Dolls! Sindy Then and Later

 

I bought this Sindy doll some time ago at a doll show.  I left her in the original handmade dress for years until I spied this little outfit at my local market last week.  How gorgeous is it!!  I have the pattern for the jacket, which was published when these dolls were popular, probably in the late 1960's.  The knitter of this jacket has used almost the same coloured wool as the  original one!  I am knitting a scarf at the moment, and when that is done, I am going to have a go at knitting up some of these vintage doll patterns.

 

She has the dearest softest and dewy face paint!  There is some ground in dirt on her chin, but I just don't want to scrub at it fiercely and remove the pigment.

 

I looked up a Sindy identification page on the internet, and I don't know much about these dolls, but I think she is the Frankenstein one from the odds and ends sent by Pedigree to New Zealand, according to the Petra Dolls Sindy Information Page. 

 

In other dolly news, I gave in recently, and bought a dolly from ebay in a mad greedy grabbing doll-buying rush, and then realised she is not what I thought she was, but I still quite like her.  She was sold as a 1980's doll and still has the lovely Sindy face.  According the the Petra Dolls site, she could even be from the late 1970's.  I really do not know, and if anyone reading this does and could throw some light on which Sindy she is, I would be most grateful.  She is wearing another one of the little outfits I bought from the market stall and a ridiculous wig over her shaved hair.  She was wearing one of the Styling outfits when I got her, which I have forgotten to take a photo of.  At the moment she is in the salon waiting for her hair to dry after a treatment to get it to sit a bit flatter and longer, but I don't like her chances!  She was originally a black haired doll but I think this honey blonde wig colour suits her.

 

 

Bad Hair Day!

If this mess doesn't flatten out a bit, I will try and see if I can get a reasonably priced replacement wig.  I will let you know of the outcome with her hair soon.

I was very lucky this week and got a porcelain Ashton Drake My Little Ballerina doll at the local op shop. She is very grimy, and I have not done anything with her yet, but I will show you all how she cleans up soon.

 

 

 

 

 

Dolls! Vintage 1980's Drink Wet Doll

 

When I saw this lovely doll looking a bit worse for wear in a suburban op shop last year, I could not resist her.  She was very grubby but otherwise in good nick.

 

 

Her lashes have been trimmed a little and her left pigtail has had a bit of a trim too.  As she has a lot of soft hair, you can't really notice it too much.  Her hair is quite good quality and is lovely and soft.

 

 

She has sleep eyes.

 

I made her a little bloomers and top outfit using one of my old patterns, and modified it to fit her.  She is 15 inches high and I thought I could use the pattern for that size, but I had to upgrade her to the 20 inch doll size so that everything would fit her baby's stomach.

 

 

She is a funny little doll with her abundant hair and a baby's body, but I love her anyway.

 

 

Alas, I have too many dolls, so she is up for sale on etsy and ebay.

 

I am making a hoodie at the moment using a KwikSew pattern and using a sweatshirt fabric with large cat's heads printed on a grey background. Sounds weird but I like it.  I needed some hoodies to wear to the pool and just lounging about or down at the shops, and thought I would have a go at making some.  Spotlight had a lot of this kind of fabric on sale recently, so I bought various prints to make 4 hoodies!  I will do a show and tell soon.  I wanted to make something in a stretch fabric as I have lost 3.1 kilos since the beginning of the year and don't want to make anything too fitted as I lose more weight.  I have a fair bit more to lose but I already feel a lot better.  We have had a hot and humid summer here in Australia and I have felt pretty uncomfortable so that was the final push I needed to have another go at losing some weight.

 

Hope you are all well and happy stitching and doing dolly things.

 

 

 

 

Dolls! Gypsy Outfit for the 18 Inch Gals

 

I started this little outfit sometime in the second half of last year, and got hopelessly distracted by life!  Anyway, now it is all finished and I am sure the 18 inch girls are fighting to see who is the first to wear it.  So far the American Girl and the Alexander Girl (Favorite Friends) have been the first to try it on. Both outfits are in my Etsy and Ebay stores.

 

 

 

It consists of a 100 percent pure wool felt vest decorated with braid, fringing and a facet cut plastic bead.  Underneath is a snowy white peasant vest and a little sash to hold it in place.  The outfit wouldn't be finished without a head scarf and this one has some sequins to really set the gypsy mood.

 

Who is that scary gypsy lady in the background?

 

 

 

I thought I had cleaned up a very adorable 1980's plastic baby doll recently, but when she was all dry and had finished at the hairdressers, I noticed her skin was very dirty.  I read on the internet about baking soda being able to shift the more stubborn in-ground dirt on plastic dolls, and so I mixed some with some vinegar and scrubbed at it with a soft scourer sponge.  It worked a treat and she looks healthy and pink now instead of a dull colour.  I am cutting out the fabric to make her an A-line dress and co-ordinating bloomers.  She is such a funny doll because she is obviously a baby but has the hair of a 3 year old!  I can't wait to show you the photos.

 

Hope you are happy doing doll things!

 

 

 

Dolls! Hello, and a Tale of 10 Crissy Family Dolls

Hi!  I am back!  I had a shocker of a year last year on so many levels that I could not get to blogging.  I wasn't doing much doll stuff and not too interested really.  Didn't stop me from buying the odd doll or two though!

This mostly scruffy line-up is all of my Ideal Crissy family and friends that I went out and bought when I read Nymphaea's posts about the wonderful makeovers she did on hers.  Nymphaea, if you are out there, I hope you see my post.  I really miss your blogging and comments on my blog too.

Anyway, I was at a trash and treasure market recently, and I spied a Brandi in her original, if not battered, swimsuit.  The seller would not budge on anything less than $20.00, but that was pretty good as once I got her home and took her hair out of the plait, I could see it was in good condition.  I will still wash it though to freshen it up and straighten the foundation hair.  Anyway, I remembered having a Country Crissy, and do you think I could find her in the mess in my spare rooms?  I took one room apart to find her and found a lot of other dolls too.  I found all of these Crissy family dolls, and counted 9 in total, which I thought was fairly good going.  And I got to re-arrange my dolls in storage, and even make more space in the spare rooms.

 

This photo got a bit lightened for some reason.

 

Country Crissy, who started the Great Doll Clean-Up

This is the Brandi that I got from the market last weekend. She still has her tattoo.  I have already made my other Brandi (see first photo, top right) a maxi dress, and I will have to think what to dress this one in.  Perhaps a beach set to wear over her swimsuit?  I am particularly fond of the Brandi dolls, I am not sure why.  She just looks so tanned, healthy and happy.

 



 

 

I am not sure who this one is in the orange spotted over-alls, but a quick check of Beth's site makes her look like a Tara.  Her hair is a mess and the base foundation hair has been trimmed as has the extension.  I will still give her a mini makeover though. 

 

 

This ratty little ghost at the front has an badly matted hair extension.  I am going to struggle dealing with this one, but I had some success with my first Brandi when I did the wet towel and warm iron technique (until I over-did it a bit and frizzed the ends). 

 

I was packing up the dolls in the not as messy spare rooms, and found this little rotter - a Cinnamon!  So I posed her with all of my "good" Crissy family dolls who arrived in good condition, or I did makeovers.  She still needs a good wash and her hair cleaned, but that is a job for another day.  So that makes my collection of these dolls come in at 10, hence the name of this post.  Nothing wrong with round numbers!

Phew, that felt good to do a blog post!  Hopefully you will see more of me this year.  Please stop by and leave a comment, I would like to hear from you!!

 

 

Dolls! My Large Head Dolls

 

This little group photo is of my Takara Blythes, some of my Diva Starz and down the front, some recent additions to my collection, two Cutie Pops who are from the Swirly Brights range made by Jakks.

 

The designers of these two Cutie Pops dolls went mad using colour and pattern.  They look very much influenced by the psychedelic 60's and I just love them.

 Their hair pieces and bows are inter-changeable.

Their makeup is great and the way they have designed the eyes is so creative.

Some of the dolls come with an extra pair of eyes so you can make them look like they are sleeping. The eyes just snap off, and you press the new ones into the heart shaped hole.

Here is my Blythe who is the biggest headed of all my big head dolls.  Her hair is amazing it is just so thick and heavy.

My other Blythe.  Both my Blythes have shoes, but I put them in a safe place (probably their boxes) and didn't bother to go looking for them for the photo shoot. I just love my Blythes too.

Here is one of my Diva Starz who was an ebay buy and she is wearing her original outfit.

Good night everyone and happy dreams!

Thankyou to Bila for joining my blog, go and have a look at hers as it is so stylish.

Dolls! Ideal Crissy Gets a Maxi Dress Too!

This is my poor little Ideal Crissy doll, who has had her base hair trimmed at some stage by a previous owner.  I still think she is great.  The 70's were a back to nature movement for some people, so I have used a folksy patchwork print fabric for her maxi dress.

I think her tail has been trimmed slightly at some stage as it is not level.

Happy with her new dress.

 Here is Brandi and Crissy in their maxi dresses.  I have one more maxi dress to make for another Crissy who has the wavy base hair.  Hers will be red.  When that is done, I will be making another shirt for myself.

Dolls! Brandi from the Ideal Crissy Family - the Ugly Doll?

When I saw Nymphaea's post about the Ideal Crissy doll, I was immediately caught up in the Crissy doll phenomenon, and promptly got one from Ebay.  The 'caught up' feeling didn't stop with one member of the family, and now I have Brandi, Crissy's Californian tanned friend (I also have some more of the family in a fairly beaten up state, but that is a story for another day). 

Brandi pre-makeover:

When my Mum saw Brandi after her bath and her hair treatment, she remarked on what an ugly doll she was.  I thought she wasn't the prettiest doll when I got her, but now I think she is great.  I made her an outfit this week from one of the patterns Beth Colvan kindly has on her site for free, and I think she looks sensational in an outfit from her era, the 1970's. This dress is the backless maxi-dress for the larger Crissy family dolls which are about 17 1/2 inches.

I think that is a pretty face, don't you?  Brandi doesn't have the glassene eyes that Crissy and some of the other members of the family have such as Velvet and Kerri.  I don't have a Kerri and would like to get her next.

She is an out-doors type of gal.  Note the daring backless maxi dress which is great for showing off one's tan.  This fabric is left over from a top I made and I was able to 'shop my stash' for all the ribbons and lace trim.

Out-doors gal

These are the markings on her back, showing that she was 1971 model.

Now, about her hair. I did my usual technique of shampoo, conditioner and fabric softner but I could not get her hair to stay un-tangled. I would just get one section untangled and it would be tangled by the time I had finished the next one. So in desperation, I tried the wet towels technique on the ironing board. It de-knotted the majority of her tail, but the ends were still frizzy so I gave them an extra iron (still protected by wet towels) and made them melt and frizz even more. My Mum suggested cutting them off, but I have decided to leave them on and just say she is an out-doors sun loving gal who hasn't looked after her hair very well.

I did read on the internet about this kind of hair can stretch with a lot of brushing, and I think that the previous owner did a lot of brushing, which is understandable as the main focus of this toy was the hair.

Hair before treatment

I adore these dolls and I am about to make a maxi dress for Crissy, hopefully this weekend. Thanks Nymphaea for writing about them on your blog.

Dolls! The Olsen Twins/ Triplets Have Had their Makeover

 

This is the after photo of the Olsen dollies I got from the Op Shop before Christmas.   These Mattel dolls do capture the real Olsen twins likeness in my opinion.

 

Pity the twins are not smiling in this photo so we can do a better comparison of the likeness:

 

Picture of the Olsen Twins from Wikipedia

The hair on the blonde Olsens turned out nicely, but it isn't of great quality and a lot of it came out.  Both blonde dollies lost hair as it was so knotty before hand and took a lot of 'aggressive' combing to get the knots out (especially the one that had nail polish in her hair).  Strangely the brunette Olsen has much better quality hair which didn't come out anywhere as much as the blonde Olsens. Not sure why they made this doll in the two different hair colours; perhaps they change their hair colours a lot?

Two blonde Olsens before their makeover

Smooth hair after makeover

 Here are all of the girls to receive their makeovers.  I still have the Crissy family dolls to complete and show you when they are finished. I am afraid I have a bad story to tell you about one of these dolls, as I had a failure with her hair - my first one!!  She isn't too bad and I did learn something in the process.

'Days of Our Lives' style photo with a Barbie