Bride of Frankenstein Barbie with Improved Dress

I haven't had any time for Barbies lately, but a little while ago I started redoing this one's dress.
I just use white Jersey Knit fabric and used a piece of card to support the shoulder pads.
I haven't sewn the hem or anything yet, but I felt that since Hallowe'en is fast approaching, I should post her.

Bride of Frankenstein Barbie

I have been fighting with this &*#%! satin to make her dress, but it's just not working. It's too stiff for this scale, so I'll have to try again with rayon or something, but at least she's mostly done.

Here she is without her dress. I wrapped her pretty much like a mummy, but I left the top of her chest bare to show off a big scar which I thought would be an interesting touch.

I mostly patterned her after the original Elsa Lanchester Bride of Frankenstein.

Since this doll had earring holes I gave her earrings. I tried to find something that looked machinery related. I wish I'd had little wristwatch cogs.....they would have been perfect, but these sort of do the trick.

I had a terrible time with the face paint. Rerooting, no problem, but trying to get the old face paint off with nail polish remover smudged it more than removed it. The doll on the right has the exact same face my "Bride" did before I went to work on her. The way I closed her mouth was by filling in her "teeth" with a waterproof glue. I manipulated it with a toothpick so it sat right while drying.
If I ever do a repaint again, I'll have to invest in an airbrush and better paint brushes.
Oh well, this was an experiment. Very fitting that I chose "Bride of Frankenstein" don't you think?

A Sneak Peek

Here is the next doll I will have completed. She still needs her dress, so I'm finishing that up. I will also show a "before" photo of her face.

Ukrainian Barbies

I didn't make these dolls, but I thought they were great, so I'm showing off their images. I originally came across them on a Ukrainian website that said they had been custom made for a fund raising event to benefit orphans. That was the only amount of English on the website, so I can't go into any more detail than that.
I'm posting these because I was going to try to make one of my own someday ....... someday....

Also, here's another doll that someone else beat me to...a Yulia Tymoshenko doll! I'd love to own this doll! But I don't.

Memories of Barbie

Here are the only images I could dig up of my early experiences with Barbies. This was in the 1970's and I only had one doll, but I was so thrilled to get a ten-speed bike for her and a horse one Christmas.

I've recently seen the original yellow ten-speed on eBay and I would have loved to have bought it....you know....for nostalgic purposes. Unfortunately, the Barbie I had didn't have bendable legs, so it was hard for her to sit on the horse. My sister was the one who had the Malibu Barbie who's legs were bendable.

BUT after searching the internet, I discovered that THIS was the doll I had. She's classified as a "Foreign" Barbie because she wasn't available in the States. She's officially a Malibu "Steffie". Wow, this one is selling for $195....I should have hung on to mine. Oh well.



I really loved that horse though.
Just look at that roomy corral that came with him! I think I ended up using the fence parts for hurdles for him to jump over.

The Barbie Runway Show

What kind of a Barbie enthusiast am I? I'd been virtually unaware of the Barbie Runway Show until today! It happened 2 weeks ago! Luckily, some nice people posted it on YouTube so I got to see it anyway. These were my favorites:

This dress was designed by a newer designer called "Three As Four":


I unfortunately couldn't find the name of this designer, but I thought it was cute and babydoll-ish and I LOVE the hat!


This pink corset-dress apparently weighed 25 lbs on its own! It was designed by "The Blonds".

This zebra striped outfit, inspired of course by the original Barbie doll's famous bathing suit, was made by "Patricia Field":

I love this sweater dress! I want to make a little one for one of my dolls. Its designer is "Twinkle":

These last two are gorgeous....and I believe "Tommy Hilfiger" was responsible for this 20's flapper meets Blade Runner creation. The clear cape is great!

Now, I shouldn't have been surprised, but this glittering extravaganza is the work of none other than "Bob Mackie". I should have known. I want to see Barbies available in all these outfits!

Before And After

Here is a neglected Barbie doll that I got at a thrift shop. She was dirty and had messed up hair. But she had beautiful green eyes....so I "rescued" her.

I used the hair detangling method linked in my sidebar, (Barbie Hair Rescue) using a high quality hair conditioner. I coaxed the tangles out of her hair and ended up with only this small amount pulled out. An inexpensive comb like this works fine.... just use the larger teeth.

I washed her body with liquid dish soap...which made her legs feel a bit sticky until they'd fully dried. Then I stood her up in a glass so her hair would dry while hanging straight. I gently patted her dry with a towel first to get rid of the excess water. I let her dry overnight.

Now she has a lovely one-of-a-kind crocheted dress and matching beaded handbag.
Her gold shoes were a very lucky find at a toy store. YES! You can still get packages of Barbie accessories that include a few pairs of shoes if you just look around. The pack I bought cost about $4.


I felt simplicity was best, so I kept her hair straight. It turned out to be very silky. The sparkles in the dress added enough glam.

A Canadian Barbie

Well, I've had this idea for a long time, and I finally did it! I made what I feel is a true Canadian Barbie. The official one made by Mattel many years ago was of a doll with a similar face to this one, but they dressed her in an RCMP uniform. Okay, that's like dressing a doll in a New York State Trooper uniform and calling her New York Barbie.

I had to bring out a few stereotypes though......the tuque, the Lumberjack Jacket,

the Mukluks.

I made her Mukluks out of sheepskin, but authentic ones are usually made from sealskin. Sealskin is quite hard to get and VERY expensive....so I went with what I had on hand.

Her mittens are sheepskin also. Her tuque and scarf are handmade by me out of alpaca wool. Alpaca wool is becoming very popular here where I live. It's softer than sheep's wool and every bit as warm. If I had lots of money, I'd move away from the city and raise alpacas for their wool.
I'm sure that's something Canadian Barbie would do too!

A Valentine's Box of Chocolate

I decided to make a miniature box of chocolates today to match the one I received as a gift, and I felt I should show it off on this blog because I used a Barbie doll for scale. This particular doll is named Leah, and she's one of my daughter's favorites. When I bought her, she was wearing a kerchief on her head . We removed it only to find that at the factory, they decided to scrimp on the amount of hair she had, because they never planned for the kerchief to be removed. Well, the resulting bald patch ruined her otherwise lovely appearance, but my daughter played with her nonetheless.
But my son started making her act dumb and my daughter soon imitated her brother. Then poor Leah became abandoned at the bottom of the basement stairs. So I scooped her up and put her with my "to be altered" Barbies. I just recently re-rooted some hair for her, and now she's right back up there among the "to be played with" Barbies.
So I felt it was only fitting to use her as the model for the Valentine chocolates.The chocolates are made of "Sculpy" and the box is cardstock, carefully covered with velveteen and ribbon.