While for some human hair on a doll is a fast-track to the uncanny valley, I’ve always been intrigued by the idea of a Blythe with really realistic hair.

The closest I’ve come previously is a adult goat mohair weft which looks very much like human hair, but can’t really be styled. The waves are beautiful, but permanent, and a weft offers little in the way of style options without exposing the rows of hair.

Rerooted human hair, on the other hand, should give multiple styling options with regular hair products and heated appliances. I had to have a go. The only thing that has held me back for so long is the cost of good long hair. But then, we found something amazing in our spare room:

A ponytail grown by my husband, cut off, stored away and forgotten. The hair is 12-16 inches long, dark chestnut brown, strong and shiny. Result!

Next thing we needed was a dolly victim. Fortunately my Star Dancer, Michelle, was keen for a new look. I whipped off her scalp and pulled out her hair:

As human hair has a ‘right way’ and a ‘wrong way’ (i.e. it is smooth to the touch in only one direction - from root to tip) I couldn’t use the lock and loop method, at least, not if I wanted it to be smooth and shiny. So the knot method was called for. Bah. This is how it goes:

1. Take a very small section of hair. Knot it close to the end (the ‘root end’):

I found the knots stayed tighter if the sections of the hair were small. The larger the section of hair, the quicker the knot slipped out.

2. Turn your scalp inside-out. Push your crochet hook (I used a 0.75m hook) through the hole you want to fill:

3. Loop the hair around the hook, close to the knot, then use the hook to pull the hair through the hole:

4. You should now have the length of the hair on the outside of the scalp and the knot on the inside:

(Remember in our picture the scalp is turned inside out so we are looking at the outside here.)

5. Repeat until all holes are filled, or as many holes as you want to fill. Stock Blythes have varying hair thicknesses and therefore varying numbers of holes in their scalps. Leave holes out or add extra to get the thickness of hair you want for your reroot. I like to fill the parting holes first, then the field, starting at the crown:

6. After many many many hours you will have this:

A finished reroot! Check how it looks with your chosen Blythe’s head and feel pleased:

Your work is not finished yet though…

7. Next, wash and condition the hair. Dip the hair in the basin of water without submerging the scalp. It’s also a good idea to comb the conditioner through thoroughly - if any plugs of hair are loose it’s better they fall out now than after you’ve reattached the scalp to the doll. If some do fall out, wait until the hair is dry, then replace them (with stronger knots this time!).

8. Now comes thatching. This is always a painstaking and fiddly task. I do it by sweeping all the hair in the parting rows over to one side. Then I use a small crochet hook (0.6mm or 0.75mm) to pull alternate strands over. Ideally, the hair should criss-cross over evenly with a result like a zipper.

9. Once you’re happy with the result, you’ll want to put your doll back together. Trim any excess fluffy hair bits inside the scalp (careful not to cut off any knots). I gave the inside of the scalp a big squirt of strong-hold hairspray before putting it back in the dome. Cramming the flanges back into the gap in the dome sometimes seems about as easy as putting toothpaste back in the tube - you might need to trim the flanges a little bit to get them to fit comfortably. Then, put all the dolly pieces back together.

10. You may find the hair is standing up away from the scalp a little bit in all directions. If so, cut the foot off an old pair of tights (pantyhose, if you’re American) and pull it over your Blythe’s head (making sure her hair is neat underneath it). It should only take a day or two for the hair to learn to sit much more flat to the head. Also, it looks funny:

11. Whip off the tights and admire your handywork. You are finally done. Now you just need to play

Expect to see many more photos featuring many hairdos on this girl!

I loved Strawberry Shortcake dolls when I was a kid, and I still find their little freckled faces adorable now. Sometimes a 25 year old toy can look a little the worse for wear, however, and the hair is often the first to go.

Fortunately, 80s Strawberry Shortcake dolls aren’t in short supply, so if you have one with messy hair a new ‘do is a definitely an option.  I found one with a big bald patch on ebay for a few dollars and thought I’d give mohair a go.

The first stage is to remove her head.  This is easy to do: you just take the head in one hand and the body in the other and pull.  Voila!

Secondly, you’ll need to cut her hair really short, like this:

Once the hair is short, you’ll be able to pull it out very easily with tweezers, leaving your little Shortcake with a funny bald pear-shaped head:

I then took some leftover mohair from a Blythe reroot (thanks Jade!) and used one of Rachael’s reroot tools to push little chucks of mohair into each of the holes in Shortcake’s little head. I won’t repeat Rachael’s tutorial as it needs no further explanation. I’ll just show you the results:

A crazy soft pastel afro! And with a hat, it’s very cute:

I love it, and it’s really quite quick and easy to do. Hurrah!

There isn’t a whole lot you can do to customise Petworks’ Nikki, but changing the colour of her eyes is something the designers have given us the means to do.

As ever, the first step is to choose your victim. This was an easy one for me this time as my gorgeous black Nikki, Rocky, had stock eyes that I thought were much too dark for her:

I’d also bought a ‘Monster’ Odeco because I loved her pink hair and bone-white skin, but was a bit spooked by her pinky eyes.  Here’s her stock picture from Petworks:

The first step was to whip off Odeco’s wig.  Easy done!

The next step is to gently squeeze and twist the ‘hatch’ on the back of the head to remove it:

Odeco’s ‘hatch’ is much bigger than Nikki’s:

You’ll now be able to see the sleep-eye capsules resting in their little plastic sockets inside the head:

Use your finger to push the eye capsule from the front into the head.  You’ll need to push firmly:

Each eye capsule is an eye, sleep-eye mechanism and set of lashes all in one (Odeco on the right, Nikki on the left):

Repeat with the other eye and you should end up with a very spooky-looking eyeless dolly:

Now you’ll need to put in some new eyes.  You can either put in eyes you’ve swapped from another Odeco or Nikki, or use acrylic eyes.  Nikki takes 22-24mm eyes and Odeco takes 20-22mm.

I chose blue for Odeco and yellow for my Nikki:

It’s always weird to get boxes of eyeballs in the post.

The next bit is the tricky bit.  You will need to try to hold open the plastic eye socket flaps as well as you can with one hand whilst slipping the new eye in with the other.  It’s pretty awkward, but perseverance pays off:

Put band-aids on your bleeding cuticles (you might not need this step of the process, but I did) and repeat with the second eye.

You may also want to give your dolly some new eyelashes.  I gave Odeco very light lashes (cut down from human lashes bought at the pharmacy) after her eyes were in.  I simply used a pin to push the pre-glued lash band just slightly between the eye and socket above her eyes.  Pop her wig back on, and she’s as good as new:

I think Odeco’s little-girl face is suited to light lashes, but you can choose any thickness or colour you can find.

You’ll also now be able to adjust your doll’s gaze and expression:

Now go customise your dolls and send me pictures!

For this third post about BJD thigh modifications, I’m going to share a small mod I made to the existing suwarrico joints on my Volks Yo-SD Hinaichigo.

Broken record alert: One more time, please work in a ventilated area, and wear a mask or respirator to prevent inhalation of resin dust.

Whether suwarrico cuts are included from the manufacturer, or added by a doll’s owner, posing a doll the surwarrico sitting position sometimes takes a little fiddling. It usually takes a second or two to feel that “catch”, when the strings slide from the vertical slot into the horizontal one, allowing the leg to rotate. Depending on the size and smoothness of the cuts, this can be made trickier if the doll is wearing a bulky costume. Last spring, I purchased a Volks Yo-SD Hinaichigo on the secondary market. Modeled after the Rozen Maiden character, Hinaichigo is a BJD of the tooth-achingly cute variety. I’m not usually one to keep full set dolls in the their default costumes, but Hinaichigo just looks so darn right in her pink velvet, and white ruffled ensemble. The only problem I encountered was that the combination of her opaque white tights, and her gathered bloomers, made it difficult to maneuver her legs. Add to this, the fact that her thigh slots and suwarrico cuts were very narrow. The elastic cords in each leg had a habit of getting stuck, side by side, in the slot. This prevented the leg from bending properly, without some gentle wiggling. In simple costumes like short dresses or thin pants, this was no problem. In a more complex outfit, trying to wiggle and adjust each leg every time I wanted her to sit, soon became tedious.

Hinaichigo’s fix was simpler than adding a suwarrico cut from scratch, as I’d done with Maebe, my MSD Hisui. The cuts were already there. They simply needed to be widened. Below is a picture of Hinaichigo’s joints, prior to any work. In the below photo, also note the thickness of the resin surrounding the channel (more clearly seen on the right leg). One of my favorite things about Volks dolls in general is their heavy, thick resin. In this case, that thick resin on the corner of the suwarrico was snagging the cords.

The first thing I did was to use the burr attachment of my rotary tool to follow the walls of the existing slots. Applying gentle pressure to first one side, then the other, I widened the area through which the strings have to travel. After this, I turned my attention to the corner of the suwarrico cut. I first removed the point, creating more of a curved path. I then tilted the rotary tool about 45 degrees, to take off some of the inside thickness of the resin. This part requires some care. You need to take your time, and use caution that you don’t scrape too much of the surrounding plastic. The next photo shows the completed right leg, compared to the left which has not been worked on yet.

Finally, as I didn’t want to have to revisit this project, I took one more measure to insure smooth string movement. I sanded a tiny amount off of the top of the thigh joint. There was originally a sharp corner there, and rounding it slightly helped eliminate one more place where the doll’s strings could get hung up.

This work on her thigh joints has made my Hinaichigo much easier to sit and pose, especially in her default costume!

Thanks for reading, and I hope if you ever have joint issues with one of your resin gang, something here might give you an idea of how to fix the problem!

In my last post, I talked about making a simple modification to a doll’s thigh joint, to prevent them from falling backwards when sitting. This time around, it’s a little different. We’re not fixing a problem, but rather adding another level of poseability. The suwarrico, or “cute sit”. Suwarrico joints are included on many dolls these days, but if a member of your resin gang is feeling left out, adding suwarrico is a simple modification. This can be done on any doll, but tends to work a little better on those with a jointed torso. Note that there is doll nudity ahead!

Once again, I’ll remind you to use care when sanding or drilling your resin doll. Work in a well-ventilated area, and wear a respirator or mask. Your lungs will thank you!

If you’re not sure what suwarrico, or “cute sit”, or “cute sitting” is, it basically means kneeling, with your thighs turned in toward one another, and your lower legs slid out slightly out to either side. On a ball jointed doll, this pose can be achieved in a couple of ways. If you’re taking this on as a do-it-yourself project, making suwarrico cuts into the thigh string slots is by far the simplest option. A suwarrico cut is an extension of the normal string slot, angling it to the outside of the dolls upper thigh. This allows the string to follow course, turning the thighs inward.

On a doll manufactured with suwarrico cuts, they are often done as an arc, or “C” shape. For our suwarrico modification purposes, we’re going to do more of an “L”. It’s an easier cut to make neatly, and works just as well.

The following photos are taken from when I added a suwarrico to my Volks MSD Hisui, Maebe. I apologize that they aren’t the best, but hopefully they get the point across. Like the thigh modification I did to Ari in the previous post, I did not unstring Maebe for this procedure. If you feel fiddly with using an electric rotary tool, or just worried about damaging your doll’s elastic cords, you may wish to unstring them before you work. With this mod in particular, before you unstring the doll, lightly mark an “R” and an “L” in pencil on the doll’s thighs. The leg pieces can look alike once a doll is apart. You don’t want to make a suwarrico cut in the wrong direction, on the wrong leg.

Once you set up your workspace, begin by using a pencil to mark out your cuts. You will be going from the bottom of the thigh string slot, toward the outside of the leg. How far you need to go will depend on the size of the doll. For MSD Maebe, I made cuts which were approximately a centimeter and a half. It doesn’t have to be exact, but you want to go far enough to allow the thigh to rotate about a quarter turn. You also want to make sure that your cuts are wide enough to allow two cords in each leg to slip around, without pinching or sticking.

To begin, I used a drill bit about the width of my intended cut, and placed a hole at the far outside end of the pencil guide. This acts as a “stop cut”, and keeps the edge neat. I then switched to a burr attachment. Inserting the rotary tool into the bottom end of the string slot, I pulled it slowly toward the newly drilled hole, connecting the two. You should now have a neat “L” shape!

Repeat the procedure for the other leg. Once you’re finished, go back with the burr attachment, and smooth that inside corner of the “L”, rounding it off a bit. This allows the strings to slide easily, and prevents them from fraying on the sharp edge. Clean off your excess pencil marks, and try it out!

Now there is another element to suwarrico, which may or may not be worth the effort to you. A stickler will say that in a “true” suwarrico sit, the legs are able to fold closely together, not be merely splayed out to either side. In dolls that have a suwarrico body from the start, this is achieved by sculpting shallow hollows into the backs of the calves, or indenting the backs of the thighs, to allow the calves to nest into them. It’s hard to get this tight a pose through DIY, unless you’re willing to do major modification. However, if your rotary tool includes a small, cylindrical, sanding attachment, you can gently sand a bit of the calf, right below the knee. It won’t be a dramatic improvement, but it does allow a little more of an authenic suwarrico pose.

I hope that helps explain the suwarrico modification!

BJDs are great dolls for those who can’t leave well enough alone. You can change their hair. You can change their eyes. You can wipe face-ups, and redo them, to your heart’s content. Thanks to the forgiving qualities of resin, you can also perform tweaks and fixes to a doll’s poseability. Three of my dolls have had “surgery” on their upper thigh or hip joints. In this post, and the next two, I’ll share these little alterations, in case you’re moved to do the same to one of your crew.

Before getting to it, please remember to use safety when drilling or sanding resin.  Resin dust is a toxic substance.  You don’t want it in your lungs.  Work in a well ventilated area, and always wear a proper respirator or mask to prevent inhaling dust and shavings.

This first modification was done to my Volks Kyotenshi Byakuren, Ariel.  Ari came to me as a pre-owned doll, but he’d mostly been kept in his box, untouched, prior to my bringing him home.  I was thrilled the moment I saw my new guy, but less so when I tried to sit him up on my dresser.  No amount of cajoling would keep him from falling backwards.  I first blamed this on the doll’s one-piece torso.  Both of my previous dolls had jointed torsos, and no problems sitting.  The jointed torso does make some difference here, as it allows you to adjust the doll’s upper body for balance.  Upon examining Ari more closely with another BJD-keeping friend however, we determined that his legs were the problem.  Lucky for me, it was an easy fix.

The string slots at the the top of Ari’s thighs were very short.  The cords could not come far enough forward to allow him to balance in a sitting position.  Using a hand-held, electric, rotary tool, I lengthened each slot by a little less than a third of its total length.  In the photo below, the bracket indicates where I added length.*  I used a burr attachment on the rotary tool to accomplish this, basically sanding through the resin I wanted to remove.  With Ari, I was able to do this easily without unstringing the him.  Ari’s string channels are deep enough that the elastic cords were well below the tip of my rotary tool.  If you do this on a doll with thinner legs, or more shallow channels, you will need to use extra caution (or unstring the doll, just to be safe).  It’s also a good idea to lightly roll over the edges of your cuts with the rotary tool, once you’re done.  Doing so will sand away rough spots or sharp places which could wear on the elastic.

After making this small change to both legs, I tested to see if the modification had worked, and huzzah!  He sits like a champ!  A champ who likes to sit!

It’s worth mentioning that if you have a doll with a sitting problem like Ari’s, but you’re squeamish about taking a drill to your baby, loosening the string tension is a less invasive possible answer.  Less tension can achieve the same effect, as a more loosely strung doll won’t have such a tendency to snap backwards.  My personal preference is to keep my dolls rather tight, as it makes them easier to stand and pose overall.

*Just as an added note, to those who may wonder why Ari isn’t “correct”, as evident in the photo of his nether regions, it’s because he a Volks Tenshi, or “angel”.  Volks follows the mythological convention that angels are completely without gender (ala Kevin Smith’s “Dogma” lol), therefore, unlike most BJDs, none of the Volks angels have anatomically correct bodies.

There’s nothing like a bright shiny white eyeball. BLs have em:

And they look great!

EBLs have white eyeballs too, but for some reason when the SBL was introduced, so were slightly yellow-ish eyeballs.  The answer?  Spraypaint.

Once you’ve opened your doll’s head (Puchicollective tutes are the best to find out how) and removed her eyechips, you can spray her eyes with white paint.

First, you’ll need to find a way to hold the eyeballs steady for painting.  I’ve used a bamboo skewer and held the eyeballs steady on them with Blu Tack.

Take them outdoors or to a well-ventilated area for painting.  I’ve used Montana Gold spraypaint in white.

Remember to spray lightly - a couple of light coats will give a smoother result than one heavy coat.  Once the paint is dry, you can replace the eyechips and put your doll’s head back together.  The result should be bright and white; see Vera on the right in this photo:

Some BL-style goodness for every Blythe 

I love to have a go at customising (with varied results) so, when I took a liking to Momokos, it was inevitable that one of them would soon be in pieces on my dining room table. When the lovely Jade had a ‘Wake up’ Momoko for sale I spotted my victim:

I didn’t really have a clue as to how customising was done with a regular small-headed doll, so I was straight off to my fave Momoko Flickr group to ask for advice. The lovely ladies there pointed me at the odd tutorial. It turns out that there are loads of tutes about rerooting Barbies and Momoko’s head is constructed the same way (but prettier, obviously). So the usual method goes like this:

1. Remove your doll’s head. This is surprisingly easy for someone who’s used to Blythe dolls; you hold the head in one hand, body in the other and pull.

2. Cut the hair very short with scissors. Then use tweezers inserted in through the neck to remove the remaining fluffy hair bits.

3. Now to put the new hair in. Take 5 or 6 strands of your new saran or nylon hair and fold it in half. Thread the loop created at the fold point through a sewing needle. Pull the hair a couple of inches through the eye of the needle.

4. Push the needle through one of the holes in your doll’s head and pull it out of her neck. Depending on the size of your needle, you may need to use a small pair of pliers inserted into the neck hole to pull it through.

5. Remove the needle from the doll hair. You should now have a loop of hair sticking out of your doll’s neck. Tie a knot near the end of the loop. Use a small pair of scissors to trim off any excess. From the top of the doll’s head, pull the length of the hair back through the hole, so that the knot is against the inside of the scalp.

6. Repeat.

I followed this method across the top of my doll’s head, but found it was getting trickier to get the needle out of the neck as I got closer to the side of the head. Clearly, it was time to get some more advice. I asked Rachael who’s got lots of experience in rerooting small-headed dolls and - woo! - she has an online tutorial. She’s going to give me one of her fabbo rerooting tools to have a go with. I’ll report back when I’ve had a go…

Anyone else done any Momoko customising? Give me a shout if you have any tips

So, you’ve prepared your scalp and you’ve chosen your mohair for rerooting. Now you’re going to want to choose the right crochet hook to get the look you want for your finished custom Blythe.

Basically, the bigger your crochet hook, the chunkier mohair curls your finished doll with have.  I tend to go for small hooks to get skinny separated curls.  The following image shows a scalp being rerooted with a 0.6mm hook:

This scalp is being rerooted with a 0.75mm hook:

The final look on the doll (in terms of curl-chunkiness) should be something like this:

Many customisers go for a chunkier look than this, using a 1mm or larger crochet hook.  The effect is something like the hair of this gorgeous girl of Erika’s who was rerooted by Sherri of Gggroovydolls.

Of course, their are many other factors that affect the final look of your doll’s mohair reroot.  Stay tuned for the next tutorial to find out more!

*Thanks to Erika for the use of her photograph

So you’ve removed your Blythe’s scalp and you want to reroot her hair, or sew on weft. You’ll need to prepare the scalp as follows:

1. Take a pair of scissors and cut the hair short, preferably half a centimetre or less.

2. Turn the scalp inside out.

3. Use tweezers to pull the loops of hair out of the scalp.  If you take breaks during the process, turn the scalp right-side-out between hair-pulling sessions.  Leaving it inside out for long periods might stretch the rubber and leave the scalp misshapen.

4. When all the hair is removed, turn the scalp right-side-out.  If the scalp is painted a colour that doesn’t match the hair you are rerooting or wefting with, you’ll want to remove that paint.  Use a sanding sponge or very light-grain sand paper and gently sand off the paint.

Now you’re ready for new hair!  Stay tuned for rerooting tutorials coming soon

If you have an ADG, BL, EBL or SBL Blythe (see Alana’s post on facemoulds if you’re not sure which yours is), you may want to change her eye colours without the extra work of taking her head apart. Here’s how it’s done:

1. Go buy some glue sticks (the kind used in glue guns), a lighter and some craft glue. I’m using Mod Podge, but any craft glue that dries clear, such as gem glue, will do the job. Don’t be tempted to use super glue - I tried it despite warnings and my beautiful sparkly eyechips went milky and patchy the next day when it was too late to change my mind!

2. Choose your new eyechips. My favourites are Brainworm chips, but CoolCat and Ixtee are developing new patterns and effects, including enlarged pupils, that are definitely worth a look. Remember to check our links page for online stores.

3. If you want to keep your doll’s original eyelashes, you’ll need to keep them out of the way while you change her eyechips. Sticky tape can be used to stick them back above the eye so they that don’t get gluey.

4. Melt the end of a glue stick. This can be done with a lighter. However, you may burn your fingers like that (I always do when I try it), so I’d recommend lighting a candle and melting the glue with the candle flame. Working out the right level of meltiness is a bit of a trial-and-error affair, though I can tell you that it should be melty, but not drippy, if that makes sense. You want it to stick to the eyechip you’re trying to remove, but not spread glue all over the eyeball, faceplate, your hands, etc.

5. Press the melted end of the glue stick onto the eyechip that you want to remove. Press it as firmly as you can, then leave the glue to cool and set:

6. Pull on the gluestick. You may have to pull hard - don’t be scared! Hopefully the result will be this:

If not, try again. You might want to try leaving the glue to harden a little longer on the next attempt.

7. Your doll should now be giving you this kind of look:

Try not to be freaked out by the empty eyeball or the grumpy look she’s giving you. She’ll forgive you when she has fabulous new eyes. Repeat with the other eye.

8. Now comes the fun bit.

From these blank eyeballs you can create your new look for your Blythe. Try different kinds of foil or coloured paper behind the new eyechips to see the different effects you can achieve. I’m loving Brainworm foils at the moment, but any kind of thin paper could work. (I should also add that the black rings on the eyeballs in this picture are characteristic of BL and EBL eyeballs, SBL and ADG ones are all white.)

9. Put in the new chips. You’ll need to add a bit of your craft glue around the post of the chip. Don’t add too much, or it’ll squish out around the edges of the chip:

Press the new chips in firmly.

10. Admire your doll’s new eyes. Accept praise.

Remember to be careful when removing the sticky tape you’ve used to protect her eyelashes. You don’t want to scratch her eye shadow with your fingernails.

11. Leave your doll for 24 hours to give the glue time to set. Resist the urge to pull that string! If you turn the eyes before the glue has set the chips may come loose and drop into the doll’s head. (Another lesson I learned the hard way.) After 24 hours, you can start the process again on the next set of chips. Have fun!

If you’re going to reroot your BL, EBL or SBL Blythe doll, swap scalps with another, boggle her eyes or lift her gaze, the first thing you’ll need to do is pull off her scalp.

1.  Choose your hapless victim.  I’ve chosen an SBL Blythe, a Feel the Sky, for her extra-pale complexion:

2.  Give her hair a good tug all around the hairline to see if there are any areas where the scalp can be persuaded to come away from the head:

3.  I found a slight gap on the side of her head.  Don’t be afraid to pull hard - you won’t break anything:

4.  If you’ve found a gap, insert your craft knife into it and begin to slice across.  Remember you’re trying to separate the scalp from the hard plastic head-piece, rather than cutting into it.  Also, be careful not to slip with the knife and scrape the head - or yourself!

5.  If you didn’t find a gap to insert the knife, simply find a likely spot on the back of your doll’s head and begin to cut.  Again, remember that you are trying to slide your knife between the scalp and head-piece as far as you can:

6.  Make a small cut, then try pulling the hair again, close the the hairline.  Blythes have differing amounts of glue holding their heads together, so some will require more strength than others.  If the scalp isn’t pulling away, cut a little further and try again:

7.  Keep pulling until the whole scalp lifts off the top of the head.  (This is an SBL head - EBL and BLs look a different):

8.  Be amused by your doll’s shiny boiled-egg head:

1. Choose your hapless victim:

2. Remove the screw from the back of her head:

3. Use a sharp knife to separate the scalp from the back of the head:

4. You should now be able to pull the back of the head off:

5. The eye mechanism is just lightly sitting in the front face plate. Lift or tip it out:

6. Do the same to another petite Blythe and swap them over.

7. Reassemble dolls.

8. Admire your handiwork. Here’s mine:

Wowsers never seen anything like this, I cant get over how talented tingeisha is. Be sure to check out her other flickr stuff!

http://www.flickr.com/people/tingeisha/