Barbie Archives - Page 8 of 31 - Barbie Treasure Chest

February 18, 2021February 18, 2021

Re-rooting a Barbie doll

I just saw that I blogged nothing for about a month. The last month was a very busy one for me. I had less time to work on my projects after work due to winter weather. We got a lot of snow that caused traffic problems. I wasn’t able to use my bike for some weeks. Let’s cross our fingers that the winter will be over soon.

Coming home later caused some time problems. I was not able to blog so much as I did before. I somehow felt tired after work and my projects from January were time-consuming. For example I did a re-root and 3 days after working for approx. a hour daily on it, we got snow. We got a lot of snow. Approx. 50 cm in 26 hours. It was snowing all day long. Nice to look at but bad for the traffic.

So my project lasted longer than I wanted it to last since I did work on several videos when I did my re-root. Last year in September I found a Barbie head worth to re-root. I prefer the Vintage Barbie dolls at the moment. It’s less work because you just have to root the outer circle and it’s not full re-root. I think a full one would have lasted even longer. I already did a Ponytail Swirl Barbie in 2019 in a flamboyant red tone. This time I wanted to do a blond version. Somehow she reminded me a little bit of Marilyn Monroe while I did this. I even found a photo with a similar style. That’s how she reminded me of Marilyn.

The styling always needs a lot of time because the hair in not cooperative. After all I had 4,5 hours of film. I filmed the whole re-reroot of this Barbie but I knew I had to cut it down. Starting with 4,5 hours I managed it to come down to 1,5 hours without problems but even the 1,5 hours were way too long. I didn’t want to make a documentary. I wanted to show my viewers the makeover, the transformation. After cutting for one week I finally came to about 40 minutes. This was way more acceptable than the 1,5 hours. At the end I came down to approx. 35 minutes. Way better than before. If you want to see it, have a look below. I linked the video.

January 13, 2021January 13, 2021

Flax seeds – incredible versatile stuff

You might wonder how do I mention the tagline? Am I serious about this? Yes, I am. No, this is no joke. After eating them for a long time in my bread I discovered that flax seeds are even more versatile than I thought they would be. Why? You can do so many things with them that you probably don’t know all the areas to use them in. One of them I knew was simply eating them for breakfast or in breads. What I did not know were the other areas I stumbled across.

I don’t know how you feel about wearing a mask due to the coronavirus when doing grocery shopping but I hate to wear it. The result is that I avoid going shopping if possible. My preference is doing online shopping because it’s delivered to my doorstep and I don’t have to care about wearing masks. That’s also how I came across the flax seed gel. Doing some research for some of my next videos I came across a recipe for flax seed gel. I admit I was a bit sceptical at first. Would something that easy really work? Two options came into my mind, trying it or buying a hair gel from a supermarket. Before going to a supermarket I wanted to try the homemade flax seed gel. I always have flax seeds at home. So trying the recipe was no problem. At the end I had a lot of gel even from a small amount of flax seed. The consistency was a bit wobbly and I had my concerns about this stuff.

What to do with so much flax seed gel?

At the end after my repair adventure in the Barbie world I had far more gel than I needed and I had to find a solution what to do with the gel. I did some more research and found out that it’s possible to use it for your own hair care too. You can use it to feed your hair with Vitamine E by simply smearing it into your hair. The smell is a bit strange but it disappears after washing the gel out. I can recommend you to let it in your hair for 30 minutes before you wash it ( if you don’t use any silicone shampoos) to feed your skin. Anyway, here’s the video with the recipe.

January 7, 2021January 7, 2021

Nothing is impossible – You just have to know the way how to repair your Barbie

I know that I’ve been posting not enough in the last months but I try to improve my number of posts in the next weeks. Sometimes I need more time for my videos because you know I’m a part-time youtube creator. Sometimes you need more time because things don’t work out they way you want them to. It’s normal but you as a creator feeling stressed when it does not work as you want.

This is not always the case but it can happen and I want to encourage you don’t let this come too close to you.

I have an example for you. The creation of the first part of this video was no problem. Everything was running smoothly. This was not my first try. I already recorded another video with the same topic in 2019 but back then I used another cutting program which gave me less freedom than DaVinci Resolve.

It’s just the way how to come from A to B. There is a product that does the work for you.

What caused more trouble was the second part. The hair was not co-operating here in the first place. I had to some tricks to get it under control and needed two evenings to tape the re-creation the hairstyle. After filming I realized that although that my hand was in the way again, like often. So I had to tape the whole process again but with another doll.

The try with the second doll was no problem. It did work out like it should. The little waves at the end stayed in place at my Ponytail Barbie dolls. So far no problem. Only the fact that this first record was anything but professional was annoying me. You know it try to do it as original as possible. It’s not impossible to recreate it but sometimes you have to find creative solutions for strange problems.

December 29, 2020December 29, 2020

Barbie Francie doll, the cousin of Barbie Francie Fairchild

Christmas is over now but is this the best reason to say we have to wait until next year to sew a Xmas skirt for Francie? My answer is no and I can explain you why. In December 2020 I saw the fabric you can see below in the little video. I saw it and I thought it would make a perfect dress, skirt or top for Barbie doll or a family member like Francie. Francie is the cousin of Barbie doll, sold from the mid 1960s until the mid 1970s. Do I have to mention that she is still a very popular member of the Barbie family? When you’re into Vintage & Mod Barbie collecting then I guess I don’t have to.

Maybe it’s useful to explain it to the other side of my readers here. Although Francie doll is a very early member of the Barbie doll family she is still very popular among the children from back then, now being grandmas. Designed to be a bit younger than Barbie and more adolescent than Skipper doll Francie was designed to be approx. 15 years old with a little bit more breast than Skipper but less than Barbie has.

Seen from a marketing point of view and keeping in mind that the wild 60s in London, GB were such an influence that it was hard to ignore in general. Maybe this idea was the starting point why Francie doll was released in 1966. This was also a big opportunity to hop on the train because the fashion of Barbie was rather 50s like, classical, conservative, not hip. That’s the point where Francie could help. With her sling body she could wear hip mini-dresses, short skirts and tight things that Barbie was a little bit too old for.

When I made my first contact with Barbie Francie was out of production for a long time, almost 25 years but I immediately liked her when I got into collecting in the mid 1990s ( and yeah, she was affordable back then) but she was not my main focus point. I rather wanted to collect Barbie. The interest in collecting Francie was there from the first minute. After collecting for 10 years I found a Francie on a flea market with almost no clothing but her bathing suit. For a long time she had to wear it. In the last years she got another outfit but hey, believe it or not but I think the original clothes are hard to find and even expensive. Why not designing your own clothes for Francie? With this idea in mind this video is the logical conclusion of it. So here we are doing our own clothes for Francie when the original ones are too expensive.

June 18, 2020June 18, 2020

How do you revive a Barbie doll’s hair?

That’s a very good question but it’s easy to answer when you know what hair fibre your doll has. In general there are only three hair fibres that were ever used by Mattel. You have Saran hair ( early dolls have until mid 1980s used widely), Nylon hair ( some 80s dolls have Nylon hair, very shiny, you find it mainly on MLP My little Pony) and Kanekalon hair ( mainly used in the 90s for Barbie dolls with giant amount of hair).

What you can do with every doll head is wash the hair to revive it. It’s artificial hair so nothing can really happen except that Barbie dolls produced in the last 15 years could loose their hair because they are glued in with resin or a glue, anyway something very gluey and stick but not resistant to heat. It seems that Mattel glued the hair in the head after they bought new machine which work automatically. It seems that the new machines don’t need a worker anymore. This a way of cost saving but what about the quality? Do you know that the glue comes out of the head after you debox the doll and comb it? Some modern collectors say the hair has a feeling like wax, not very pleasant. The original way how dolls got their hair is this one…

Here you have a worker but no glue. You can imagine it like a sewing machine for doll hair. Your thread is the hair. By the way these machine are expensive up to 3000 € and more in used condition.

But back to the topic now

The easiest way to revive the hair is by washing it. Treat it with conditioner instead of soap. I show you in one of my videos how I do this. The procedure is a little labor intense but it’s worth the procedure because the hair is always looking much better than before. What these sewing machines for doll hair do is this here

So basically due to the pattern inside the head that the machine made nothing will happen when you treat the doll with the conditioner. The hair pattern done by the machine is secured inside the head. You must proverbial cut the hair very short to be able to destroy the pattern. This here is my way to revive the hair …

This method also works for shorter hair and is a very good method to save hair so that your doll doesn’t loose so much hair. This method also works for Saran and Nylon hair but these fibres don’t tend so much to tangles. By the way the doll in my video has Kanekalon hair and I think this fiber was used mainly in the 1990s because it was cheap.

So I hope I’m able to give you a good idea how you can treat the hair of your doll to revive it.

May 25, 2020May 25, 2020

New Barbie repair adventures ahead

I know I haven’t posted anything for two weeks but now I can tell you something new. I’m going to get a parcel this week with lots of Barbie dolls for repair and the best thing is I haven’t to pay for them. They are a gift from another collector who likes my idea to get repair without paying the repair itself only the shipping and handling costs and material costs.

She asked me to test a new glue for broken necks and I said I’d be glad to test and do a video, although I don’t know if this stuff is available outside from Germany. I’m curious to do the test. I heard a lot. Now I get the chance to do a test.

What else happened in the meantime?

Well I had to work only three days last week and had a long weekend that I used for Barbie, not for doing videos but to continue to develop my sewing and pattern making skills for Francie. I started on May 1rst I think with a pattern for Francie and had problem to make it fit to her size. I had too many wrinkles at the wrong places but this weekend I had an idea how to make it probably work. I tried it and had success with my idea. It’s not perfect yet but I think I’m on the right way to find the pattern. I did a second project yesterday and designed my very first sleeve. The sleeve is definitely something for the next weekend. I saw some progress in my Francie “Let’s Dance” sewing project. It feels good to see some progress.

May 13, 2020May 13, 2020

Short update for pattern making friends

I can’t believe how fast the last week passed by. Last week I designed my first top pattern for Francie and I was really nervous how this would turn out because the pattern form I got for Francie was very similar to the pattern I did for Barbie. Had I used the right measurements? I was so nervous that I didn’t want to start sewing it. This sounds strange, I know. Again I had the same problem like with the one for Barbie. My front middle part had too much fabric to fit in a perfect way. I had this while doing my Barbie top. After my first Francie top try I already knew where to modify the pattern. I think the next try will fit much better because of the modification. This time I tried to document what I did because I realized that I forgot a lot. Additionally I took the measure from my Vintage Skipper so that I can do patterns for her or Ricky too in the future. Maybe pattern making becomes easier the more often you do it. At least I hope so.

If you ask yourself why I suddenly started to do pattern making for Francie, well this is due to the fact that I was not 100% satisfied with the pattern I used for my “Let’s dance” Francie dress project . So I decided to try another approach and doing my own top to come as close to the original as possible. You know I’m a purist. If you’re not familiar with the topic, just watch the first part of my new video series.

I’m going to insert a pic of my first try here in the next days. I’m still sitting here and write this article.

May 5, 2020December 27, 2020

Designing Sewing Patterns for Barbie and the family

Greetings and welcome to my crazy Barbie world. You have not heard about any Barbie related stuff in the last weeks from me? Yep, that’s right. I was working on some new ideas and I do course after course to learn new things and improve my skills concerning Social Media.

That’s why you haven’t heard very much from me. Today I’m going to change this. I’ve been working on new sewing patterns for Francie, the cousin of Barbie doll. You may have heard from her?

Sieh dir diesen Beitrag auf Instagram an

1966 Francie has finally got some clothes of her own. Pink Power #1762 from 1970 although she is left wondering what the heck happened to her pink stockings. They seemed to have been chopped into socks! ? #barbie #vintagebarbie #vintagebarbies #barbievintage #fortheloveofvintagebarbie #francie #pinkpower #vintage #vintagedolls #vintagetoys #barbiecollector #vintagebarbiecollector #vintagebarbieclothes

Ein Beitrag geteilt von For The Love Of Vintage Barbie (@fortheloveofvintagebarbie) am Apr 30, 2020 um 11:19 PDT

Her size and proportions are a bit different from the measurements of Barbie and I created a sewing pattern for her. Since I’m not doing this every day it always lasts a while. While doing my draft I did a stupid mistake. It was the same one I did years before when I did my Barbie top. Nevertheless I wasn’t sure about my draft and asked someone who did many sewing patterns for Barbie and her family to have a look at my pattern. The answer was no. What should I expect? I’m long enough in the scene of collectors. You often have selfish persons.

You know it’s not for me about making money with the stuff. I simply want to do my own patterns in a correct way and become better in doing so. I’m convinced I can find someone who is willing to help me and understanding my own mistakes. You can only become better when you learn from your own mistakes.

February 21, 2020February 21, 2020

It’s Friday and my post is gone

This week I was a little late when I started to write a new blog post and I wanted to finish it today. Now I realize my blog post was not saved … gee whiz I had so much work to do this week … I obviously forgot it but now that it’s Friday I wanted to post another blog post because 14 days passed by since my last post and I wanted to tell you about my updates. Instead of telling that new videos gonna come with delay I finally found some time to render new videos this week, actually my PC is just rendering at the moment and I have to wait for the video so I use my time to blog. Last weekend I started to work with Silicone for one of my next videos. I also want to work with Epoxide resin but I need time for it. I don’t want to make any mistakes because the stuff is very expensive I think it’s gonna be a big project, not the longest video but the things around. I already made several calls to be sure with the Silicone. I also did one for the Epoxide idea but it’s not the last one. The only problem is the working time of my contact persons. I only can call them in the morning. That causes problems when you are working full time because you’re also working but nevertheless I find a way to do it. I’ve done at least 400 – 500 phone calls this week. After closing time I felt not like doing much private phone calls.

Using the weekend to relax?

No, I’m the wrong person you should talk to when it comes to see somebody laying on a sofa. I’m almost always busy … preparing this … doing that but I try at least to stop my work at 8 p.m. in the evening because you have to stop at least once a day for a rest and a good night’s sleep. I also try to read at least 3 pages per day in a book. The good news is that I can sleep very well at the moment and I feel relaxed after waking up.

Ideas I had for almost one year

At the moment I work on a project that came into my mind last year but I had difficulties to put it into reality because the material I used was not the right one. It has to do with the blue chunk you saw in my “projects for 2020” video. So I really thought for a long time how I could do it. In February I found a solution during a conversation with other crazy “makers”. I suddenly had a new starting point and it became much easier. That’s the video series I’m working on at the moment. I know my solution is not perfect but it will be good enough for a demonstration of my ideas. Maybe a chemist will come along and help me a little bit with knowledge???