You might remember awhile back I was telling that I was interested in “making under” some Bratz dolls. Â If you don’t know what Bratz dolls are here is a peak.
In my opinion over done. Â Too much make up and in appropriate clothing. Â I really want kids to be kids an not to grow up so fast but these dolls in my opinion don’t help that. Â I was so excited when I saw this video that showed how to “make under” the dolls.
I was inspired so I started looking for some dolls at my local thrift stores and garage sales. Â I found some but also found that I wasn’t a painter and doing the faces was MUCH harder than I anticipated. Â I’m also not a knitter.
A family friend came over one day and helped me experiment with the shoes. Â I am not in love with how I am doing with those but can at least see that I will be able to practice to make them okay.
So fast forward to last weekend. Â Our daughter Kayla was home for a visit. Â She is talented with paint and with yarn….so some progress was finally made on the dolls.
Kayla knitted the sweater on the doll to left and painted the faces. Â I love them. Â She had a fabulous yarn for the sweater and did an awesome job on the faces.
The little knitted sweater is just adorable. Â The person who did the video (Tree Change Dolls) also wrote the pattern to knit the sweaters. Â I see that she now had a dress and a chicken pattern too. Â Of course I’d love to have them both but alas…I can’t knit. Â I’ve tried several times and just can’t do it. Â I can’t get tight stitches and I can’t figure out how to count a stitch either. Â UGH…
I tinkered and made the blue jean shorts and shoes for the doll on the right while Kayla was busy painting and knitting.
Sadly, that’s all we got done. Â The dolls have been sitting on the kitchen counter drying. Â The shoes take several days to completely dry and it’s taunting the childcare kids. Â They want to play with them. Â I’m not letting them until I have at least six dolls completely done.
Isn’t the transformation wonderful to see??
I tried to talk Kayla into taking them home with her and working on the faces or knitting sweaters but she wasn’t too excited about that.
Typically when she comes home we work on some type of project so I guess these little gals are just going to have to wait until Kayla comes home for another visit and we work on another project.
In the meantime I am hoping to come up with a little pattern for some bib overall shorts. Â I think they would be really cute on these dolls.
Your daughter did a fantastic job on the faces. Do you have the Melissa and David clock yet? I found one on sale at half price books and thought I would get it for the daycare but did not want to duplicate this toy.
Poor kiddos. Of course they want to play with the dolls; they’ve never seen anything like them! Is there room for them to dry in the laundry room, perhaps?
These are AMAZING!! WAY better than the original version! Way to go! The rugrats are going to love them!
Wow they look so much better. good job Kayla!!
JO, This is brilliant! I hate seeing inappropriate clothes and make-up “pushed” at young girls. Your dolls look like they could hike or clean or play in the mud puddles. Yay for making under!
hi jo…….if you can send me in the direction of the sweaters, dress and chicken, id be happy to make you an outfit or two. i think re-doing the dolls is wonderful and your daughter is quite an artist. i shudder to think what the poor things would look like if i painted them! lol. i will stick to making something out of something. i have no artistic talent when it comes to drawing or painting. oh, i guess i would need your address too
sara
sara603@msn.com
Amazing transformation!! The dolls look great and I’d like to play with the myself. I tried to play the video but a message comes up that says it is private. Any advice? Do you have the original website for the video? I’d like to try making some. What kind of paint did you use and how did you take off the original “makeup?”
Kayla did a great job My daughter would not buy these dolls because of their looks and clothes. If the two of you can see this why not the manufacturers. Good job.
Those dolls look so much better! You did a great job Kayla!! I am left handed and had a hard time learning how to crochet and never did learn to knit. But I have knitting on my bucket list. I want to at least give it a try eventually. Been too busy sewing!
I agree with you, the Bratz dolls are too “grown up”, not appropriate for little girls to my mind. Not seen them before. I never liked Barbie and Ken dolls though, although my daughter did have a Barbie 30 years ago! Love the new faces, so much nicer and “wholesome”. Good luck with finishing the project, the painting of the faces and kitting them out in knitted and sewn clothes. Good fun project for you and Kayla.