"Kitchy Cuts" - Haircuts at the Kitchen Table Do's and Don'ts

With the arrival of a NEW GIRL, I always have wondered how many of us just love her the way she is, or if may... be ..... we think we should change her up a little bit.? :) With my inner nature of wanting to put my own touch on the doll, I have begun gaining the courage to make my own customizations to her, starting with changing her eye chips and giving her a new doo.

I will admit that the with my first Blythe Doll purchase I loved her just the way she was and intended her to be a gift for my daughter. She was such pricey little dolly that I couldn't imagine changing her makeup, eye chips or anything else for that matter. And of course the unthinkable would be to take a pair of friskars to her hair, so the first doll remained just has she came. But now that my daughter and I have  four dolls in the family (two she owns, and two that are actually mine) I have decided that it is more fun to give my girls the " look" I see them having verses what the factory folks thought.
I also have come to personal grips with buying the less expensive models even though they may not "come" with all the features I desire. If the base model is a good price, the hair color is one that I desire, and skin tone or face shape is right,  I can easily work with that by spending just a little more on the eyechip colors that I like.

Most of today's Blythe Dolls come with very long hair. Yes, it is glamorous, and leaves lots of options for hair styles, but since I work frequently with dolls taking on and off their clothes.... I hate the long hair for practical reasons. So, in this post you will see the steps to my new girl Tallie's haircut.

First Decide Your Dolls Personality 
and Face Shape. 
You will probably have your own idea right away about how you want your doll's finished look to be, however if you don't, I recommend looking at other dolls that you admire and thinking about what features you like about those dolls. Also, it's a good idea to go through hair salon books and simple kid cuts to get some ideas. I decided that I really like mid length  "Page Boy angled Bob Cut", and that Tallie would look simply smashing with a edgey shorter cut. Next: BE BRAVE! You can do it. :) It's a good idea to determine the end length that you would like to see on your doll, and cut LONGER than what you think so that you can cut it shorter as you go. As you know - once you cut, the hair does not grow back like a human. I decided to go for mid length cut here for Tallie just like Piccadilly Encore on the left. I used her elbow as a base point for the longest front layer. I "eyeballed" it and then turned the doll around to the back and parted her hair down the middle to separate each side.

Do Cut from Center to back to Front First
After I determined the length in the front. I started cutting from the center back where I divided the hair into two sides. Since I wanted the cut hair angled from shorter in the back to longer in the front, I angled my scissors from center middle back to front cheek just slightly. After completing this step I repeated the same thing to the other side of the hair.
Do Cut One Section of Your Doll's Hair at a Time
You may decide at this point if you want the hair more or less angled and work with the length easily. By cutting one side at a time you can manage an even look a little better than trying the old kitchen "bowl cut" method.

DON"T Just Whack Off Your Doll's Hair in One Large Section. 

Cutting all the hair at once does not produce desired results! I would only recommend doing this only if you are cutting from the very bottom when the hair is very long to get rid of excess length. As you see here, the right side was cut first as I found it easier being a right-handed person to do this side first. If you are a lefty, start from the left center back and cut on a slight angle to the front left cheek. 

    This cut was fairly simple, because the hair is very straight and I could easily see the edge of the hair after cutting a blunt cut. It is also helpful to look up under the hair after it is cut and trim from inside neck layer to out layer to even out the bottom edge for that lovely blunt edge layer that is so popular today. Once you get really good at cutting your doll's hair you may want to go for an even more layered "stack" cut. 

 Left side layer is evenly achieved here. After turning the doll so that she faces you front on. Look at her face and pinch the front strands of hair on each side next to her cheeks with each hand and pull hair down straight to make sure both sides are even and have the desired wedge you are looking for. Hopefully you won't have to do any more trimming and the length on each side of your doll's chin will look the same on both sides. 

     After the haircut is finished, sit back and look at what a good job you did! Take a picture and post it. I would love to see what you did and let me know how it went. The next thing I would add is that you Don't Forget the Pull string! Go shopping through your old jewelry or go to your local craft store and select a lovely accessory or jewel of your choice and tie it onto your Girl's pull string. This really personalizes your girl with Dolly Jewelry! I love it!

"Finishings for Her" - New Dolly Jewelry 

We added A NEW Yellow Rose and Double Tear Shaped Jewel Pull string! 

"What a girl wants, what a girl needs!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

       The Final Product ~ Ah so LOVELY~

The Happiest Days Are When Blythe Dolls Come!

Paige:  "Looks like we got a NEW Girl here." 

Misty: "Yes, isn't it exciting?"

Paige: "I am not so sure yet.... she looks too pretty."

Tallie: "Did you ever get the feeling that you may be the new kid on the block?"

Tallie: "I just want to fit in."

"The New Owner does look excited!!"

"YES! Everything is going to be just fine!"

 

This New BEAUTY arrived last week! For every Blythe Doll owner we can tell you that the excitement of a new doll arrival is about the next best thing to HEAVEN! 

Stay tuned for the next post to see what we did to our new girl.... 

da da daahhhh..........

A Mother First, A Blythe DollOutfitter Second

No, there haven't been any new additions to my shop for a few months now, but I must admit that my calling as a Mother has taken over my online business as a Blythe Doll Outfitter. Though I want to apologize to all my followers for the lack of new creations, I can only say that when one juggles many things something has to come up short. It reminds me of that old Whitney Houston song from the 90's " I'm Every Woman... it's all in me, anything you want done baby, I can do it naturally."   Though that song is inspirational - we as women can not do it all and we shouldn't try to kid ourselves that we can or should. Only with God's Divine help do I accomplish anything. So..... that brings me to say that ultimately I must resign to the fact that all things will come in due time as long as I patiently work at my goals and Trust in the Lord to show me what He should have me to do.

Below you will see in the picture my daughter standing in front of a Beautiful Red Door. So I say "See beauty and let us go in". Be inspired by all that is around you and know that your creativity is an expression of who you are. Let it come out and even when you don't feel good, know that you are not alone. God has made us in His own Image to create just like Him. Inspiration can be an everyday thing if we just look around us.

 

"August Rush" - My Life, Not the Movie!

I sit at my desk this morning in a mess of papers and several half cleaned-out drawers that I started last week. The mess is driving me nuts. My kids went off to school yesterday in a rush. Here's a glimpse inside my world of yesterday. Ready?  This post will be one for any Mom out there, Blythe Lover over not to identify with.

I saw my 4th grade son off to his first year at a new school ( I will mention that he screamed the whole morning about how he hates school in general and everything in his world was terrible), so you can get the full appreciation of how my day started out, after leaving the school I attended at PTA meeting near by and was persuaded to be the Home Room Mom, then went off to a doctor's appointment midmorning. Following that I grabbed a quick bite at the local deli and then headed to another appointment in the early afternoon, went back home to let the dogs out and load some dishes into the washer, headed back out to pick up my son from school, dropped him back at home, proceeded to pull back out of my driveway to drop my other son to his martial arts class, came back home to make dinner, left dinner on the stove and trucked back over to the Middle school to meet my daughter's new volleyball coach, (my daughter was sick after the first day of school and couldn't attend), finally returned home around 7pm, ate dinner, cleaned it up, helped my son with his homework, looked around the messy house, went up to my room, sorted out some laundry to put away, made my bed at 8pm and decided to get in it!!

One would think that the day would end there. That was not the case. All the little children (13, 13, and 10) not really so little, gathered in my room to tell me about their school day until I finally kicked them out for showers, baths and toiletry duties. By this time, it was 9:56 pm. Will today be different? Somewhat, but I think sometimes, that we mothers need a lot more validation as useful and valuable people of the world. I love my family, and I love being a Mom, but there just isn't many "koodoos" for us at the end of the day. As school gets underway and our schedules realign, I praise the idea of "structure" and it's purpose to help me reach my goals. Now I just need to start setting them. :) This Mom, and Blythe Doll Outfitter loves the idea of a vacation from summer vacation so she could get some work done, and it's the re-starting that seems to be hard to get started.

Hand Sewn Smocking an Art of Old

My Dollies were lucky this month to have acquired this hand smocked dress! Usually they lay naked in the UrbanTrends factory as they wait to model the clothes I make for them. But.... as I was shopping around on Etsy, I couldn't resist the very tiny detail sewn by BlytheManiac. She has lots of colors to offer and being that MY favorite color is this apple green, I snatched this dress up. :)

This month I had been blogging about some crafts that my daughter and I were up to, the last entry displaying her embroidered Acorn Hat project. But another craft project that I had been toying with was "Smocking", and age old art that my aunts use to do making pillows. It always intrigued me to look at those handstitched diamonds that puckered and formed such neat little pouches. I have always wondered how to do it.

Well, while at our local library this summer, I saw a sign for the annual Johnson County Book sale! A Gold market for crafters seeking old craft and pattern books.... I decided I would head over to the Metcalf shops with my grocery bags to see if I could snag some vintage craftbooks for myself. While at the sale I bumped elbows with other excited ladies who were in pursuit of the same books. hee hee But inspite of the crowded and competitive shoppers, I was able to find a few books to my liking, one of those books explained Italian Smocking. While I don't think that this dress is "Italian Smocking"... it certainly is some kind of smocking that is just precious for our Girls to wear!

Here are some examples of patterns inside the book I found at the library. There are some other really lovely projects that most Dolly lovers would love to try as well..... see below!

I love this Purse! Most Dolly lovers would...

Don't you think?

More craft ideas acquired from the craft book "Gold Market". This purse was a pattern in the same book listed above. :0 

 

Oh, only if I had more time........ 

BlogSpot Makeover

Yes, a NEW LOOK to my Blogspot! Hope everyone likes it! I am slowly getting more educated on the art of Blogging and have recently been reading up on a better site. I recommend the magazine series Artful Blogging to anyone interested in improving the look and function of their blog. Have a great day!
http://www.magazines.com/product/artful-blogging?afd_number=3823&gclid=COHNiZLE5KICFZFV2godzkDVvg

Some crafts we have been up to this Summer.....

  

During the break from my etsy shop in June, not only was I able to enjoy some time with the family at the pool, went to the BlueBerry Patch with all my kids just south of where we live, I also visited the Plaza downtown to do some shopping. The summer is an excellent time to have these kinds of outings, and  it is also a perfect time to teach my daughter how to embroidery! :) I was inspired by a lovely acorn cap pattern I saw on Etsy by Cate Anvesky. With a simple click, I purchased the download and it was in my hands within minutes.

                                                     

                       

This is our messy little upstairs craft table. We cut a natural linen cloth in squares measuring 12 x 12 and Jenna  started tracing the pattern using my Light Board. Taping down the pattern and linen square was necessary to keep things lined up! Jenna did a great job, especially for the first time working on a light board. We then went into my basement studio to go "shopping" for just the right colors of DMC embroidery thread. She choose 9 different color schemes for the 9 Acorn Cap Girls she plans to embroider for a wall hanging quilt. 

                                                                               

 While meandering through my craft threads in the basement, I stumbled upon my very very special "It's a Small World" par fume brooch. ( I realize I am dating myself), but anyway. I LOVED this thing!! Bless my Mom - she saved it! In case you are wondering, the face lifts up and inside there is a small pocket with perfume salve inside. The back has a pin. Avon put this pin out in 1970, and one was made each year after from 1970-1975.  A Great Era for us doll lovers. Hasbro introduced the Blythe Doll in 1972.  When I saw this lovely Acorn Cap Pattern, it secretly reminded me of my brooch and Blythe! :)