Rebodying Belle, and Ever After High Book Party Ginger Breadhouse

I've started getting into the trend of rebodying dolls with the new Barbie Made to Move bodies. However, the first doll I picked to rebody was an older doll, a Mattel Belle doll from... quite a while back. I have many dolls that would be fun to have out again, if they were a little more posable, including this one. I did have to wash Belle's hair, to clean out the rubber band that had dried out and stuck to her hair. I haven't managed to make her hair behave enough to avoid using a rubber band completely.

First, here's Belle dressed as a modern young woman. I quickly discovered that this top sheds sparkles.

She has the ability to actually carry books now. :)

And here she is in her original clothes. The dress is too big in the bust now, but it works. Now she has the ability to offer tea to a visitor to the castle.

And she can reenact scenes from the movie.

Below the fold, I'm going to put pictures of another older doll of mine who could really use a rebody, and my new Ever After High doll.

Mother's Day Doll Gifts!

This year, my two daughters were kind enough to give me dolls for Mother's Day! I got the Ever After High School Spirit two pack of dolls, and a Mattel Belle doll with no real articulation, but lots of accessories. This won't be a real review, because all these dolls have been out for quite a while, but I did want to share some of the fun details of the dolls.

First I'll show pictures of Belle. The design choices they made for her ensemble were... interesting, as you'll see. She comes the way a lot of Mattel dolls seem to have been designed lately: no bending arms or legs, molded on top, detachable fabric skirt. Since she is a Disney Princess, her top has the addition of loads of glitter.

 

Her hair style has rolled bits on the sides to provide a good place to hide the ends of a tiara or headband. It's also nice and soft.

My daughter knew that Belle is my favorite Disney character, but she also knew enough to know that I would love all the accessories that came with this doll, which was sweet. She came with two tiaras, a hat headband, a necklace, three pairs of shoes and a little purse.

This little hat-on-a-headband looks strange with a ball gown.

I might add some paint touch-ups to these.

This necklace might look better on Apple White. It doesn't match this dress at all.

I think all the detailing on this pair makes them especially awesome.

This rose purse is cute, and appropriate to Belle's story, even if this color doesn't match Belle's dress.

However, not only is it small in height, it's not very wide. As you can see from my finger, Belle is shedding glitter

And that's Belle. I've put the Ever After High dolls below the fold, although I don't have as many pictures of them as I took of Belle, because they didn't come with as much stuff.

At Long Last, the Liebster Award

Presto tagged me for this award ages ago, and I feel guilty, because I've had blogger's block lately. I also have no idea who to tag for this. Eleven people is a lot to tag, and most of the bloggers I know have already been tagged for this. So I'm going to answer the questions, finally, and let it go. :)

1. What kinds of toys got you into collecting and customizing? 
Barbie got me into collecting, when I started buying them as an adult. I don't really do customizing, yet. I'm actually seriously considering passing off painting to my youngest daughter. She does a fantastic job painting miniatures for Pathfinder games, so I think she'd be a natural. I do have a Belle doll that has had part of her lip paint rub off; I keep meaning to make this my daughter's first doll project. :)

2. What's the coolest way you've repurposed something to work on/with one of your projects?
Oh dear. I haven't really done this, either. At least, not as an adult. As a kid, I had the Sunshine Family dolls, and they were all about making sofas out of milk cartons and dressers out of matchboxes. I've turned bookcases and shelves into diorama roomboxes as an adult, but lots of people do that.

3. Sonic or Mario?
Mario! Although my daughters regularly smoke me at MarioKart.

4. What do you do to find inspiration?
Since my doll projects involve sewing, I look at all kinds of clothes, from historic to modern, for real people and for dolls. My Pinterest account is mostly dedicated to clothes for inspiration.

5. What time period would you most like to live in, other than the modern one?
The turn of last century. There were still beautiful, elaborate clothes, but things I like having, like indoor plumbing, were also becoming more common.

6. When has a project just made you give up? Why?
As far as sewing projects, I've given things up when I try to create a pattern for something over and over, but can't get it to look the way I want. I've also tried knitting a blanket for a doll bed, and given up on that three times. One was when the pattern wasn't written correctly, and it took me several tries to realize the pattern was wrong, and not me. By that time, I was sick of the whole thing. One was a lacy blanket that was enjoyable to work on, but every time I made a mistake, I couldn't figure out which row was which when I unraveled. Lastly, I tried a pattern where I just couldn't get past the first few rows without making a mistake. I'm using the wrong yarn or something, at least for me, I think.

7. What's the most versatile tool in your arsenal?
Well, my sewing machine, definitely. But when I have to do hand sewing, my best go-to item is not a tool, but a book.

 Not only are there all kinds of stitches in there, but the directions are just right for me!

8. When has a project surpassed your wildest expectations? How?
I don't know that I will ever make anything that surpasses my wildest expectations. I'm a perfectionist, which means I can always look at something and say, "I could have done that better." I'll show you a picture I made for a contest, where I wanted 16" Gene to look like she came from 1907. I ended up happy with this one, because I thought the silhouette and general style were pretty much 1907. I drafted the pattern and made everything myself, including the hat.

9. What's your all-time favorite movie?
The Wizard of Oz. And somehow, doll manufacturers do seem to come up with some unique takes on the movie costumes, now and then.

10. What's a skill you want to learn someday?
Painting plastic furniture. Especially the extra touches that make an item really pop and look realistic.

11. If you could live in a fictional universe, which one would you pick?
Does Narnia count? I mean, Earth-as-we-know-it is part of that universe, but Narnia is its own place.

If for some reason I missed you being tagged, and you want to play, email me and I will give you eleven questions!

My Cinderella Dolls and New Cinderellas at Target

Not only has the new live-action Cinderella movie produced new dolls in the likenesses (more or less) of the actors, Cinderella and Prince Charming dolls were also featured on an endcap at Target recently. I'll show you those pictures, but first I thought this would be a good time to put up pictures of my own Cinderella and Prince Charming dolls.

This may be the first Disney Cinderella doll Mattel ever made. I'm going to guess this dolly is about twenty years old, give or take a few years.