Beauty and The Beast (No, Not Dolls)

Three weeks ago Husband-Like Person did some car work for a friend who was moving away. As well as paying him, the friend told him to come look in his garage because he had a lot of stuff he was not taking with him. HLP returned and said to me "You'll never believe what I got!"

Beauty, the Rocketeer

It was a Singer 500A sewing machine which I have been wanting for years! It was nicknamed "The Rocketeer" by customers who thought it looked like something Jane Jetson would have. I had told HLP about it and shown him pictures, but you never really know how much they pay attention or retain, do you? HLP is a machinist by trade and even though he doesn't really have an interest in sewing machines, he appreciates a beautiful machine of any kind. It had belonged to the friend's girlfriend and she didn't want to "drag it to Arizona" with them. It is in near perfect condition, missing only the top spool pin and the secondary spool pin that goes to the left of the spool pin that pops up when the lid is up. It also doesn't have its cams, but I am not into fancy stitches so I don't mind.

With its lid up

I named it Beauty, a name that just sprang into my head after looking at it. It sewed beautifully, after a few thread-tangling starts.

Temerity and Beauty

Then a couple of week ago at work, I saw another Singer in our store. It was a 401A.

The Beast

It is similar but not as space-agey as Beauty and was obviously once in a cabinet. It was $19.99. After a few days of thinking about and seeing no one had any interest in buying it, I decided to get it. I had a $10 gift certificate from the store and my discount on furniture items is 30%, so it only cost me $5.08! After I got it home I realized it didn't have a power cord, which is separate from the foot controller. I found one at Sew-Classic for only $6.99. Every place else I looked wanted twice as much or more. I also ordered a package of bobbins and two spool pins. I ordered these on Thursday, January 23, and they arrived on Monday the 27th! How's that for fast service?

The Beast seemed to run fine until I actually tried to sew and then it came to a grinding halt. I am going to clean it thoroughly and put in a new needle. I already oiled it. It was getting dark when I tried it and my light is rather dim so I decided to wait until I could see what I was doing. The spool pins went in nicely on top, with gentle taps from a hammer.

I made simple dresses for Temerity and Maria with the Rocketeer.

The girls check out the new machines

Maria's dress is a little longer, because I was having the thread-tangling issues when I sewed the shoulder seams of Tem's dress but I have figured that out now.

This is proof that good things come to she who waits. And HLP got a lot of nice bike parts from his friend, so we were both happy!

AMELIA'S HERE!

UPS kept NOT updating the Tracking on her until last night, finally, it said she had arrived in Sparks, Nevada (where the UPS center is) at 9:28 p.m. I briefly considered rushing over there and pounding on their doors and making them give her to me. This morning Tracking said she had gone Out For Delivery at 3:30 a.m. Then I had to go somewhere until 11 a.m., at which time I stopped in our park office and asked the landlord if she had arrived. I explained it was my Christmas dolly I was expecting. He looked a bit baffled (not a doll person, obviously!) and said no, UPS hadn't come yet. So I went home and planned to call in a few hours, but at 12:30 the dear man called me and said she was here!

First photo

Out of the plastic

I wasted no time opening her. She was well secured with twist ties but I made short work of them.

Our first selfie

She is going to be Steampunk and Biggie Sis had suggested Temerity as a name. I like it. It's a Steampunk Virtue name. Her full name is Temerity Jane and she wants to be an airship pilot when she grows up.

Meeting Maria

I introduced her to Maria. I can see now that Maria is younger than Tem, but I think that will work out well. Everyone should have a big or little sister! Or both.

"How was your journey?" asked Maria.

Then we tried on a couple of hats.

This is pretty

And so is this

Maria tries on Tem's hat

I haven't yet taken off her clothes. I was pretty mentally exhausted by then and Tem, Maria, and I had to take a nap at that point. Maria wants to have some Victorian clothes, Steampunk or otherwise, and I will work on them tomorrow. I need to start looking seriously at patterns and fabric and dust off the sewing machine!

And a Little More Catching Up

ARWEN

There was a day back in November when all sorts of little things seemed to go wrong. Nothing major--just things like I had forgotten to put the basket in the coffee pot before putting in the filter so there were coffee grounds all over; I almost ran over a bicyclist on the way to work and even though I tried to tell myself it was his fault, I knew it wasn't (he knew it wasn't too but just looked resigned); and I spilled my coke all over my lap as I got out to go into work. "I must be very careful today," I told myself. "No sudden moves." So I worked away cautiously and as I was checking on the Collectibles (to make sure nothing was out of place, of course, not to look at dollies) I saw HER:

I knew at once she was Special

Who could she be? Not a Barbie, obviously. I looked under her skirt and saw she was made by the same company that made Spideyman! I do have an eye for the best, don't I? Now my dilemma: should I attempt to buy her now and hope Mark the new supervisor didn't notice that she had just come out that day or should I wait until she'd been out for 48 hours? Remember, I had been having a Bad Day and I didn't want to jinx anything. I decided to go ahead and try to buy her. It occurred to me that my Bad Day had actually started the night before when I set the coffee maker up, so maybe the curse was over. And what was the worst that could happen? Mark would just say no, I couldn't buy her. So seizing the day, or something, I took her up to the cash register on my break and good ol' Mark never even looked at the date. And I would like to add that the curse ended then and there.

Once I got her home I had to undress her, where I discovered that she and Spideyman/Nigel have the same problem--detached, duct-taped leg syndrome.

Arwen wishes to put her dress back on

A little googling revealed her to be Arwen from Lord of the Rings. When I first got Spidey and was looking him up, I found mostly LOTR dolls made by that company and I remember thinking, "Oh, I'd never want one of them!" I really think the best dolls are the totally unexpected ones that just come to us.

I was inspired by her to reattach Nigel's head to his original body and duct tape his leg on. Girly Man was happy to have his body back.

Spidey doesn't mind too much that he can't sit down now.

"How careless of the human to lose my tiara!"

Yes, somehow I lost her tiara while I was redressing her. I am hoping it will turn up but I may have to get her a new one.

MULAN

"I'm not even going to look at the doll wall," I told myself, "because a very special girl is coming to live with us next week." But somehow one caught my eye.

Mulan

The poor girl had no shirt but her pants are original. I think she is the cutest Mulan I've seen. Her hair's a bit wild so I put a headband on it.

"Ahoy, matey"

 She has told me she wants to be a pirate girl so I'm trying to think of a piratey name for her.

And Coming Up:

Amelia, a Girl For All Time, is coming to live with us, thanks to Biggie Sis!! She is expected to arrive on Thursday. I hope they wrapped her in a blanket since she's coming from the heart of the Polar Vortex. She will be glad to get to civilization and semi-warmth.

Catching Up

Last spring Auntie Berman gave Lulu texturized hair and did a great job.

At the Bunch O'Hair Salon

The back

It still needs a little touch-up either with a Magic Marker or a paintbrush, but she is very pleased with it. Months later, I finally got around to making her the dress I had been promising her.

New dress

The material came from a pillow sham and it was rather slippery fabric. Next time I will use cotton.

I thought my Monster Girl collection was complete, but then I found HER at work!

Clawdeen and Alienna

Her ears intrigued me. I didn't know who she was but to my amazement, Terri the supervisor who claims to not like dolls, knew who she was. "That's Howleen's sister," she said, as I stared at her in surprise. She looked embarrassed and explained quickly that her son watches Monster High on TV.

I had two more finds at Salvation Army Warehouse. First Hawaiian Girl, a rather pitiful attempt at dolliness. She is made of really cheap plastic and her hair was falling out but I felt so sorry for her that I had to get her.

In her native costume.

I also found a Vogue Ginny Doll and felt compelled to get her although I'm not really fond of Ginny dolls. Mrs. Smith didn't want her at first but then realized she did, so Ginny now lives with her.

When Hawaiian Girl's hair really started falling out, I pulled it all out, removed her sewn-on grass skirt, and gave her another Hawaiian dress I had.

Ginny, Lorraine, Lulu, Hawaiian Girl

I tried a little wig on her and although it's still too big, she looks pretty cute in it.

The new Hawaiian Girl

The Monster High story continues. Monday I found, hanging on the toy wall in plain sight, Deuce Gorgon! He had been there for three days but I think no one wanted him because his right lower arm is missing.

Neither one looks too happy.

I think Monster dolls don't mind missing body parts. They can tell the others they were part of a Mad Scientist's experiment.

Deuce meets the girls.

Deuce meets the guys.

As you can see, Nigel's head is off again. I dropped him and the cork broke. It's on my To Do list . . .

In closing, I want to ask did anyone else notice the resemblance?

\

I tried to put the photos side by side but couldn't figure it out. Of course Ceddie will always be his Mother's Little Prince.

Wonder Woman

Last Saturday Mrs. Smith and I went to the Doll & Teddy Bear Show. It is nothing like it was in its former glory but is fun to go to just to see what's there. As we passed one booth, a doll fell to the floor beside me. I picked her up. It was a Barbie sized Wonder Woman!

The Torano Guy and Wondie

On the back of her head was DC Comics Inc 1976. Mrs. Smith pointed out that she had fallen off a $1 shelf. While we were waiting for the owner of the booth to finish with another customer, I examined her more closely and saw that rather than being Mattel, like Lois Lane, she was a Mego doll! Just like Red Nicky! Then I noticed that her legs looked like they were glued on. I asked the booth lady if that's why she was only $1 and she said probably. She appeared to have no interest in Wondie whatsoever but eagerly took my dollar.

That's the only purchase we made at the Doll Show. When I got to work, I started looking at Barbies with the idea of doing a head transplant for Wonder Woman. I bought a $1.49 Barbie as a donor, although I had my doubts. I also bought what I call The Torano Guy, mainly because I liked his face and he wasn't Ken. The back of his head says 1991 Torano. Or that's what I thought. I just discovered it says Torand, not Torano. That's why I couldn't find any information about him. He is Brandon Walsh of Beverly Hills 90210. I knew he looked familiar. (Yes, I have to admit that I used to watch Beverly Hills 90210. My boyfriend-at-the-time's daughter lived with us and that's my excuse.)

Anyway, back to Wondie.

Time for another picture

I began researching Mego Wonder Woman and discovered many of their celebrity dolls developed a condition called Mego Melt, which has to do with the chemical reaction between the hard plastic torso and the softer vinyl limbs, especially if they were stored in hot places. I thought at first my Wondie's neck wouldn't turn but I wiggled it gently and it moved. Encouraged, I began trying to move her legs and sure enough, they moved. She has this gluey, melted plastic stuff between her legs but I will get some Goo Gone or something similar and see if it comes off. Her undies have it stuck on them and I'm hoping that will come out too.

There is a Wonder Woman Costume site that has a history of Wonder Woman's outfits through the years. There are 16 pages of info there and I didn't make it to the end, I was so overwhelmed. I must make her some silver bracelets and a golden lasso and a tiara. I put a sock dress on her just to see what she'd look like in "normal" clothes. I couldn't bring myself to put her in a princess dress.

Very mod

Wondie is 12 1/2 inches tall (because she's an Amazon, you know). She has real eyelashes and her hair keeps catching on them. She has articulated wrists. Some models I saw on eBay have articulated ankles. She and Red Nicky seem to get along well. Red Nicky knows that she is still my favorite.

"We Megos are the best!"

And now for some exciting Nigel news. Nigel has a new body!

There were no action figure booths at the doll show. I finally decided I just had to do something, anything for the poor boy. So I used a blow dryer on his neck and popped his head off.

Inside Nigel's head

The picture doesn't show that there was black paint inside his head. I had suspected that someone repainted his hair. It is brown underneath.

As I looked around for inspiration, I saw a cork. Auntie Berman had given me several corks to try to make doll shoes from. I whittled--or tried to. Cork doesn't whittle well. It crumbles a lot. I finally came up with a plug that fit down inside Girly Man's neck.

The cork neck plug

The only workable glue I could find on hand was some called Kids Choice Glue, similar to Elmer's or school glue, so I used it.

I kept twisting his head around until I found a good position

Then I let him rest overnight.

The Mini Deads were fascinated. If his head fell off, they could play with it.

The remains of Spidey Man and Girly Man's head

I am keeping the body parts because you never know when you might need a leg or a head or whatever. And I returned the donor Barbie, much to her relief.

I think Anakin likes Wondie

And now it's time to sew some guy clothes.

A Quick Update on New Guy

I got an answer from Hasbro, as follows:

 "I'm pleased to reply. After viewing the pictures on your blog, it looks like you have an Anakin Skywalker figure from the "Attack of the Clones" series. Regrettably, as there are so many different figures made for Star Wars, I cannot verify additional product information other than the character name."

I've never been much of a Star Wars fan so I had never heard of him. I looked on eBay and found a few guys just like him and many others ranging from 3 1/2 inches up to 13. There is also a version of him at an older age. Sad to say, nobody's asking very much for any versions of him!

"I don't know about this!"

I tried draping him in a piece of rabbit fur that Sara the Supervisor had given me (I thought maybe on his home planet they wore furs) but he didn't seem to like it.

Mrs. Smith took one of his boots off and then we couldn't get it back on. (That's why one of his legs looks longer than the other.) I tried putting the boot on the radiator for a while to soften it up but still couldn't get his foot all the way into it. I think I may have to slit it up the back, which is okay because I hate struggling with putting clothes on dolls. The other guys could wear the boots too, then.  Anakin has articulated ankles and could be a ballet dancer if he wanted to.

Anakin's tunic and Red Nicky's new pantsuit

I made him a quick tunic out of felt, since I was sewing for Red Nicky. It could be a bit bigger around but it will keep him warm for now.

I made Red Nicky's pantsuit out of a child's summer dress. The jacket, except for the sleeves, is that stretchy elasticized already-smocked fabric (which was the top of the dress) and the sleeves and pants are just plain cotton. She has a very tiny waist and the back of her pants doesn't look nearly as nice as the front--very thready. I think I need to put a little fray-check on parts of it too. But it's a nice start to her wardrobe.

She's keeping her distance.

New Guys for Red Nicky

First, this is an experiment because I'm trying to identify a Hasbro guy that I found. I emailed Hasbro and they've been very helpful but my picture attachments don't come through for them. So I am going to post his picture here and then I think I can copy it directly into into the email.

Red Nicky is not sure about that braid.

What's with that tuft of hair?

My big find this week, though, was a Spideyman!

Red Nicky hasn't made any decisions yet.

He has a black smudge on his nose that I haven't been able to remove. I will probably have to paint over it. I tried alcohol, nail polish remover with acetone, peanut butter, eraser sponge--nothing worked. But his big problem (besides his Spidey hands) is that when I undressed him, I discovered his left leg was not attached! The plastic pivot was broken off.

Then I had the brilliant idea of re-bodying him! That would solve the problem of his hands and his leg. Also, I don't really want such a bulky body. In fact, he's not going to be Spideyman any more. His name is Nigel and he is a Gentleman.

I checked out the Kens at work. There were only two. One had what looked like a very blotchy sunburn or else radiation poisoning, so I rejected him at once. The other one--well, you be the judge. They had him priced at only $1.49.

"Are you a guy or a girl?"

Is it my imagination or does Nigel look really depressed?

We refer to him as Girly Man. I'm not sure if a haircut would help. His head says Disney and his body says Mattel. I think he's a Prince Charming type.

After I popped Girly Man's head off, I realized Nigel has a totally different neck/head setup.

"Let this be a bad dream," prayed Nigel.

Nigel's neck goes up into his head and GM's head fits down into his neck. I think I will look around for a different donor body. I can't be too picky about skin tones but I am carrying Nigel's leg around in my purse so I can try to find a good match. But you'll notice in the pictures his head doesn't really match his body anyway. It must be from all those years of wearing a spidey mask.

Hang in there, Nigel. I will find you a nice body and decent clothes. And Hasbro man, I will uncover your identity. And Girly Man, I'll think of something to do with you.