Dahlia's Surgery

Here we have before and after - All in all she now has -
- sandmatted face
- new make up
-carved lips
- boggled eyes
- sleep eyes
- new pale blue eyechips with silver backing paper
- new eyelashes

And now the process.

Unscrewing her face plates

Unhooking spring

Cracking faceplate off!

...in which I remember you often have to take the scalp off of SBLs to get the faceplate off. This is so in my case and I begin to cut it.

After some soaking, the faceplate comes off easily

The eyemech was a beast to get out!!
I cut off a 1mm section of plastic to boggle the eyes.

Soaking orange eyechips and the eyelashes

Finally! An eyechip came out...seen while still on the gluestick held by a very relieved Cait.

Sadly while getting the eyemech out (which was the hardest part aside from getting it back in again!) I scratched one of the blue stock chips, which are my favourite. So taking it out... I then sanded it down and put varnish on, like the repair tutorial said, but it still isn't great. I've ordered some new stock blue as they were my absolute favourite.

My 'worktable'

Sand-matting (no more shiny and no more gross stock MM make up!) and lip-carving

Painted lips

Eyeliner, blush, brown eyeshadow, new eyelashes, lips varnished

Adding string for sleep eyes

Cutting out flange and bumps in the dome

Glueing scalp back on!

Finished girl.

The carved lips, which I am extremely proud of - exactly how I'd hoped, pretty and more realistic.

Customising really did help me bond with her more, as people have said. She is so different now that she is almost a completely different doll, but still very much Dahlia Oz Vanderbilt - though perhaps a bit more sophisticated than quirky now.

Finished! She is so beautiful.

Customizing!

Well, Dahlia is almost finished with her customization, which I've hinted at in the past.
Her scalp is drying now and I need to decide if I'm going to cut her hair or not (opinions?). She will be completely finished when her second pair of new eyechips arrive because sadly I scratched her stock blue ones, which are my favourite, while removing the eyemech, and someone is sending me a new pair. Repairing the scratched one didn't work. Anyway, I'm very excited about how she is turning out! I'll give you a step by step view of the process when she is completed in a few days.

Also, awhile ago someone ordered 7 of my Blythe travel cases, which was exciting, but decided to wait til I can send them from the states. I'll be sewing like crazy after school ends in two weeks.

love,
Cait

P. S. On a personal note, our youth group had a 'No Talent Show' this past week. My sister and I sang The Foggy Dew (imperfect but fun), and she danced with some other girls in our Irish dance class. They did a beautiful job! The video doesn't do them justice.

This is Blythe Heroes Contest

So, my entries are all submitted and voting has started. I am, of course, still trying not to get my hopes up since winning is highly unlikely.

Here they are! You can read the descriptions in an earlier post.

Anne of Green Gables

Blythe for Starbucks

Betsy Ross
(designer and maker of the first American flag)

As you can see I replaced the Giselle-from-Enchanted idea with Betsy Ross. Though Tach's idea was brillant, I executed it poorly and am more proud of this one, especially the wig, heh.
One of the entries I voted for (you can vote for three) was Jane Austen. I am a huge Austen fan and the costume and photo was beautifully done.
Vote for me! =D Here is the flickr group. Voting is done by emailing Gina.

Whoever wins, it was a great topic and dressing Dahlia up was fun anyway. =)

Love,
Cait

Strawberry Dresses on Etsy

whatisacait

Strawberry Girl

Susanna, a girl in my well group, was sewing a dress for her little sister and after telling me about it brought me the fabric remnants. Isn't the fabric adorable? It's a nice, soft but starched type and the print is so nice.
I'm working on more of these -
Newest Joi-Opaque project, based on a photo called Mystery, by Krystal Beveridge.
And so you can see a bit of what life in Dubai is like - this is just off the highway (not out in the real desert!) where we often have picnics and barbeques. And of course take the mandatory jumping-off-the-sand-dune photo. It hit 120 degrees farenheit this week!


What is the weather like where you're at?

TIB Heroes Contest

This is Blythe is having a 'Heroes' contest, as Milkberry and a few others have mentioned before. At first I didn't plan on entering and just joined the flickr group to be able to see the entries, but eventually began having ideas.

I've now submitted two, and completed the third but won't send it in until the deadline (May 15th) in case I think of something even better, and three is the limit.

Well, since you can see the entries on the flickr group anyhow, I may as well tell you my heroes (not necessarily my heroes in real life, I have to admit). I'll post the photos and captions after the contest.

Blythe for Starbucks! Because they're pretty much a hero to any addict, and friendly barristas make the place so atmospheric.
Anne of Green Gables - in real life my hero too, heh, I'm lame I know. She's amazing though!
...and the one I'm not submitting yet (but am very proud of the awesome set up, thanks to the help of my friend Tach) is Giselle, from Enchanted, who provides happily ever after to the newest Disney princess story.

Have any of you entered yet?
I'm trying SO hard not to get my hopes up! But the prize MRB and Saffy are so delicious. Sigh.