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More Customs Fodder!

Over the last weekend when my cousin was in town I picked up a couple more Monster High dolls to do some repainting and rerooting on. Clawdeen hs been waiting to be customized for a while, but Draculaura and Catrine are the new dolls. I was actually so excited to see Catrine. I feel like I never see the “special” dolls that much. For example it’s rare for me to find Nefertari. It may be because I live in a large suburb of a city so product moves fast. Anyhow, speaking of fast I intend to try to start customizing this weekend as….wait for it….my doll hair order arrived!! I’ll talk more about that later, but for now, the girls.

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You know, I’ve never been really fond of any of the outfits of the Monster High girls, but Catrine’s outfit is not bad, and her little art belt with pastels and brushes is novel. I know a lot of people really like the crazy shoes on these dolls, but I guess I’m a little too much of a plain jane to really get into them. One day I’m going to have to try my hand at making some custom shoes, because right now all of my MH dolls are shoeless, lol

So, on to the important part, the saran doll hair order. This time I decided I was going to try RestoreDoll as I’ve always heard good things about them and they had a couple special colors that I really wanted. So, let’s take a look at the first set of colors shall we. 😉

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I took these shots in just natural light from the window and I did minimal color balancing on them to try to get them to look as close to what they look like in real life. If there are any differences, I will be sure to tell you about them. So in this first set there is Cognac #36 on the left and Bronze #22 on the right which I think is one of RestoreDoll’s own custom blends if I am not mistaken. Both are very very close to what they look like in real life. I had seen some pictures of cognac on flickr that looked more red, and to be honest it’s what I was expecting, so I was a little surprised it was more on the orange side. Still though it is a lovely color and it will get used eventually!

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These two colors are Purple Passion #27 and Brownette #2. Both colors are also very close to what they look like in real life. I was really extra happy with Brownette actually, because it looks darker than I had seen on flickr, but it does have a golden sheen about it, which I think is what is caught when people use flash photography or take photos in the sun. Anyway overall it’s a nice solid medium brown and no red tones.

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Ok, so lastly we have Cupcake Pink #37 and Turquoise #51. These colors are close to real life, but I consider the cupcake pink to be a little more on the pink side, though it is a warm pink, so it does have a bit of a peachy cast. The Turquoise was the hardest to try to get right in the photo. XP As it is Turquoise is a bit lighter than this photograph and has a very minty look. Either way they are both really pretty colors. Heh, to be honest I wouldn’t mind owning ALL THE COLORS!! XD lol

So I feel I need to say a few bits on quality and service since this was my first order with RestoreDoll, and I have to say they pass with flying colors. 🙂 I am really happy with my order and they ship SUPER FAST! Which is kind of a change from dollyhair, since they are kinda slow. ^^;; Quality wise I’m perfectly happy with everything, I only wish I maybe had ordered a little more, lol. Lastly I wanted to mention size and quantity, because dollyhair always knocks RestoreDoll on their website and I find it unfair, so I want to clear up a few things. The RD dollyhair hanks they sell ARE NOT equal to the real RD small skeins. 2 RD small skeins look comparable to what you’d get if you ordered one of the 38in dollyhair hanks. Moral of the story, don’t believe what competitors say about each other, because they are in competition for your business, you are better off to trust disinterested 3rd party information.

Well that’s it for now, I’ll be sure to share my customizing progress in the future. I’m really hoping to be able to get a start on it this weekend! So excited! X3

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La Dee Da Doll

I’ve come to like the look of the La Dee Da dolls, and with a price cut currently going on at Target I thought I’d go ahead and purchase one of these cuties. They have big heads and oversized eyes similar to pullip and the fashion on this particular “city girl” doll is bright and cute reminding me of something Blythe or Pullip would wear. You can see from the photo above how she sizes up next to Blythe, Dal and Pullip.

So, the clothing that she comes with is a little blue next shrug, a pair of tube stockings, shoes, a hair flower, dress, earrings, and a little plastic pincushion wristlet. The dress’s ribbon is attached with velcro which means you can switch it out with the hair flower as it also has velcro on the bag. However unfortunately the hair flower is initially velcroed AND sewn into the head, so you will have to cut it loose to do anything with it. Also velcro is not kind to plastic doll hair. ^^; Anyhow the other versatile part of this outfit is the dress has a pull ribbon in the back so it can go from being a bell shape to being cinched into to a balloon shape.

As for the doll herself, she doesn’t have nearly as much articulation as Monster High or Pullip. She does however have knee joints and rotating hip joints. Her shoulder joint has more mobility than the classic barbie, but as you can see she does not have wrist or elbow joints.

I thought I would show a little comparison of the feet here, because I have great news! The feet of La Dee Da dolls are tiny and slender just like Dals, which means, yes, they can share shoes. Also they work fairly well on Blythe’s feet, but they will not fit on obitsu feet. On the flip side, La Dee Da dolls can also wear some of Dal’s and Blythe’s shoes as well.

For clothes sharing however you aren’t as lucky. La Dee Da bodies are slender like Monster High Girls, which means most of their clothing will not fit Dal as you can see in the above image. However clothes that would fit Dal will mostly work on La Dee Da, though they may be a bit more roomy. Monster High and La Dee Da can of course share clothing perfectly.

So next up I decided to take a closer look at the scalp of the doll to see how well it was rooted. Sadly I cannot say it is rooted very well. It is fairly easy to part the hair and see large gaps between plugs. The good news is this can be solved with some additional rooting which is easy to do. Also apparently the La Dee Da dolls who are styled with their hair up are worse off in the rooting department.

Well I think that’s about it for my review/comparison. I plan to customize this girl, so I will have a few more posts about those kind of things coming forthwith. 😉

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Monster High Draculaura

SoOOooo, I guess I’m getting on the Monster High customizing bandwagon because I bought my first Draculaura last week. The image to the left is of her straight out of the box, the only thing I did to her was trim her bangs to remove that weird, vampy, widows peak thing she had going, and I also let her hair down out of her ponytail. I think I’m finally starting to solidify how I want to customize her. I am fairly certain I will be re-rooting her hair, whether partial or full, and she is definitely getting her face repainted and her body blushed. Currently I’m waiting for my order of doll hair from dollyhair.com before I make any definite decisions about her hair. On the one hand her pink streaks have a punkish charm, but on the other hand it can kinda be tacky city. XP I’ve got to figure out what to do with her hair first though, because there is no way I’m rerooting after a custom paint only to wreck it with half my sealer coming off during the process, which is what happened during my Rainbow Dash custom project. Speaking of Dashy, I acquired the glue I needed and she’s drying right now. As soon as her glue dries I’ll put together her tail, pop her head back on and start the styling process on her mane.

Getting back to Draculaura now, I did find out that if you want to retain her natural hair and use a wig, then 6-7 is a perfect fit. Here she is trying on one of my MSD girl’s wigs. See, she’s starting to look cuter already! I also bought a Liv wig on clearance at Target to try, but I’ll be saving that for another posting. I’ve also dug up quite a few excellent rerooting tutorials in my quest for knowledge before I attempt what will be my second rerooting project, but my very first dolly one (since Dashy is a pony after all!). Anyhow I shall be trying to share as much info as I can with you as I go through the customizing process. I am very looking forward to another dolly project!!

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Sewing for YoSDs!

Ever since Borry arrived I’ve been excited to sew some YoSD sized clothing. I managed to get started a little bit today and I have my leggings pattern now fairly well worked out. For the waistband in the picture I used the lace frill edge elastics to add a little pizazz I guess…..and they wound up adding more than pizazz in the sewing department. Trying to stretch and sew a tiny waistband is no simple task, so there were some curse words uttered and a dodgy stitch here or there. XP The end result is fine for my Borry, but I fancied making some coordinates to sell, and they would not be acceptable for selling, mostly from the standpoint of how difficult it is to apply the tiny elastic. However my mother informs me that our machine might be able to do a stretch stitch, and if this is the case and the machine will do all the work, then heck why not because it looks nice. Either way I am planning to experiment with two different types of waistbands and then deciding from there which would be best to use.

I am really excited though with how these preliminary leggings came out, and on top of that I have all of these great matching fabrics I bought over the Memorial Day sales. Needless to say I am super excited to make some matching coordinates of jumpers and skirts to go with these leggings. Lots of plums and grays in this batch, but I can foresee some cute stuff!! Below are just a few of the fabrics I found this weekend. So exciting! Though I still have a ton of illustration work to do and relatives will be visiting soon, so le sigh, I’m not sure how often I will be able to sew this week. On top of this I also have some ideas for miniatures now too…I guess when it rains it pours!

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Slinky Neko Borry Arrived!

So, my very first YOSD sized doll has finally arrived! I was so happy to open up the mailbox and find her box waiting for me. :3 She is the perfect fit for “The Big House”. XD In fact I think she works better with some of the furniture than my Pullip, Dal and Blythe do! Unfortunately because of the time of day I wasn’t able to get any really great shots of her in the dollhouse since the room it’s in faces West and gets better lighting in the later afternoon. Anyhow, getting back to business, I bought this Borry Penny Brite fullset off of a seller on DoA. It was my first time buying a doll from the marketplace so I was a little anxious, but the seller was awesome and shipped ridiculously quickly. This isn’t my first time buying a secondhand doll however since I did buy my Lusis from Mandarake.

I figure I would go ahead and write up a little review of sorts on the doll itself, and I also plan to share some body pictures with you since Slinky Neko body images are kind of hard to find. So, first of all, the Penny Brite fullset is quite cute and definitely high quality. The set consisted of shoes, socks, dress, bloomers, chemise, hat and wig. Of course the doll came with stock dark green eyes, extra fist hands, and a rosy cheeked face-up. I would have to say, given the opportunity, I would definitely buy Slinky Neko clothing since they are adorable and quite well made. I’m not sure if they ever offer just the clothing sets though.

Here she is in just the undergarments portion of the set, and I also tried a Kemper mohair wig on her. The wig I have is too big, but I’m really loving the dark hair on this girl, so I will probably be making another wig order to Kemper soon, lol. One thing to note about the Slinky Neko Babies is that they wear a 5/6 size wig unlike the typical 6/7 for many YOSD sized dolls. I should also mention that the face-up on this girl is fantastic. I love the bright rosy cheeks! Next up let’s talk about the body though…

Now I don’t have any other YOSDs to compare her too, I can only gauge things from images I have seen, but her body seems fairly comparable to your typical YOSD. Overall I was pleased that she had long slender limbs. She has all single joints, but despite this she still poses very well, and can touch her hands to her face and such. So I will say she has very well made single joints, since some single jointed dolls are unable to touch their faces, like my DIM Danbi for example. The only thing that puzzles me about this doll is hopefully illustrated in the picture below.

So, the lower half of Borry’s torso is very slender, but the upper portion, seems a little chunky by comparison. Also the lower half of the torso is seated so far up in the upper torso that it really doesn’t allow for much mobility. Again though I guess I should say that this is the only YOSD sized doll that I have, so I don’t know how this compares to others, but if I just look at my MSDs in comparison who have great mobility in their torso joint and no additional chunkiness, it just makes me think it’s odd. This doesn’t really lessen my enjoyment of her however, she is still a cute patoot, and I know I’m going to have a lot of fun sewing for her….that is after I get all of my comic illustration work done. ^^;;; The work never ends, but I guess that’s good. I am though seriously amped to do some dolly sewing and I think I have some ideas for cute tutus, and all of my girls could stand some basic leggings.

Well that’s it for now, hopefully if you were looking for information on the Slinky Neko baby body this was helpful to you!