Something Simple

There has not been much going on here lately. I haven't had the energy to do much beyond the basics in the past month. I spent an afternoon putting together 8.5"x11" sized pattern pieces for a sewing pattern to make scrubs pants for my daughter. I cut out the pieces for a doll sofa from one of those kits where the pieces come pre-cut; you just have to finish cutting them free, and then glue them together. Hopefully I will have that set up soon. It shouldn't be too hard, now that all the pieces are loose. But just so you know that I'm still here, I'm putting up a very basic picture that I took to mark having 100 followers on my Instagram account. I decided to group together just about every different type of doll that I own into the photo, and I'm glad that I did. I discovered at least one new Instagrammer who collects Madeline dolls for example. I'll probably find more people outside of the Barbie/Monster High/Ever After High groove that I've been in. Some of these dolls you have seen. Some haven't been on my blog at all before today, but you'll see them eventually!

My Collection Part Nine: Reading to Alice, Alice in Wonderland and Dorothy by Tonner

And thus we end the overview of my 16" Tonner collection with three dolls who are... not 16" tall. Alice and Dorothy, however, are sized to fit in the 16" range. They have the same bodies as Tyler Wentworth's sister, 12" tall Marley. While I never liked Marley very much, I love Alice, and since The Wizard of Oz is one of my favorite movies, I had to have Dorothy as well.

Reading to Alice is 15" tall, or so. I believe her body has been used for a range of Disney princesses by Tonner as well. It's a bit frustrating that although she was meant to go with the Alice doll, (it's right in the name) she doesn't fit in very well to the 16" line, in my opinion. You can make your own decision with the body comparison shot I'll show below the fold.

I like my Dorothy doll very much, although she does have a few yellow spots on the waist of her jumper. Toto looks a little bit odd, I think. Also, he's resin, and rather heavy for his size, since Dorothy is meant to carry the basket on her arm. I wonder if a stuffed dog would have been better.

I believe Tonner later introduced a Dorothy doll with the 15" body, which is actually more suited to Judy Garland's actual body type in the movie. We'll go with Reading to Alice next. She didn't photograph well for me. She's not typical doll "pretty" but she is striking looking. I'm throwing in a picture of her wearing an Ashton Drake Gene outfit that I took years ago.

Alice in Wonderland is one of the gems of my collection. Her face looks a little blank in my photos, but I love how she looks in person. I bought her nude, but she is wearing an outfit from Tonner's Nutcracker Clara collection, Off to the Land of Sweets. I'm disappointed in the slippers from that outfit. They were made with just a hair too little fabric, so that the back of the slippers pulls forward. I tried to put the slippers on Alice while holding the back of the slipper with tweezers, but then the stitches in the back looked like they were starting to come apart. Maybe somebody else can wear those slippers.

My youngest daughter, The Dancer, owns a Nutcracker Ballet Clara doll, that I bought her for Christmas many years ago. As you can see, she and Alice are basically sisters. Apologies for the first picture being blurry.

Last picture below the fold.

My Grocery Giveaway Package

I was one of two people who won a prize in Xanadu's grocery giveaway. It seemed like it took the package forever to get here, but it was actually less than two weeks, which is not bad coming from Australia.

I also received my Cu-Poche Alice doll order today, and Alice insisted that her curious nature made her perfect for opening the box and checking out the contents. So here's Alice, and her thoughts.

I see.. um, another box.

I am hungry after my long trip!

This lid is on too tight!

Maybe I'll just go shopping instead!

I might need my Cu-Poche sisters' help to put this together!

I also got some cute clothes, that I suspected would fit my 10" Tonner dolls. The first was a hand-knit orange dress, with orange buttons down the back. There was also a pair of orange tights. The dress looks fine on Ann Estelle, and orange is the perfect color to wear here this time of year. The tights "fit" her legs and feet, but there is a lot of extra material pulled up around her waist underneath. Unfortunately, the tights were too thick to allow me to put her own shoes back on. There was also a pair of shoes in the bag, which don't fit Ann.

In another bag was a blue sun dress, or this could also be what we would call a jumper, since a blouse would fit nicely under it. It has a faux button closure over Xanadu's favorite, snaps (press studs.) There was a separate turquoise underskirt with a ruffled trim, too. In Xanadu's honor, I got my redhead, Sophie, to model these.

There was also a blue hand-knit cardigan sweater in this bag, with real buttonholes and buttons. Sophie can wear this, but it is not quite wide enough for her.

As I sat down to write this, it occurred to me that this cardigan might fit Meg, my Makies doll.

Alas, Meg is in several separate parts right now. I want to give her a face-up, and also find her a new wig, that isn't so long and cumbersome. I've been putting off the face-up because I was nervous about it. The Dancer, though, has gotten me interested in make-up for the first time in my life, and doing make-up on myself, has given me more confidence in making Meg's face look right. I'll be sure to update you, of course, when Meg is back to herself, and we'll see if the cardigan fits.

I also got this adorable pair of baby shoes and socks. These might fit my daughter's Bitty Baby.

And lastly, two more pairs of shoes. One is a rubber pair, that look like they came from a Frozen doll. They have the effect of being gathered to a flat sole underneath, which reminds me of my daughter's ballet slippers.

And a pair of black boots with black and glitter accents, and a buckled strap. I was hopeful that these would fit my American Girl dolls, but they are just a liiiiittle bit too snug to be able to pull up over the foot. :(

This is such a fantastic bunch of doll clothing and props! I'm so thankful to Xanadu for all these items, especially since some of them were most likely hand-knit and hand-sewn by her. It was a nice way to brighten my day.

Romantic Alice Pullip

Alice was a birthday gift from my husband back in July, and I finally freed enough space on my worktable to get some pictures of her. Alice in Wonderland is a popular theme in Japan, and Groove, who makes Pullip dolls, has made several takes on Alice, with Pullip's friends filling in occasionally for other characters in the stories. For example, Groove has also made Romantic Alice in pink and monochromatic versions. And my Pullip Alice du Jardin is yet another "take" on Alice in Wonderland. Alice du Jardin is really stretching the Alice in Wonderland idea. Romantic Alice at least has a blue dress, apron and striped socks, even if the clothes are rather Lolita-esque. I took these pictures at different times of day with different lighting, so don't mind if the color in the pictures is all over the place.

Here is Alice, mostly complete. For some reason, Romantic Alice also came with a lace cape. It's pretty, even if you can't see it from the front very well, as it's not very full. However, Alice can't wear hers, because not only is the neck fastening super tight, but instead of a hook and eye, this cape has a hook and... hook. Luckily, it is an easy enough repair if you can hand-sew.

Alice's dress and apron have net, lace and tucks galore. She wears a chain with three charms: a teacup, a key, and a crown. Her necklace was "Made with Love."

Like other Pullips, Alice has an eye mechanism that lets her eyes look left, right and center. Rachael pointed out that with Pullip Alice du Jardin, her eyes seemed to go farther to her left than to her right. Romantic Alice's eyes seem to go a bit further.

A note about the brown hairbow: it's a pain. It came on the top of her head, with the lace ties wrapped around and around her neck. If you want to see her necklace, or put on her cape, or redress her, or whatever, the hairbow has to be tied at the bottom of her head at the back. Tying a top-heavy bow on a huge doll head that has lots of hair, was not fun. Maybe I'll put elastic on instead.

Even under the net overskirt on Alice's dress, there are tucks and lace, that you can't really see because of the overskirt. And I think this color is the closest to the color of the dress in real life.

A last couple shots of Alice, with and without her apron.

I think it's funny that the first doll I debut in my new roombox is really too tall for it. I will probably add more on top of the wood paneling, but I haven't decided what yet. Most of what I will be sharing pictures of in my next posts will be better sizes, although I do have another new Pullip in the queue. I should be able to improve my lighting for those, as well.

Groove Pullip Alice du Jardin

For a while, I put off buying a Pullip doll, because the JPGroove official website was advertising some kind of future sale, and picturing three dolls that I was already interested in buying. I was hoping the three dolls were going to be sold in a reduced price three-pack. Instead, the dolls were full priced, but you also received two bags of eyechips, two bags of shoes, and a wig. In other words, Groove is dumping stuff from the Make It Own line, that didn't sell. Well, I certainly could use more shoes for my J-Dolls, and any Pullips I might get in the future that have wonky shoes. The spare wig looks very nice too, although I didn't get a picture of it. So I don't have anything to complain about there. You'll see the extra shoes at the end.

When I pulled Alice out of her shipping box and paper wrappings, I had an "Oooooh" moment that I haven't had in quite a long time, when viewing a doll in-box for the first time. As far as I'm concerned, for a higher-priced doll,  you should be impressed when you first view it. I knew exactly what she looked like; I've seen lots of owner pics of her. But just viewing her in person made me excited to own her.

Let's go over her head, clothes and accessories. As you may know, Pullips have a small lever in back that lets you turn their eyes from side to side, and also open and close the upper lids. Unfortunately, I didn't get a pick of the eyes in different positions. And when I closed the eyes, at first I was afraid I wasn't going to get them open again without brute force. It's been so long since I got Alice, that I've forgotten exactly how I did get them open. I'm pretty sure there's also a knob on the back of her head. Either I had to push that in, or the actual lever, to "release" the eyelids. I took some new pictures later to show how her eyes work and made it into its own post, which is here.

Alice's hair is gorgeous, and mostly in ringlet curls, but there are lots of loose hairs that create frizz. I'm very thankful that I have my Pleasant Company American Girl wig brush. I've been gently trying to brush her hair and incorporate some of those loose hairs into the curls. It's only going so-so, though. I may just have to accept some frizz, because it really doesn't spoil her look. What is a problem is that her bangs look crooked. I say look, because I haven't tried yet to re-adjust her wig, to see if that fixes the problem. If not, I'm going to very carefully give her a bit of a trim.

She's a very attractive doll, though not everyone's cup of tea. But I'm fine with her over-sized head, and I love her outfit, which is very well made. It was a little bit startling at first to see the J-Doll body, that I'm so familiar with, with an enormous head and outfit to match, but I'm getting used to her.

It was a surprise, however, to find out that there's no way to attach the huge brown bow firmly to her head. There is a stiff headband underneath the bow, yes, but it doesn't fit her head snugly, and it doesn't seem bendable to where it would fit. So her bow has to be carefully laid on top of her head. Considering her large noggin already makes her difficult to pose, this is just another challenge. She also came with the stuffed rabbit and stand. The rabbit is wearing a small clock-face pendant, as a small nod to the very loosely interpreted Alice in Wonderland theme. I'll tell you a bit later on why she's not wearing shoes.

Her costume consists of a dress with net underskirt and ruffle, an elaborate apron, and ruffled cuffs on her arms. I'm not sure whether those are supposed to be pushed up to the end of her sleeves, or worn as cuffs on her wrists. On the one hand, they tend to slip down and cover her hands in a very impractical fashion if they're worn on her wrists (although what part of this costume is practical, really?) On the other hand, they look strange right below the sleeves, at least to me. Like if they were meant to be there, why not just sew them onto the actual sleeve cuffs?

I called this clothing piece below an apron, because that matches the Alice in Wonderland concept. This is really an elaborate overdress, that could be worn as a dress on its own. I'm going to have to try to get a non-blurry picture of this. The viewing lens on my camera is so small that it's impossible to tell whether a picture is blurry until I upload it. And I've already put off this review for way too long as it is.

Underneath the dress is an underskirt made mostly of net, with a ribbon, a ruffle and lace trims. You can also see her underwear, and her stockings. Those stay on her fairly well, as opposed to most of the stockings that I've gotten with J-Dolls. That may be because these are made of a stretchable knit, as opposed to large-scale pieces of lace, as many of the J-Doll ones are.

Even without all of the fancy outer trimmings, the dress itself does not disappoint. I left the underskirt on, but the dress has its own ruffle with row of lace, tucks in the skirt and puffed sleeves, darts on the front of the bodice, a bib with pleated trim, and neckbow, although that is actually a separate piece. I'm almost scared to untie it, if I ever wanted to redress Alice. Would I ever be able to tie it again?

I only have one ridiculously small quibble with the dress, and that is that the stitches on the outside of the dress are made with white thread, instead of cream, which would not stand out as much as the white. But considering how well the entire costume is made, and how elaborate, that's really nothing but the perfectionist seamstress in me talking.

And now, for the shoes. Oh, those infamous Jun Planning/Groove doll shoes. If you've read any of my J-Doll reviews, most of the shoes don't even fit, although that's nothing compared to the pair that disintegrated before they even came out of the box. You can be sure, then, that I wasn't necessarily going to expect that a nice pair of shoes was going to accompany any Pullip, as oftentimes they wear the same shoes that I've already had bad luck with. From the pictures, however, Alice's shoes seemed like they might be one piece, and even sturdy. And indeed, the pink part is one solid piece, that fits relatively well (the giant rose covers the fact that there's lots of room between the upper part of the shoe and her foot.) The one-piece gold bow and straps are also sturdy enough. However, apparently if something can go wrong with a Groove doll shoe, it will. When they came out of the box, both shoes looked like this:

However, within about fifteen minutes, one shoe ended up like this:

At least the pink part is still one sturdy piece, and the bow hasn't broken into little pieces! Yeah, I may have low expectations here, but at least that means that the parts can be glued back together. Conceivably. I tried Loc-Tite super glue this afternoon, and the glue was more interested in sticking the shoe and my fingers together, than sticking the gold piece back to the shoe. However, that was only a first try. I'm sure there's lots of other things I can try, so I haven't given up yet, although it means Alice did not get to pose in her shoes for this review.

She also came with a stand. It's rather nice, with a large base and nice waist grip. The only problem is that the upright part of the stand is telescoping, which can mean it's difficult trying to stand up a doll with bending knees and ankles. At least for me, Alice wanted to collapse at the knee just as much as she wanted to stand straight so I could fit the grip to her waist. Also, the base and the upright section are two separate pieces, which kept coming apart, as the hole in the base, and the post of the upright section, are both very shallow. And of course, there's the fact that Alice is very top-heavy, but that's nothing to be surprised about.

To sum up, I'm really happy with my purchase. The body is nice, I like the face, the hair is perfectly acceptable as is (at least it's not filled with glue), the clothes are gorgeous, and her hairbow and bunny accessories are cute. I may get a tiny hairclip and sew it to the bow, to keep it in place on her head. The shoe coming apart is something that I would imagine could happen with any shoe with separate pieces glued together.

And speaking of shoes, here are the two shoe packs that came with Alice.

Nothing exciting, which is why I imagine that they didn't sell well. I myself looked at buying these a couple of times and decided against it. But I'm not sorry to own them. You'll probably see them on my J-Dolls at some point in the future.

The two packs of eyechips are not exciting, unless I decide I want to restyle a doll in the future, which is always a possibility. The wig, though. I haven't taken it out of the package because it seems so delicate, but this is the wig I got.

Photo belongs to Groove and is only to show the wig I received.

If I was going to pick a wig, this is the one I would have chosen, being the most elaborate. If you're going to get a wig-with-purchase, why not make it a more complicated 'do rather than a simple short cut? When I say it seems delicate, I only mean that I don't want to disturb those long ringlets until I'm ready to put the wig on a doll. And this also means that I can buy a Pullip who might be less expensive, but whose hairstyle didn't interest me, and swap wigs. Saving money, yay!

How do you feel about big-headed dolls? How do you feel about her Loli fashion? Any tips on how to glue Alice's shoe back together again?