Fashion Icons Tariq: He's just a Doll

Last month I entered a "share your favorite hunk" challenge in hopes of winning the offered doll:  Fashion Icons Tariq by Integrity Toys ©2002 (that probably entered the market in 2003).  I shared an image of my Denzel Washington-type action figure and won!  Thank you again Mel Parker-Reeves for your generosity and thank you Denzel-type for helping me win.

Fashion Icons Tariq, Integrity Toys ©2002

FI Tariq arrived still attached to the inner liner of his original box in near mint condition without the original box.  Before recording his information into my doll inventory spreadsheet, I googled for an image and discovered he originally wore a Burberry and faux leather hat which was missing.  Something else was missing, too.

"Why is his cross attached to his shirt?  Oh... his chain is missing.  Part of it is still attached to the cross," My daughter noted after his Burberry plaid and matching underwear caught her label consciousness.   

Tariq with replaced gold chain

After a few days, I replaced Tariq's chain (as shown above) and made a cap for him.  Yes, "I" made a cap using leather from a glove that was my sister's, probably when she was in high school.  I found it while discarding things from her bedroom at my mother's house in preparation for Mama's move to a senior apartment complex a few years ago.  I knew that kid leather glove would come in handy in some form or fashion for one of my dolls.

Sister's leather glove

With suggestion assistance from my husband after showing Tariq to him and saying, "I need to make him a cap.  How should I do it?"  He took the piece of leather that I had formed into a tube around Tariq's head, shortened the top with scissors, and then said, "Just fold the tops like so and glue them down," as he illustrated what I should do.  That's all the visual learner in me needed.  I had my mission and I was going to complete it.

I took images of the cap-making process.

Leather fashioned into the shape of a tube after measuring it around Tariq's head.  The adjoining sides have been glued together and temporarily held in place with two clips.  The clips were removed after about 5 minutes and the leather allowed to dry overnight.

This is how it looked after the glue dried.

Placed on Tariq's head, the flaps were folded as you would the end of a gift wrapped package:  left flap folded, Aleene's Tacky Glue applied to the edge, right flap folded over left and held in place for a minute or so.  I wrapped a rubber band from the top of Tariq's head to underneath his chin to hold the flaps in place.  After the area dried, I repeated the process with the front and back flaps as shown in the next image.

The front and back flaps are folded down, held together with Aleene's Tacky glue.  Again, a rubber band was used to create pressure on the flaps until they dried.* 

The following images illustrate front and profile views of Tariq looking ever so handsome in his newly fashioned cap.

*With a similar, but black knit skull cap on his head, Husband peeked over my shoulder while I was positioning the cap on Tariq's head to apply the rubber band to hold the last two flaps down until the glue dried.  The following brief conversation ensued:

Him:  Trying to make me?

Me to Him:  Um, no!

Him (flashing that smile that killed me softly the first time ever I saw his face four decades ago):  You need to add a little more cute.

Me:  No you didn't! (Shaking my head as I refrained from smiling back, attempting to mask my true emotions, as I thought to myself:  Tariq is just a doll... you are all the man I need.)

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