As perfect as new fallen snow - Crystal Splendor Barbie

Merry Christmas!

Well, not yet but close!

This time of year has been hectic and especially for me this year. Lots of good (and unfortunately bad) things going on so my time on this blog has been scarce as of late. So no new updates of my Benny doll, but I do have a doll from my personal collection I would like to share.

We just had a lot of snow fall here the last couple of weeks. Then add in sub-zero temperatures and it kind of stuck around. Luckily it was on the weekend so I didn't have to drive anywhere. It's all melted off now, except another dusting came this morning. Every time I think of, or we have snow, I think of this pretty doll.

My mom got me this doll for my birthday last year I believe. She is the Special Edition Crystal Splendor Barbie. She is dressed all in white and silver, just like snow. She sparkles and shimmers...again, just like snow. She is one of my favorites. And don't you just love the bell sleeves?

And as always, I love dolls with the typical 90's head mold. The ones I grew up with.

I'm dying though. Her box is not friendly. It does not allow me to take her out, fix her head and collar and put her back in. It's been killing me so I try not to look at her that much when I go into my office. But regardless she is one of the prettiest dolls I have.

Here is a picture of the back of her box. It reads "Barbie looks dazzling in a gown that shines with beauty and elegance!"

Okay, now I REALLY want to take her out of the box! Fluff her dress, fix her hair, etc. :)

So friends, do you have Crystal Splendor Barbie? What do you think of her?

This may be my last post before the end of the year. Things are just a little crazy right now so the new post may be after January 1.

To everyone, have a very Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Ho Ho Ho, and Happy Holidays! Spend time with family and loved ones, be safe in your travels, enjoy and find time to relax! :)

Love, Teresa

The Benny Project Continues!

There is nothing better to do on a snow day than stay inside. It snowed all day Friday then yesterday and today it's been in the negative temperatures. Like, -13. Brr! So in between playing some video games, I got a chance to work on the Benny project!

With my sewing machine in good working order and watching the youtube videos again about how to attach a sleeve, I was ready.

And this is all done by trial and error. I'm not very fluent with sewing so I'm going at this blind. No notches to line up the patterns, no dots to know where my stitching begins and ends. I don't want to jinx myself but I do have to say that I've been pretty good at making sure my projects don't turn into a Pinstrosity so I'm very pleased with how this has come together so far!

I started by sewing the left front and left back together to form the hole for the sleeve.

Then I took the sleeve and doing exactly what the video said, I sewed a stitch and gathered it so it would fit in the sleeve hole. Then I sewed the sleeve down the side and turned it right side out.

With the sleeve right side out and the body right side in, I put the sleeve through the hole.

Now (obviously) this sleeve hole is not going to fit around the end of your sewing machine so it's stitching by hand.

Lots of teeny tiny stitches.

I also had to make sure that my gathering stitch on the sleeve was in my seam allowance so I had to keep adjusting. I didn't use pins, might have helped if I did!

After turning the body right side out, attaching the sleeve was a success!

Unfortunately I got a little pucker in the sleeve but it's easy to rip that out and re-stitch.

Model? Can you please come forward to try this on?

Hey, not bad! If I get the sleeve a little shorter it will be the perfect length to add a cuff.

This was my trial run but I'm pleased with how well it turned out. I just need to make the side seam a little bigger so the shoulder seam will be where it's supposed to be. I don't think I did too bad for just eye-balling it. I have lots of this fabric so I can make another pattern if I choose. Or maybe I'll just use the same ones! (That might be easier actually.)

Until the next update!

The Year of Haute Couture - December

Well friends, the year of haute couture has come to a close with our final doll of the year. If you are just tuning in to the blog, welcome! Last Christmas I got a calendar full of Barbie fashions from the master designer of Barbie Haute Couture, Robert Best!

If you would like to catch up on all the posts through the year, just click on each of these links and it will take you right to the page.

January/February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November

Here is our lovely December Haute Couture doll.

December - Trend Setter Barbie Doll

*gasp*

Hot Hot Hot!! What a dress!

The chandelier earrings, the plunging neckline, the gloves. Amazing December dress!

To me, green seems to be more of an "elegance" color while red screams "look at me." But this dress pairs elegance with dazzling color perfect for the holiday party. Ken will be the envy of all the dudes at the party with Barbie wearing this dress!

The fun of this series has been seeing how the drawings match up to the real doll. I present to you...

........

Nothing!

I cannot find this doll anywhere. Does anyone know if it was made either into a doll or just a fashion? I can't imagine this beautiful dress not being made. Boo!

So I will present to you another red dress by Robert Best! Here is "Go Red For Women" Barbie.

www.mattel.com

 

Pretty!

An excerpt from the Barbie Collector website:

"Barbie^® doll goes red for women everywhere, and so can you! The American Heart Association will receive $100,000 from Mattel in support of its Go Red For Women movement. The nationwide Go Red For Women campaign spreads awareness of the fight against heart disease, the #1 killer of women in America, and celebrates the passion and power of women to make better choices for happy, healthy hearts. Because of this movement, the color red and the red dress have come to symbolize the ability all women have to improve their hearts and live stronger, longer lives.
Designed by Robert Best, Go Red For Women Barbie^® doll shows solidarity and support for this vibrant movement in an appropriately red dress, inviting women of all ages and walks of life to Go Red — in style!"

This doll was released in June of 2007 and is no longer available from Mattel. She was priced at less than $30.

So inexpensive for such a pretty doll and dress! I love the mermaid style skirt. So elegant. :) And the star on the bodice adds a beautiful sparkly touch.

So friends, what do you think of either Trend Setter and Go Red For Women Barbie dolls? 

Well thank you all for this fun series! I had a great time researching all of these fun and gorgeous Haute Couture fashions. Maybe I'll get another calendar and get to do another fun series. We shall see what Christmas brings for me!

If you want to review another fun series I did, click on December of 2012 in the blogger list to the right. You will see the 25 days of Barbie posts. Each day features a different holiday doll, all from my personal collection. Enjoy!

A Little Cutie I Found......

A while back I was cleaning out a box that had a bunch of My Little Ponies in it. And you thought Barbie had a lot of hair!!

Among the ponies I found this little cutie.

This is "Little Rosebud" as she is, well, dressed like a little flower.

She has a little rosebud flower on her hat.

And a dress that looks like petals.

She is so adorable and I could not bear to put her back in a box. But does she have any friends? I'm thinking my parents got her for me back when I was a kid but I don't remember anything about her. Does anyone know?

Project Update!

I cut out the patterns before my sewing machine was out of commission and started putting them together!

I made the patterns larger because I don't get how they get like a 1/8" seam allowance. I like a little more play. If I do need to make them actual size, I can cut them back as shown by the solid line inside of the pins.

I was having trouble attaching the sleeves! Had no idea. If you are having trouble making sleeves, there are some great tutorials you can look up on YouTube.

I most likely won't have another post until after Thanksgiving so to all of you, have a wonderful and safe holiday! Tune in December 1st for our last Haute Couture doll of the month!

We're back in business!

I have a working sewing machine again! Yay!

I can't even believe that I took it in for this minor problem. I had the needle in backwards! It is opposite from my old machine so it really wasn't *all* my fault, I swear. ;)

I am going to get to work on the Benny jacket this week and hopefully have a new post with pictures in the next week or so. 

Do you readers have any projects that you are proud of for your dolls? See an outfit you want to try? Post them up in the comments!

~Teresa~

The Project Begins!

PROJECT UPDATE: After I wrote this post, I got right to work on the project and whoops! Sewing machine is broken!! :( Sad times. I am taking it into a repair shop Monday. Hopefully I'll be back next week with better news (like, a working sewing machine and part of the project completed!) I'll let you know how it goes!


Well friends, winter is upon us. Perfect time to stay inside and work on my project for Barbie!

First, I mentioned that I found a doll at the thrift store. (I found a few dolls but I have to be picky and choosy about what I buy. I have a ton!!)

I think that I might use this one for my courier. She has longer hair and toned down makeup. However she doesn't have articulated arms or legs. She might have to be a rebodied doll.

I mainly bought her for the dress. We love this dress right?

Bummer because the sleeves have been cut off and no pink stole. But other than that, the dress is in GREAT condition.

Not the original doll. She has a little pink crown. Who is she?

Love this dress.

Here is Benny! The doll for my newest project. He is wearing some Ken clothes. They seem to be a little small for him.

And since I have this pink Ken jacket, I am going to take it apart to make the clothes for "Benny."

(Why they came out with this outfit for Ken I don't know. I think the pink jacket is a little much....)

www.pinterest.com

Here are the fabrics I have picked out for Benny. Gray pants and that unmistakable black and white check fabric.

So I started by marking which panels were which.

And I also took lots and lots of pictures of the sewing detail. How do they get those tiny seam allowances?

All taken apart!

And pressed!

Since these pictures, I have traced around the parts of the jacket for patterns and made them 3/4" larger. I had to freehand a lot of those so I'm not sure if the larger sizes in the pattern will work (my sketching might be a little off.) But I have lots of the check fabric so we shall see!

Project is underway!

I took these pictures of clothes that I got a while ago but never posted them for ID's! Any clue? (love the white jacket on the left by the way.)

Pretty wedding gown

White dress, fur jacket, and plaid skirt.

Fur cape. Pretty!

Swimsuits and other miscellaneous unmentionables :)

Misc veils and a hair piece.

And a Jewel Secrets Ken tux! (A little distressed)

Just got to looking at the 1986 Jewel Secrets dolls. Whitney is beautiful! Steffie head mold!

www.flickriver.com

I will keep you all updated on the project as I start to finish it. Until next time!!

The Year of Haute Couture - November

Ah, November. Can you almost taste the turkey already? I know I can. And with turkey comes GRAVY. Lots and lots of GRAVY. But I digress.....

We had a strange October. It was unusually warm (which I'm not complaining about) but about the beginning of November you really see the colors change and the leaves fall. The air is crisp and perfect for a cool afternoon stroll.

A perfect month for Barbie in the colors of the season. It is my pleasure to introduce....

November - 50th Anniversary Barbie Doll (2009)

I am speechless. Robert Best has done it again. Every dress and outfit he designs is exquisite. And this one is one of the best. The glittering gold! The ruched bodice! The strapless design! How gorgeous is this? I can't put it into words. I know that some of the gold Holiday Barbie's are beautiful but this! This!

The real doll!

barbie.mattel.com

Okay, I like the dress but I don't love it. I think the larger sequins on the tulle make it look a little cheap. I think that more "glitter" suits Barbie. Now I DO love the upper bodice. It's beautiful! And I don't know what it is about the face but I think it is a gorgeous head mold. Or maybe it's a normal head mold and the eyes are designed different? She is a beautiful doll and I love the dress design but I wouldn't have gone with the large sequins on the tulle.

Here is the excerpt from the website:

"Now is your chance to join a once-in-a-lifetime celebration! Barbie^® doll's 50th anniversary sparkles even more brightly with a dazzling commemorative doll. The epitome of glamour, this radiant doll glitters beautifully.

50th Anniversary Barbie^® doll — for you to love and cherish, now and forever!"

She was offered in March 2009 and is no longer available. She was not offered in a model muse or doll for collectors only. It seems that Mattel wants the anniversary dolls to be available for anybody: young or old, collector or child. I love that idea. Maybe that's why they went with a dress that is a little more "durable." Does it look that way to you?

So friends, tell me what you think about 50th Anniversary Barbie! Leave me a comment!

Until next time! :)

Barbie Role Play

Greetings!

I apologize for the lack of posting. Been a rough couple of weeks.  But I'm back and luckily, I'm going to get some Barbie playtime! wahoo!

I mentioned to you all a post or two before about a project I have coming up. First, a little bit of information.

I love video games. Not sure if that's hard or easy to believe but I love curling up on the couch and taking an evening and losing myself in a world of make believe (kind of like Barbie right?) My brother and I when we were kids got our first Nintendo long after they came out on the market. We loved taking turns playing Mario Bros. Our favorite game ended up being "The Legend of Zelda". I personally love "Ocarina of Time," one of the games later in the series. This is Link, the main character. You always play him and always play to save the princess.

www.nintendo.com (via gonintendo.com)

Through the years I've gotten into RPG (role playing games) and I love those that are set in a post-apocalyptic world and have somewhat of a "choose your own adventure" feel to them. So many different directions your character can go makes for a very fun action-adventure game. The Zelda games mentioned above you are always the good guy fighting evil where in these games, you can be good or evil. (I'm always good by the way. :)

In the wonderful world of Barbie, we've had many dolls based off of pop-culture and popular movie references.

We've had Bella and Edward from Twilight

barbie.mattel.com

Katniss from The Hunger Games

barbie.mattel.com

The Wizard Of Oz Cast

superstardollspopculture.blogspot.com

And even The King himself.

barbie.mattel.com

So why not make some dolls after video game characters?

My character that I choose at the beginning of the games are always girls. With blonde hair. So Barbie is naturally a perfect fit. :)

In the post-apocalyptic game I'm playing now called Fallout:New Vegas, your character is a courier assigned to a very important delivery to the "New Vegas" strip. I have chosen this doll as my "courier."

Obviously not in this dress. :) But she has longer hair and as much as I hate the one bent/one straight arm, this is perfect for the setup I want for her. She also has articulated legs. Also perfect!

I'm reading a fan fiction of this game where the courier wears a pink hoodie, khaki cargo pants and boots. I'm sure I have a Barbie hoodie somewhere. It's going to be great fun dressing her up.

My next video game character, a guy named Benny.

fallout.wikia.com

Benny is the total suave, used car salesman type. He runs a casino on the New Vegas Strip and you encounter him in the game in both good and not so good situations. However, I chose him to make because I have the PERFECT Benny doll for this role play.

Remember him?

If I can get his hair to do what I want, it will be awesome. I also went to the fabric store to find the perfect fabric for his jacket.

Now to find a pattern for a suit jacket for this guy. I have a Ken suit jacket that is close but just a tad small for this My Scene doll. It's a pink suit jacket and I don't really like it so if I have to take it apart to use for a pattern I won't be that worried about it.

So here is my next playtime project! If you know of any places to get Ken patterns, please let me know. I've found a couple sites but none that really struck me yet.

So what do you think of this project? I think it might be kind of fun combining two of my loves: video games and Barbie!

Be prepared for Friday's post where we feature the November haute couture doll of the month!

Until next time!