Baby Jack is born!

My husband fell in love with a simple wigged and blushed Berenguer reborn I did way back in 2006 and has mentioned several times that he would like to have me make one for him like it. He said he wanted me to make it for him and put it in the crib with my babies, LOL! I found the doll from someone who had one for sale and have had it a good while now. I matched up some nice 3/4 limbs with the head so that the doll would have nicer limbs than the 1/4 Berenguer limbs he came with.

This is the first reborn Jack I sold in 2006.  

I got the NEW reborn Jack all assembled and he was born today.   Jack weighs 6.9 lbs and is 23" long.

We talked about giving him a wig like the original Jack since Mark liked that wig but the one I ordered did not look like it.  He will be bald for now. Mark wanted him to wear overalls like the first one I made did and this was the only shirt I had for a boy on hand. I will have to get him a short sleeve one later on since it is summer.


So here is the NEW Jack.

Brooke Gets A New Life!

During the slow months of summer when things are not as busy and sales tend to be slower I try to take some time to work on some dolls for myself.

This is Ashton Drake Brooke.
 

Brooke glued on hair that had faded in color and was not great quality, funky long arms and her eyes had grown cloudy over the years.  I decided to take her apart and give her a make over.

I stripped off her glued on hair, removed her eyes and lashes and removed the paint from her nails.  I then accentuated her existing factory paint with Genesis Heat Set Paints for a more newborn mottled look.  I gave her new painted nails.  I also gave her new glass eyes with new lashes and sewed her a new cloth body.  I weighted her with glass micro beads and poly pellets.

Brooke now weighs 5.12 lbs and is 21" long.  She is a baldie.  She might grow hair later but for now I am just going to leave her bald because I like putting hats on her head and so she really doesn't need any hair. She is my keeper baby.

I had a time with the body. I got the proportions like I wanted them but this material has a little give in it and I had to take it in after I sewed it to make it not as fat. She is still a little Buddah baby! LOL I wish I could find material locally like the old doe suede that had no give at all.

Anyways, here is my new sweet girl!  I do love her!

Repairing stringed dolls like Masterpiece Dolls

As some of you know, I not only reborn dolls but I also collect dolls.  One of the types of dolls I have a couple of are Masterpiece Dolls.  Recently on one of the doll collecting chat boards that I am a member of we have been discussing how to repair loose joints and such on these dolls.  Some valuable information has been shared and so I thought I would post it here (with permission) as well so that others of you can learn how to fix your own dolls as well.

This is a copy of a tutorial a lady named Dee posted on Dollchatter on how to repair the jointed arms:


The above pic shows different joints, vinyl ball bearing and raveled cord as they fell apart on Hailey.



The pic above shows the holes that go through the arm. At the top, you will see what looks like a keyhole.

When Hailey broke, the large bead and large scooped disc (seen below) stayed inside the top part of Hailey's arm. To get it out, I had to run a hair diffuser on it for a few minutes until the vinyl is easily maneuvered. You may have to warm the vinyl several times to get the pieces out because they are so much bigger than the hole.

I had to use long tweezers from a computer repair kit to get these two pieces out.


Once you have the two pieces out, run the cord through the bead and scoop disc as shown below.





You'll also have to heat the vinyl when ready to put the pieces back into that keyhole with cord running through it as seen in next photo.



Once , you have the bead and scooped disc with the cord running through it in the keyhole, take hanging cord and run through the vinyl ball bearing joint and lower arm.

I had to use the long tweezers plus needle nose pliers to get this done.

The next photo shows simply tying off the cord in the round eyelet on hand but it took two people to pull that cord as tight as we could to get good tight joints. I can't express this enough because if you don't get it good and tight and use as little cord as you can, the joints will get loose again. Tie good knots.



I cut 18 inches of cord which was way more than I needed but it made it easier to pull all the pieces together tight. Yes, I wasted a lot of cord but I'd do it again.

Unless you do this over and over for days and weeks until it is "old hat", I would use plenty of cord.

I'm assuming this is how the shoulder joint is done as well as the scoop discs can be black as well as white. I don't believe the MP dolls are put together with S hooks. If the bead has fallen into the cavity of the doll, you will have to find one or get MP to send you some. I'll do a little research and see if I can find these beads with a hole somewhere on the internet.

I'm remembering the bead to be 5/8 to 3/4 inch in size and the disc a good inch and a half.

I hope this helps those of you with MP dolls and loose joints. This really is not hard. I couldn't believe how easy it was so, those of you who are so inclined, go ahead and swap out the cord and you'll love the tight joints.

HERE IS WHERE I GOT MY CORD BUT IF YOU DO LOTS OF THIS, WE MIGHT WANT TO LOOK FOR BIGGER BALLS OF CORD.

http://www.thedollhospital.com/strin...asticcord.html

I BOUGHT THE BOTTOM ONE WHICH IS FOR PATTI PLAYPAL AND IT WORKED GREAT.

HERE IS WHERE YOU CAN GET THE 5.5 MM CORD IN BULK. JUST USE THE DROP DOWN BOX TO GET TO 5.5 MM.

http://www.allforadoll.com/sunshop/i...t_detail&p=139

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Tricia of Dolls Bears and Gifts had gotten these photos from Masterpiece on how to assemble doll legs I have uploaded them all to photobucket.   If you go to this link you can view them all and/or copy them for your files.

Click link below to be taken to photos:  http://photobucket.com/MasterpiecedollLegAssembly

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Here are some more images I acquired on how to tighten a doll's head

Click here to see them:

http://photobucket.com/HowToTightenDollHeads

Happy Doll Repairs Everyone! 

Hello to all my followers!

Just popping in to say sorry I haven't been able to blog much lately. We have a daughter graduating on May 22 and I have been working like a furry trying to get the house ready for the party. My biggest project was re-doing our hall bathroom. The painting has nearly about killed me old bones! It is done now thank God!

Wednesday night I put 3 large Boston Butts into the electric roaster and 1 large one in a crock pot to cook all night and later  the next day we pulled off 13 lbs of pulled pork and froze it. This will be thawed and reheated in crock pots for BBQ sandwiches for the graduation party on Saturday the 21st.

Today I  was cleaning carpets and windows, did some laundry and a few other things.   Next week we tackle the yard work and painting the back porch floor. Hopefully when this is all over I can rest, read a good book and get back to reborning dolls!

Look for Sydney in the movies!

Sydney now has her own Youtube video!