Let's Play With Dolls!: Building Fae

Hi everybody! I'm busy with a lot of things so I haven't been able to write blog posts for a very long time, also happy December! I have a few ideas lined up for posts, but I'm not sure when I'll be able to get back on a regular blogging schedule!

This is a new segment of my blog for my doll related posts, because my doll collecting has been really picking up lately.

For this post I will be introducing you to Fae!

Fae is my new doll and I am absolutely taken with her! Do you recognize this doll? It may be hard to guess exactly who she is because she is one of a kind!

Let me explain! Fae has the head of a Moxie Girlz Sophina and the body of an original fully jointed Barbie.You see, I was at the thrift store yesterday and I had a boat load of luck! (I may do a haul soon to show what else I bought.) Just to list a few things, I fell for the sweet face of a Moxie girl Sophina and I picked up a couple of articulated Barbies and some doll accessories. Mostly accessories to fit with an 18in doll because I have been planning on getting one soon, hopefully around Christmas.When I went to check out I was a bit worried because I filled my basket to the top with goodies and I didn't want to spend more than 14 dollars, but SURPRISE all the toys were not only a quarter, but buy one get one free! Though, I was a bit sad that the very cute Sophina doll was naked and had no feet! (I assumed they just had feet like an old Bratz doll, feet attached to the shoes and a peg leg I mean.)

Before I left the thrift store I'd decided I would try something I'd been wanting to try for a long time, a head switch! I was nervous, but with the help of this video Sophina's head popped right off! I had considerably less luck with the Barbie head. I had two bodies and chose the old jointed body over the ballerina jointed body because the skin tone was a closer match and I preferred the flat feet over the molded ballerina shoes. I have no pictures before the head switch because I was too excited to wait and I don't have my own camera.

The jointed Barbie head came off fairly easily, but I split the delicate neck. I thought I could just push the Moxie girl's head down to conceal the split part of the neck, but when I went to put the head on I learned something disappointing, it didn't fit! The peg for the head was far too large for the hole in the Moxie girl's head! I tried as hard as I could to fit on the head, but her neck joint flopped discouragingly, but I'm not one to give up.

I asked Mckinley's dad, who was in the kitchen, if he could help shove the head on any further, but he offered a different solution. he took the head off and took out  the neck joint and went to work. He cut the split part of the neck off with a real tiny bone saw! It made a scary noise and I covered the Sophina head's eyes and gritted my teeth. He tried trial and error with the neck joint. We didn't have a hot glue gun handy (I really need to pick one up!) and none of the glue was holding so he just decided to melt it together! It really surprised me when he set my doll body's neck on fire and the neck lit up more than he was expecting. I rushed to get the dress off for the rest of the surgery, but then I noticed it had a spot of blood, he was bleeding, he must have cut himself on the saw so he took care of it before continuing and Aunt Louise helped me get out the spot of blood before it stained, so the dress was wet and drying for the first half of the pictures and she is wearing a different dress.

Here she is with the head attached to the new body!

Ta-dah! The head doesn't really move because the joint is melted to the body (Also she has some light burns on her neck, battle scars.) I hadn't fixed her hair at all at this point, I just pulled it into very messy pigtails. The skin tone of the Sophina head actually looks perfect on this body, which is really strange because the heads were not even close to being the same skin tone, weird! Her neck is also a better size for the head after the split part was cut off. The proportions of head to body are also better. She looks like her head belongs on this body!

Bobble-head Barbie!

The Barbie head and Moxie body look considerably less good together. See how these skin tones don't match at all? I didn't like the Moxie body much, but the painted pink underwear are cute.

Close up, I love this torso joint!

Here is her old body on top of her new body because I didn't have any before pictures! The old body is a lot smaller compared to the new one! (A lot smaller than it looks here, also ahh peg feet!)

Here is one of Fae dressed in a temporary barbie outfit I had next to my original Draculaura doll!

I'm holding them to show the height difference better.

She was looking very good and her head was staying on wonderfully, the surgery was a success!

Another picture of Fae with her old body and her friend headless Barbie.

I picked the name Fae because I wanted something like Frankenstein because she is a bit like a Frankenstein monster herself, but I wanted something a bit cuter and more original! I decided on Fae! Starts with an F and means magical creature, close enough right? I think she really likes the name.

Here she is sitting on the counter! She sits very well and has decent articulation in her body, though her arm flexibility isn't too good, she can't touch her face. She doesn't have articulated ankles or wrists, but is much better articulated with this new body than with her old Moxie body. Later in the day I brushed out her hair with a wire brush as you will see.

The next morning I woke up, walked my cute doggy, and put Fae in her actual dress that had been drying after it's wash and she looks very cute in it.

It's hard to see, but here she is in her dress with her hair brushed out! See what happened to her hair! Yikes! That will need some extra work and maybe a boil rinse. The frizz is kind of endearing at some angles, but I plan to boil it and cut it evenly because her cut is a bit uneven in the back. I also want to give her some bangs.

Also as a bonus tip, I made those shoes! I didn't have any shoes that would fit her large flat feet so I made my own with the help of this video I HIGHLY recommend her doll craft videos! I made them with a box from a 12 pack of Dr. Pepper, clear school glue, black finger nail polish, and duct tape! I made a few mistakes, but I'm hoping the next pair of shoes I make will be better. (I thought these turned out pretty nice though!)

My doggy snuck in this picture, do you see him?

Cutie!

Here are a few more shots of my little Fae!

The little shoes I made and a little piggy I bought that day at the thrift store. CUTE!

I am very pleased with the results of this project! Stay tuned for more of my doll projects and reviews! What do you think of Fae? Tell me if you try a head switch like this!

This was the first time I've ever seen a Moxie girl up close and I think they are very adorable in person! They have sweet faces.

See you next time!

Sugar