Mondrian once before, that I had gotten from Ebay from a person who as it turns out lived one county over from me. I quickly sold her, I think not only because I was shocked about what I had spent then (cheap compared to now), and because I didn't know her floppy body could be fixed with rubber bands or that her stringy hair could get help at the Blythe spas or that her gaudy eyeshadow could be tamed. Live and learn. But, as it turns out, that Mondrian, Tuesday, went to a great home with Blythe friend Carmen in Spain, who named her Elaia Tuesday and who has since swapped her with a different Mondrian with a bob haircut, from Vainilladolly. That Mondrian remains E. Tuesday.

My "new(er)" Mondrian would be named Wednesday; I decided right away, after spotting her marked FA on Flickr by a user name I did not know. However, I quickly found out that gal was the same Justine, under a former user name, who had customized my Abby. So it was all good, and not only did I buy the Mondrian from her, but we exchanged friendship gifts across continents, too. Did you know the USPS no longer sends ships to Australia? Postage has gotten quite salty when the only way you can go is by plane!

I am grateful to have received Wednesday this week, as well as the lovely and cool Frankie magazine, and some great Blythe clothes and shoes. I sent fabric, sewing notions and Dr. Pepper, by request! Gotta love Blythe friendships. And speaking of those, can't wait to see everyone at the Annapolis Blythe Meet June 20, 2010. That's tomorrow as I write this. Have been making a pile of goodies to take for gifts, swap and sell, girlz to show off, and of course my camera. So you know a post is forthcoming.

Still Crocheting Away

Hats I made this weekend, modeled by Jane, who is also showing off some of her new Cool Cat eye chips. I may put the hats in my Etsy shop when I get a chance.

Welcome (Back?) Violet Jane

...And she will be called Jane. The top photo is my former French Trench Violet, whom I got from Seattle Blythe Brian and later sold to art friend Viv. Violet's in good hands with Viv and went there when I was downsizing my Blythe collection. I sold four or five dolls, tons of clothes, maryjanes, yes, even frog boots (why? o, why?) and my entire furnished five-story dollhouse.

It was a good move at the time, but I have always missed Violet's sweet face, short, easy to handle curly hair and violet eyes. So I recently found the used and naked (yikes) French Trench on ebay from Asia. And now that I know how to change eyechips, I figure I can give her violet chips again, or any color I wish. In fact, thanks to Maggie, I have some groovy colors coming from CoolCat like matte blue, pink/yellow, olive, dark brown, yellow and red. We'll see what seems right for Jane.

I decided to call her Violet Jane or Jane, because it didn't make sense to me to have another French Trench by a different name, but at the same time I didn't want to step on Viv's toes, or my former Violet's plastic toes. And since I have a gold "J" charm from Juicy Couture just waiting to be put to use, the whole Jane thing fell into place--short hair, short name.