Dolls

My Barbies arrived yesterday. I felt weird opening them. I tried to be careful not to rip the packaging just in case I decide to sell them later. I don't know why I was doing that. I thought I made up my mind that I wasn't going to do the eBay thing, but still, there were so many twisty-ties, rubber bands, thread, and tape holding the dolls in, I felt like I was committing a crime by releasing them from their plastic prisons. The model doll's hair was actually sewn to a piece of plastic to keep it spread out behind her in the box. Both dolls' heads were connected to the box with plastic ties like that used on clothing tags. The Paul Frank doll's hair is slightly a muss. She has a pony tail with hair wrapped intricately around it but it's not hair that can be undone without disastrous results. One piece is sticking out that's supposed to be wrapped around. I don't want to go through the fuss of returning the doll over a bit of mussed hair, so I think I will try to fix it myself. I may email them for suggestions - for example, do I glue it? Would a little vaseline keep it in place?

The model doll isn't as poseable as I thought. Not that it really matters. Her arms have more pivoting at the shoulders than normal Barbies. The right arm is permanently bent at the elbow and the left is straight. The legs do not bend at all - one is slightly bent and one is straight. The packaging for both dolls come with certificates of authenticity and the model doll comes with a bio. It appears that she was "born" in Brazil, is a Scorpio, likes the beach and shopping and dislikes being inside. Yeesh. She's 11 3/4", and has more slender hips and smaller breasts than Barbie. I think the extra 1/4" was added to her (too thin) legs. Her hair is long and straight - thank goodness she doesn't have any intricate ponytails! The dolls also came with stands so I won't have to buy any to display the dolls. My husband asked me if I was now going to need to buy a case for them. I'm not really sure how he really feels about me spending over $100 on Barbie dolls. However, he curiously checked out Barbie and in the act of disrobing her (I guess men's minds are always there), he discovered that she wears molded panties. I was surprised to find that his sister never had Barbies, so he missed out on that element of being a brother.

The clothes rack that came with them as my gift for spending over $75 is very cute. It's just a simple black metal stand but it has four wheels and they actually roll. Cute.

Joann's is having a Simplicity pattern sale this weekend so I plan to pick up a few more doll patterns. I have my eye on this, this, and this. When I was 13 I made a prairie dress for my Barbie, complete with bonnet, petticoat, corset, and stockings and entered it in the local 4th of July fair. I sewed the whole dress by hand without a pattern and attached seed beads all down that back as buttons. I won a blue ribbon. The next year I attempted to make a medieval dress like something from "Romeo and Juliet". Again I didn't have a pattern. I think I won a second place ribbon that time. Those ribbons meant so much to me because I didn't play sports or entered competitions where I could win trophies or ribbons. I always wanted to display ribbons on my bedroom wall and I did. They got good and faded too!