Suggestion for Mama's Tribute Dress

This photo collage dress contains mostly images of my mother placed on the bodice, the front and back of the skirt, and the sleeves.

In a message from the designer of my mother's tribute dress, first seen here and shown above, Sara Bunn of Bunn Funn Collection, wrote:

If you come across a second hand tutu, cut off the top and use the skirt portion as a slip for under the dress. Will help to poof it out a bit and allow for others to see the images a bit better.

This was such great advice and I wondered (having been a reluctant childhood petticoat wearer myself), "Why didn't I think of that?"

I had planned to check my local thrift store in search of a toddler's size 2 petticoat or tutu but decided to check eBay and Aliexpress first.  I found the two shown below:

This one was purchased first from eBay. It helped to expand the skirt of the dress some.  I wanted the skirt to be even fuller and decided to order another one that I felt would provide  the desired fullness.

This multilayered petticoat/tutu was purchased next from an Aliexpress seller.  It provides an adequate amount of fullness but not for the entire length of the skirt of the dress.

The second petticoat/tutu was too short to expand the entire length of the skirt of the dress.  So instead of replacing the first petticoat with the second one, Smiling Debbie wears both!  She is shown wearing these in the next photo.

The petticoats fill out the skirt and allow better visualization of the images.

This is a closer look at the skirt of the dress worn with both petticoats (the shorter one is underneath the longer one).

Because the images on the sleeves and the writing above each were not fully visible, I added Poly-Fil inside the sleeves to poof them out as well.  Both sleeves are shown next.

With Poly-Fil stuffed inside the left sleeve, the image of my mother, me, and my sister is seen better.  The phrase above reads, "I don't have any favorites."

With the stuffing, images of Mama and my brothers can be better seen on the right sleeve of the dress.  The phrase above it reads, "All of you came out of me."

The before and after photos, combined below, illustrate that use of the petticoats and sleeve stuffing achieves the desired effect -- the images can be seen better.

Thank you so much, Sara, for the suggestion; it works (but I know you knew it would)!

dbg


There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
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Glimma Girlz

Glimma Girlz as seen at Family Dollar

I saw the Glimma Girlz dolls at Family Dollar last week.  Made by the same company that makes Sparkle Girlz dolls and fashions, Funville, these 11-1/2-inch fashion dolls were available in a variety of fashions for $5.75.  Because I collect fashion doll clones and because I like this doll's head sculpt, I asked my grandson, who was with me, to choose which one I should buy.

The chosen one

My grandson chose the one wearing the asymmetrical faux leather black skirt with black and white striped midriff top.  I asked him several times if he was certain this was the one I should buy.  He continued to answer, "Yes."

Once at home, the Glimma Girlz doll was removed from the box and photographed still attached to the box liner.

After removing the doll from the box, I found her pencil-thin, shapeless legs very disappointing.  "She's still a pretty doll and I can always rebody her," I thought.  Still attached to the liner in the above photograph, is a black handbag and silver star-shaped brush.

Close-up of her super thin legs.

Removing the doll and her two accessories from the box liner was a snap.  She was attached with a large rubber band around her waist.  Plastic fasteners held her legs and accessories in place.  These were removed with scissors.

She has long straight rooted black hair.

The hair was held under one large rubber band that was wrapped around her shoulders from front-to-back.

The sides of her hair were pulled to the back and held in place with a rubber band underneath the loose hair

The front of her hair is parted in the middle.  A small section of each side is pulled back underneath the rest of her loose hair and held together with a rubber band, as illustrated above.

I undressed her to see if she can wear Sparkle Girlz clothing.

The distributor's name and serial number are branded on her back as illustrated here.

As indicated, Glimma Girlz dolls are manufactured by Funville but Midwoods Brand, LLC, a subsidiary of Family Dollar Stores, Inc., is the distributor as noted by the stamp on this doll's back.  Glimma Girlz dolls are possibly a Family Dollar exclusive.

Before I could try one Sparkle Girlz fashion on this doll, I noticed black stains on the front and back of her legs!  Ugh!

Black stains are on the front of both legs.

The black stains shown above correspond with the asymmetrical front hemline of the black faux leather skirt where it touched the doll's legs in the stained areas.

Black stains are also on the back of both legs.

For a split second, I thought about using an acne cream with 10% benzoyl peroxide to remove the stains.  I decided instead to box her up and return to the store, which is what I did as well as explain the reason for the return to the clerk.  I wondered if I should buy another wearing a different outfit.  "No," was my answer because the thin legs bother me and there is really no need for me to invest in a body for the head.

So if you see these dolls at your Family Dollar, steer clear of any that are dressed in black clothes.

dbg


There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
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Chatty Cathy Ornaments

Approximately 12 years ago, this Hallmark Chatty Cathy ornament ©2007 was painted brown.

I painted the above Chatty Cathy ornament brown shortly after Hallmark released the white-only version in 2007/2008.   After recently viewing the above photo and noticing the unevenness of the paint, I decided to purchase and better paint another ornament.  The original retail of these ornaments was $16.50 US and $22.98 Canada.  The second one was found for under $4 on Etsy.  Surprisingly, after 12 years, this battery-operated talking ornament still talks when the pull-string is pulled.

The second Chatty Cathy ornament before painting is shown with the original box and in a close-up in the next photo.

Close-up of the second Chatty Cathy ornament before painting

It took about a week to complete the painting of the second ornament because each initial thin layer of paint was allowed to dry up to 24 hours before applying the next.  I did not do this when the first ornament was painted, which resulted in an uneven appearance of the paint.  The results of painting the second ornament are illustrated and captioned below.

After the lace pinafore and hang tag were removed, masking tape was used to cover the bodice of the painted-on dress and the arms.  The face, neck, breast area and exposed back were painted brown as shown in this photo.

After the head, neck, chest, and back were painted, the lips and teeth were painted and the masking tape was removed.  Like the first ornament, other than painting the "whites" of the eyes, I left the irises blue.

The hair was painted black and freckles added to the face.  The close-up before photo was used as a guide to paint the freckles.  Stretch or click this image to see the freckles better.  Next, the arms were painted.  (I used masking tape to protect the red shoulder strap area of the dress while the arms were painted.)

The legs were painted and a final neck, chest, and back touchup was done before Chatty was laid face down upon a roll of masking tape to dry.

End result

Chatty Cathy's lace pinafore and hang tag were replaced before she posed for these final photos.

Side photos

Chatty Cathy posed with the original box.

The 1st and 2nd ornaments are shown in this final photo (stretch or click to enlarge to see the difference in the appearance of the painted surface).

dbg

There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
Thank you for following, commenting, and sharing using the share button below.

Check out what I am selling here. 
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Please follow my sister blog Ebony-Essence of Dolls in Black.
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