More Freja redressing ...

I couldn't help but redress my FR:16 Freja again.  These first few pics are Freja wearing a Tyler Wentworth outfit.  It fits her pretty much perfectly except the waist in the skirt is ever so slightly loose on her.  The FR:16s must have a smaller waist than Tyler.  The shoes from this outfit fit Freja nicely.  If I ever manage to remember the name of this outfit, I'll re-edit this post with the name.

I also tried her in a Gene outfit called "Suited for Fur." (Last photo, below.)  It fits her perfectly, even the shoes.  I was stoked to discover her mauvey-pink lipstick matches the dress and hat perfectly.  LOL!  Don't ya love coincidences like that?

Hey, did I tell you yet that I love her tan?  It's not a baked-too-long-in-the-tanning-salon tan; it's just a lovely, very natural golden tan.  As much as I love this skin color, though, I'd also love to see this sculpt at least once with the lighter "Caucasian" skin tone (as Integrity Toys calls it) in the future.  I have to say, though, this sculpt really can take any skin color and still look fabulous.  Case in point:  My two favorite AvantGuards were "Livewire" and "Androgyny," who both shared this sculpt, but were opposites in skin color.  Both were equally amazing.  They also happened to be the only AvantGuards I ever bought.

 

Silver Giselle

The Pink Parlor forum was having a "silver and black" theme this week, so I got out the camera.

This is my only Giselle.  I somehow missed out on getting both of the Giselles released so far this year.  I didn't win the lottery for "Glam Addict" Giselle and "Live, Work, Play" sold out before I could get her.  Sigh.  The funny (or unfunny) thing is I ALMOST got one of the "Live, Work, Play" Giselles.  My main dealer sold out of her, so I went to a different site.  I had Giselle in my shopping cart AND RIGHT THEN MY INTERNET WENT DOWN.  AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! 

By the time my Internet was working again ... well ... you can guess.  No Giselle.  Sold out everywhere.  Sigh. 



I made the dress.  (Yes ... It DOES look like a Karen Kolkman dress, but I made this one for myself.) 

Made a dress for Freja ...

I didn't think I'd ever get into having 16-inch dolls again, but I'm enjoying Freja.  For one thing, it's more fun and less stressful for me to sew clothing for the larger scale body.  I just finished this faux leather dress especially for Freja.  The white polka-dotted belt is removable; I only just made it because it went with the awesome hat, which I stole from a Gene outfit.  (I have no talent for making hats.  LOL.)  The Gene outfit that went with the hat unfortunately was too tight for the FR:16 body.  I could get the dress on her, but it wouldn't snap up all the way in back. 

Freja needed a basic "little black dress" anyway.  Hee hee.  The jewelry is also from Gene (I think), but I forget which outfit it was from.  I have a bunch of old Gene clothing shoved into a drawer, here, and some of the pieces have gotten separated.   

I've discovered the FR:16s seem to fit well into the Integrity-made Gene clothing and shoes, but not so well into the older Gene clothing and shoes. After I took these pictures, I discovered she fits perfectly into the Gene fashions "Suited For Fur" and "Town and Country."

If you'd like to read my review of this doll, you can see it here.  (Or just scroll down.)

On another note, I also discovered she has the exact same shade of saran hair as "Look of Love" Poppy Parker.  The exact match is "Chestnut Brown" saran from dollyhair.com.  The color probably has a different name on restoredoll.com, but I don't know what their name for it would be. 

More later,
Hugs

Review of FR:16 "Perfect Layout" Freja Mossimo

Freja wearing a Gene outfit.

I saw someone was selling Freja secondhand, and, having a rather empty bank account due to other pre-orders, I asked if they'd be willing to make a trade.  Lucky me, they accepted, and so I now have my first FR:16!  Sending many hugs to my trading partner, Don!

Since the FR:16s are a new line, I thought I'd do a review. 

First off, I'm totally in love with this sculpt.  This is the face sculpt that previously had seven incarnations in the AvantGuards line by Integrity Toys, beginning with "Eclectic," "Lush" and "Livewire." I'm so glad Integrity resurrected this face for their FR:16 line!  However, instead of the anorexic AvantGuard bodies, the FR:16s have a new, curvier, beautiful body sculpt.  A HUGE improvement!  Freja's body is not floppy, either, like many of the AvantGuards were.  This girl would actually look nice in a swimsuit.

The jewelry Freja came with was very simple (stud earrings and two bracelets).  Not exciting, but at least it kept the cost down.  I was pleased to discover her sweater is a separate piece from the skirt!  I've spent the past month thinking it was a one-piece dress.  She comes with panties underneath the skirt, which is also nice.  No pantyhose. 

Her hair is rooted.  No wigs!

Pluses: 
1. Her toes are hinged so that she will fit into a wide variety of shoes of differing heights.  This will make it easy to find shoes for her.  She literally can wear both flat shoes AND heels equally well.
2. The makeup is nicely applied and blended.  Lips are pink, but not TOO pink. 
3. She has the "handspeak" system, which means her hands pop out so it's easier to re-dress her in tops with tight-fitting sleeves. 
4. Sweater is a separate piece from the skirt for more re-dressing mixing and matching. 
5. Since she is 41cm / 16" tall, she can fit into a lot of Tyler Wentworth outfits, and some Gene outfits.  (Some Gene outfits will be too tight, however.  It seems like the Integrity-made Gene clothes fit better than the older Gene outfits.)

Minuses: 

1. Sweater does NOT open in the back at all, which makes it difficult to get on and off the doll. 
2. The shoes are delicate and one of the shoes on mine has already come apart.  The shoes are attractive, though. 
3. Her articulation is slightly less perfect than the articulation the AvantGuards had, although the body is so much more attractive that this really doesn't bother me in the slightest.  She's still very nicely articulated. 
4. The toe joint isn't attractive.  My 4-year-old said "Look!  She has MONKEY TOES!!!"  LOL.  Well, I guess sometimes we have to trade esthetics for functionality, eh?

I will definitely be posting more redress pics here at some later date. 

Overall:  I love her.

What they could do better:  Make those awesome sweaters so they open in the back!

Thanks for reading. :)

Baby It's You Poppy Parker set

My Baby It's You Poppy Parker gift set arrived today!  I had to do an immediate photoshoot.  I think this is one of the most beautiful Poppys ever!  If I were going to leave her displayed just like this, I wouldn't mess with her hair, but since I like to re-dress my girls, I'm afraid that hairstyle is going to have to come down.  Heh heh. 

I like Chip, but he's not staying.  I arranged to do a split with someone else to share the costs of the gift set, so I'm only keeping Poppy.  I have to say, though, Chip is pretty awesome. I've pre-ordered the new "My Generation" Chip with the '60s-style mod look, so there will be a Chip staying in this house eventually.  This Chip looks a bit like Elvis in a white tuxedo jacket.

Lovely Poppy.  She has Gwen Stefani coloring and the Bergdorf Poppy eye screening.  Perfection. I think more Poppy Parkers need to have big brown eyes.  *Loves*

Just wanted to show everyone the hairstyle.  It's a curly, cute flip.  The dress zippers down the back, as you can see.  These pics were taken in natural sunlight so you can more accurately see the color of her dress.

Poppy portraits

I managed to do a trade for one of the new FR:16 dolls by Integrity Toys ("Perfect Layout" Freja) and I'm so excited about getting to see one of the FR:16's in person!  I'll have to wait a few days until she gets here, though.  In the meantime, I thought I'd photograph a couple of my Poppy Parkers.

This is "Ask Any Girl" (brunette) and "Youthquake."  I'd kept AAG's hair in its original hairstyle as long as I could, but finally it had gotten so messy I had to take her hair down.  These are my first pics of her with her hair down.  She's one of my favorite Poppy Parkers of all time, with my absolute favorite eye screening.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.  You can click on them to make them bigger.

Pony re-hairing project

The pony used was called "Plumsweet."

I've re-rooted dolls before, but never any other kind of toy.  I thought it would be fun to re-root a My Little Pony toy to look albino.  I managed to finish the project in one evening, with the following results.  My 4-year-old daughter is enchanted by it, at least.  LOL.

I used "Snowflake" nylon doll hair from dollyhair.com for the re-root.  This was my first time using nylon hair for anything.  I always used saran for doll heads.  Nylon is slightly stiffer, but still responded well to a soak in just-boiling water to make it lay flat and behave nicely.

Removing the neck knob was the most difficult part of the project, because it was glued in there pretty well.  I had to use an exacto blade/utility knife to cut the neck knob out.  Once it was out, though, the tail came out all in one piece.  I had to use tweezers to pluck out the original mane, though.

Disassembled and ready for customizing.

The finished pony.

New dealers for Integrity Toys

"Day Tripper" Poppy Parker

Integrity Toys' new 2012 line just came out today.  If you aren't in their W Club you might not know they have several new dealers this year.  You may want to check them out to look for the new dolls.  They are (in no particular order):

Treasure Dolls 

Lone Star Dolls

Toni's Collectibles

Patt and Billy's Dolls and Bears

John Robert Collectibles

Cheryl's Dolls

To see a list of the rest of Integrity's dealers, visit their web site, here.