Tuesday, September 20, 2022

Restoring doll hair and Face paint

DOLL HAIR


This is a link to an amazing video 
by Robert Tonner,
showing step by step how he styles
Miss Revlon Hair.

He is using these products from Dollspart Supply.
I have ordered these products and 
will try them on my Miss Revlon 
when they arrive!
 
This is my Miss Revlon, Marylou, 
 when I found her at a thrift store. 
she was VERY dirty and her hair
was a MESS!

You can see her restoration here:

These have been my "Go To" products
For a long time. Revlon Synthetic Hair
shampoo and Conditioner spray.
I get it at my local beauty supply.

I have also used this leave-in conditioner
by Paul Mitchell.
I actually only work it into very
dry frizzy ends.

I always try to use a metal tine brush for synthetic doll hair.
But, sometimes on smaller dolls or for
styling bangs and sides, a smaller 
brush or comb is helpful.

This morning I am using the 
conditioning spray alone.

I purposely left Marylou's hair in a more 
natural style. This is how it looked 
when I took her out today.

Using only the Revlon Conditioning Spray, 
you can see there is much more shine.
I warn you, this spray is STICKY!
But if you are patient working with it, 
it does add shine.

This is the ponytail on an Ideal Velvet doll,
from the 1970s.
I am going to work on her ponytail 
using a CERAMIC flat iron.
She has already been washed and 
her hair has air-dried, 
but still slightly damp.

I use a ceramic flat iron, set
on the LOWEST setting.
I take about a 1 inch section of hair.

I run the hair through the 
flat iron quickly 3 times. Then I
brush through the warm hair.
I repeat this several times until I 
feel the hair is straightened 
to my satisfaction.

FACE PAINT 

I am going back to Marylou for faces.
As you can see her lips and cheeks needed help.

I always choose a peachy skin tone and 
a watermelon red for dolls.

For lips I use the watermelon color alone.

For cheeks, mix the peachy tone paint and 
the melon tone paint together.
Dip a makeup sponge in the paint.
Pat off the paint from the sponge on a 
paper towel until nearly dry.

Pat paint onto cheeks with the make up sponge.
Keep a wet paper towel nearby to wipe off
first tries and mistakes!
The nearly dry paint on the sponge 
creates a soft matte finish.

I used the same technique to repaint
this Gerber baby's whole face! 
For the paint for skin I mixed
ivory and peach. Then I use the same
make-up sponge technique above.

Here is the Gerber baby all painted.
For the shine on this Gerber Baby's
lips I use this clear varnish.

Acrylic Clear Varnish.

EYEBROWS

All I can say is practice before trying this 
on your doll! As you can see I have a VERY 
tiny brush. I picked out over 2/3 of the 
original hairs from this paint brush!
It literally only has a few strands left.
This is my eyebrow and lash brush.

This is a recent restoration I did.  This baby's lips, eyes,
cheeks, eyebrows and lashes were all repainted.

OK want to see the hair we 
started at the beginning?

And Here They Are!

Marylou's hair in back.

And in front.

Velvet's hair in back

And in front

Marylou Before and After

Velvet Before and After

Guess what these two girls have in common?
They are both Ideal Dolls!
Marylou from the 1950s. 
Velvet from the 1970s.

Thursday, September 15, 2022

A Gift of Doll Dresses!!

I have a dear friend, Joanne,
who is a thrifter like me.
We always keep an eye out for items
that the other might like.

Well, Joanne found this bunch of doll clothes for me!
They range from the 1940s to the 1960s.
I am slowly finding dolls for these dresses.

I LOVE this vintage red and grey print dress
on my McGuffey Ana doll and my
Gerber baby has this cute star play suit.

I still have not figured out what I will do with all the 
dresses, but I will be sure to share with you all!

BUT TODAY!!

I am really having fun with 
these two dresses.

These two dresses have prints that I 
thought might work for my Crissy dolls.

This is actually a really old dress.
It is completely hand stitched.

This dress is polyester and I just love 
the butterfly and flower pattern.
I will start with this dress.

First thing I did was remove the heavy
red arm and neck tape.
I turn the dress inside out and pin the sides
to create a slimmer A-line dress.

I needed a lighter bias tape.
Hmmm, yellow or green?

With the extra fabric I trimmed off, I made
a pair of matching bloomers.
Oh, and I chose yellow. :)

Here are the bloomers.

Next is the yellow and black dress.

I love the pattern on this dress.
It makes me think of Fall.

Just like the first dress I removed
the old bias tape, cut down the side seams
and used a black and white gingham
fabric to finish this makeover.

Want to see the dresses now?



Here



They 



Are!




The yellow bias tape brightened this dress up.

Crissy has a very groovy shoulder bag.

Here is Shea in the yellow gingham dress.
I like how the black gingham adds interest.

Shea too has a shoulder bag.  
Hand crocheted
with lots of fringe!
With the extra fabric from her dress,
I made a matching head band.

BEFORE

AND

AFTER!!

Thank you Joanne for thinking of me
when you saw these dresses!
                     Hugs
                     Brenda

OH!

One more thing!!

My Cricket is finally here!!

She is already best friends with her new sisters.

And all the girls together.