Doll Stuff, Part 2

 Growing up I was never really big on Barbies, and my entire childhood I only ever had one Barbie who was subsequently beheaded due to rough play...  (I was a lot more careful with my beloved Kelly dolls though.) I got my first barbie as an adult in 2019 and I named her Yessica.  Despite not really doing anything with her since getting her, I have added a couple more barbies since then - Lucille Ball, Barbie Looks Model #11 that I named Freeda, Barbie Looks Model #5 that I named Lamar, Barbie Looks #23 that I named Anyetta, and the Lucy Ricardo Vitameatavegamin Barbie that my sister gifted me (that I actually never shared and have forgotten to photograph... whooops sorry).  

Now I've always been a really big fan of doll repainting and customization videos, with body swaps and complete face repaints. Among my favorites are Hextian and MyFroggyStuff, as well as SugarCharmShop and AkameruKawaii who don't upload doll videos anymore.  I've always been sort of interested in dabbling in that myself, but I'm not the most skilled at painting at miniature and if I'm being honest, the idea of buying a bunch of dolls, one for the specific body, usually a made-to-move one, and one for the head and then being left with a doll made of the unused parts seemed kinda wasteful to me and I just didn't want to deal with random unwanted dolls lying around my room among all the other random stuff I collect.

In November, my budgie Darius got sick, and during that week when he was having sick symptoms and I was trying to get him into the vet, I think hyper-fixated on finally making custom barbies as a form of distracting myself.  Unfortunately, Darius ended up passing away on the way back from the vet, with his brother Mordecai right by his side, and it was all extremely traumatic, and I was both grieving and trying to help Mordecai get through the worst of his grief, and I didn't really feel like working on the huge doll projects that I'd bought all the parts for when I was hyperfixated... but because a lot of this project required repeatedly stabbing the doll head with a rerooting tool and that could be done while I was spending most of my time seated in the living room with Mordecai so he wasn't alone, I somehow convinced myself to trudge along.  So sadly this project is kind of tinged with sadness for me, but I'm trying to push past that.

For some context, for the last 14 years, I have on the side been working on an original story of mine.  I was a lot more motivated when I was younger, and I've even made a lot of those characters as cloth dolls and have shared them on this blog, so maybe you're familiar with them already (but also honestly a lot of my older posts on this blog are so cringe so like haha you don't need to go looking for them.)  Sadly I have been plagued with never feeling good enough about my book and constantly having to rewrite the same stories over and over again, so it likely will never see the light of day, but this book is very dear to my heart and is still something I try to work on every so often.

When it came to making custom Barbies for the first time, I decided why not try and make my original characters as dolls (again)?  Granted Barbie only has so many face molds and they don't look quite like the way I've envisioned my characters, but it felt like a challenge and I do like challenging myself.

I'm not going to bore you with all of the details of how I picked out each barbie head to best match my character, but I will highly recommend this handy guide that someone online compiled for finding the correct barbie bodies to match the heads I wanted. 

And now without further ado, here are my dolls. (Also if anyone has any suggestions on how to make their hair lay down flatter, I would really appreciate it haha.)

  

I'll start with my character Anna.  For the body, I think it might have been one of the yoga made to move Barbies, but I'm not entirely sure since I bought just the body off ebay.  And for the head, I use the 2025 Ballet Wishes head, used an alcohol marker to add the roots, and repainted the eyes to be brown. I also removed the beauty mark on her face.  I made most of the outfit myself, with the exception being the boots that I got off Etsy.  

I highly recommend using sleek and thin velcro when making miniature doll clothes.  It makes all the difference.  

I also made her a second outfit, a dress made of velvet and a wrap made out of I think some-type of fleece  Since taking these pictures I've attempted to make it a little less bulky... I can't say I was all that successful.  Honestly making outfits in this size is really hard. 

 

 Next is my character Stevie.  I used Barbie Basics 04, which is a petite barbie. The only thing I had to change was the hair, which I did using curly nylon hair from ShimmerLocks on Etsy.  I originally tried to use some hair from an old cosplay hair piece and curling the hair myself by wrapping them around pipe cleaners and dunking them in boiling water... but I don't think it was the right type of hair and it turned out really messy.  The hair sits a lot thicker than I would like despite not even putting hair in all the holes, and I don't quite know how to fix that.  I made her shirt and overalls myself, and the sneakers I got off Etsy.

Next is my character Ashley.  I used Barbie Looks #12 for the body and the Barbie Diwali Doll by Anita Dongre for the head.  Initially I tried just curling the factory hair just like I tried to do with Stevie, but it just wasn't curly enough so I rerooted her as well using nylon hair from ShimmerLocks.  I used acetone to remove the Bindi from her face, and I made her pants myself, the shoes I bought off ebay, and because I was absolutely STRUGGLING  to make a nice fitted t-shirt, I bought one off etsy.

 

I also made her a second outfit, this time a fancy green dress made out of satin and some very super tiny satin ribbons.

Next is my character Delia.  I used Barbie Looks Doll #19 and rerooted her hair with curly hair from ShimmerLocks on etsy.  Of all the dolls I rerooted, I really like how she turned out the best.  I also poked my own holes in her head to reposition the part, and I think it turned out really nice.  (I also did it on the wrong side that I initially intended, but that's okay.) I repainted her eyes green and also gave her some freckles.  I made the pants myself, and originally wanted her to have a matching vest, but again, my skills are very limited and I was having a hard time trying to make it, so I just gave her the yellow top that came with the doll originally.  I also stole my existing tall barbie Yessica's shoes for her outfit.

Next we have Abby. I used the Barbie tennis player doll for the body (I try to keep all the accessories that come with the dolls and I think I may have accidentally threw out her visor when I opened her up oooops) and the Little Mermaid Vanessa doll for the head.  For this doll I actually repainted her lips and eyebrows.  It was a lot harder than I expected and I don't like how lumpy the lips turned out... but luckily I can always repaint it again if necessary. Initially I was actually going to use this head for Stevie, but found that the face looked too mature as Stevie is supposed to be a teenager, so I made her Abby instead despite not initially planning to make her.  I made both her sweatshirt and trousers myself.  I wish I had a more t-shirt like material for her sweatshirt, but I don't have that on me right now.

And last but not least, we have Laurel.  I used Barbie Looks Doll #22 for the body, and the Barbie Mermaid with pink hair for her face, and rerooted her with hair from ShimmerLocks on Etsy.  I tried to thicken both her eyebrows and her lips a little bit, but I'm not sure it turned out that noticeable.  I made the skirt myself and the tank top, and I bought a pack of 1/6 scale cardigans on amazon and tried to make the cardigan a little bit more fitted as well as removed the oversized buttons that were on it.  Originally I was planning on trying to crochet a doll-sized cardigan myself, but I don't have the right yarn nor have I crocheted in a while, so it was more cost effective to just buy one.  I would LOVE if I could find a pair of barbie sized oxford shoes for her, but I only ever see oxfords sold in ken size so that's not helpful. 

 

Overall I am quite happy with these dolls.  I would at some point like to make them more outfits or purchase some nice barbie clothes for them as I'm not the best at making this size of doll clothes just yet.  I like that I got to learn some new skills, like doll rerooting and also repainting some elements.  I would absolutely love to make ever more characters of mine, but this hobby is quite expensive unfortunately, and also when it comes to making some of my male characters, Mattel apparently only likes to make big, buff guys with sculpted jawlines and slender noses, which is not what I'm looking for.  I know they're coming out a new made-to-move Slim Ken, but we still have the issues with the sculpts... so yeah.  Maybe someday.

And yes, now I am left with a bunch of mishmashed un-articulated barbie dolls that I don't quite know what to do with. Yay.