When I first started this hobby (6 or 7 years ago), the internet was full of sites that freely gave out tips and techniques to help you get started. Sadly that seemed to no longer be the case until I met the lady behind Legends by Valkyrie. If you want to learn how to customize dolls, joining this forum is the best way to both learn, ask questions, and share your knowledge... or even lurk if you're shy!

I still would like to use this page to share what little knowledge I have or to link you to tutorials I've found & use... but I am very slow at updating it and not the best at writing tutorials so be patient with me eh! *grin*. If you would like to ask me any questions about my dolls, how I did what I did... drop me a line. I'll do my best to explain.

I'm no pro at this, but these are the steps I take when creating one of my dolls.

First thing you are going to have to do is clean her, even if she looks clean or is a brand new doll. A good bath never hurt anyone. I use whatever soap I have on hand, be it dish washing soap or cheap shampoo and hot water. Because I need her head off to give her rooted eyelashes or to reroot her hair, then while I'm using the hot water, I will pop her head off her body. The vinyl is softer when it's warm and you won't be as likely to break her neck. If it's a newer Barbie, you'll need a pair of needle-nose pliers to reach inside her head and unhook the neck knob hooky-thingys. I found this little tutorial that explains how to remove a head much better than I can... DramaticDoll.com

Once you have her head off, set her body aside, and stick the handle part of a wooden spoon into her head. It gives you something to hang on to while you work on her hair and face.

Once I have her good and clean, I take a look at her hair. If she looks like Melina did...

then I jump to the rerooting section as she doesn't have anything to detangle.

If it's tangled, then I position her hair into a bowl and pour fabric softener on it so it covers it all. Then I go have a coffee or do some housework and let her just soak in it for at least an hour. After she's finished soaking, I squeeze out the excess softener from her hair, grab a towel and a comb and I start combing her hair starting from the ends and working my way up until all the tangles are out. Don't fret too much if some of her hair comes out, it will have to be an awful lot before she'll go bald. I have yet to comb a barbie bald, or even close!

Once I have all the tangles out, I rinse out the fabric softener with hot tap water being careful not to re-tangle it. Then I take a look at the ends of her hair. If they are kinky and frayed, then I pouring boiling water over her hair in the hopes of getting those kinks out. If that doesn't work, then you're going to have to snip them off.

Very very first thing you will need is hair. And you are going to want nice hair if you are putting this much work into it, right? So here are some good places to start...

• MyLittleCustoms - absolutely gorgeous nylon & genuine saran hair in all kinds of colors. Good prices and an awesome lady too! -- I've bought nylon hair from here & as promised I have a picture of what it looks like rerooted on a girl. You need 2 hanks to reroot a barbie.
• RestoreDoll - they sell genuine Katsilk saran (the stuff Mattel uses). Tons of colors & I hear they are great to deal with.
• Doctored Locks - I've bought their Synthetic Yaky Switch Toyokalon Braid and used it on a few dolls (Tara, A'Tika, Jacqueline). One package will reroot at least 2 barbies with hair down to their ankles... maybe even 3. I'd buy more from these guys except they raised the shipping to Canada to a crazy amount :-(
• HairMods - a Canadian eBay store. I just recently purchased some of their bulk excellent quality 100% Kanekalon synthetic hair and it looks awesome. Here's a picture of what it looks like rooted on the blonde girl.
• Other sources of doll hair could be from donor dolls, embroidery thread, or nylon rope. I've got on my "to-do" list to try out nylon rope... if I ever get it done, I'll show pictures.

I've taken some comparison pictures of the various types of synthetic hair I have on hand to give you an idea of how much you get & visual differences. It's hard to show the differences of each, as some of it is how the hair feels to touch (nylon is very very soft & silky, saran almost as soft... Toyokalon & Kanekalon a bit stiffer, and I mean just a bit).

Ok, so now you have your hair. Find somewhere comfortable to sit and a good light, because this is going to take awhile. It's not hard to do, but it's time-consuming.

First thing I do is get rid of all the old hair. I take a pair of scissors and cut it as close as possible to her scalp. Then with a pair of tweezers, I reach inside her head and pull what's left out until she is completely hairless.

There are a couple different methods to reroot. My advice is to pick one that you think sounds good to you and try it. Here are some links to tutorials on each method that I know about...

• My quick photo tutorial on how I do reroot using a knot type method
• Mod Era Barbie - various methods but also has an awesome animated tutorial done by Connie Matsumoto
• RestoreDoll - the knot method (good place to buy the hair from as well)
• WideEyedGirls - another tutorial with pictures on the knot method
• Natalie Merritt's Tutorial - this one is for what's called the tension method.
• Brutal Sun's Reroot Tutorial - this is a is a weave type method.

I've tried them all, and the one I'm continuing to use is a variation of the knot method. One that is even more secure than what is done in the above tutorials. I figure if I'm going to put all that time into doing a reroot, I want to make sure those darn plugs won't fall out. What I do is use a length of hair that is twice as long as what I want, and tie a knot in the middle and bring the two ends together. Then I take my "home made" needle (a 6" piece of 30 gauge wire folded in half), poke the folded part in her head from the outside & push it through the neck. Now take the ends of the hair and put into the "eye" and pull it through. Pictures would be nice (me and words don't always mix well)... I'll see if I can get some to put here.

Hair styling has never been my strong point, so I won't be explaining how to do any fancy up-to-do or anything... at least not right now. For now I'll try to explain what I do to get her hair curly... which is a basic boil perm.

First off, you are going to need some rollers and perm papers. I'm cheap (or frugal... however you want to call it), so I use what I have on hand. That's straws and toilet paper, the cheap one-ply kind.

I take one sheet of the paper and rip it in half. Then I separate her hair into little sections and wrap the 1/2 sheet of paper around it and pull it down to cover the ends. Then I roll it up onto the straw until its tight up against her head and hold it in place with either a bobby pin or I take a straight pin and stick it through the straw and into her head. Sadistic aren't I? I continue doing this until I have all her hair rolled up.

This is what Abigail looked like all rolled up...

Now you need some boiled water, so go put the kettle on and find a bowl big enough to dunk all her hair into it. Also, you are going to need a boil full of very cold water. In the past I have put a plastic baggie over her head so her hair didn't get wet, but I have found that the hair doesn't take to a curl as well, so I'd advise you not to do this. Then I dunk her head into the boiled water for 10 to 15 seconds and then immediately dunk it into the cold water until it is cool. This is the part that sets her curls.

This is the tough part for me... because the next thing I do is repaint her face, leaving her hair in the curlers until I'm done that is the best thing to do. It keeps me from messing up her curls or her hair getting in the way. If you are not going to repaint her face or give her rooted eyelashes, then you can take the curlers out carefully, and just finger pick them in place. To much combing will make those curls very unruly.

A word of caution if you use toilet paper... make sure it's the cheap kind (you know, the kind you bought on sale thinking it was a deal until you got it home). Also, make sure you leave the curlers in until it's dry... cause we all know what wet toilet paper is like *grin*

Some other ideas you can use for end papers are wrapping tissue (white only so not to stain the hair!), paper towels, and saran wrap. Recently I've tried saran wrap cut in little pieces and it works not bad. For curlers, you can also use tiny perm rods for people, pipe cleaners (again, white only), or anything else that you can manage to wrap the hair around. Just remember that you will be submersing it in hot water, so don't use anything that can stain the hair.

Repainting

This is one of my favorite part of customizing a doll. It's where she becomes who she is, where she develops her own personality.

No point me re-inventing the wheel here... there are tutorials already out there that are way better than anything I could say, plus they are what I'm following.

• Legend's by Valkyrie - best tutorials on how to make a wood's fae from start to finish. I've printed these suckers off and keep them handy.
• Repainting tips by Valkyrie - some more advice on repainting & altering her features. There is a link on that page to an older repainting tutorial done by Valkyrie that is great too.
• Practical Painting Class - byJuan Albuerne. Another great tutorial.
• Shadow, highlights & blush 101 - by Brutal Sun Studio. This one is great for making your doll look alive.

Rooting Eyelashes

Again I'm going to give you a link to a tutorial. This is basically the method I use...

• Jennifer Scully's Eyelash Rooting Tutorial

I've found that "Curly Hair" by One & Only Creations works the best in my opinion for eyelashes. It very fine, and will hold a curl just from the warmth of your fingers.

Use 8 strands of hair, and make 6 plugs per eye. Before trimming the lashes, use a toothpick up against her eyelid and then push the lashes up against it with your thumb to give it some curl (I wish I had pictures!) Hold it for a few minutes, and that hair will curl just by the heat of your thumb. Once you have it with a bit of curl, trim off the excess.

How to make your own "saddle" stands (quick and dirty tutorial)

Supplies & tools needed...

Wooden bases (I sometimes get mine from the dollar store) 14 gauge wire (I use stainless steel, something that won't tarnish) Hollow metal tubing (I use K&S Engineering that is 1/8" in diameter in either brass or aluminum.) Fabric, trim, paint, oil... whatever you want to use to finish the base. Felt for the bottom. Needle nose pliers Side cutters to cut the wire. Something to cut the tubing. I use the hubby's hack saw. Something to drill a hole into the base (gotta love the hubby's tools!) The doll the stand is for
I'm not the best with words, but I'll try to show you what I mean with pictures. Ok... first off, you are going to take your wire and your pliers and make a loop in the front like so... That will go in the front of the doll. Then you need to bend the wire to go between her legs and around to her bum and then curve it sharply back down, like so... Measuring against the doll with that curved part where she is going to "sit", cut the wire even with her feet. That was awkward to explain *grin*.
Now... take your base and drill a hole that is the same size as your metal tubing. It should be just a tad off center towards the back of the base so the doll will stand in the middle. Cut a piece of your tubing... I wouldn't go less that 3" long, but no more than 6". The one I did for this stand was 6". Clean up where you cut it with a file or a bit of sandpaper. This goes into that hole you just drilled in the base. Now insert the wire you just bent into the tubing. If it slide to easily... make a bit of a kink in the wire. Why the tubing you ask? It gives your wire just a bit more strength, allows you to adjust the height of the "saddle" to fit your doll. Now if you want you can dress up the base of your stand. On the one here I covered it with fabric & added some trim. But you can paint it too, or if you used a nice wood... just rub it with some vegetable oil to bring out it's colors.
A nice touch (I think) is to glue a piece of felt on the bottom. I've taken that one step further lately, and embroidered/cross stitched the doll's name, the year and my logo on the bottom. How you dress it up is all up to you.

Miscellaneous Tips & Tricks

Eyelets

• I highly recommend getting an eyelet setter. It will make setting eyelets a breeze! The one I use is actually for scrapbooking, called Making Memories Instant Setter.
• If using 1/16" eyelets, use a thumb tack to help you push that sucker through both leather & fabric. It's diameter is slightly smaller than the eyelet so you won't have to worry as much about the eyelet falling out after.

Leather

• You can sew thin leather on a regular sewing machine WITHOUT a special presser foot. This page has some tips on how to do it that do work! I made myself a "paper plate" that works like a charm.
• If you find your sewing machine is skipping stitches when sewing leather, reduce the tension. It might take you a bit of testing to get the right tension, and once you do have it... write it down for next time *grin*

Chainmaille

• For supplies, you will need a set of pliers with a small needle nose, tweezers, a "mandrel" (I use a piece of 14 gauge wire... it makes a ring with an inside diameter of about 1/16" which in my opinion is a good scale for barbie), wire to make the rings (I use 24 gauge), and wire cutters (again small so you can fit inside that tiny ring), and patience. Being insane helps *grin*
• I won't reinvent the wheel again as there are tutorials out there for people size maille that will work. Here are a couple links of tutorials that I used...
  AngryBoot's tutorial on making 1/6 scale chainmaille
  Butted Mail - a guide to making chainmaille
  Chainmailbasket - more tutorials for chainmaille
• The Ring Lord - this is where you can get your wire, or pre-made rings, or pre-made mail if you have lots of money and now patience *grin*

More to come...

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