Tutorials

1. Root the eyelashes closely together to avoid gaps, make the eyelashes very long (you’ll cut them later)
2. Use an elastic + boil perm to set the long eyelashes up against the face
3. Use nail scissors or sewing scissors to trim the eyelashes down to a slanting shape – no longer than 3mm at the shortest part (so it will look like eyeliner not lashes at certain angles).

Model: Myscene Madison custom “Blue Moon” who’s going to get a boil perm soon. Sorry about the sloppy photos, it’s just to show the technique. She had a wonky eye placement and the eyelashes are meant to minimise that.

Froggystuff posted an excellent quick doll wig tutorial, see it here.

Here’s how to make it seamless:

After following the previous tutorial,
¤ Use an elastic band that you can sew through (flat) or around (thin)
If the elastic is too long, cut it to size and sew the ends together roughly.
¤ Pin it in several places to the head (push the pin through the elastic and into vinyl of the scalp)
¤ Sew it to the hair (use a matching colour thread)
¤ Turn it inside out and place it on your doll’s head
¤ Cut a fringe (bangs) if the elastic is too visible.

You now have a seamless wig that should hold nicely even when shaken!

Meet Alexa, she’s a “Barbie the Diamond Castle singing Princess Alexa Doll” from 2003 Indonesia. Now bald!
—>>

When I first got her, her hair seemed super sticky but I figured that it was just hair gel and that it would wash out. Soap didn’t help at all.
The stickyness was worse at the base of the hair and scalp was also very tacky so I tried using alcohol on the hair and scalp, first wipes then an alcohol bath.

In the end, after trying different solvents, I ended up removing all her hair and the contents of her head.

The gunk inside is horrible, it messed up my tools and is very very sticky to deal with. It’s hard to get out as it gunges up and forms a thick mass of hair/gunk that won’t pull through the neckhole.
Alcohol neutralises the tackiness but once it evaporates the stickiness is back.
Acetone does not dissolve the glue, neither does WD40.

Alexa is going to get a full reroot. It’s the only solution I’ve found so far to save the doll. I’m told this is a common issue with various Mattel Playline dolls such as Monster High. When I rerooted both a Gloom Beach Draculaura and a Basic Ghoulia, they both had this nasty glue sap gunk.
My Fairytopia Barbies from 2004 don’t have this issue.

Here are some links from other people who’ve had this issue with their dolls:
http://www.dollstuff.net/diary/200904041
http://dollsfromplanetmu.blogspot.fr/2012/08/monster-high-glue-seepage-problem-3.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/winksandgiggles/7497107794/

http://grownwoman.tumblr.com/tagged/glue-head

http://here-be-dolls.weebly.com/indonesia-problems-and-defects.html

http://www.flickr.com/groups/mhcc/discuss/72157629222205129/

http://akkismos.tumblr.com/post/22276103860/since-people-seem-to-be-noticing-and-finally

http://www.flickr.com/photos/readytosail/7145861361/

To make a head band for your doll you will need:

• Wire from a used spiral bound notebook or thick beading wire.
• 4mm and 3mm plastic beads
• Wire cutter and Round nose pliers (optional)

1. Cut 12cm of wire for a bratz head, 9cm for a barbie head, 20cm for a pullip head.
2. Make a loop at the start of the wire, string on your beads and make another loop to close it.
3. Bend the headband to fit your dolls head. You’re done!

Models: Maggie – Bratz Nighty Nighty Meygan and Dahlia – Fairytopia Barbie

Notes:

• To straighten out spiral notebook wire, just jam a piece under your foot and use pliers to gently pull it straight.
• You can also wrap your wire with ribbon or yarn for different effects.
• If you have beading wire but it’s too thin and flexible then fold it in two and twist it tightly to make thicker wire.
• You can use bigger beads for Pullip heads but for smaller dolls, anything over 4mm looks out of scale.

Monster high head size comparison with Barbie and Bratz.

You can also see the neck hole size and the big annoying neck anchor:

For a mid calf length reroot of Draculaura, I used 75% of 1 RD hank of Wild Lavender and less than 2 RD hanks of Sherbert Pink but she’s rooted very thickly.
I think you could probably reroot a monster high doll with 2 RD hanks.

Found a Barbie “Mini B” set on ebay for cheap so I thought I’d see how it matches up to Lil Bratz and the Pocket Lil Bratz.

The doll is well painted with a cute grin, her hair is 2 tones of saran, the dress is real fabric, of fairly solid material. She doesn’t quite fit on her stand so her legs go sideways and are stuck that way. Only the head turns. She came with a surprisingly detailed dog, a tiny clip-on phone (printed paper on plastic) and a brush. The mobile phone themed case is adorable in pink and yellow and has a nice solid snap shut. The clip and string don’t feel like they’d last long in play.

The doll has a tiny flaw to the eye but excellent facial screening (properly aligned which is rare on small dolls). She’s smaller than a Q-tip (as seen in background).

So overall:

• Pros – excellent design and quality, cute face and accessories, solid snap shut,
• Cons – fragile clip, more like a figurine with the 1 pose and lack of redressing possibilties.
• Compared to Lil Bratz – Lil bratz have detailed clothes, shoes and 4 movable limbs. They are almost twice as big as Mini B and can be coaxed to stand alone. However it’s a gamble as to whether you’ll get a well aligned facial screening when buying online.
• Compared to Pocket lil Bratz: The pocket bratz still has more movement (arms move, bends in middle) and more detail. There are a limited amount of pocket bratz playsets where as Mini B and the Peekaboos have many.

Beauty Cuties Basics:

Head size: 14 inches, 36 cm
Rooted honey and platinum blonde nice quality hair on a solid 2-part scalp.
Eye mechanism: press down on empty pouch on dome of head to roll eyes and change eye colour.
4 eye colours: indigo looking right, green looking left, green looking up right, blue with stars looking straight ahead.

The head is make of a hard plastic but very slightly flexible and very easily washable (stains just rub off).
Her skin colour is and orangey tan like barbie. The faceup is very cute with lots of painted and real long lashes.

The lips could be less pouty and more smiley but I don’t know if that would make her creepier!
Very solidly built.
The stock body is smaller than bratz, bigger than lil bratz, has a rounded belly, a very small bust, bendable wired arms and legs and massive feet that don’t fit any fashion doll shoes.
In her stock body she cannot stand alone or sit up straight unless strapped (clicked) into her special chair.
The head is joined on to the stock body via a 3cm diameter area at top of neck. Switching bodies is going to a difficult task.

Pictures: On arrival in the chair, Head size comparison, The neck

Pictures: Body comparisons with Bratz, Obitsu 27 and Barbie

The Hybrid:

I sawed off her body at the neck and sawed off Barbie Gymnastic’s Body at half way down the neck.
Pliers were used to twist and pull out plastic from inside the neck holes then a small cylinder of wood was sawn to size and inserted into both holes to make the joint more solid. I used superglue and waited 12 hours: the head cracked off within minutes of play so i’m re-doing a much thicker superglue neck joint which will be fairly visible.

Ideally, I’d like to make a choker (my sister’s idea) with some sort of clay or epoxy to hold the body and head together, which will then be painted. I don’t have the supplies though so for the meantime we’re going with just glue.

What’s motivating is that she’s really cute on a big body. I’m more of a “little doll” type of person but she is quite charming once you get used to the size of her… and her weight: she makes a pullip head seem like nothing.

Pictures: Rockabelle hybrid, Making friends, Eye colours

To remove a BRATZ head

To remove a BARBIE Head

• Heat up the neck
• Pull back the skin of Barbie’s neck over the neck peg until the anchor comes out.

Photo depicts a Barbie neckpeg with the anchor “wings” chopped off to make headswapping easier