Changing Faces

Before moving on to the next year, I'm looking back to my little accomplishments this year. Aside from making doll dresses, I have customized a number of doll faces this year. By customizing, I don't mean just repainting. Most of them underwent head shrinking. A couple had dental extraction. I'm currently happy with how these dolls look for now. Taste change in time so I might modify some of them later on.

As much I like expressing myself by changing the faces of my dolls, hopefully next year, I don't have to repaint a new doll. Repainting new dolls means I'm not satisfied with what I bought. Who buys something only to be not satisfied? Plus, I have a number of old doll heads that could use an update.

I want to be able to use these dolls more, not necessarily to model new doll clothes (as I plan to do doll clothes for other body types) but for something else. There's gotta be more to life than modeling, right? And I don't mean beauty pageants. Excuse me, Donald Trump!

These faces nor the doll dresses are not what I consider my biggest doll accomplishment for this year. I'll talk about that some other time.

Comparing Barbie, Donald Trump and Richprime

"Harry Potter" author, J.K. Rowling, recently compared Donald Trump to her fictional villain, the Dark Lord Voldemort, saying the presidential wannabe is worse. This was in response to Trump's statement on banning Muslims from entering his country.

This got me thinking, did Barbie ever had a Muslim friend? There are the Arabian Nights dolls but they are not really in Barbie's circle of friends. Marvel comics is at least trying. They have included a young Muslim superhero, Kamala Khan in a title role. With the lack of Muslim friends, Barbie may not be saying it out loudly but she may be siding with Donald Trump.

Of course, it's not really as simple as that. Mattel sells dolls and they don't want to sell what people won't buy. It's the same for the sole licensed local Barbie distributor, Richprime. They haven't sold any playline African-American dolls since the Barbie Style Resort Grace. Black dolls don't sell well in a country with a lot of people pre-occupied in skin whitening. 

Forget about introducing a different view of beauty transcending skin color or race or religion. Forget about humanity and the spirit of of inclusion, as long as profits are being made. It's all about the money and property--making more and protecting it.

My Threads

I was on a roll on sewing doll clothes at the beginning of this year.  If only other matters did not need my attention, I would have sewn more. I felt accomplished nevertheless.

The first set had me sewing and styling dolls based on their characters. The second set was about playing with a gingham fabric. The third set is about iteration on a hem design. I wanted pieces that can be mixed and matched so I made a lot of separates. I have other doll clothes made but I failed to get a group photo as I never finished the set. All of the clothes I've sewn this year were for the Fashionista bodies.




In the years of existence of the Barbie Fashionista line, there are only a few clothes that I liked. Most were pink and/or glittery. I wanted to give my dolls with articulated fashionista bodies more fashion options so I focused my sewing projects on them.

Hopefully next year, I can sew for dolls with other bodies. I already have a few pieces in mind but it won't be done in sets. I'll just create what I feel like creating.