Doll Dresses

After I cleaned up the little girl dolls from Andrea's stash, I lost interest in the 2 Barbie dolls that came with it. Both Barbie dolls were in good condition but their hair were a little messy, their gowns a little dated, and they didn't have any shoes. At the time I was able to straighten their hair a little using hot water: pour hot (supposed to be boiling... but I was afraid of scalding my hands) water on the doll's hair, then comb (to straighten) or style and allow to dry (to set). I'm an amateur at this (and I didn't use boiling water as instructed), so it didn't turn out as neatly as I had hoped. I will probably try again.

Anyway, I have also been downloading doll dress patterns online and have been excited to make my own for a while. I was so inspired by the DIY doll dresses I saw online. Those people make it look so effortless! However, after I tried making a pair of pants and seeing the outcome... let's just say that's when I lost interest. I planned to just buy Barbie clothes at the mall but they were a little expensive so I put it off and told myself, I'll wait until Andrea and Helaena are old enough to appreciate the Barbie dolls before I spend money on it.
Last weekend however, while shopping at the mall, I saw a few dresses for a doll named "Haidee". I think it's made locally. The gowns are being sold for only P100 (around $2.50) each. The quality was not as good as the original clothes made by Mattel but some look good enough. I chose one and bought it to see if it will fit the doll:

It does!! And the dress is not bad either.

I'll buy more when I get the chance to go back to the mall.

More good news on the doll arena... last weekend, I also went to Divisoria (THE flea market of Manila). I saw doll dresses as well and they only sell for P40 (less than $1). I also bought one but it doesn't fit as well as the one I got at the mall. But they also sell doll shoes that fit Barbie dolls for only P25 (around $0.25) per pack! And each pack contains 3 pairs of shoes. I'll post pictures when I get around to taking proper photos.

Getting to know "Kelly"

I'm still obsessing about Andrea's dolls.

Yesterday, I accidentally* discovered the identities of her 3 "Kelly's". I initially called them all Kelly because I have yet to find out who (in Barbie's World of Pink) they were. Well, they turned out to be all Kelly :)
*I say accidentally because I was looking for something else when I saw their pictures online.

These are the 3 Kelly dolls I initially posted:

The one on the right and the one on the left are both Hearts and Kisses Kelly. Here's what they looked like originally:


The one in the middle is Cloud Princess Kelly (in Pink) from Barbie's The Magic of Pegasus series:


We also have the horse (minus the wings), but I gave it to Helaena (all horses and My Little Pony dolls went to Helaena's stash because she likes horses). Hmmm... maybe I can get it back... hehe. The hair on that horse is pretty tangled up though.

Aside from messy hair and missing footwear, I think the dolls we have are still in pretty good condition. About the hair, I've been frequenting the Barbie section of toy stores lately and I discovered that there is a hair detangler product for Barbie dolls!


There is a review and video of this product from the Toy Guy here. It's a bit expensive though: P899 (around $20) for the set. It might make the job of restoring the hair of our dolls easier though so I just might... (and MG might just kill me if he finds out I "wasted" money again).

Restoring Barbie's Little Friends

Andrea inherited a stash of small dolls from her cousin Ava. Though in good condition, they were what you would typically expect from a doll after a little girl has played with it for a few years: tangled hair, missing accessories. I thought they were cute and it would be nice if Andrea can play with little girl dolls in a few years instead of the big girl fashion dolls like Barbie.

I wanted to make sure they will be ready for Andrea so I tried to buy stuff for them at the mall. I initially thought they were Kelly dolls. I thought all little girl dolls associated with Barbie were Kelly's... how wrong I was! Anyway, the mall doesn't carry accessories for Kelly dolls according to the sales person I spoke to. I tried online and still... nada!

While searching online, I discovered that my favorite doll of the stash was not a Kelly but a nameless little girl doll who was a student of the Teacher Barbie doll. Our stash has 4 of those student dolls but the one with thick, long brown hair is my favorite.

I found a video of the commercial for Teacher Barbie online and this is what the doll originally looks like.

Since there were no clothes that can be bought for this doll, I tried to make one on my own. The material came from an old t-shirt. I can't hem, so I needed material that won't fray. I didn't use a pattern and this is my first attempt so the fit isn't that great. I also made underpants, though you can't see it from the photo.

To detangle her hair, I washed it first with shampoo and applied conditioner to smoothen. Then I read somewhere that to set the hair, use heat. So I used a blow drier with the heat set to high to flatten her bangs (which were all sticking up every which way when we got her). Then when her hair dried, I reset her pony tails using purple elastic to match her new dress.

This is another doll from the stash. From my research, this baby is the patient that came with Dr. Barbie (a very small baby doll!). She didn't have any clothes when we got her so I tried to make something for her out of the same old purple t-shirt.

It was actually fun restoring these dolls. This site helped me a lot when I was trying to identify my dolls: http://www.kattisdolls.net/. Here are other dolls I have yet to work on:

Until I figure out who they are, I'm calling them all "Kelly" for now.

50 Years of Barbie

I was at the mall last night with my husband, looking for again yet another toy for Andrea, when I saw this:


I had both when I was a kid!

I stared at the dolls for a long time reminiscing. I remember that the peaches and cream dress was the nicest dress I had for my dolls. The rocker doll was given to me by my Aunt Vivian and I never really appreciated that doll... the heavy eyeshadow scared me. And her super curly hair was difficult to comb and style. But I loved her clothes. I don't have my dolls anymore. We disposed of most of our old toys when my family sold our home in the province and moved back to the city.

I was contemplating buying both for Andrea so she can play with them when she's a little older. But the price tag put me off:

Wow... Barbie dolls weren't that expensive back then were they? Makes me think that maybe I should have taken better care of them and preserved them but who are we kidding right? I was about 6 or 7 when I had these. And I was allowed to play with them.

I still think it would be great if Andrea can have something similar to what I had before (I wonder if Barbie is still something little girls will like 5 years from now...).