Current Mood : Dizzy !
Spent on dolls : $5.
Spent on a box o' scrapbook junk : $2.
Ya'll are not gonna believe this. The designer who created the Eve design I had trouble with last night not only wrote back, but she completely redesigned the stitching for t-shirt knits and e-mailed it to me ! No kidding. Eve now stitches out as one smooth wave, top to bottom, with no jumping or pinching. Wow. I still can't believe she did that, because I whined about it. The designer, Claire, was so kind and helpful, I felt bad for even telling her I had a problem to begin with, and she really went above and beyond to fix it. I am impressed, and you know that's not something that happens every day.
I got to sleep in today, and that was wonderful. Ran an errand with Beloved Hubby this afternoon, and saw that the Flea Market banners were up at the fairgrounds. So, I hit it after lunch. Lot to look at, not a lot to buy. Scored two new dolls, though - both vintage-with-damage from the car set seller, but for $5., I'm happy with both dolls, and I'll eventually find replacement bodies.
The first is a lovely blonde Free Moving Barbie, with pretty, soft hair and with her red and white jumpsuit. I already have the skirt ! Her hands are chewed, and her legs and hips have severely melted. Her ‘free motion' feature is nearly gone, she's so limp and tired. But her face is just heart-stealing, and for years, this was the face of Barbie for me. It's the same face as Sweet 16s - my childhood favorite Barbie - and Ballerina, and I can't resist it. It's almost Steffie-like, but not quite.
And Chez Insanity also welcomes a brunette Twist and Turn, from around 1973. Her hair and face are in good shape, but her hair needs to be retied - it's in a rubber band, and up too high. It may have been cut, but is otherwise excellent condition. Her hands are nice, but her legs are discolored, with dark bands circling around both knees. Her right foot seems to have been torn off and glued back. It's as if the vinyl is shrinking, and the plastic leg ‘bones' are protruding, tearing through the vinyl at the feet. Her left foot shows splits about where the right one tore. She's still very lovely, and I've kind of wanted a brunette TnT. And now I have one. She arrived in an ankle-length red velveteen coat with black accents - lined and fairly well made, but no tags.
Well, shoot. Thanks to flea markets, I have a Bubblecut, three TnTs, a buncha Malibus, several Superstars, and I've refused at least two Rockers. I pretty much have the entire ‘My Favorite Doll' repro set already - I just need to find an authentic Ponytail !
Anyway, while talking to the seller, I remembered that I still had a doll I'd purchased weeks ago - I hadn't even brushed her hair yet. And here I was, buying two more. Well. It's about time for a clean-out, but just for today, I played with my new brunette TnT, my lovely blonde FM, and my now-brushed past find, who I believe is a Tropical. She has that same light tan tone, streaked hair nearly to her knees, and the one-color eyes as in-box Tropicals I've found online. So that's pretty cool. Until Totally Hair came around, Tropical's hair was promoted as being Barbie's longest hair ever. She came in an awesome 80s jumpsuit, with her hair in a high ponytail. It's been brushed out, and I love the streaks. Great quality saran hair.
Hit a yard sale on the way home, and snagged a box of misc. scrapbooking supplies - dozens of papers, unopened sticker packs, and card shapes. Whole reason I bought it was because three of the cardstock paper sets looked like tiny Barbie notepads. That, and the papers and rulers and stencils would be fun for Dearest to play with this summer, and there were several packages of photo frames I liked. Well worth the $2.
As the night got late, I figured I at least owed a trial run to the nice digitizer who worked so hard on getting Eve right for me. I was fairly confident of the new version. So you can imagine how upset I was when it still puckered. Just one line of stitching, that's all it took. For some reason, I didn't notice that line in Ambassador. Well, clearly no matter how tight I got things, I wasn't getting it tight enough. And I was tired of wasting supplies.
Remember the iron-on interfacing I'd hoped to use as stitch cover ? Yup. I measured out a square and ironed it to Scrap #4. Under that, I lined up two sheets of... (wait for it) used dryer sheets. I practiced the good hooping I'd read about, and gave it the ole college try, one more time. And, as you saw in today's image, it bloody well worked. Alleluia.
What makes it even greater is that I already know this interfacing comes off in the wash. So I won't have that ‘design shield' look under it on clothes. I get it stitched, throw it in the laundry, and then iron some stitch cover to it, and that should do it. And I didn't have to blow more cash on adhesive spray. Whew !
Hand-stitched some filler on those blank spots in yesterday's Eve, and got her fray-checked. Tomorrow, I'll use some Peltex and make her into a fridge magnet. Today's Eve will probably become another change-pouch. And tomorrow, you get to see the dolls I was talking about earlier ! Hope your day was on a more even keel ! Me, I'm nearly dizzy with success on Eve, finally !
