The New and Improved Duchess Swan

Hi Friends!

This post has been longer than I expected. I started back at work and it's taken some adjustment to get baby used to bottles during the day rather than mom. But now it's the weekend, baby is napping, (It's over 100 degrees outside), and now I get to stay inside and work on this post!

Before I went back to work I got a little time to craft and improve my Duchess Swan doll!

The Duchess headpiece really bothered me. ALL Pink? Where's the fun in that? By looking at what her head piece was in the webisodes and with a little help from a fabulous YouTube video, my Duchess went from ok to OKAY!!

Webisode Duchess

www.everafterhigh.com

Doll Duchess
 

Blah.

So I started by taking down her hair. She looks pretty with it down.

And lots of pretty white and pink streaks. 

So here is Miss Duchess and the fabulous paint brush

Before I started the headpiece I noticed that I always hated the pink on her shoes. In the webisodes they are purple. Not to mention the "overspray" that seeped onto the black part of her shoes.

Again, nothing a little paint can't fix up! I didn't have purple paint so I did a little mixing until I got the right shade I wanted.

Still need another coat but looking good so far!

So I finished with the shoe paint, coated with a clear lacquer and put them on. I also noticed that she had a hole in her tights at the toe. Know how hard it is to put shoes on when they tights don't stay down? 

I didn't take progress pics of the headpiece but I painted the pearls white, the flower black and white with a ruby in the center, the center feathers silver and black, the upper feathers have some white in the creases to give some depth and I wasn't really sure what to do with the "pineapple" up there so I shaded with some light blue. I also gave the black feather across her head some silver in the creases to give some depth. What do you think?

Next it was time to fix her hair. In the webisodes she has kind of a bouffant hair style going on. This is where I followed the You Tube video I found. The girl does a GREAT job of styling Duchess' hair.

First find the place where her hair separates. Towards the front of her head. Note the large plastic seam.

Comb that in front and clip to keep out of the way.

Then separate out all the pink and white hair. This should not be that hard to do. It's very clear where the lighter hair is and where the black hair starts. All the white hair is on top of the black. Clip lighter hair.

Put the black part in a ponytail and don't pull all the way through leaving a little tuft on top.

Get your hairspray ready! Duchess prefers TRESemme UV Protection. Perfect for those days she practices her ballet on the lake.

Then wrap the lighter hair over the top of the tuft and spray in back. Leave some of the black showing through. You can also use a bobby pin to keep the hair in place. I actually didn't follow the directions to the T. I put ALL of the black hair into the tuft. You are actually supposed to keep some of it out for her side ponytail but I think I kind of like it this way....for now. :)

What do you think?

I love her like this and am very pleased on how she turned out. I think she looks more like Duchess and gives a little bit of flair to an otherwise bland headband. Her headpiece does stay on so don't be afraid to cut those plastic bands!

Friends, done any customization on your EAH dolls? Let me know in the comments!

I do have another round of Garage Sale dolls from Dear Ol' Dad and a newcomer to the EAH party! See you then!