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.

Bee

The first Create a Monster set I bought only had one torso, so I decided to make one myself. I had already ordered a couple of the expansion sets, so I decided to make the torso for the bee and paint the upper arms and legs with the correct color. The grey head is here just for reference.

The armature is made of wood and the black and yellow torso is needle felted.

This photo shows the doll before painting and also in comparison to a normal Monster High doll.

I made the stand, in which the upper legs are attached, for painting doll shoes, but as the wooden posts are made of the same round strip as the part of the torso where the legs attach, the stand was perfect also for painting the upper legs.

I used FolkArt's acrylic paint "509 Sunny Yellow" and it was a bit too yellow compared to the lower leg. I painted several coats with it and then mixed the color for the final coat by mixing Sunny Yellow and "480 Titanium White." Finally, I applied a coat of matte sealer to prevent the paint from chipping.

This was just going to be a needle felted wig cap, but I liked how it looks, so I left it as it is and will make another wig using the original plan.

Here is Bee almost finished. I'm still thinking of giving her a stinger, but I'll need to figure out how to make one. I tried using wood, but the result wasn't satisfactory, so I'll continue experimenting.

Needle felted wig for a Monster High doll

I decided to try needle felting to make a wig for a Monster High Create A Monster doll. I started by making a wig cap that would be the basis for an updo. The photos below show it from different sides.

The wig cap kept slipping off or into wrong position, so a peg for keeping it in place was necessary. I used a strip from a 0.3 mm thick metal sheet.

As glue wouldn't have kept the metal strip in place, I cut a small piece of felt, made a hole in it and pushed the peg through.

Then I put the peg in place, spread glue to the felt, put the wig cap in place and pressed it down to the head to make the peg construction stick inside it.

Here is the inside of the finished wig cap.

Then I attached the actual hair inside the edges of the wig cap. I used coarser wool for the wig cap and mohair for the actual hair.

This looked funny and I can imagine all sorts of funny hairdos you could make this way.

However, this one was about to become a very formal updo. I collected the hair and attached it to the top of the head. Then I made the bun and attached its bottom to the top of the head as well. The hairline of this wig is maybe a bit too high, but it's good enough for a first try (and my second needle felting project ever).

Knitting

It's been a long time since the last post. Here is a compilation of some knitted doll clothes I have made recently. First, something for the smaller Miss Piggy.

Next, Monster High dresses from similar yarn as Miss Piggy's dress.

Then I tried some dresses with short sleeves.

A dress for Jessica Rabbit, made with just one ball of yarn that had alternating colors.

Here is a group picture of dolls wearing knitted dresses made of the same brand of yarn (Novita puro) in different colors.

Finally, an experiment in making a knitted jump suit. It's better than my first try, but the pattern still requires some modifications.

Greyscale Ghoulia

I wasn't quite sure what to expect as I started removing the head from a Monster High Ghoulia doll. I did it with that small screwdriver you can see in the photo. The construction turned out to be similar to Barbie's. The only reason for that odd round knob seems to be that Monster High dolls have such a thin neck that the post could not be attached to it without making that part thicker.

Next, it was time for the hair to go. I cut the hair as short as possible and then used the wide tweezers to scrape the inside of the scalp to pull the hair in. When everything was inside the head, I used the other tweezers to pull it all out (those tweezers are easier to use as you press to open them, so their "default position" is closed).

After removing all original paint using acetone, it was time to apply some new. I used Folk Art's acrylic paints and mixed the different shades myself.





I had thought that I would do a reroot, but I came across the perfect yarn for her hair and it was too thick for rerooting (or at least I couldn't figure out how it could be done). So, I used a sewing machine to sew the strands together for easy gluing. It's fairly easy when you arrange the strands on top of baking paper and sew at least twice across them. When finished, you just need to rip off the paper (by this time, it will have so many holes in it that it will be easy to remove).

I used three strips: back, front, top. The top one is sewn from the middle to make a parting. I used PVA glue to glue the hair in place as it has worked with a smaller doll I customized earlier. If it won't hold, I'll use super glue to glue it back. Even if I have to resort to that, the first gluing won't be a waste of time as I expect super glue to work better when there will be a smooth surface (the PVA glue strip in the hair) against a smooth surface (the vinyl).

And here Ghoulia impersonates Cousin Itt as she waits for the glue to dry.

Finally, photos of the finished doll. She's wearing a business suit for now as I haven't yet made her outfit. The boots are the ones I made for Draculaura a while ago.

Small custom doll

As I've got two basic Draculauras, I also had a duplicate of Count Fabulous. I decided to try some customizing on him.

The first thing to do was to cut off the head and wings and to find a suitable donor body. I don't remember what kind of a head that doll originally had, but it was some kind of a fairy.

The picture shows the parts and the tool used for making a hole for the neck post. Here the wings are glued together with super glue, but that didn't hold, so I had to find another solution.

Front view with head and wings in place.

Back view with head and wings in place. I used hot glue for the wings and that made a bump on the back, but at least it held the wings in place.

First coat of black paint applied. This was easy as black is black and the usual problem of finding the right shade could be avoided. The feet are not yet painted as I needed some place to hold the doll while painting.

After a couple of coats of black paint, pink on the clothes, and satin sealer to protect it all, the doll was finished. She's shown here with the first Count Fabulous. I only noticed at this point that their eyes are different for some reason.

More iron-on transfers

As I still had a lot of small pictures printed on an iron-on transfer sheet, I decided to make some doll clothes using them. The best way to iron a picture on the fabric is to cut the piece first, because then it is easy to get the placement right. Here is a small top with a picture ironed on.

Here is a shirt with the picture ironed on and some of the seams sewn. This is for a Monster High doll and the pattern is included in the full set.

Here are the dolls wearing their new clothes. The pattern for Nikki's dress is available on my web site.

Clothes for Monster High dolls

I have made some clothes for the Monster High dolls and, as I was making them, I also made the patterns for them. The piece of clothing that proved to be most difficult was the jacket. The leftmost one in the picture below is the prototype, which provided the basic pattern for modification. The rest are shown in chronological order. You may not notice any major differences between the different versions, but that is because the problem was getting the back of the jacket right. As I made the different versions of the jacket, I also made matching bottoms, mainly skirts, but the fourth picture shows the first version of trousers. I also tried different ways of closing the jacket. The one in the third picture actually has working buttons, although the button holes were a major challenge.