In general, I don’t like any sort of
crafting as it’s time-consuming and the results never meet my
expectations since I’m so horrible at it. What could ever induce me to
spending several of my evenings with a needle in my hand doing exactly
what I dislike so much? A very sad accident that my beautiful Royal
Romance Barbie suffered. When I purchased Royal, she was perfect and
immediately inspired me to photograph every detail of her beauty and
describe her in my blog entry although I was on vacation at that time.
Unfortunately, she was damaged on her way home and to my shock, when I
unpacked the doll, nine of her fingers were broken! My immediate rescue
resources were limited to a superglue which wouldn’t initially hold.
When it finally did, a body donor was on her way.
Never before had I held a doll in such a
pitiable state! The unidentified Midge was filthy and smelt like stale
tobacco. One of her previous owner evidently loved her so much she, or
he could actually eat her, or at least, evidently tried – the doll bore
some chewing marks on her feet, She suffered some arm damage with the
use of an unknown instrument. Her right arm doesn’t hold position and
falls on its own accord. But her hair!!!!!!! It was butchered, brushed
out, matted, felt like cotton and smelt disgusting! When I identified
her I couldn’t believe that this rag was once gorgeous, silky and shiny
mane of Jewel Hair Mermaid Midge 1995 so long you could actually wrap it
round her ankles, or rather round her mermaid fins. The doll looked
worse than it could be judged by the photos and didn’t even qualify to
be a body donor… I felt sorry for her, got her some hair and decided to
resuscitate her.
I literally scrubbed poor Midge, cut her
hair near her scalp (scary), decapitated her (dreadful) and removed the
remnants of her once magnificent hair. I used the non-glue method,
because I’m so unbelievably clumsy I would certainly smudge the glue all
over her face and end her agony she incurred from the hands of her
previous owner. So no glue whatsoever. I watched some hair reroot
tutorials and just let it happen. The reroot method is very simple, you
just tie a knot in the middle of a hair strand and thread both ends
through two neighboring holes. You just go hole by hole, row by row …
for hours. The process takes time, but it’s actually quite relaxing.
Then you boil wash the hair and you’re done.
I usually try to style my rescued doll’s
hair to resemble the factory hairdo as much as possible (“try” being
the keyword) but I don’t like mermaids or disproportionally long hair
(yeah, I’m actually not so crazy about Totally Hair Barbie). So I just
trimmed it a bit, took some front rows of her hair and tied it with a
rubber band. Any attempt at recreating her bangs would mean a disaster,
so I decided not to attempt it. The hair turned out to be nylon, it’s
quite stiff, but it’s shiny, beautiful and frizz resilient, so I’m
satisfied.
Since it was my very first attempt at
rerooting this entry focuses on Midge’s hair, but there would have been
no reroot at all had it not been for her sweet and lovely 1985 Diva-
molded face. I didn’t use to be a fan of this mold, now that I have the
doll, I can’t just believe how supremely beautiful her features are. Her
eyes are purple and blue and a thick, navy blue eyeliner graces them.
Her eyeshadows are orange and gold and her Magenta lipstick emphasizes
her full lips. Now I really long for the gorgeous Wedding Day Midge
1990! One day maybe, but now my Mermaid Midge needs some clothes to
wear.
Her busty figure would look best in the
fashion from the era, but these unfortunately are extremely hard to come
by in Poland, and if by some miracle they happen to be for sale, the
price can give you heart attack! So my resources are limited, but I came
up with these two contemporary clothing options.
Option 1. Having in mind the rich and
vibrant colors that would best complement her hair I decided to go for
purple, hence this fantastic evening dress. The upper part is made of
something that resembles tulle but in reality it’s much sturdier and
damage resilient. Unfortunately, it’s not stretchable so the Velcro
hardly closes. The mermaid bottom of the dress is made of the same
fabric and adds lightness to the general look of the outfit. The middle
part is made of deep purple color that in the picture looks almost navy
blue and it’s made of some elastic fabric. The front part of the dress
is heavily sprinkled with glitter that creates magnificent patterns all
over it. The accessories that come with it are a silver bracelet and a
clutch. No shoes unfortunately and the ones that Midge is wearing belong
to Purple Passion Barbie.
Option 2. When I first saw this dress I
thought it was pretty, but I wasn’t sure if I should buy it, but I’m
glad I did as it looks great on Midge. It’s all silver and white and
made of a shin fabric. The Velcro suffers of course, it’s been tailored
for a less generously endowed Barbie. The tulle overlayer is sprinkled
with glitter and looks very durable. The teal trimming is a nice touch
and adds color to this otherwise very placid looking dress. What I like
most about the outfit it’s the diversified length, the back of the dress
reaches the doll’s ankles, the front part exposes her legs nicely. The
accessories this fashion pack included are a teal bracelet and a white
handbag- not my favorite so I replaced it. I also added a necklace that
belongs to another fashion pack and shoes from Easter Basket Barbie
1995.
I may sound a little boastful but I
never really thought my efforts at restoring Midge would come out so
well. Sure I didn’t fix the bite marks or her arm, the holes in her ears
and her hand are still there but only several days ago she was no good
even for a body donor, now she’ll be displayed on a shelf amongst other
dolls, some of them new, but what makes her special to me is the time
and effort I’ve put into restoring some of her beauty that was still
there, only well concealed by dirt and damage.
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