Thursday, March 7, 2019

Jewel Hair Mermaid Midge 1995



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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