Re-root: Sally

Dolly friends,

I'd like to introduce you to one of my latest re-roots. Sally was a Top Model Barbie doll, and while she came to me with pretty strawberry blonde hair, she also had these odd green highlights. They didn't do much for her, in this dolly hairdresser's opinion, so I gave her a re-root.

And... honestly? The re-root didn't suit her, either. The maroon color was wrong -- I should have trusted my instincts on that one. I also used low-quality nylon for some of it, and it really stood out against the nicer stuff. So she sat on the shelf for about a year, while I re-rooted other dolls and refined my technique. And then a few weeks ago, I felt inspired.

Sally got purple hair! It suits her very well, and the saran hangs so much better than the cheap nylon. I was able to re-root her with just one hank of Restore Doll hair instead of two, thanks to the new re-rooting technique I learned and adapted to my own needs. I need a tiny bit more hair because there's a bare spot at the back, but she says she can wait. She waited over a year for her perfect hair, after all. She can wait for a few more hair plugs.

Sally is wearing a necklace I made, and it features the fantastically proportionate Chinese crystal beads I found at the Bead and Button Show a few years ago -- I seriously need to get more of those. Her sweater was also made by me, and so were the pants. The pants were sewn in a batch of 12 or so pairs, all in different fabrics, and they're my favorite, tied closely with the hot pink stretch velvet.

Stay tuned for more! The new technique has cut my re-rooting time in half, so I've done several dolls, in addition to the ones I'd already finished. I also have to share a present that my friend (and newly published author) Audrey bought for me at a yard sale. I was also tagged by two friends to do the Sisterhood of the World blogging challenge, and I'm still working on my answers. I'm having way too much fun with that one, and I have to remember to be less... wordy. 

I'll get to all of it, I swear!

Much love,

Sarah J Sequins

(And dolls)

Karen Holshouser

Hi there, dolly friends!

I featured Karen Holshouser on my beady blog, and you should check her out. She makes gorgeous doll clothes and embellishes them with two of my favorite things... beads and sequins!

You can also find her Facebook profile here, and her website is here.

Much love,

Sarah J Sequins

(and dolls)

Re-root: Rashida

Hello, dolly friends!

Today I'd like to introduce Rashida, one of my latest re-roots.

As you may know, I'm a huge fan of thrift shopping. I love to find well-loved dolls and adopt them, giving them a new home, plenty of brothers and sisters to make mischief with, and of course, a makeover.

Rashida, named after my girl crush Rashida Jones, was a Princess of India Barbie. I found her nude, with matted hair, at Savers. I tried de-tangling, but there were too many broken strands, so I re-rooted her with Black Orchid, one of my favorite colors of saran hair. I also gave her an articulated body, and wow! Quite a transformation.

Rashida is wearing a sweater, pants, and necklace that I made. I love the look on her, but confession? The above photo almost didn't happen. You see, she saw the Batik Quilt set up with all its pillows...

And she decided that she would much rather take a nap! "This is comfy," she said. "So, so comfy. I'm never getting up."

I tried to get her off the bed, but she wouldn't listen. She pretended to be asleep, but her snores weren't all that convincing. And so I enlisted the help of a friend, Ellie the elephant. "Wake up, Rashida!" Said Ellie. "It's snuggle time! Come on... pleeeeeease????"

Nobody, no matter how tired or stubborn she is, can resist the charm of a tiny blue stuffed elephant. So after a few minutes, Rashida groaned and sat up. "OK, Ellie. I'm up. Just stop giving me the sad eyes, will you? It's heartbreaking."

I let her enjoy some Ellie time, and then I pounced. "Since nap time's finished," I said, "I guess you can get that photo taken after all." Ellie, being a good helper, nudged Rashida off the bed, and Rashida mumbled something about us being devious and evil.

Guilty, as charged. But a girl has to be clever when dealing with dolls! I should never have let her see the bed, but it was set up for another photo shoot -- I really wanted to show off that quilt. It and the pillows were made with Idea Store fabric, which was one of my best fabric finds to date -- batik is so expensive in fabric stores! The sequined pillow was made with felt and embroidery floss from the very same place. It was going to get a post of its own, but dolls happen.

And that concludes today's post! Stay tuned for more re-roots, more dolls with attitude, and perhaps... more stuffed animals to help with doll wrangling.

Much love,

Sarah J Sequins

(And helpful elephant)

Re-root: Dominique

Hello, dolly friends!

I'm excited to share one of my newer dolls and re-roots, Dominique. She's a Barbie Basics doll, and I found her on eBay. She had a severe-looking haircut when she came to me, and while we were both happier with it after a trim, in the end we decided that she needed a total change. Here she is now:

I love how she turned out! Later on I'm probably going to add some waves to her hair, but for now, I wanted to show off how sleek it is after a hot water treatment -- you can see the highlights better this way, too. She's wearing a shirt and sweater by Mattel, which came with Glam Luxe Midge, and her floral pants were made by yours truly.

I was going to post her by herself, because honestly? A doll this fabulous demands a solo post. But then I saw another photo that Uncle John had taken of my newest Monster High doll, Ghoul Fair Heath Burns, and I realized... it looked like she was staring him down! And then he was like...

"What?!!! What did I do?"

And then she was like....

"You know what you did. Don't act cute with me."

This was completely unintentional on Uncle John's part, and I love it. Of course, after the photo shoot, both dolls sat on the couch, all snuggled up like nothing had happened. Almost a week later, they're still together, and it's clear to me that this showdown was all for... show.

Even though he didn't get his name in the title of this post, I'm excited about Heath, too. I love that I won't have to re-root him if I don't want to! Plastic hair... equals no glue. The top of his head looks a bit like a Dairy Queen ice cream cone, but I think that's part of his charm.

Stay tuned for more new dolls, re-roots, and dolly antics! I have another re-root coming up, and while she wasn't one hundred percent cooperative during the photo shoot, I think she's lovely.

Much love,

Sarah J Sequins

(And dueling dolls)

New dolls! Barbie Fashionistas.

Dolly friends, I have two new dolls to share with you today!

Overall, I've been very impressed with the new Barbie Fashionistas line. It's true that I wish they were articulated, and that the presence of icky sticky glue in their heads irritates me to no end, but I love the variety of face molds and skin tones Mattel has used for these dolls, and I like their modern look. Here are two of my favorites.

The first is Naomi. I was so, so excited to find her at my local Meijer! She's wearing a dress and necklace that I made, and that she borrowed especially for the photo shoot. She likes it so much, I don't think she'll be giving it back to Sasha anytime soon.

Naomi will be getting a re-root to take care of the glue in her head. I'm going to ditch the bangs so we can see more of her pretty face, and she has informed me that she wants funky colored hair. Maybe dark pink, to match the dress. I might have just what she's looking for, and I'm thinking... super long with a high ponytail.

The second doll is Tyler. I found her at Toys R Us, and I couldn't resist the red hair and freckles. She'll also need a re-root to get rid of the glue, but luckily, I have the exact same color in my collection. I'm going to keep it long, make it a little thicker, and maybe give her some curls at the bottom.

Tyler is wearing a dress I made. At this point, it's probably a little redundant to mention that it's Idea Store fabric, but I will mention that the skirt has been embellished with tiny blue flower sequins. I bought my sequins at Cartwright's Sequins, which is a fabulous place.

Tyler borrowed the dress from Delia, one of the dolls living in the Blue and White Room (you can see the quilt here). I offered to let Delia wear another dress while she waited to have hers back, but she went for a brown felt coat, instead. Which... made her look like a flasher, but she's a clever girl. "If I don't get my dress back after the photo shoot," she warned me, "I might start acting like a flasher. There's just one little button on this coat, after all. One itty bitty, teeny tiny button, and it could come undone so easily!"

Tyler and I agreed that she would get the dress back right away. We don't need anybody riling the Ken dolls up. Meanwhile, Sasha wished that she also had a flasher coat.

Here's a photo of Naomi and Tyler together...

"Nice dress," said Naomi. "You should get blue hair to match it."

"I don't know," said Tyler. "Delia seems pretty determined to get it back. Uh oh... did I just hear a button popping???"

In the background, Delia made creepy flasher comments, a la Monty Python. Sasha just laughed and laughed until she snorted. This made Naomi and Ty fall over snickering, and soon, we had to cut the photo shoot short because there was a big pile of hysterical dolls on the floor. Oh, these girls. Never a dull moment.

Stay tuned for more new dolls (no, Delia. New. New dolls, not nude dolls). Three of them are from one of my favorite lines, Barbie Basics. One of them has already had a re-root. And all of them are certifiably insane! Which puts them in good company, actually.

Much love,

Sarah J Sequins
(And dolls)

Pink and purple quilt!

Dolly friends, I had so much fun showing off my blue and white doll quilt, I thought I'd share another one. Introducing... the pink and purple quilt!

This is the second quilt I made during my quilt-making frenzy last year. It and the pillows are made of Idea Store fabrics, and most of the pieces are leftover scraps from doll dresses. The felt pillow is also made of Idea Store materials and stuffed with scraps of fabric that were too small to sew -- waste not, want not, right?

The bed skirt is just a piece of lace I pinned in the back, and the bed itself is a plastic storage container that used to hold beads; at the moment, it holds all the matchless shoes I keep finding in thrift stores. The bed goes in the pink and purple room with a nice faux-wicker chair and tiny vase of flowers -- both incredible Idea Store finds. Besides dolls, it's also a resting place for one of their stuffed animals, a tiny blue elephant. Ellie was originally on a key chain I found at Joann's. I wanted to show her off, since she's very cute, but she was feeling camera shy.

At the moment, I have seven quilts left to show you. A tame number, compared to all the ziplock bags full of interesting fabric combinations, lurking in my closet! I hope to show them soon, but until then, I have photos of some new dolls to share. I'll post them in the next few days.

Much love,

Sarah J. Sequins

(And quilts)

World Doll Day tag!

Dolly friends, did you know that earlier this month it was World Doll Day? Yes, there is a holiday devoted to celebrating, and to giving, dolls! This year, there is also a World Doll Day tag, and I was chosen by my friend the Fashion Doll Stylist to participate. Today I'm going to name my three favorite doll purchases from last year, as well as three Holy Grail dolls that I haven't yet added to my collection.

Since my dolls are in charge of... pretty much everything around here, they decided that for this post, there had to be Rules, so as to minimize hurt feelings. I could not feature a doll who had already appeared on this blog, and I could not feature a re-root. The dolls featured must have their original hair. However, since the girls are nothing if not reasonable, they said I could re-dress my three dolls any way I want.

So I did just that, and then I had an idea. I would not only feature three dolls, but I would skip the boring white background and do something a little more fun. Each doll got to pose in this setup:

The end table is from the Idea Store. The little rotary phone is from Sally's Army. The tiny bear is from Goodwill. The quilt and the pillows were made by me, with Idea Store fabric, felt, and beads. The bed itself is just a square cookie tin -- that way it has a storage function. The rug and wall paper are from the Idea Store, too. 

Here's my first doll, Gianna (Gia). She was originally a Spanish Barbie, and I bought her off of eBay after literally dreaming about her every night since I was a child in the 1990's. I took her earrings out and re-styled her hair, and she's wearing one of my favorite dresses. She's snuggling with Cedric the bear.

The next doll is one I'd been wanting since around 2000, when I saw her in a collector's book. She's a Japanese New Year Barbie, and I've named her Mirabelle after my favorite bakery. Because I'm eccentric, and I often name my dolls after favorite things.

The final doll is Tessa, who was originally Secret Spells Kayla. I wanted one when they first came out, but the line was pulled after some silliness. So I had to wait. It was worth it, though! Tessa is wearing a dress made out of hand-painted fabric, and you probably can't tell in the photo, but it's sparkly. This is Tessa's dress -- other dolls can borrow it, but it has to come right back to her or she gets fussy. Most of the girls love swapping outfits, but a few of them get territorial. I can't deny that she looks pretty.

As for my Holy Grail dolls, My Melody used to be at the top of the list, but now I have her. So now I'm after Uhura Barbie -- not because I'm a Star Trek fan, but because she's just so darn gorgeous, and I'm a fan of Nichelle Nichols. I'm in love with Tokidoki Barbie because of her fierce pink hair and tattoos, but she's way out of my price range, which is why I customized a doll to look like her. And then I want this red-haired Barbie Basics doll (or this beauty). But of course, I love almost every doll in that line.

Before I go, I have to say that the dolls did not know about World Doll Day until it was over, and they wondered... where was their celebration? Where were their dolls??? Allison has had her eye on Divergent Ken for a year now, and she says it's about time that I buy him for her. To make up for my oversight, they want me to start planning for next year... now. They've decided that there will be a doll ball with new clothing galore, and I have a sinking feeling that means more jewelry, too. And bags. And shoes. I heard something about a marble dance floor, but I'm pretending I didn't hear that bit.

Maybe I can just buy the hot guy and call it even? I'll have to see what The Bosses have to say about this.

Much love,

Sarah J Sequins

(And dolls)