Pam's Dollhouse - a doll customisation journey

So here is my first finished complete customisation! For the first half of her preparation click here . When I showed her the finished face up, Monkey looked at doll and said ‘wow, that good!’ So gratifying! Anyway, after doing the face up I tried to decide on her clothes. When I was trying to get ideas I found a picture of a Polynesian girl in a black crop top and tropical print skirt. I made the top first by sewing a simple tube of black jersey fabric and adding a strap made by plaiting cotton sewing thread. I had some gorgeous tropical fabric which I wanted to make into either shorts or a skirt. I didn't think I had quite enough to make a sarong-style skirt, soI drew up a pattern for shorts based off the jumpsuit Clawdeen had been wearing when I bought her. I made a mock-up first and then made these cute little shorts for my new doll. Finally I added an anklet of plaited embroidery thread and a flower hairband made of a plastic bottle seal covered in black fabric and pin...

Although this month marks the first time I've ever attempted a complete customisation of a doll, I have re-rooted hair before. My daughter (henceforth referred to as Monkey) got a little fairy doll for her birthday earlier this year and the poor little thing had such thin hair you couldn't do anything with it. I'd fairly recently watched a video (can't remember by whom, sorry) and the artist had done the re-root using different textures of hair, wool and other fabric. I liked the look so I thought I'd try it on Monkey's fairy. I used three different types of wool of varying thicknesses, embroidery thread and also left the doll's original hair in place. I made a re-rooting tool from a cut off needle and a small block of wood and started playing. I'm quite pleased with the end result, considering it was my first attempt. I didn't bother to take the head off and glue inside as it was such a small cheap doll, but I did style it a little bit by cu...

So this is how I do my MSC (Mr Super Clear - sealant) sprays. I have a big rooftop patio, so I take the doll outside, check which way the wind is blowing so it doesn't all blow back in my face, and spray outside. Because I'm out in the open and have the wind to help, I don't wear a mask while I spray, but I do hold my breath. I use a towel to hold the doll so that I can cover my hand and arm so that they don't get sprayed (MSC can cause skin irritation). After I've sprayed I stay outside for a couple of minutes to let the worst of the smell dissipate, then I bring the doll inside and lay her on a windowsill by an open window to dry. I wash my hands and face afterwards as a precaution, but this method seems to work for me.

Spurred on by Dollightful's challenge, I bought some dolls from eBay. As Monster High seem to be very popular among customisers I bought a Clawdeen Wolf and Venus McFlytrap. As I don't have any pastels or airbrush equipment I chose Clawdeen to start with because her skin tone is already natural. I prepared her - cleaned her face with acetone, cut off her hair, cut off her ears, pulled off her head and cleaned out the roots and glue from inside. The doll's theme was going to be 'tropical', but I had no idea what her outfit would be. I did, however, know that I wanted her to have natural Afro-Caribbean hair, so I used black wool, split into strands, and re-rooted that with a home-made tool. I cut off a needle and stuck it point-first into the rubber on the end of a pencil. Crude, but it worked! Once the hair was finished it was time for the face up. First layer of colour down Again I wanted to go with natural colouring, so the eyes would be brown. I know...

I'm Pam, a full time mum, and this is my doll customising journey. I've been watching doll artist videos on YouTube for a long time. My favourites are Dollightful and Walkercolours. When Dollightful posted a challenge to collaborate with her by creating a doll to be featured in a compilation video, it was the kick in the pants I needed to get started. I already had a lot of the supplies I needed - watercolour pencils, wool, fabric, sewing supplies and acetone. The only things I needed to buy were the dolls themselves and, of course, a tin of Mr Super Clear. The posts in my blog are going to chronicle my efforts to learn how to customise, my successes, failures and things I've learned.