Another Paola Reina doll

  When I bought Barbara, I did my usual thing of checking prices at various shops before I bought her. I kept seeing the 60cm Paola Reina dolls and I was intrigued by their articulation and I wanted one. But in Australia they're $240! And I can be a bit of a cheapskate. And then I stumbled across this, heavily discounted Mei and couldn't resist. With shipping she was just over a hundred dollars, so I effectively got Mei and Barbara for the usual price of one of the big dolls. Yay me!

But, she then decided to tour the country on her way here. A few days in Adelaide, a few days in Sydney (Why!? That is further from Adelaide than Melbourne is!), a few days in a town I have never even heard of, then on to Melbourne, and eventually to me. But she's finally here.

That is one big box! For some reason Tiny was convinced her brother was inside it!

She is mammoth. She has rotating joints at her ankles and wrist, and those hinged joints that always remind me of calipers, at her elbows and knees. But weirdly, she just has standard "dolly joints" that only rotate without any inward or outward movement, at her hips and shoulders.

For a new doll, she isn't in fantastic condition. She's obviously been used for display and has a small scratch on one eye, a snag on the print on her top and her hair is a mess. If I had paid full price, I would be annoyed. But the scratch isn't noticeable, I don't like her clothes anyway, and her hair can be brushed, so I'm not fussed.

Her face is quite lovely but I'm tempted to add some colour to her cheeks and maybe a couple of light freckles.

When I took her jacket off, it looked like it may have slightly stained her arms, so I've taken her tights off as well, as a precaution.

She is absolutely lovely, and once she's had her hair brushed and has a new dress, she might be even lovelier!

Tiny with Mei, unboxed. The box is quite a bit bigger than Mei. Mei is 60cm (23inches) the box is 80cm (31.5 "). Tiny is 84cm (33")

New Arrival!

 Meet Barbara. My first Paola Reina doll. I don't usually like the pursed lip faces at the Paola Reina dolls, but I do like Barbara's cheeky smile.

I first saw a picture of her on Xanadu's blog and even though I really liked her, nobody had her in stock yet, and I forgot all about her. But then last week I stumbled across her on EBay and couldn't resist.

If I could have chosen her in person, I probably would've chosen one with brighter flowers on the very front of her dress, but that's just how it goes.

I think she'll be able to share clothes with my Maru and friends, mini dolls, but I'm not sure yet. I've literally just gotten her out of the box.

Barbara is a funny, old-fashioned kind of name (sorry Barb) for a little, modern girl. But it suits her funny, little face, and I know some really nice people called Barbara, so she'll keep the name. And because I'm a little disappointed with the placement of the print on her dress, maybe I'll make her a 1950s dress, to go with the name.

But look at this cute little face!

I had been told by someone I knew in real life, that these doll STINK! (They're vanilla scented.) This lady had one of these in her collection for less than a week before she "had to get rid of it", because the smell was so strong. I have to say, that's insane. Barbara has been sitting two feet away, while I typed this, (and it took me a while to work out how to make a link in the new format) and I can barely smell her at all.

She also came with this

A cute little folding hairbrush, which is probably going to end up in my handbag.

That's really all I have energy for today. Yesterday was Tiny's birthday and between presents and video calls and jealous brothers, it was exhausting.

But I'm going to add Barbara to my doll count now, instead of putting her in a collection post, when you've already just seen her.

Update.

I did think maybe Barbara could be a friend for the Maru dolls. But hmmm no. Her head is too big and her colouring makes the Maru girls look dead by comparison. It looks even worse in real life than in this picture. Seriously, the blonde girl looks like she's been dead for at least a week, standing next to Barbara.

Doll count: 71

My Collection Part Six

I'm not going to bother with the whole blah blah about how slack I've been on these posts and promises to do better. Things are crappy, they're crappy for everyone and we're all doing what we can.

Since my last post, actually in the last week, FOUR more Baby So Beautiful dolls have found their way into my doll room. They don't have names yet, because I'm tired and can't remember what names I've used. But here they are.

The three on the left, came from the same EBay seller and are in lovely condition, even their hair! The three on the right have original dresses. The poor, little one on the far right has a dress that badly faded on the back and crispy faded hair. Her hair has gone pinkish in patches.

But her face is still lovely 

I thought the other blonde had the same face but her lower lip isn't as wide. I'm not sure if it's a different sculpt or just different paint.

The girl in the lace dress needs her curls neatened.

The last girl has a darker skin tone than my others but I think her face may be the same as the new girl from my last post.

These next, tiny, kidlets were a Cabbage Patch Kid blind bag thing a few years ago. They're only about two inches tall, and came in little boxes, just like the big Cabbage Patch Kid boxes, with little birth  certificates.

 The gimmick was that you couldn't see the birth certificate and they had little cloth nappies over either blue or pink painted nappies. The surprises were their names, birthdays and gender. I bought a few to be dolls for dolls but ended up with so many because the Giant Husband kept saying they would all be girls and I wanted to prove him wrong.

I gave up when my last two were named Henry and Liam (or maybe William, I'm not sure) and were STILL girls!

Next up is a Lady Lovelylocks doll.

She was a Stacie sized doll from the eighties. Originally she had plastic hair clips shaped like forest creatures with long, coloured "tails" like clip in hair extensions. I desperately wanted one as a kid but never got one. I've had a few as a grown up but won't buy any more because they age so badly. This one is missing that disc thing that holds her head on and their legs get REALLY gross. REALLY. After I took that picture, I looked up her dress and

I think I should probably put her in the bin. I haven't yet. But I definitely should.

Last up for today, another toy from the eighties, are my Rose Petal Place girls.

They were all named after flowers and scented. They were supposed to be flowers that came to life when a little girl's tears fell on them. Each doll had a rhinestone tear, somewhere on her outfit.

They're about six inches tall and look surprisingly good if you replace their heads with Kelly doll heads. When we were kids, my sister had Rose (the pink one), and I had the blue haired ballerina, named Lily Fair. I remember hiding her in my pocket when my Nan took us to visit her friends or relatives. I would pick flowers and make dresses for her by stabbing her arms through the petals. I got these years ago to fix up, but forgot that I had them. I've put them on display now, so I don't forget them again.

That's all I have time for today.

Doll Count : 70

More human sewing

 I've been avoiding my dolls a bit lately. The two Iplehouse girls I ordered at the end of last year, still haven't arrived. And working on doll stuff, makes me think about it, then I get all cranky wondering when or if they're coming.

Instead I've been sewing for Tiny.

This is the first dress I made. She's worn it a million times, but somehow this is the best picture I have of it. And since then, I've had to lengthen it, because she finally grew.
It was my first attempt using piping and turned out better than expected but was fiddly to do.

I don't have a good picture of this one either. But I'm not really happy with it. But since I don't have much experience with working with knit fabric, it's ok. It's a sort of cord effect stretch velvet. In hindsight I probably should have made the pattern a little smaller because of the stretch. I didn't though, and it looks a size too big for her. I also made a little needle woven flower to go on the yoke, because it felt too plain. But the flower curled up when it was washed and looks like a dead spider now. I can probably fix that by tacking down the tips of the petals though.

This dress is loud but adorable. The hem doesn't actually stick out the way it does in this picture. It hangs in lovely drapey folds. The only issue is, it tends to make her look skinnier than she is, which freaks me out.

 This is probably the best dress I've made so far. And it's super warm and soft and cute. But I really need to stop making things in cream and white, because kids are messy and do silly things like "wash" their sisters with handfuls of dirt.
Oh well, at least it isn't the old days when kids wore white cotton or muslin a lot, and their poor mothers had to wash everything by hand without modern laundry products!

This dress was made from some old cushion covers! It's got a honeycomb smocking effect on the front but I couldn't find thread that quite matched the fabric, the frills are the wrong length, and lined with the wrong colour. I did have silk that matched the colour of the dress fabric that I wanted to line the frills with, but I had used most of it for something else last year, and didn't have enough left.

This picture shows the front better but also a lot of biscuit crumbs and how messy the construction is. Lol.

I don't have a single picture of Tiny in this dress. It's her favourite. It's not mine. It's ok. Somehow, it turned out way too big, even though it was the same pattern I used for the loud dress, which fits beautifully.
This is made from the wrong fabric. What does that mean? I ordered fabric from Spotlight. It was this print but in off white with the pattern in grey and blue. They sent me this, much louder version. I sent it back. They said they'd send me the right fabric. And sent me more of the wrong fabric. I complained. So they sent me MORE of this wrong fabric! Except the entire process took two and a half months and now instead of two and a half metres of lovely, muted, fairly neutral fabric, I've got five metres of loud, gaudy, almost Christmassy fabric! And Spotlight's response was "Yeah, we've got no idea what happened. That isn't what you ordered. Have a nice day!"

 This last dress isn't quite finished. I need to neaten  the facing and put a press stud at the top. I don't know how I feel about it. I was going for an Edwardian kind of look but looking at it hanging there, it looks very Brady Bunch. I'm not sure how the pleats will hold up. It's rayon, so I wasn't sure if I should set the pleats with heat (like a synthetic), or vinegar (like natural fibre). I used heat but I might have to try vinegar later. I don't know.

I also made these PJs for the Giant Baby. I made these while I was angry with Spotlight, so the pants are made from a throw rug, I bought at the supermarket. The top is actually a plain, white, tee shirt from Target that I drew Spyro the Dragon on with tee shirt markers and gold fabric paint. I had fun making these partly because I don't often get to make stuff for him, since what he wants is just tee shirts with characters on.

So that's what I've been up to lately. I've got one more dress planned, but don't know when I'll get time to make it.

I'm updating this with a picture of Tiny in the Brady Bunch dress. It looks less Brady Bunch on. I had a navy blue belt over it (which made it look VERY edwardian) at one point but Tiny hated it and fought like a little demon to get it off. She added every hair accessory she could find instead.

My Collection Part Five

This post is going to be a short one in number of dolls but probably quite long in blah, blah, blah, because I have a fair bit to say about these girls.

My Baby So Beautiful dolls.

Baby So Beautiful was a line of toddler dolls released by Playmates in 1995. I think they only lasted about a year but there were two spin off lines. A line of baby dolls called Newborn Baby So Beautiful and a line of teenage fashion dolls (more like Cissy than Barbie) called Young Lady So Beautiful.

All my girls were from the toddler line. They were available in a range of skin colours, head molds, hair colours and styles, eye colours, and outfits put together in a random kind of way that means there's a huge amount of variation. They're full vinyl (and it's a nice vinyl), with fixed acrylic eyes, wigged hair and applied lashes. I can't say why I like them. I'm not usually into toddler dolls, and these girls generally have issues, but for some reason I find them really appealing.

What are their issues? Well, their wigs were pretty crappy, a lot have dried out to the point of disintegration. Their eyes are prone to discolouration and their lip paint tended to fade, usually to creepy shades of lilac or orange or yellow. Even still I would love to, one day, have a bunch of these dolls. Definitely one of each head mold would be awesome. Unfortunately while I see plenty listed on EBay for $10 or $20 (Australian dollars), they're always in the US, which means forty dollars or more for postage. Ones listed in Australia are usually between $40 and $60 (plus postage), no matter their condition. And given the amount of care they can need, that just feels too expensive to me.

This is Jessamy and she is pretty much like new. She has no fading, she's still wearing her original haired, she even has her locket. Every doll came with a little plastic locket and a "baby book". She also has a headband somewhere, but it looks stupid, so I don't put it on her.

This is Emily Kathryn. Even though she's always belonged to me, and I was an adult by the time I got her, so she's only been a display doll, she's a little unfortunate at the moment. A couple of years ago, her wig was REALLY dry, so I tried soaking it in fabric softener. When I rinsed it out, all the hair started breaking off! I tossed it but I keep forgetting to get her a new one. Her eyes are turning yellow too, which is a shame.
She probably has the most common face sculpt.

This is Kirralee. She has the same face as Emily, but she's even more unfortunate. She was found bald, naked, and missing the fingers off one hand at an op shop. I repainted her lips, but the paint I used bled into her vinyl, so I removed it and repainted them again. She has a wig, but no clothes yet, because I can never decide what to make for her to wear. Her eyes are an awesome goldy colour that I love, and I am going to be heartbroken if they fade.

And this, as yet unnamed girl, arrived this afternoon. So far, I can't tell if her face is the same as Jessamy's but painted differently or a different sculpt altogether. Her clothes need a wash, her hair is like steel wool, she's very grotty, her left eye is quite yellowed and her lips have gone a purplish colour. This is what I'm talking about when I say these dolls are overpriced on EBay here. She wasn't too bad. Including postage she was under twenty five dollars but there's another girl in the same dress (different colour), in similar condition, listed on EBay right now for over forty dollars, not including shipping! Paying twenty dollars for a doll in this kind of condition, I can deal with. But paying sixty dollars for a doll with purple lips, that's going to need a new wig, and possibly new eyes - no thanks.
I got this new girl thinking I could give her body to Kirralee and use her head to test whether you could change their eyes. Unfortunately her skin is a different colour to Kirralee's so head swap is out. I'll still probably try switching her eyes out though.

There's a couple more on EBay that I have my eye on at the moment but haven't quite made up my mind over. Including one in t the US that I want because it looks like Tiny but I don't want to buy because it has the same face as Emily and Kirralee and having three of the same sculpt feels like a waste.

I'm hoping that eventually I can update you guys with some less neglected looking toddlers.


*Update*

Removed new girl's wig (the Giant Baby says I should call her "Friendia") and it has left stains on her head, which I'll need to think of when I get her new one.
And just for curiosities sake the marking on her head #1A1-A7

Kirralee's markings #4A1-3

And Emily's markings (which I expected to match Kirralee's but don't) #4-29

I wish I knew what these meant, and why Emily's and Kirralee's aren't the same.

Doll count:- 55

Birthdays and Holidays

Of course, the Giant Baby's birthday party had to be cancelled. Since it was planned for a little over a week before his actual birthday, we cheered him up by still having a party, just for us, and letting him pretend it was his real birthday, by getting all his presents that day.

He had fun which is good. It made me a bit depressed. It is so weird to me that this kid that questions everything, doesn't believe girls don't have penises (how would they wee?), and thinks we're teasing when we say that chicken the food is made from chicken the animal (that's the craziest thing he had ever heard), just accepts without question that we can't go to Nanny's house, the library, the zoo, the beach, the museum, the park, kinder, or have birthday parties because it's illegal. On top of which, the two kids, twenty four seven, with no light at the end of the tunnel, is a tiny bit completely and utterly exhausting and draining, which doesn't put me in the best frame of mind to start with.

 The Giant Baby's pretend birthday, was my actual birthday and I got a screen printing set. So hopefully at some point, I'll get five minutes to myself to try it out. Although I might need to learn to make chloroform first.

And hopefully in the next couple of days, I'll shake off my funk, long enough to take pictures for another My Collection post.