Leanne Doll Gets A New Hair Style!!

Greetings and Salutations Doll Friends!

Leanne Doll has gone through many makeovers in the Doll House. She is named after one of my life long friends and as my tastes with dolls become more refined, I have updated her look to reflect that. I thought the last wig I put on her was nice but I also knew the bangs on that wig needed to be trimmed... And I was always too skittish to try to cut them myself. So when I recently scored some authentic American Girl Doll wigs from eBay, I ordered this one with Leanne in mind. This lighter blonde is more like her color as well. I simply love how she turned out! So pretty! 

Better run!
XXOO
Heather

New Custom Linda Mason Bumbleberry Doll Hybrid At The Doll House!

Greetings and Salutations Doll Friends!

I've made another custom hybrid doll... I couldn't help it, all the details of this doll just fell into place. 

Here she is after I was all done. Isn't she beautiful? 

Here is the original doll I took the head from. 

She was really dirty and had been 'loved' and played with a lot. Her wig was a total mess... 

When I first found her I thought she was a porcelain doll and they have never been my thing. But I always check to be sure... And when I checked this little gal, I discovered she was vinyl. Not only that but she was marked on back of neck by a signiture reading: 'Linda Mason 2008'. What? Where did this doll come from...? So I plunked down the $2.00 and took her home to do more research. 

Here is what her body looks like, constructed a lot like most porcelain dolls with an armature inside. 

She'd been played with so much that her armature had shifted and you could feel it right against the cloth on her back. Kind of creepy feeling honestly... 

She also had a rip on the 'elbow' of one arm. 

I could tell that her hands and feet were also done by Linda Mason because they were adorable. They reminded me a lot of the hands and feet of my Starpath Doll. Starpath dolls were also sculpted by Linda Mason and so no surprise. 

So it felt like kind of a shame to know I planned to give her a body transplant and would be loosing the cute hands and feet. But her body type was no good in clothes and also I think her original body looked too big for her head...?

When I researched I could not really find one thing about this doll....? I did find one photo of a 'new'  doll like her that made me realize she was wearing some parts of her 'meet' outfit when I found mine. 

But like I say, I couldn't find any information on her really...?

The closest I came was these 'Fairy Tale Lessons' dolls but it says they are 23 inches, not 18 inches... So not the same. How curious!

Perhaps you, dear reader, are familiar with who she was and can let me know in comments. 

The first thing I did when I got her home was to clean up her face and re-wig her. I had this little pixie cut wig on hand and when I put it on her I knew it was the one that would stay on. The dark brown hair really made her green eyes pop!

But where to get a body for transplant? Hmmmm....

And wouldn't you know it? Amazon practically read my mind and had a sale on Bumbleberry Cassidy for less than $12.00! They just kept marking them down!

I sometimes pop things I am thinking of getting in my 'cart' at Amazon and they kept giving me messages like this. I couldn't help myself. It did sort of sadden me to think of snatching the body of a brand new doll but.... What can you do?

 
So it took the customary two days for the doll to get here...

Here is the new one next to the one I got last week. I decided I'd compare and see which I thought had the better eye placement... I even asked my husbands opinion and we both agreed that the newer doll (on left) was the one with the most evenly placed eyes. So... the one from last week was the one I'd be taking the body from.

See how her right eye is placed a bit lower than the left? Tough break kid. Hahaha.

Pre surgery...

And afterwards...

I love love love how she came out. An original hybrid doll for less than $15. What's not to love about that? 

I am still considering names... I'll come back and update when I decide. 

Here she is next to Star. They certainly look like siblings or at least cousins!

Better run!

XXOO

Heather

Summer Gets a New Body!

Hi Doll Friends!

Once upon a time I gave a Positively Perfect Doll a doll armature because she had a soft body and couldn't even stand up on her own. However, sadly, even though she could stand up, she still had the shoulders that were really not too attractive in shoulders so mostly she just sat on a shelf. Recently, deciding I was no longer going to keep dolls I was luke-warm about, I decided I better do something with her or donate her. So... She got a body transplant.

I couldn't bring myself to part with her because I still think that this doll has one of the prettiest face sculpts I've ever seen and her hair is gorgeous!! So... All I needed was a doll body. Since I was weeding out dolls I wasn't 'in love' with, I had several options to work with.

I decided this doll's skin tone was as close as I was going to get and so it was the one.

So, off with their heads!!  Haha.

When I got 'into' the Our Generation Body that was going to be hers, I realized it was one of the poseable type and, in a way I've only seeen once before, the head was attached to the armature it had. Uh oh! Will the PPD Doll's head fit?!

Luckily they had nearly identical necks and so it worked like a charm.

You'll have to excuse my really dreadful looking stitches. This must be an older OG doll body because the fabric was more of a muslin and acted like it might fray and so I had to make my stitches really overlap the fabric if that makes sense. Luckily clothes will cover it up unless she wears a swim suit and then her hair will likely cover it up.

So... Meet Summer again! She's got a whole new lease on life and will make a great model in future doll photographs! Awesomeness! 

Better run!
XXOO
Heather

More Body Snatching Going On In Doll House!

Greetings And Salutations Doll Friends!!

As you may be becoming aware, I tend to love to 'customize' dolls... When I see a second hand doll at a thrift store and happen to like the face sculpt, I often wonder if it will lend itself to 'becoming' an 18inch type doll. Ever since my very first custom Tolly Tot boy I've done more and more body transplants as I find dolls with lovely face sculpts but less than ideal bodies when it comes to posing and modeling clothes...

Recently, you may remember, I very recently customized this little fella... I just think he has the cutest face. However, as you may also recall, I wasn't entirely satisfied with his pale pale face not matching the skin tone of the body I transplanted on him... 

Then, recently, I discovered another Heidi Ott Faithful Friend at Goodwill for $2.99. I do believe she is a Maggie Doll and I was so glad to find her! As I was researching to make sure I was right about her name I ran across this blog about them that has several photos of the different dolls they originally produced. As I've said before, I adore the face scuplts on Faithful Friend dolls. I also think their hands and feet are beautifully sculpted too... Unfortunatly they have the dread 'soft body' that is my least favorite sort. They can't stand without a doll stand and can't sit properly in a chair without looking all 'slumpy'. So... despite it being a shame to lose those gorgeous hands and feet, I think the best solution is to give them a body transplant. Since Our Generation Doll bodies are generally the ones I find the most often second hand, they are generally also my 'go-to' for bodies for them. 

As you may have guessed, I have quite a lot of dolls. So, recently, I decided I needed to thin some out... As I was considering which dolls to re-home, I decided that, while I think she's pretty enough, I didn't really have much sentimental attachment to my darker haired Pen Pal doll. I mean, I loved the wig I'd put on her and she was cute enough but I didn't really 'love' her... So I'd put her in the 'box' of dolls that are going to find new homes. She wasn't there long... All of the sudden one of the things that 'bugged' me about her, her very very pale complexion, made a light bulb go off in my head! The pale boy doll sculpt would make much more sense on that body! Then... It all came together in my head. The boy would steal the Pen Pal Doll Body, then the OG body he had been on could become the body for my new Heidi Ott doll... As a bonus, the Heidi Ott doll needed a rewig... Her hair was a mess. Ironically enough, I'd wanted to re-wig her with a dark wig because she is slated to be a doppelganger doll of my Aunt Dora. The adorable bobbed wig the Pen Pal doll was wearing wasn't glued down yet because I'd never felt 'settled' on her keeping it. You might be surprised how often this happens in doll house... Until I am absolutely sure a doll is 'perfect' with a new wig, it generally doesn't get glued down. You know, just in case... *giggles* So, my Dora doll had the perfect wig already!

Aren't they adorable?! I'd like to report that the Heidi Ott doll body was put together with the Pen Pal doll head... But it looked ridiculous!! So I am ready to just toss the Heidi Ott doll body in the rubbish... Is that terrible? It makes me feel bad for some reason. Is that crazy? Haha. I think I am going to keep the Pen Pal doll head. Saying I eventually find another, more pale, body transplant for it, I think it might make a really cute boy doll someday. I have a bag where I've kept a few other doll heads for same reason... That sounds kind of creepy doesn't it? Ah well, perhaps it would be less creepy if we think of them as those sorts of real people who have decided to freeze their heads when they die in hopes of getting a whole new body someday when the technologly rolls around? In cyro-stasis as it were. Right? 

So what do you think of the 'new' Dora and updated boy... (He still hasn't told me his name, shy little fella!) I think they look fabulous. 

Better run! I have three more drafts I want to get done before I get ready for church!

Have a great day!
XXOO
Heather

Another Doll Make-Over; Part One

Hi Doll Friends!!

I just found this posting in my drafts collecting cobwebs and forgotten about... Ooops. I hate it when I do that. I apparently started telling you the story of the makeover and forgot to come back and finish the story! So we will call this a Part One and I'll take some photos of the "After" dolly and come back with a Part Two soon.

I'd found this cute Engel Puppen Doll at Goodwill last year and loved her sweet little face sculpt...

As you may be beginning to see, I really don't like the 'soft body, 'shoulderless' body type for dolls... So she had just kind of sat on a shelf since I'd found her because I don't really use dolls with that body type for models for blog posts becasue they simply can't stand or sit correctly. So when I found this Our Generation Doll with hair that was a tangle fest and with a face sculpt and eye/hair color combination I have several of already, I knew it was time to give the Engel Puppen doll a new body and a new lease on life. 

Ironically enough, I also never really cared for her wig (so 1980s!) either... So after her body transplant, I kept looking at her, trying to puzzle out the doll she was meant to be. Then it struck me! She would make a really handsome and adorable boy! When I first got her, I'd just become friends with my friend Patti like six months before and I'd decided she needed a Doppelganger Doll in the Doll House. So when she arrived, given she had brown hair and brown eyes like Patti, my first inclination was to assign her as Doppelganger Patti. Since then though, I found a Doppelganger Patti that looks much more like her. So, having given up that idea, changing her into a boy doll made perfect sense! So, I removed her wig and glued on a boy one... I'll have to come back in Part Two for the Great Reveal! 

Till Next Time!
XXOO
Heather

Vintage Lissi 18 Inch Doll BodyTransplant

Greetings and Salutations Doll Friends!!

The other day when I was in town I found this beautiful Lissi Doll for $3.99 at Goodwill. I immediately fell in love with her pretty face sculpt! I have had a Lissi Puppen Doll I got on eBay last year that I liked really well at first... Sadly, she had the 'soft non-poseable' body and my daughter said every time she'd pass her on the shelf "She's creepy Mom!". So she was donated to Goodwill during a doll purge at some point or another. That doll had 'painted' eyes and I think that was the reason my daughter didn't like her. This new beauty has 'sleep eyes' and I like them loads better. I don't know much about Lissi dolls. I think they are a German doll and know this little lady is vintage but when I went to the Lissi Website it loaded slower than 1995 dial-up website or something! Do you know anything about them? I also searched Google images for them and mostly you find images for eBay listings for them. 

Unfortunately she also had the 'soft body" type that isn't my favorite because she can't pose . Also clothes never look quite right on this sort of doll body because they have slumpy shoulders. So.... naturally... I gave her a body transplant!

Her dress was pretty... Very 1990's really, but pretty. I plan to wash it and pack it away for Christmas time photos. 

Her shoes looked like baby doll shoes and she had smaller feet than standard, modern 18 inch dolls. 

See what I mean? Her shoulders aren't poseable at all and, with no armature, she could neither sit properly or stand properly without a doll stand.

So as I've done many times, I took one of my 'lesser favorite' OG dolls and gave her a body transplant 

Here we are mid-surgery... As I always do, I put the donor dolls head on the other body and zip tied it on. She will go to Goodwill and, I will hope, find some little girl who likes soft bodied dolls to sleep with. 

I just love how she came out! Her hair was lovely but had a few decades of dust in it... So she got a good shampoo and conditioning last night. I'll have to come back to show you photos after I take some after work today. Trust me though, her hair looks amazing now! 

Better run and get ready for day! 

Till next time...

XXOO

Heather