#doll tutorials

[doll-tutorials]

ik it's a bit of a big ask but, can you provide a guide of essential products/tools to have for someone new to doll collecting?

thank you!!

Hmm, for small doll repairs I'd say a melamine sponge, rubbing alcohol, cotton wipes, qtips, metal pet comb, nail scissors.

For collecting, i'd start with a small notebook or spreadsheet of what doll, how much and notes about it.

After that it's about deciding how you'd like to collect: how much time energy and money are you willing to put into each doll?

If you want to get into MyScene your options are buying mint condition for about 20-30$ more than buying used condition but probably needing hair plugs replacing. Ponies often require hair work, G1 Monster high need glue treatment and de yellowing, old Barbies will have stains or need body swaps. It can be very rewarding or very tedious if that's not your jam so finding that price/work point that works for you is a really important start. There are collectors who only get dolls that are in stores and enjoy the physical trips to go 'hunting', others thrift, others do ebay/mercari/mandarake with set budgets. If you're outside of the USA you might not get much in-store choice.

It's about figuring out what part of collecting is fun for you : redressing, hairstyling, making jewelry or miniatures, photography, sewing, crochet, doll repair, doll customizing, coming up with a backstory, completing a set?

The hobby is vast so the essentials are 1- some dedicated space and maybe a time slot to put your dolls and related crafts, 2- an idea of your budget then 3- playing with a bit of everything to see which direction you'd like your collecting to go.

I'm opening this up to anyone reading : what's a tool or supply that came in useful with your doll collecting?

I think I would have invested in a dust proof bookcase sooner and a heat pad instead of using a hair dryer but I'm glad I didn't invest in photography equipment as that's not my thing.

[firespirited]

I was asked to put together a beginner reroot kit so I’m going to cut needles for myself too and that’ll be today’s use of shoulders.

as specified in the previous needle cutting tutorial, you’ll want safety goggles.

Here are a few things I forgot to add:

The tool to cut needles is a memory wire cutter ($8-10 at craft stores) - if you don’t have that but do have heavy duty* diagonal cutters or large pliers with a cutting area, you can place the needle at the base and press with both hands. *We’re talking much larger than jewellery tools.

Do not hold the foam AND the wire cutters: align the wire cutters and press with both hands: let the foam fly backwards that’s why the needles are in foam to begin with. you need both hands to get a clear cut that doesn’t bend or snap the needle eye.

If you can’t cut the needle stem with both hands (especially the thicker needles, place the wire cutters on the cut and pliers above and pull in opposite directions to snap-cut the stem.

The kit itself is

an exacto knife holder (rebranded as a microblading tool)

5 needles: 1 for yarn, 2 for thin plugs, 2 normal.

3 crocodile clips for holding hair.

some electronic twistie ties

saran from trendy and bendy Teresa (not enough for a full head)

nylon from  rainbow high amaya (dyeable)

kiwi nylon from mermaze orra (dyeable)

black saran scraps for eyelashes

test head

[elsaspants]

If you were still looking for a doll sealant, I use Testor's dull coat! It's a spray like msc but a decent bit cheaper. I get it from the like miniature section of the craft store

thank you! I’ll look into this for sure. I appreciate it a lot!

publishing this for future reference :D

[truebjdconfessions]

There's this person on addicts, whose name I can't remember(something german? Bright turqoise-blue pfp) that every now and then shares these really good diorama and furniture tutorial videos to the group and i love it so much. I wish they shared more often!

~Anonymous

[smartdollmirai]

Beanbag Pattern! 

    Makes one SD (60-70cm) sized beanbag. Based upon MyFroggyStuff’s beanbag tutorial. 

    Two of each pattern piece here will give you one half of the pattern. If you want to, you can leave it as a half, depending on your preference. I like having the full pattern piece, as it make cutting things out a bit easier; since you will need to cut out five entire pieces. 

     I used a 1/4th inch seam allowance for this pattern, but it’ll accept up to a 5/8ths seam allowance. If you have a stain-prone doll, I recommend making one panel white so they can lounge in their undies worry free like Mirai does. 

      I filled mine with scraps of fabric. Due to the size of this project, I don’t recommend rice or beans. Polyfill stuffing works as well. 

[firespirited]

quick and very dirty Foam Beehive tutorial:

You will need

-foam/sponge: if it’s not black, paint it with acrylic paint

-thread some garden wire or a twistie tie though the foam

-apply a line of glue to your foam

-cut the scrap hair and apply using something metal to the glue then roll slowly

-comb the hair and pull it into a tiny ponytail at the end, glue the ponytail end down. it’s best to use a matching hair elastic but i wanted to show what it looks like

-pull together the wire into a loop, cut the wire ends, place it behind the doll’s hair and put a pin in it

For ideal results, straighten/condition the scrap hair first - mine was ratty, wait for the glue to have died before rolling the hair and spritz water to keep it in place. I’m too wobbly and made a mess. You can tint the glue with acrylic paint to match the hair for a tidier result. You can also pin in a black foam bump under the doll’s hair for a raised hairdo but I’m pretty sure Elvira will have the wrapped donut of hair slightly larger than what I just made.

[firespirited]

So the problem with a really felted/tangled glue head is that you need the cif to act on the glue but the cif can't get to the glue until you've conditioned and started to detangle but conditioner won't do a thing until you get the stickiness edge off the glue. Bit of a vicious circle.

You end up alternating a quick cif rub with a conditioning, detangle a bit, repeat.

The cif not fully washed out while the hair is full of conditioner for the full detangling session.

The first cif soak: I really try and get the cif into the scalp then the second one rub the product into where the ponytail was (or below, where the seepage stops), you see there's a second layer of glue+dust.

Apple is a good example as you can see the grey zones against the vibrant gold blonde: the top of her head was grey before we began, then that ponytail area. Then the schmutz starts to move downwards as we condition and hot comb through her hair. First one tine of the comb and manually pulling knots apart sideways, the large tines, then smaller tines. I won't be using the flea comb until she's finished: too much risk of ripping.

I did a small strand first to see if it was worth detangling and degluing her: if the hair is too shredded there's no point.

However, there were several dolls in this bundle that I expected to be too damaged to be saved who turned out to be just super, super tangled from the glue (including non glue-heads exposed to glue in storage).

This is just an outside clean, Apple is now cleaning on the inside and will need a final cif wash + wash out after that.

*reminder: cif is a stand in for any household cleaner with ethoxylated alcohol or phenoxyethanol in it

[firespirited]

I have three monsters on clone bodies that came with spherical neck knobs: i cut at the base of the sphere and inserted a neck knob from either a monster or a bratz with the O part squished flat. The translucent body was my first and sloppiest attempt with superglue frosting and cracks in the plastic. Contact between the clone bodies and monster heads created melt so I wrapped them in teflon tape.