New headband for the Kindi Kids doll

As I seem to be making an entire outfit for the doll, I thought I might as well make a new headband for her too. I used the original to draw a paper pattern and then cut the piece out of a metal sheet (0.3 mm thick).

Cutting the metal was easy with these shears. I've been wondering about the manufacturer as there are no markings in these. Did a Google search and found a picture of similar shears, but no info on who makes these. However, the picture was from ebay, so I found out that these sell for about 10 €. I don't remember what I paid as it was over 15 years ago.

I bent the metal piece using the original headband as a guide.

Then I covered the upper surface of the metal piece with felt using hot glue.

The next stage was cutting a piece of felt that would cover the inside and gluing it in place.

I glued some ribbon on the upper surface using again hot glue.

The final stage was gluing one of these paper flowers to the headband.

The text in the package sounds really good, but I'm a bit skeptical. I tried finding verification for this, but all searches only found online stores selling this stuff. You'd think that they would make a big deal out of the story, if it's legit, so I still have my doubts.

Here is a picture of the finished headband on the doll. Metal should keep its shape fairly well, and gluing the felt onto it when it has been bent should also add some tension that'll help to keep the shape.

An old sewing machine table

This is the project that started all that repainting, the sewing machine table. I got it when my parents' house was put to sale, and it stood in my living room corner for a year before I got the motivation to do something to it. That was probably a good thing as it had been in a cold storage for some time, so giving it time to dry properly in room temperature couldn't hurt. The photo below shows the table as it was when I got it. Of course I cleaned it right away before letting it stand in my living room for a long time.

The sewing machine wasn't in working condition, so when I started the work on this project, the first thing to do was to remove it and the motor that was under the table. Seriously, that motor would probably have been a fire hazard, if I had been stupid enough to try to connect it.

Here is the table with all the unnecessary parts removed. The veneer in the front edge had suffered from moisture, so that was the first issue to be addressed.

First I sanded the front edge a bit and removed the parts of veneer that were totally loose, and then I got some filler to make the surface as even as I could.

Here is the result after filler and sanding. Not perfect, but I had to choose between leaving it a little bumpy and taking the risk of making a total mess. A little bumpy was the safer option, especially considering the purpose for which this table would be used.

The next stage had to be done in the balcony as there would be rust flying around. All the metal parts needed thorough brushing before painting. I used a wire brush to remove all the rust that I could remove. There was no need to get it all off, because the instructions in the paint can said the paint could be used even on top of rust. However, I wanted to remove everything that was coming loose easily.

This is the metal paint I used. I knew absolutely nothing about metal paints, but reading carefully the instructions in the can, I thought it sounded right. I didn't want any particular finish, just black color that would stick to the metal.

Here's a little time lapse clip of painting the metal parts.

The result looked nice enough. I applied two coats of paint, because the first one didn't cover everything evenly.

The foot pedal needed to be secured in place, so its front and back would stay off the floor. The original chain was badly rusted, so I bought a new chain and hooks to attach it to the loop in the upper right of the foot pedal. The chain was already black, but the hook needed to be painted.

Here is the table top before painting. It may seem strange to have a table with a hole in the middle, but this was actually perfect for the intended purpose as the space below the table level would hold cables nicely.

Here is the table all painted. You can see the chain here, attached to the foot pedal and going over the lower horizontal bar above it.

The planned use for the table was this. What looks like a radio is actually a dollhouse, and the old sewing machine table made a fitting stand for it. The project wasn't quite finished at this stage, but I'll write another post about the smaller stuff that needed to be done in addition to painting the table.

Metal tunic for Monster High CAM doll

I've been making just doll shoes lately, but last night I decided to try this new material I bought at the Dollhouse Fair last week. It's made of metal, but behaves more like fabric.

You can see the structure in this closeup of the reverse side. There are two kinds of metal pieces: rings and pronged plates that are connected to each other using the rings. The way to "cut" this material is to open the prongs to separate pieces.

My first experiment with this material is a tunic for a Monster High "Create A Monster" doll. The reason it only works for these dolls is that in order to put the tunic on the doll you need to remove the head and arms.

I had a 10 cm x 10 cm piece of the material. I connected some pieces on opposite edges to create a side seam. Then I opened the top and bottom on the other side to create an opening for the arm and a side slit. Finally, I connected some pieces on both shoulders.

Here you can see the slit on the side. It was necessary, because the piece was not wide enough to go all the way around the hips. The doll really needs something under this, either a skirt or tight-fitting trousers.