Updates: Thrift Finds, Moving

Hello friends! I have been a busy guy. I moved and then immediately had surgery, so my dolls were locked away in bins for a while. Some of them are on shelves now though! I still have ~30 of them that need to be cleaned up or need outfits before they're displayed. 

This is my shelf for all my short dolls because the openings are something like exactly 12 inches. All of my Gen 1 MH dolls that don't need degluing, all my LOL OMG dolls, and the Bratz and Bratzillaz that aren't in dire condition. The picture makes some of the poses look insane but I promise it looks nice in person. 

 Taller doll shelf! Mostly Barbie except for the top left. This shelf is on top of my dresser which makes it very easy to admire from bed. I wanted to put some more dolls on top but the space is a little tight with the ceiling. I tried putting some My Little Pony plushes up there, but unfortunately my cat has decided that she likes to jump up there. It's very cute so it's okay, but I am a small 5'3 man and I haven't rescued Fluttershy yet. I don't think she would mind though. 

 New acquisitions from an unlikely source: my partner has a bunch of collector Barbie dolls in their boxes. He doesn't collect them but they were gifted to him by his mom over the years. Most of them are kind of uninteresting holiday Barbies, but he does have the Brunette Harley Davidson Barbie #3 and 40th Anniversary Barbie, which I think are pretty cool. I'm trying to think of a way to display them so these are stock photos. 

 

I have been prowling thrift stores for dolls again, but moving really made me have to reevaluate my collection, so I only take home dolls that are very unique. My first interesting find was a 1994 Shaving Fun Ken. He's a little worse for wear as you can probably tell, but his hair is kanekalon and I have an overwhelming preference for Kens with actual rooted hair. I haven't treated him to a spa day yet but I will soon. The beard paint on his face is supposed to react to temperature (hot makes it disappear, cold makes it reappear) but it seems like it doesn't work anymore. Apparently this can happen over time, which is kind of a bummer, but I like having a bearded Ken anyway. I wish they made more bearded Kens! (Speaking of bearded Kens, there's apparently a Ken version of the Harley #3 doll and he has long hair and a beard! New dreamie perhaps.) 

Other interesting find: 2015 Best Fashion Friend Barbie! She is 28 inches tall and is the first big doll I've gotten. I have recently taken an interest in these weird large dolls mostly through the Monster High versions. I originally thought she was a MySize Barbie, but those are apparently a few inches taller. She freaks out my roommates a little bit but I think she's pretty cool. She has rooted eyelashes, rubber arms and plastic legs. Googling has informed me that her proportions are slightly different from the average Barbie, so it's been a struggle to figure out something for her to wear (I was hoping to just scale up a sewing pattern). I eventually want to make a base pattern of her body for custom clothes, but that seems like a lot of work for one doll. I have a base pattern I made for standard Barbies, and maybe I should make a blog post about that sometime. For now, I took a crochet bikini pattern and modified it until it looked okay, just so she'd have something to cover her up for now. I think something like a patchwork skirt would look cute with it. Even figuring out the crochet proportions was a struggle-- I have a collection of lace weight yarn to crochet clothes for my dolls, which I assumed would be too small for her (and take way too long) but every yarn I tried looked too big. The yarn I ended up using is just slightly thicker than lace, and would probably be considered sock weight but I thrifted it without a label and I'm not an expert on yarn. 

 

This doll I actually have begun the cleanup process on, and I wish I got a "before" picture of her hair, because after a condition and a comb she has the most gorgeous waves. I think the hair is saran, which makes the process much easier. I'm considering giving her a new face of makeup and repainting her shoes, but I'll have to see what happens with making her an outfit first.  

That's all the major updates I can think of at the moment. Hopefully I will have more soon! See you later. 

Love, Alec