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.

Connie Crawford Shirt Butterick 5300

Here is my finished Connie Crawford shirt made with Butterick 5300, view B.  I used a Japanese spot seersucker that I bought from the sale table at Spotlight last July.  I finished it in early January just in time for the extreme hot weather we have been having here.

According to Butterick's website, it is now out of print.



I like this pattern because it is more realistic sizing and it comes with different pattern pieces for the front to choose from, according to your bust size. The finished shirt was a little large across the front, so I will try the next size down next time I make this.

Cute round collar.

 The pattern has side slits:

Back view:

I have had some very busy weekends, so I haven't got any Crissy doll clothes to show you, but it is coming soon!

A huge thankyou to Maverika for following my 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

Butterick 4685 Peasant Top - An Oldie, But A Goodie

 

I have made this Butterick top 3 times and really like it as it is a cool top to sew quickly for summer.  I raised the neckline about an inch as I didn't use lace and didn't want it to be too low. The fabric is Liberty's Tana Lawn and it is divine!

Here is a close-up of the fabric.  It is like a watercolour painting.

 

I finished the neckline with an overlock stich, folded it over and sewed it down leaving enough room for the elastic.  I think it is easier and neater than turning over a small hem and then turning over enough for the elastic casing.  I also sew in a marker for the back in red thread as it is hard to tell the front from the back.

 

This is the pattern. I made the white version on the top right, minus the sleeve ruffles and the lace around the neckline.

My next project will be clothes for these kinds of dolls.  I bet you know who she is. Leave your guess in the comments section for this little Mystery Doll!

Dolls! 1972 Madame Alexander Elise Bride Doll

This spooky little bride is all hard plastic with a slightly softer plastic face. She is in reasonable condition with only a small tear at the bottom of her veil. She still has her bouquet and hang tag.

She is not exactly a glowing bride is she!  Perhaps a distant cousin of Chuky?

The hair is in really good condition and is of good quality.  You can see the Madame Alexander tag stitched into her dress:

 

Back view, in all her tulle and lace glory.

She is not one of my favourite dolls, and I have thought of selling her at times as she is huge and I don't really have the room to display her.  But every time I look at these photos I think that I will keep her a little longer.

I also have an Elise Ballerina from about 1984 and she doesn't have the spooky doll look as much as the Bride:

Elise is on the left in the pink tutu

For anyone wanting to research Madame Alexander dolls since 1965, the book by Patricia Smith called 'Madame Alexander dolls 1965 - 1990' (Collector Books 1991) is an excellent resource with good quality photos of hundreds and hundreds of dolls.

Dolls! 5 Mattel Fashion Dollies & A My Scene Swappin Styles

Bootsie in 40+ degree heat wave.

No, this isn't a Mattel doll, of course!  But it is how we have all felt here in Melbourne this week; only got the energy to lie on our backs on cool floor boards with our tummies catching the breeze and waiting for food tid-bits to be put in close proximity.

Now on to the real business of this post.  After I got my Diva Starz dolls from the op-shop, I went all mad for those dolls, and bought another one on Evilbay.  When I was looking for the Diva dolls, I spied these dollies one of which has inter-changeable heads. I just had to get them, and the seller had them at a very reasonable price so they have ended up with me.

Only one has the removable head, can you guess which one?

 

This one with the lovely long applied eye-lashes?

Or this one? By the way, the clothes these dolls came in are quite well made - this jacket is lined!

 

It's this one!  You can see in the photo there is a line around her upper chest. This is where the head comes off.  In the photo below, you can see the button release mechanism.

  

All of her extra heads. Oh wouldn't it be good to be able to put a new head on that came with a completely different hair style!

 

 Pigtails head and the little stand that the heads are stored on.

 

Back view of Pigtails Head.

Beyonce Head?

 

Lovely Thick Long Hair Head.

All the dolls have c Mattel on the back of their heads and c 1999 Mattel Inc on their backs. I haven't done any research to see exactly when these dolls were made except to check the Mattel website which wasn't any help. I think the quality of these 6 dolls is wonderful and their hair is divine. I don't think I will have to do much to restore their hair.  The fabric that they are posing against is a cotton poplin from Spotlight which I am aiming to make into a shirt for me at some stage. I am halfway through making a summer top from some divine Liberty Tana Lawn cotton (for me). I took the photos of my Connie Crawford shirt but they came out really dark so I will have to take the photos again - but not today!

If you like posts about doll hair as a feature of the doll, have a read of Nymphea's post on 'hair themed dolls', it is excellent!  If you want to see the advertisement for the My Scene Swappin Styles dolls, click here.

Thanks for making it this far in this pic heavy post. You might have noticed that I have added "'n dolls" to my blog title. The dolls appear to have taken over this blog and so I thought I had better change the blog title to reflect that. Nymphea suggested making up a new blog for my dolly stories, and while I am very tempted, I just don't think I could keep two blogs going.