The story of Poe

Once upon a time there lived a Disco Boogie Blythe. She was shiny and new and had lovely thick hair with blonde streaks. She thought she looked pretty amazing.



But her owner did not. So out came the scissors, and Disco Boogie had her fringe cut off - right down to the scalp. Then she had the back cut short. It didn't look quite the way that her owner had hoped... Her stock makeup was sanded off, all except for her lipstick. Then she got some new smoky black eye-makeup and lashes.

It didn't go quite as planned.

Her owner didn't know how to fix her, so she sold Disco Boogie to another collector, far across the sea who thought she had promise.

Her new owner called her Poe, because she looked so sad. She tried her best to fix her hair with another haircut. Then she thought perhaps Poe might be a hat-wearin' kind of girl.


She did look quite cute like that, but in the end it was decided that it would be best for Poe live elsewhere. After all, forever is a long time to wear a hat.

Then Poe came to live with me. She looked like this:


And she was very sad indeed. I had never even seen an EBL before, but I thought I could make Poe look a bit better at least. So I took off her hair, sanded her face and gave her a wig.


But a girl can't be bald forever. Poe needed hair. I thought she might look good as a redhead.


But the mohair was too short. So then, I thought perhaps pink mohair might be nice.


But I didn't finish it, and somehow it just didn't suit her at all. Poe still felt sad and looked...ugly. I had done my best but it just wasn't good enough. I thought of selling her, but I liked her too much to let her go. I knew that the next stop for her would probably be as spare parts or as bait for yet another new customiser. So even though I didn't take her out to photograph her, I kept her because one day, I knew that she would be beautiful.

Poe sat in a drawer for a long time, bald and sad. I felt sorry for Poe. She had suffered enough at the hands of amatuers and was really quite cute, under all those poorly executed customising attempts. Clearly expert help was required.

So I sent her to Moofala for a new scalp, faceup, lip carving and handpainted chips and here is how she looks now.



Thank you so much Kate. She is every bit as lovely as I knew she could be.

Reroot progress report

Yesterday I ignored the large pile of laundry sitting grumpily in the bathroom and instead spent a pleasant few hours working on Poe's reroot. I know people complain about how much slower mohair is in comparison to saran, but I am finding that it seems to be coming along quite quickly. Maybe I'm doing something desperately wrong! I have nobody to show it to, so I'll just have to cross my fingers and hope that it will work out ok!





I am using a method I saw on Flickr a while ago. There used to be a tutorial on how to do it, but it has since been removed, so I am kind of just combining the info I have gleaned from all over. It is a knot method, but instead of tying the knot at the very end of the plug, it's tied in the middle and the two ends are fed through adjacent holes. It leaves a really neat finish on the inside imo, and seems to be very secure. It's only suitable for long length fibre, but it's a nice compromise between lock and loop and the usual knot method. I use a large headed needle to feed the mohair through the holes. It isn't terribly fast, but then I have yet to find a method I can successfully use that is! Having the mohair all nicely combed is a huge time saver, and I just make the plugs up as I go.

I am glad that I did that disastrous reroot on the Basaak - even though it didn't work out terribly well I did learn a lot from doing it (mostly, what NOT to do!) and I feel a lot more confident this time, even though I haven't worked with mohair before. The Blythe scalp is sooo much softer and easier to work with in comparison!





I have given Poe a thatched side part - as you can see her scalp was very damaged along the centre part and although I have repaired it (that's the big white strip), I don't feel comfortable having the closely rooted rows in the torn plastic. I've just started the upper fields which are also very closely rooted - once I've done the first couple of spirals I'll start skipping holes. Poe's Disco Boogie scalp seems to be have the holes more closely spaced than a normal scalp, so I'll probably just do every third hole and see how that looks. One thing I do know, it's going to be poofy - which isn't the look I was going for. I think that perhaps those lovely wispy straight reroots tend to use lots and lots of extremely fine plugs and take a bit more skill than I posess right now. Maybe next time.

All this fussing about with Poe is giving me a lot more of a feel for her identity. I am kind of excited to be sending her away for her faceup. I have decided that I am going to get her lips carved rather than leaving them stock and I think she might be a lashless girl. I have found an amazing Australian customiser and although I am on the list to send her overseas for a free faceup, I am thinking that maybe one of the other girls might go there in her stead and I'll just have the work done locally - the list is very long and I am really looking forward to seeing her completed now. I'm pleased that I didn't end up selling her - she has real character, even if she is still a trainwreck!

A fun distraction

After the success of my pink mohair I was itching to have a go at processing some more, and remembered that a while ago I bought some red wensleydale locks but didn't end up using them because they came like this.


I made a few plugs, but that's as far as I got. Yesterday I tied a couple of curls together and washed and conditioned them and they came out looking like this.



Much better! And I must say that it was nice to have lovely clean fibre to work with - it brushed out so much more easily. The photo doesn't really do them justice - I don't think it could handle the colour too well. They have a really nice pearly lustre to them and I quite like the way they are like little ringlets. It's a shame that I don't really need them for anything. I suspect that I enjoy processing and combing the fibre more than I do the reroots!

I admit to procrastinating a little about starting Poe's. Last night I repaired her scalp and painted it with acrylic paint so I could begin today, but the paint dried a little bit tacky, so rather than get to the end of the reroot and have paint flaking off, I think it would be best to sand the stock brown colour off and just use it flesh coloured. I did read that non-acetone nail polish remover is good to get the stock paint off, but I rubbed and rubbed at it and it didn't budge for me. At this rate I feel like I'll never get started, much less finish the job!

Processing Mohair - part 2 - Success!

I just wasn't satisfied with how my mohair turned out. So I did some more research and then thought I'd throw caution to the wind and just dye the stuff with food colouring for fun as it seriously could not have looked worse than before and in any case, I didn't want to throw any more money at it. And here is the end result.


Seriously, I could not be prouder of this bit of fluff if I had grown it on my own back! It's shiny and luscious and perfect (even if it is pink)! As it turns out, the secret to gorgeous mohair is all in the combing.

When I was preparing to dye it, I thought I had better brush it as the locks were so tight that there was no way that the dye would have penetrated to the centre. So I divided it into lots of little locks - about 12 for the ounce of fibre I had, brushed each lock into a big fuzzy cloud and tied it together at the top with string. All of the little bits of VM and dirt came out in the brushing process so it looked much cleaner. The floor did not. It's a pretty messy business and not for the squeamish. I am reasonably certain that a lot of the little bits of "stuff" in there was goat poo and it was obvious that my previous attempt to wash it had not been all that effective as my hands were still getting oily from the lanolin.

There was quite a lot of mohair caught up in the brush - I wasted heaps, but from what I have read this seems to be pretty normal. Then dyed it with the food colouring. I chose pink because I thought there was less chance of it being completely unacceptable if I made the colour too strong or too weak as I was not sure how well the fibre would take the dye. For the record, it really grabs it! I was aiming for palest pink and it turned out much darker than I had anticipated, but it's still ok.

I wet the brushed locks with hot water and laid them neatly in a glass dish. I used a lasagne dish - as I was using food colouring it was perfectly safe to use regular cookware - obviously if I had bought the acid dye I could not have done this. Then I made up my dye bath using a few drops of pink food colouring, hot water, a glug of vinegar and a squirt of dish soap - very scientific. I didn't measure anything! Then I just poured the dye mix over the top of the mohair and "baked" it in the oven for about an hour. This method works well because the water stays nice and hot without violently boiling, which can cause felting. Water + agitation is bad news for mohair or wool, so don't stir it.

When I pulled it out the water was clear as all the dye had gone into the mohair. Then I rinsed it in hot water and conditioned it (just put some conditioner in your hand and run it down the length of the lock from the top - don't scrunch it up like you would your own hair or it will felt!), and left it to sit (ie...I went out!). When I returned 3 or 4 hours later I combed the mohair with the conditioner still in it (lost quite a bit more hair), rinsed it and left it to dry. And that's all there is to it!

Things I've learned for next time:

Separate into lots of small bunches as it's easier to comb.
Brush before washing to remove all the VM & make it easier to remove lanolin.
Comb again with conditioner still in the hair, then rinse thoroughly.

A lot of people dye their fibre "in the grease" - ie unwashed, but I think that I would probably wash it first as the mohair I had was quite greasy. I really want to do this again and experiment with some different colours. I wonder if it would take parisienne essence or tea/coffee for a natural brown?

My only concern now is that there is a LOT less fibre than I started with. I just hope that I have enough to give poor Poe a decent looking head of hair. It is a good thing that the mohair I bought is long so I can use a technique where I double it over, thereby getting double the thickness.

Now I just have to remove the paint from her scalp and repair her torn partline.

Bloomin Bloomers

At last I have worked out a way to make these that does not make me swear like a sailor! Bloomers are available in my shop now, should you need a pair for your plastic princess.

To be honest, I probably would not have persevered were it not for the fact that I had a specific request for them and I was determined not to let a pair of tiny knickers get the better of me. There were a few failures...including a pair that would have fitted a pencil (elastic too tight!), an enormous pair that were miles too baggy and my first attempt that were a bit on the low-rise side (ie. the crotch was waaaaay too short!). Now though, I've got it all nicely worked out and they are pretty damn cute if I do say so myself.

I had fun dressing up all the girls in them for a photo shoot only to realise that there was no way to photograph them all together nicely since they wouldn't all fit in the lightbox and I am too chicken to prop them up against the wall in case of falls and scratched faces! It's a shame that Poe is not in better shape as I made 7 different pairs but only had 6 Blythes to model them on. I really need to get on and do that reroot for her as I'm hoping that Erica will soon be able to work her magic on her faceup. I've now found a place that has nice long mohair at a price I can afford without resorting to selling my organs, so hopefully it will soon arrive so I can get started.

The mohair I found is cheaper because it isn't washed, which I hope will not pose too great a problem. In the pics the seller shows it comes up gorgeously white and lustrous...I just hope that I can manage to get the same results. I have no idea how to wash it - should I use human shampoo or woolwash? Cool water or warm? I see a lot more research in the immediate future....

I had actually found some fibre through another Etsy seller, but after I had paid for it she contacted me to say that I owed her more money than the amount listed as she needed more for shipping and handling and she couldn't be bothered working out the postage to ship to Australia...double the amount that she had originally quoted. I thought that was pretty uncool as I would not have bought the item in the first place with shipping that costly. I cancelled my order, mostly through feeling a bit disgruntled, I must admit. The way that she worded her convo asking for more money wasn't the best - she sounded as though I'd tried to rip her off somehow. Incidentally, this was through my "buying" account so I'm not calling anyone out here.

I have found through my own shop that sometimes the amount I charge is not quite enough to cover the postage to certain places, and when that has happened I just absorb the cost myself and then adjust my future listings for that item. As far as I'm concerned that was my error, not the clients.

Anyway, I shall dismount my soapbox, I've had my whinge and feel much better. Until next time :)

Ah crumbs...

I AM a dolly hoarder, as it turns out. I was all set to say goodbye to Poe, but I can't bring myself to do it. I pulled her out of the drawer she was languishing in a few days ago and am now all re-inspired to see her restored to her gorgeous self again. Damn her and her sad little EBL face!!

I've decided that given the almost certainty that she'll have a scalp gap, a Wensleydale reroot might be more forgiving than the saran and have been trawling the internet looking for a supplier. I was considering using the red that I had on hand, but sadly it appears that it might have been a casualty of my ruthless cleanout (by accident) as I can't find it anywhere - just the plugs that I had prepared. Such a shame as the fibre was so silky and lustrous. I'm not entirely certain that the red would have suited her in any case. It's just too too red.



I'm just waiting to hear back from a supplier to see if they can dye me some in chocolate brown. I need long locks this time - at least 10" as I'm trying a new rooting technique so fingers crossed that they can help me out. In the meantime, I'm trying to get her scalp ready for the new hair. The glue that was used is just impossible to shift and is not in any way water soluable. I'm at the point now that I'll have to cut the glued hair from the back of the scalp and maybe even sand the excess off. As I suspected, that massive toffee-like clump of glue running down her partline was a right PITA and although I was evenually able to pull the hair plugs through the holes and work it off, the scalp is damaged. There's not a lot of into out there about fixing this problem either. The only useful info on the subject I managed to find suggested making a patch out of fabric and using modge podge to keep it in place on the underside. I'll keep you posted as to how it works out.

Poe's (temporary) new look

Had a fun day giving Poe a little tidy up today. Nothing too drastic, just a light sand to remove the surface scratches, a little pastel makeup, some temporary eyelashes (they are a little too short for her eyes) and until her hair is done, a wig. I even toyed with the idea of putting her on the Neemo body, but as soon as I tried it I knew it was completely wrong for her (not to mention that her head was horribly floppy!). This girly look is possibly not the way that she'll end up looking, but it's a definite improvement that street kid/lice ridden chimney sweep look she had when she arrived. The wig is really not what I would have chosen for her, but the two wigs in the house belong to Miss B - and the other one is a Lolita style one and is even prissier if that is possible. It does not fit at all well without hair underneath, but it will do the job for now - better that than bald! For those who don't normally follow my blog, here is what she looked like before.



The makeover all went reasonably smoothly apart from a short period of time that I believed I would never be able to prise her eye mech out. The older Blythes are definitely a lot harder to customise than the RBL's although that said, her eyechips came out incredibly easily. I was going to pull the pinks out at the same time in readiness for some new ones that I haven't even ordered yet but changed my mind at the last minute and now I'm glad I did. They kind of suit this sugary look don't you think?

Bait Blythe

Poe arrived yesterday - my first EBL,and a bait Blythe. I thought I would put up a few pics, as unflattering as they are, so that newbies can see exactly what a bait Blythe is. I think Poe is a pretty good example!

Put simply, a bait Blythe is a doll that has seen better days. She needs some work as she's in pretty bad condition and so is sold off cheaply to someone looking for a fixer-upper. Normally the seller will disclose all of her faults, but in labelling her as "bait" you should be aware that you are buying a doll with issues. Sometimes you can end up saving quite a bit of money by buying a Blythe this way, especially if you are handy at customising yourself. I don't go in for stock girls, and as DB is getting older and harder to find, I wouldn't feel good about sanding off a new one's make-up, so this is a relatively good deal for me.

The person I bought Poe from bought her in this condition as bait herself and was very clear about her issues, so there were no surprises when I deboxed her.

So here she is, pretty much as she arrived.



As you can see, she has had a few "customisations" in a previous life! The worst and most unfixable of which being the poor girls hair, which as you can see has been given a very severe haircut. Her blonde streaks have been cut off at the roots along the thatching and the back has been cut short and unevenly. Such a pity, because I have to say that I love the colour and it is very very thick. The thickest of all my Blythes, actually. I'm wondering if Takara have been skimping out on this in recent years - the quality of the RBL hair does not compare.
She will be rerooted, as her skin is quite dark and unless I can find another DB scalp it wouldn't match.





She's been sanded at some point, possibly with a Magic Eraser type sponge because she is still kind of shiny here and there. She's got lots of superficial scuffs and marks and looks a bit grubby. Her makeup has been removed accept for her lips, she has no blush and the remnants of some black pastel eyeshadow. I don't think she's been sealed, so a light sanding will take care of all of this.



Several sets of her eye chips are very scratched - how does that even happen?? I could possibly buff them, but I think I'll just change them out to new ones. The only ones that might stay are the greys. I think the browns are too dark, although they are in ok condition too. She has lost her original eye lashes, and the new ones are all crumpled up - easy to replace. Her pull string and ring are a bit grotty too, these will have to be replaced.



She will be going to the talented and generous Erica Duh for a new face-up, but I am a fair way down the list so I might give her a temporary face-up until she leaves - I don't think I can stand to look at her for 6 months or so in her current state! I will also replace her chips and eye lashes and with a bit of luck I'll have her new scalp finished in time for when she is posted to, so that Erica has a bit more to work with. So all in all, this is what I need to do - quite a bit!!

1. Order saran.
2. Order and fit new eyechips - 2/3 sets.
3. General clean. She has an odd smell - not horrible, just a little musty or something.
4. Open head. Eep - my first time with anything other than RBL!
5. Sandmatt, temporary faceup
6. Replace eyelashes
7. Remove and prepare scalp, reroot.
8. Order and fit new pullring and replace string.

I'll keep you posted regarding her progress. Fingers crossed that she turns out to be worth all the effort!

Diet no more!!

Well I did it! I was very restrained...and have already blown my budget for the month on this lovely girl, who needs a bit of TLC. This is Poe, a Disco Boogie with a rather unfortunate hair cut. It would seem that at some stage one of her owners (not the person I bought her from) didn't like her streaky hair and cut most of her fringe down to the roots. She's also been sanded and has lost her original make-up apart from her lipstick. I'm planning on rerooting her in a multi-toned blonde and giving her some new makeup. Not sure about her lips, I think I may just leave them as is, although I have seen some gorgeous custom DB with a darker peachy brown lip that looks pretty amazing. Lips are not one of my strong points, so I'll have a practice on Ash or my poor Blythe in bits and if I'm not satisfied I'll send her away to someone who knows what they're doing.

I'm so excited to be getting this girl. My very first non RBL! I hope I can do an OK job on tidying her up. Next month I'll be ordering chips and hair - I'm going to take my time with this one, but at the same time I can't wait to start!