This evening I was looking up paper dolls on Youtube (trying to get ideas for a project I’ve got forming in my head) and came across the phenomenon of BJD’s (or ball jointed dolls). These are sculptures you can dress! I found endless videos of teenagers and grown women unwrapping large packages containing their anticipated doll so out of curiosity I went in search of prices (and nearly had heart failure). The basic price is just the naked doll without eyes or wig! I’m not a doll collector (my dolls have all been rescued – they’d be offended to be labelled a collected object), but these ball jointed dolls are amazing. They come in all sorts of sizes and endless variety of styles. I watched a tutorial of someone sculpting a doll head out of paper clay and I think I’ll have to buy some clay and have go. Here’s one I’d buy if I were a rich girl… Actually I’d have to have two…He’d be lonely without a heroine to have tea with.
If you want to see more go here…

At chez Hislop I finally made Francoise (one of my rescued Barbie dolls) a dressing gown. There is a good reason why you can’t find a Barbie doll pattern for a realistic Regency gown – sewing all the teeny tiny pieces together would drive anyone insane! Being insane I made myself a pattern and cut out the dress and started sewing it…one of these days I may finish it, but until then…she has a chemise, stockings and dressing gown!
