Adventures in Rerooting and Rewigging Dolls

Bald dolls. Dolls with hair that is totally fried to a frizz and too short to deal with. Dolls whose wigs overwhelm the doll's face. Dolls who are fine but somebody wants a different hair color.  Dolls whose hair has thinned in the 50 years since they left the factory. None of these are safe from me.

For my first attempt at wig making for dolls, I used instructions from a book on making miniatures. It was a small doll, and she was undemanding. Sew two bits of weft together.  Less than thrilling.

 

For my second attempt, I used instructions from Dolley Wiggs, a contributor to National Doll World back when it was folksy and  accessible. Wiggs' pamphlet told me how to make a wig cap from Pellon, how to paint it in a color close to the hair I'd be using. She advised using wigs for humans, unpicked and sorted into lengths. I sewed it by hand, and my Miss Revlon clone seemed happy.

In a pinch you can use a lace circle to make  wig cap for a small doll. Gather the edges to fit the doll's head. Handstitching the wefts to the lace  helps the shape.

Commercial wigs for 8-inch hard plastic Ginny type dolls have enough hair for 2 dolls or more. Fortunately the wig was useable for an 11-inch Tammy clone.

I tried rerooting Barbie clones because they were only a dollar and there were lots of them at the dollar store. I was not entirely successful with the hook and lock method and a crochet hook, mostly because keeping a reasonable tension is hard.

The following dolls are Little Miss Revlon clones. The platinum haired one is a complete reroot. The doll with yellow highlights is a partial reroot. I added  hair to thicken existing hair.

Curly Hair, that sproingy polypropylene stuff that some people glue to homemade cloth dolls, makes good replacement hair for dolls with bubble cuts or short hair.  I've used it to fill in on 18 inch dolls, too. Because it is precurled, it is easy to style. 8 inch Little Miss dolls, 11 inch Tammy clones, Barbie clones --no doll is safe. The platinum blonde hair seems to work particularly well with Little Miss Revlon clones.

It even works on Tammy clones, that innocent face, that processed looking hair.

A Barbie clone Marx hard plastic doll with vinyl head  is not quite pleased with her new do. Trimming will help a lot.

 Barbie looks good to me, rerooted with curly hair. I poked a very fine crochet hook, US size 12 or 13 through her neck and into the plug holes, yanking thread down into the head. No knots, no glue, just vinyl tension. It works. I can comb the hair. If I want, I can yank it out later. I'm not making art.

 

 

The most important lesson for me was NOT to use all the plug holes for small dolls. Using every existing hole can overwhelm the doll with hair. The above doll is about 8 inches tall, and looked awful the first time I rerooted her.

I use curly hair as fill-ins on larger, shorthaired dolls. The idea is to soften the edges, not to make massive changes.

Those of us who are bonkers enough to try to match the texture of the 1959 ponytail Barbie have bought saran rope and unwound it to poke into doll heads.

I bought ponytail hanks from beauty supply stores. One ponytail can do 6 Barbies, and it is not always the appropriate texture for a small doll. This red is a great color, but definitely coarse.

Restoredoll's  hanks are a better deal if you don't want 6 dolls with the same color hair. And there are WAY more colors. Hobby Lobby has straight strand doll hair hanks that match their version of curly hair. If you are picky about color, go to Restoredoll online.

When using straight hair to reroot a doll, I find a needle threader  essential. There is a tool for threading yarn into tapestry needles over in the plastic canvas section, and that works, too. Anything to haul 6 strands through the large eye of an embroidery needle is good. A dish of water to tame the fly-aways helps, although sometimes I just use gel hairsetting stuff.

There are videos showing how to turn yarn into wefts for gluing onto a doll, and I have yet to try.

That fake fur for making bears and stuffed animals works. You can either make a custom wig cap pattern and trace it onto the back of the fur, or you can cut a rectangle and gather it at the top and nape of the neck. The shaped wig cap pattern worked for an Effanbee 12 incher, the rectangle was good enough for a Barbie clone.

Rerooting links

http://www.wideeyedgirls.com/rerootinstruction.html
Using straight hair. I love this one. Lots of photos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA159M7i2U8 rerooting with a reroot tool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm3YDwTX7Ug using clumps of wefted hahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgvVgxfaWHM Lock and loop method

Wigmaking links

http://eveningdreams8.tumblr.com/post/19199692985/how-to-make-a-wig-that-wont-fall-off-your-oddly
https://www.deviantart.com/rorek/art/Fur-Wig-Tutorial-97333242?moodonly=24

http://www.ginabellousdolls.com/wigging-diagrams/

Making Shoes for Big-footed Barbie Competitors

Ribbon elastic glued to cardboard makes colorful shoes.

Bigfooted, voodoo eyed barbie clones often have frozen hips and big feet. The same things that make them less playable for kids, make them wonderful for collectors. They model clothing very well. The only drawback is their lack of shoes. Barbie shoes are too small. Little Miss Revlon shoes are too big. If you carry a Bigfoot around to multiple doll shoes, you might find the right sized shoes.

My solution is to make them myself, by drawing around the dolls' feet onto lightweight cardboard and gluing an elastic sleeve to the sole. Using spandex ribbon elastic allows me to put shoes on the doll without fear. You can reuse broken vinyl shoes as your base, if you have them.

Drawing around the doll's foot and making cardboard soles is easy. The thickness of your cardboard matters. Cereal container cardboard is thinner than tissue box cardboard, and both differ from soda can cardboard. I like soda can cardboard because it will bend and hold a shape. I cut two soles per foot.

Wrap the stretchy ribbon or elastic around the doll's foot at the arch, and sew the ends together. Slip the elastic ring around her foot, then glue it to one of the soles. Doesn't matter if it is upper or lower because you will be sandwiching the elastic between cardboard layers. It pains me to admit that hot glue is useful for this as it levels itself. It also produces glue strings that must be trimmed, or even filed off with an emery board.

The easiest heel for Bigfoot Barbie Competitor is a bit of glue stick. Measure from the doll's heel to the table top, slice this length from the glue stick,  then slice it in half lengthwise to make two heels. Again, a hot glue gun is an effective way to attach them.

Attempt #1 uses elastic glued under the shoe sole, and papier mache' heels.

Doll Shoe #2 uses a broken vinyl shoe as a base.

Finish your doll shoes with an emery board. This removes glue at the sides, and trims the cardboard.

That shoe sole template you used  to make your cardboard soles can be placed under parchment paper or waxed paper to use as a guide for a hot glue sole. Patience helps, but I don't have any. Often I will make several  thin soles and iron them together.

 

It doesn't look great at this stage, but finishing helps. Some people run a hot glue gun around the sides to smooth the glue. Some people use an emery board. I use whatever is close to hand.

What Do You Say to a Naked Tammy Clone?

The thing about cheesy Tammy clones is that almost anything you do improves them. Knit a outfit, the doll is happy. Add a long skirt to a jacket made from a pattern for Ginny dolls, and she looks as if she is emulating Jackie Kennedy.

Stuffing a Tammy clone into a dress made from printed panels of Barbie clothing was not all that wise a choice. Most loose-fitting oufits meant for Barbie work very well on Tammy. I suspect that if you added a seam width the length the bodices of patterns for Little Miss Revlon, they'd work too.

These two Horsman Mary Poppins dolls outlived their clothing. I was charmed by the doll in original red and white striped dress and blue flannel coat. It suggested that blue was the color for these girls. Striped pants are generic clone; striped knit shirt is clever yarn and basic hand knitting. Dress came from a pattern in Top Outfits for Teenage Dolls. Yes, I think they like blue.

Mary Poppins tolerates knitwear, but is a bit less pleased with a skimmer from a Barbie pattern. The pattern claimed it was for Barbie and Tammy. Much hollow laughter. If you try the clothing on at each stage, you may be able to fix a too-big bust and too small sleeve opening. You may be able to enlarge the waist on pants and dresses. The dolls are less than 12 inches, but very different body types. Anything slinky designed for Barbie will look horrible on Tammy.

To pattern companies, one 12 inch doll was pretty much the same as the next. Tammy' s flat chest, large thighs and larger waist beg to differ.  Simplicity 4883 has a strapless top that works for Tammy. The McCall pattern that follows is strictly for Tammy, though of course that busty Mattel doll could wear the clothing.

The yellow dress in the center actually looks awful on all dolls. Other girl doll designs work well. Blogger is toying with me today, and has rendered things in multiple fonts, removed photos and other joys, so I will not attempt to show more pattern fronts.

Is That Tammy, or Lorna, or Judy, or Shelley, or...

Ideal's Tammy & AE's Lorna

It took me a long time to warm to Tammy, even clone crazy as I am. Tammy was billed as "The doll you love to dress," and I hated her clothes. Tammy's figure reminded me of a 12 year old, but the high color hinted that she could be as old as 15. Even kids who played with her when she came out in 1963 thought she was 12. Gradually my dislike of the doll lessened. In the 80's a John Axe book on Tammy introduced me to some interesting clones. At the local library, I found the Nesta Hollis book, Top Outfits for Teenage Dolls. Sindy, the UK version of Tammy, was the model throughout Hollis' book, and the clothing was mod and fun-looking. Tammy's first issued clothing was in restrained good taste and terrifically boring.

There are oodles of versions of Tammy. Some could fool you, and some took the idea in new directions. A visit to Dorothy Guider's information website http://fashionclonedolls.weebly.com/  showed me pictures of Tammy clones among the Barbie clones. A good many Tammy clones have only a roundish face and the distinctive mouth shape in common with Tammy. All have a preteen body with small high breasts.

Tammy clones come in two sorts: good vinyl with good hair, and cheap vinyl with coarse hair. Even the best lookalikes don't share the luminous quality Ideal gave Tammy. Good clones include Pedigree's Sindy, Unique's Calico Lassie, AE's Lorna, Ross' Tina Cassini. Horsman used a Tammy shape and face for Patty Duke, Mary Poppins, Cinderella, Celeste and Elizabeth Taylor. Even some of the good ones lack markings of any sort. Some are total mysteries. Another mystery is an AA doll dressed as an American Indian.

There's a pale clone with molded hair peeking through her rooted hair.This black Tammy type has starfish hands and preteen body, but a more closed mouth. Her head is markedly more orange than her body. She is taller than Tammy, at 13 inches, closer to Eegee's Shelley.

Cheap squishy Tammy copies abound. Some are marked Hong Kong, some have no markings, some have bumpy feet to hold on shoes, some have hair that fell out in storage; some were sold to the craft market and have almost colorless vinyl. They are frequently made from vinyl that is a smidge too red. Couple this with orange-yellow skimpy short hair, and you have a doll with as much in common with Bozo the clown as with Tammy. Below, the brunette has Hong Kong and two raised dots on her back. The platinum blond is a reroot with a possibly Chinese character in a circle on her head.The red head with faded lips has Hong Kong on the back of her head and Made in Hong Kong on her shoulder blades.

Calico Lassie with original hair and Calico Lassie wigged. 

Darice Tammy type craft doll

Horsman Mary Poppins came with red or pink lips.

I think my biggest gripe about Tammy is that horrible blue and white romper. That playsuit, so reminiscent of  high school gym clothes, repels me. It has no subtlety. It is pretty much a pancake  outfit. Someone drew a shape around the doll, added almost enough seam allowance,  and used the same pattern for front and back. There isn't enough ease for the doll to raise her arms easily, and the placement of the white accents would make romping in the romper uncomfortable for a human. Many of the cheap clones came in knockoffs of Tammy's blue and white romper, but different colors made it less offensive.

Tammy was produced by Ideal from 1962-66. Horsman apparently loved the mold and used it for dolls from 1965-67. Pedigree did well with the Tammy-esque Sindy for years and years, until Hasbro bought the doll and tried to rurn it into an ersatz Barbie. In the 80's, Darice Crafts produced a pale imitation sold at doll parts suppliers and craft stores. By the time Darice got into it, most other Tammy types had vanished. And along about then, my dislike of Tammy vanished into admiration for all the Tammy lookalikes. When I stopped looking at Tammy as a Not-Barbie and looked at her as a preteen doll, I was able to appreciate Ideal's quality vinyl and excellent face painting.


Sites to look at: 
 http://planetofthedolls.blogspot.com/2017/06/doll-day-2017-169shelley-by-eegee.html
http://houseofretro.com/index.php/2014/03/17/tina-cassini-1960s-fashion-doll/
http://dollvogue.com/wp/?p=471      Patty Duke Doll
http://www.fleurdolls.com/index.html          Sindy style dolls from the Netherlands

Tammy's Mother Has No Name

The doll sold as Tammy's mother has the prettiest face and nicest coloring-- but I say that about a lot of Ideal dolls.  Sewing for her requires a bit of thought, as she is taller than Tammy and thicker than Barbie.

I thought life was lovely when I discovered a pattern just for Tammy and her mother, Butterick's 2931. It says it is for Tammy and her mother.

 The styles of the outfits on the pattern are right for Tammy and her mother in the 60s. The range of outfits is delightful: dress and summer topper, shirtwaist dress, blouse with long sleeves, overblouse, vest, pleated skirt, and jacket. Mom would wear a pleated skirt with a suit jacket, Tammy would wear it with a vest. The design team was a bit pleat-happy, suggesting soft pleats for a dress and sharp pleats for a skirt. Even with a Perfect Pleater, this is a bit much. If you are using a plaid, you must iron in the pleats one by one, because Perfect Pleater allows fabric to escape a bit. I will never achieve woven plaid pleats that align well with this device.

The straight lines of the dress are perfect with the coat with 3/4 length sleeves. My doll wanted it immediately, and I cut the clothes before testing the patterns. Both patterns are too short. Can you hear me swearing? The dress was improved with a bit of bias binding at the bottom, and I hope the bright red fools the eye into thinking the dress is long enough. The coat needed  a pieced hem .

Actually, I'd like to take the instruction writer out behind the barn and whack her or him a few times. There are darts where none are needed, Tammy and her mother are not the same height but the patterns don't remind you of this, and then there is the matter of bias tape. No one, absolutely NO ONE, should use bias binding to face the neck and armscyes of  dress A,B,C. Doing so will cause the neck to stand out oddly, and  will make the arm holes too tight for Tammy's mother. This idiotic instruction is repeated for all bodice pieces. The best thing to do is sew the bodice together at the shoulders and draw facings, preferably a single piece. I used bias binding in both  places, and had to unpick it.  Use bias tulle instead. I also want an extra half-inch on the dress length for the mother doll, because mothers in the mid 60s rarely wore dresses above their knees. Just at the knee or just below was the norm.

Tammy's mother can wear shoes marketed for Little Miss Revlon, Miss Nancy Ann, Jan and Jill and all 10 to 10 1/2 inch doll friends.  A friend gave me some with broken straps, so I trimmed them off, made an elastic band around  the foot, and glued the shoe base to it. Ta da. Shoes with a chevron strap to go with a dress with a chevron print. 

Evening attire for Tammy is perfect for a young girl of 15 or 16, but breathless and innocent are not what suits a thirty-something matron. Or so she claimed.  We resorted to a basic t-shape, with the top of the T on the fold of fabric--knit fabric, of course. I should have added a seam allowance. The dress is tolerable, but far from outstanding. Tammy's Mom finds this dress a lot more risque' than she would like. See-through, foo.

In the mid-60s everyone from teens to grandmas wore A-line skimmers. Why should Tammy's mother be any different? I drew little cap sleeves onto the straight dress pattern and gave it a slight flare.

Yes, of course any pattern for Tammy will work for Tammy's Mom, but they work better if you add an inch to the hem. Add a lacy ruffle to the bottom of a skimmer and make it in brocade, and  Zowie! Tammy's Mom goes Mod.

Redressing the Littlechaps

I resisted collecting Remco's Littlechap dolls, in spite of their beautifully made clothing, so perfectly representative of  upper middle class America in 1963. No other doll maker produced such a handsome male doll as Dr. Littlechap. Many mothers longed for Lisa Littlechap's wardrobe. Young teens looked at Judy Littlechap's clothes and thought her mother had picked them out for her, that she really needed an all-black skinny pants and turtleneck set, like  Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina. As for the mischievous Libby Littlechap? We knew she really spent most of her time in jeans.

Remco's Littlechap family is startlingly good quality, which put them out of reach of many would-be buyers. The dolls cannot swap clothing with Barbie or GI Joe, another limitation. The bizarrely wide stance still irks me. Dr. John's legs don't have as wide a spread, but the ladies all stand with legs wide, as if braced for battle. Remco also sold an office for Dr. John and a girly bedroom, both from sturdy cardboard, both available on the secondary market in good condition.

Libby broke my resolve. A neighbor clearing out her parents' attic discovered the doll she had played with, or almost all of the doll. One leg had been broken off at the hip. The other part never surfaced, so I added papier mache' to what was left, sanded it, painted it with gesso, and put the doll in a bin in the basement. Along came a flood, and while the papier mache' leg survived, it was twisted and warped at the foot. When I attacked the problem again, I failed to notice that the knee was considerably lower on the added leg. She is gesso'ed,  painted, and destined to wear jeans to hide the problem. And the fact that I have no patience in color matching. 

Libby opened the door, and I avidly looked at all the Littlechaps on eBay. When the entire rest of the family came up, I bought them. Lisa wore her red negligee. A pajama top to Judy had found its way into my stash. And the hunky Dr. was completely nude. Lisa and Judy could wear shoes from Esteem's Happy To Be Me dolls. Dr. Littlechap could wear shoes from Mattel's vintage Ken.

Dressing the Littlechap family is easier when you have decades of patterns for doll clothing, even though the very wide stance means longer than normal back openings. Johanna Gast Anderton's Clothing for Twentieth Century Dolls  provided patterns from original outfits. Lisa got a Chanel style knitwear suit. Dr. John's suit is from the same dark green knit.

I find the suit jacket for Dr. John a bit short bodied, but I will accept that it was drawn from the original. Should I ever make him another jacket, it will be longer. He is angling for an LL Bean barn coat. He also wants a better photographer.  

Lisa is content with mock Chanel, but would not say no to a hand embroidered sweater with a matching corduroy gathered skirt -- the costume of the 80s woman.

The 10 inch Libby is a head taller than skinny Skipper, and broader besides, but can wear pajamas and some dresses from Little Miss Revlon. Anyway, she is sick of red velveteen and having to keep the dress nice. She is not picky about her clothes, she just wants to go out and play.  Currently she is wearing a dress made from a little Miss Revlon pattern, and yes, it IS meant to be low-waisted. Libby's feet look the same size as original Skipper, but she seems a more rough and tumble child. I wanted something that looked sturdier, and found it in the loafers made for Teen Skipper. Libby promptly lost one.

At 13 inches, Judy is uninterested in any clothing meant for Barbie, but could probably wear patterns meant for Kenner's Darci. She has a jumper made from the same green knit as her parents' suits, and tolerates it only because I used Marian Jasper's patterns for the 15 1/2 inch Gene to make her a blouse with a Carnaby Street high collar. She is grumpy about a gray blue four gore skirt, tolerates a flowered pullover made from a sock, and insisted on an A-line dress. She also wanted a swing coat. She is passionate about clothing, but I am unwilling right now.

Bionic Woman Redressed

In general, most of the patterns for Barbie from the 1980s require us to add half an inch in bodice width and an inch in skirt length for Bionic Woman. The Mego Farrah and Cher are narrower through the bust than Kenner dolls.Also, the patterns seem meant for dolls who are passive and interested in fashion, as opposed to dolls that are active, such as Bionic Woman and Dusty.

International Velvet wears the first tiered skirt, too narrow for Bionic. Skirt 2 is successful. Skirt 3 is too short & fluffy.

Gathered tiered skirts would allow Bionic Woman to run. I couldn't find them in patterns for fashion dolls,so I made one.

I added ease to the hip measurement and came up with 6 1/2 to 7 inches for the first tier. Most tiered skirts add 1/3 to the previous tier, so 6 1/2, 11, 17 should work. It did, but seems skimpy on Bionic Woman. International Velvet got it. Bionic Woman prefers 7, 13, 20 inches. My tiers are 2 inches wide. I fold the top tier down over 4 1/2 inches of standard elastic that is more than 1/4 inch wide and less than 1/2, and stitch. Fabric choice makes a difference. The 2 inch width was fine for a woven plaid, but the woven stripe would have looked better with strips 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 inches wide.

I tried to use a  peasant blouse pattern from a Simplicity Barbie pattern of the 80s, but it is just too small and too short from armhole to neck for Bionic Woman. Adding an inch ought to fix it. Because I didn't have any more of that particular fabric, I added a band to run the gathering thread through instead.

Simplicity 9194  has pieces in both 11 1/2 and 12 1/2  sizes, and everything does work...except that I cannot imagine the Bionic Woman being willing to wear a skirt she cannot run in. On the other hand, I love the patterns because they are so simple that I can use fancy stitching to enliven plain solids. The individual designs will look great on Cher and Farrah dolls. The jacket is fine.The pants are tolerable.

Bionic has flat feet with movable ankles, and making shoes from foam sheets is not only possible but easy. Draw around her foot on thin cardboard. Draw 4 full soles and 4 half soles. Sandwich the half soles between the full soles using any glue you like. I used hot glue not because I like it but because it gave me fast results. I used a thinner foam fora strap across the front of her foot. Using an emery board, I smoothed the sides to make the shoe look more finished. It's not elegant, but it will do. 

Sewing for Bionic Woman dolls made me address some of the issues that annoy me about the doll. By the time I rescued them, their heads and feet wanted to face backward, and she has no shoes. I can deal with the frizzy hair by sticking it in a bun but those backward heads --yuck.  The little rubberbands meant for bracelet crafting by kids helped. One twist makes two loops, and the head is more stable. The ankles took 3 loops.