a trip outside/swappin styles

I got a Swappin' Styles Barbie sort of by accident and discovered that the heads also come off in the normal way. This plus a half-price sale at the local toy shop? Equals re-heading a couple of dolls I wasn't that keen on. Hurrah!

I got Sporty and Cutie because they had nice hair. Off came two 90s-Barbie heads that long ago became victims of haircuts, and with a bit of a struggle I now have basically two new dolls.

I checked skin-tone in the shop and the white ones all seem to be Generic Barbie Caucasian, and I had checked before leaving the house that Sassy wasn't too much lighter or darker than my older dolls.

I find it quite scary to swap heads on dolls in case I break them, but I am glad I did it.

not a wedding dress

So I got an old sheet in a charity shop for £2.50, which means lots of white dresses in the dolls' future. It's good, I was running out of white fabric.

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What I meant to do was gather the top layer way higher, but I messed up by sewing the two layers together at the back out of stupid and so I couldn't do that. Still it was an interesting experiment in gathering things upwards I suppose.

Our model for today is a freak of nature, being a Swappin' Styles head on an older less poseable body. Yes, there was decapitation earlier today.

Kimono Omg!

More of a proof of concept since it's made from a second-hand sheet rather than anything fancy. Collar and obi are made from ribbon that's otherwise a bit wide for dollclothes, so good that I found a use for it.

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I've wanted to make a kimono for me dolls since I started sewing (all of... a week or so ago?) but while there's a free pattern online I couldn't make head nor tail of it. This time I used this tutorial, which is quite easy to follow. This video gave me some guidance on tying the obi.

Problem: unless I sew and cut a bit cleverly the doll has to be tied into the outfit each time. I'll think on how to deal with that. But I am quite happy with the result overall.

There is quite a lot of sewing round edges, which is not the most exciting aspect of sewing. I think the pleasure of having made it makes up for that though.