Dollieh Sanctuary

I had ordered the new "Frozen" dolls from the Disney Store a few weeks ago, but just got around now to redo the girls' faceups and retouch the boys. (The guys looked pretty much just right, so I just blushed them and added small lashes and detailing, but otherwise, I was happy with the boys.)

The Anna doll was very pretty as is, but her eyes were looking the wrong way and she didn't have blushing or detailing, either, so I hesitantly wiped her face, and gave her a whole new faceup.
Elsa was very ugly actually----so bland, blank and vague, so I had no reservations in wiping her! :laughs: I also thinned her head a bit (it was really 'round') and blushed her quite a bit because, for some odd reason, the Disney Store made her skin lavender/pink. ^^;; I was disappointed by that because I had wanted to put her head on a Model Muse body to give her some attitude but now, the skintones won't match! This Elsa is pink! :laughs:

Anyway, the blushing did help a lot, so I think she's much improved now and I like her finally. Her hair is kind of insane looking-----but it's so well done, it's hard to change it at all! I just styled it a bit neater and moved the braid around the front more. ^^
Her gown is really nice--particularly the organza 'snowflake' dress cape! PRETTY! Her inner gown is kind of bleh and low quality one layer costume satin, not lined, and not flared, but it's mostly hidden. I was surprised that they forgot to add her silvery trim around the top of the dress, and the designs on the sleeves, so I added that to her to make her more accurate.

The other 3 dolls' outfits are pretty near perfect! They're very nicely made, accurate and Hans even has real metal buttons all in the right places and a corduroy vest! Kristoff's outfit is made of a super soft moleskin/suede and he has pleather gloves, fleecy pants and soft faux fur trim.
Poor Elsa! It's like they gave her a lick and promise in every way! But I (hopefully) improved her for the most part, and am satisfied with her now. ^^

Here are the photos! Hope you like them, too! (Also check the new photos with a new handmade much more accurate Elsa outfit and faceup on Page 2 of this thread.)

I love what you did with your dolls, especially Elsa looks much more like herself now! I´m planning to make the same thing with my DS Frozen Elsa and Anna, you already know my Mattel Frozen repaints. I sewed a new gown for Elsa, which is a lot more glamorous, because, like you, I found the factory dress much too simple. How did you thin Elsas head??? It looks great!

Lulemee wrote:I love what you did with your dolls, especially Elsa looks much more like herself now! I´m planning to make the same thing with my DS Frozen Elsa and Anna, you already know my Mattel Frozen repaints. I sewed a new gown for Elsa, which is a lot more glamorous, because, like you, I found the factory dress much too simple. How did you thin Elsas head??? It looks great!

Thanks, Lulemee-san! I'm glad you like them!! I agree about Elsa's inner gown so much! After I took these photos, I decided to try to 'shimmer' her up and added silver spray glitter to her gown! It really worked and helped it very much. Once I see the movie, I'll decided if I should remake her a whole new gown or just be satisfied with this one now that it's more glittery and frosty! ^^

There were two things about this Elsa I didn't like---her round/fat head and her light lavender skin! WHY?! Why did they make her pink/lavender?! (They also did this with their 'Vanessa' doll! They made her lilac. So weird!)
Anyway, I couldn't really change the skintone, but I blushed it a lot with various pastels so she's more lifelike now in her head/face. I had originally wanted to put her on a Model Muse body but I don't think the skintones will be close enough at all. I just have to put up with this lavender pink body. ^^;;

For her round/fat face, I have a trick I use to make 'male' sculpts out of female sculpts. Most male characters have more oval/long faces than their female counterparts. But the doll companies often only release the female characters! (Especially anime dolls.) So I take the female head, and using 'button craft' thread in the color 'natural' I go through the ear (if I remove the head, I go through the neck hole so there's no 'knot' in the ear canal) then back through about 2mm away from where I initially came in, through the head to the other ear, and pull as taut as I want the head to be thinned. Once it's where I like it, then I go through a new part of the inner ear (again 1-2mm from the first point you came out) back through the head and out the other ear (this time, it can be in the same hole as before. In fact it's preferable to do that.). I repeat this until I feel it's secure then I come out through the scalp hidden in the hair, and out the neck hole, where I go in and out to 'knot' it in a way.
This works like a charm and I've done it on 1/6 dolls as well as 1/3 dolls. I really like my head sculpts to be accurate to the character, so if they have a thinner face/head, I like to make them have one! ^^

:hugs: Thanks again for liking the dolls! Disney Store really did a lovely job on the sculpts and the outfits (Well, except for Elsa's inner dress.)

That's really clever!

Your dolls are so pretty. Love what you did with them. I can't wait to see the movie.

Thanks, Tealove-san! I'm glad you like them! :hugs:


And....I did a little more research on their outfits and found that Anna's cape and capelet needed tassels or baubles! So I added them to her outfit, and I gave her a shorter 10" body so that she'd fit in better scale with Elsa and especially with Kristoff. (She was almost as tall as he was!):







For Elsa, I almost completely redid her outfit when I saw official artwork from the movie online. I wanted to give her a slightly shorter body as well, but she's pink/lavender so she'll have to stick with the tall body since there aren't any shorter ones in her skintone.)







Sisters together:



I'm very happy with Elsa now! She looks so much better with an accurate gown!!! YAY!

I also remade an Elsa Mattel doll (faceup, hairstyling, new outfit, etc), which I'm reselling after all, since I prefer the Disney Store version and only want one. (I bought both dolls several weeks ago, not sure which I'd like better. Now that they're 'done,' I've decided. Both have pros and cons, but the Mattel has more cons, so....off to eBay with her! :laughs: )

Here are some photos of her:







Hope you all like them!!! ^^

Wow you've done beautiful work on their outfits, they are gorgeous!

Thanks, fairydustdreams-san!! :hugs: I'm really glad you like them!!!

I was very lucky to have an organza fabric that was perfect for Elsa's skirt! The ribbed quality of it really worked just as I'd hoped!!

Thanks again!! :hugs:

Setsuna

I love the gown you made fo your DS Elsa! You´re right, the fabric is just perfect! She´s so glamorous now! btw, the snow flake she´s holding in her hand is the exact snowflake I used for my Elsa´s gown as well

What a beautiful job you did! (Spoiler) What I adore about that movie is that the "true love" in it is between the sisters, and that Anna learns that running off looking for a "true love" in a hurry is generally not a good idea.

Very cute dolls! I agree with you that the Disney Elsa is nicer than the Mattel Elsa. Good job on the touch ups and outfits too. Well done!