Does the SHOE fit ?

SUBJ:  SHOES / FOOTWEAR FOR YOUR DOLLIES


I don't know about you, but one of the first things that shocked me (after realizing the price of the doll itself was over $100 ... minimum ... for a used, and out-of-box doll ) ... was / is the price of her FOOTWEAR!

I had to INCLUDE these:
HIDEOUS white shoes that came WITH my Blythe Ashton Drake Galleries:  Aztec Arrival
Makes me wish I were on the panel of designers ....

The shoe fashions that I really loved, turned out to be nearly as much, if not MORE than what I would pay for a pair of shoes!!!  (well ... ) ... and don't get me started on the actual OUTFITS for Blythe ... {{{rolling my eyes so far back in my head, I fell down}}} ... the prices are astonishing ...

THIS picture shows:
BLYTHE BOOTS:  Found them on auction site for about $15.00
Little Blythe Dress:  I won this in a Photo Contest, but she sells them on the handmade site
and she also sells the little head scarf / which doubles as a shoulder "wrap" for about $10.

I LOVE the chunkiness of the little CONVERSE-LIKE shoes, and the boots ... which off-sets the whole HUGE HEAD dynamic ... but I also like the MARY-JANE style ... and I further found a use for even the "Sexy Sandal / Pump" look ... which has its place in SOME photo shoots ...

THIS picture shows that the REAL BLYTHE doll CAN wear some Barbie Fashions:
Just be sure her feet are curved enough ...
The original feel on the LBE dolls:  Not only are they too LARGE, but they are FLAT
(one of the main reasons all my LBE's got NEW BODIES with awesome limbs, feet, and hands :)

NOW, I have been a Barbie collector since the early 90's only, so all my stuff isn't exactly "vintage" cool from the 60's.  But I DO have a lot of it .... so, I dragged it all out, and saw some real possibilities ...

Now, further than a DOLLY MAKE-OVER ... I was going to do some FOOTWEAR MAKE-OVERS!!!

ORIGINAL BARBIE ATHLETIC / TENNIS SHOE STYLE:
I glued these to a piece of craft foam, and cut around the edges, because they were a bit TOO flat.
Then, I painted them different colors  (see below)

I wanted to make these BARBIE BOOTS more snazzy ...
(although, now in hindsight, they still would have looked AWESOME ...
due to the initial "B" ... which could be for BLYTHE! )

Bag of shoes/ boots;  glue;  glitter;  paint; brushes ...
READY TO CREATE !!!













BLYTHOPOLITAN MAGAZINE

There is a cute little flickr group called "BLYTHOPOLITAN MAGAZINE".  The admin made a cute little magazine to print out, and she invited any and all to print out the tiny mag, and take photo shoots with your Blythe doll.  (hellomomo is her flickr name)

(Here, you can see the front and back of the tiny magazine ... )

I had previously thought of making my OWN little magazine ... Just go to google images, select a random magazine cover, reduce it to 1/6 size.  It really doesn't matter WHAT is on the inside pages ... for a photo shoot, it is just the covers that show ...

Lena (left) busy reading her magazine ...
Bertha (right):  "I KNOW she isn't looking over my shoulder ...
she has her OWN ISSUE !!! "

ANYWAY, I played along and made a BUNCH of her little magazaines, and had a blast with more photo shoots of my girls ...

ALL my girls like to READ !

Kirstyn and AshLeigh like to SHARE

EmAly "pretending" to read ...

Molly concerned more with her picture being taken ...

Bertha needs glasses ?

Jay~Anna making sure there are no ANNOYING MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTION INSERTS
that will fall out while she is trying to enjoy HER magazine ...

I also thought:  PERHAPS it should be "BLYTHMOPOLITAN" ...

BECAUSE ... the REAL magazine, has followers which are called:  COSMO GIRLS ...

So OUR girls could be called "BLYTHMO GIRLS" ... but there is no "M" in the mag cover ... so

Nenetl and her HAPPY BUDDY ... Spa Day

"WOW ... can you BELIEVE what is on page 67 ??? !!! ???"

"What's NEW, What's New, What, WHAT ??????..."

YEP I do think of these things ... :)

LITTLE BIG EYES DOLLS: Eye Changing BUTTONS

Little Big Eyes Dolls have a HUGE push button on the back of their heads, and it actually comes with a sticker saying "PUSH HERE".  really.

This button on the back of their heads, is INSTEAD OF a "string" like the real Blythe dolls have.

I decided to remove those labels from my seven LBE dolls, and give them a little "bling" on their buttons :)

Bertha:  PINK THEME

LENA:  SKY BLUE AND LEMON YELLOW (to match her hair)
(That is a MIRROR CIRCLE in the middle)

I chose this HUGE PURPLE RHINESTONE STAR for Molly,
to match her Grape color hair

AshLeigh has long jet black hair, so I chose
Ebony and Turquoise for her

DRYING TIME !!!

For EmAly I chose a "confetti" bright color scheme
(Since this pic, I have added tinier rhinestones to fill in those blanks)

CLOSE-UP of Lena's button

To complement JAY~ANNA'S awesome RASPBERRY HAIR,
I started with a LARGE raspberry rhinestone STAR for the center
and filled in the rest with OPALESCENT rhinestones in several sizes

Kirstyn also has jet black locks,
so for her, a nice classic RED, BLACK, and WHITE theme

ALL 7 of them, ALL DONE !  These will only be visible if they have "up-do's", so they are ready for their glamourous nights on the town, in any event ...



I used flatback rhinestone shapes, and a layer of craft glue, and let them set for a few days ... I just LOVE the way they all turned out :)

MY GIRLS: AS "FAMOUS" ICONS

AFTER my girls each received their make-overs, I thought it would be fun to have a "CELEBRITY" or "FAMOUS ICON" photo shoot for each one ...

JUST FOR FUN ~

My AshLeigh:  As Vivien Leigh in Gone With The Wind, SCARLETT O'HARA

My Bertha Belle:  As a
LOS ANGELES DODGERS BASEBALL PLAYER

My Caylee Camryn Cane:  as
SHIRLEY TEMPLE in Stand Up and Cheer

My Dallet Darling as:
MISS GHOST Beauty Pageant Winner

My EmAly EriKa as:
GRACE KELLY

My Jay~Anna July as
BELLE  from Disney's Beauty and The Beast

My Kirstyn Kavaleri as
MADONNA
(in her debut, early 80's style)

My Lena LaRosse as
MARILYN MONROE

My Molly Marine as
AUDREY HEPBURN
 as Holly GoLightly in Breakfast At Tiffany's

My Nenetl Nenetl as
Mattel's Barbie doll in her iconic
(VINTAGE 60'S) SENIOR PROM gown

MY GIRLS: BEFORE and AFTER PICTURES

HERE ARE ALL MY GIRLS ... BEFORE and AFTER their make-overs ...

Ashleigh Aqua:
Little Big Eyes (Black Hair)
(she has extra-long black hair extensions)

Bertha Belle: 
Little Big Eyes (Lemon hair)

CAYLEE CAMERON CANE:
CCE Basaak doll (from Taiwan)

DALLET DARLING:
Blybe doll
(I did commit "dolly-cide" on her,
but then, I transformed her into ....)

Dallet Darling:
Our Little GHOST

EmALY EriKA:
Little Big Eyes doll  (grape hair)
She got ash-blonde wig extensions
(no more visible purple/grape hair)

Jay~Anna July:
Little Big Eyes doll (Raspberry hair)

Kirstyn Kavaleri
Little Big Eyes Doll (black hair)

Lena LaRosse
Little Big Eyes doll
(my second lemon hair LBE)

Lena LaRosse
(pic # 2 of her)

Molly Marine
Little Big Eyes doll
(my second grape hair ... kept hers purple)

Nenetl Nenetl
(means DOLL in Aztec)
My first, and so far, my ONLY "REAL" BLYTHE DOLL
She is the Ashton Drake Galleries (ADG) Aztec Arrival

DOLL BODY COMPARISONS: Blythe; Blybe; CCE; LBE; and OTHER CLONES

When I first discovered BLYTHE ... and realized I could not afford one ... and then figured I could get a clone and STILL accomplish my goal  (designing and producing dolly fashions to offer for sale ... )

I then discovered there is a whole OTHER WORLD of ... CLONES!!!

This was all very confusing.  But THANKS to all the wonderful flickr folks, you can find so many people who have comparison pictures, which helps a lot.

Here, I will post my own comparison pictures.  Some of the other clone pics I have found, are from various locations, but since I am not trying to sell anything here, or benefit in any other way besides INFORMATION ONLY, I am sure it will be okay.

Left to right:  REAL BLYTHE  (ADG Aztec Arrival) ... Center:  CCE (body with SPINDLY LEGS and arms)
Right:  This is a MARY-KATE & ASHLEY doll which I previously put on my CCE doll,
because I could not DEAL with the TWIG LIMBS!

BODIES: 

One of the FIRST THINGS to research was:  BODY SIZE.  Comparison of CLONE to the REAL BLYTHE … so that when I made my crochet fashions, I would be getting the size right.

            Here is what I have discovered:

            LBE:  Their TORSO and LEGS combined, make her about 1 inch taller than BLYTHE.

            Blybe:  CLOSE enough to BLYTHE although CHEAP-O made.

            CCE:  I could NOT DEAL with her spindly body.  Before commiting dolly-cide on her, I changed her body with a MARY-KATE & ASHLEY body that I had from when my niece used to come over and play dolls in the 90’s.  It was surprisingly VERY similar.  But ANYTHING would have been better than that TOOTHPICK CCE body.  HAD TO get rid of it.

            BLYTHE*:  It is what it is.  MANY different colors of plastic though:  her head is GREEN;  her torso is another color and her arms and legs are another color.  WHICH doesn’t matter much to me, as I do NOT like the skin showing on photo shoots.  I just DON’T.  (has nothing to do with modesty, I just don’t think it looks right.)

* I am referring to the only Blythe I have: The ADG (Ashton Drake Galleries) Aztec Arrival. 

 

 

HANDS                                      

Hand of Little Big Eyes Doll:  After I sliced between the fingers

            LBE:            Nice hands, made of rubber.  NOT hard-ass plastic.  I cut between each of their fingers, because I wanted to.

HERE you can see the "webbing" on the Blybe doll (cheaply produced)

            CLONE:  Definitely had some “webbing” going on, and had to cut off the overhanging pieces, obviously cheaply made.

            BLYTHE:  Left them as is.

FEET                               

            LBE:  Their feet are HUGE and FLAT. 

Color stained feet from LBE doll
Left:  Original size
Right:  I tried to "carve" them down because they were TOO BIG!

Left:  CCE Doll   Center:  Blybe Right:  Little Big Eyes

The large size of their feet was going to prove to be a bit of a

problem if I was ever planning to dress them in the extreme cuteness of Blythe and/or Barbie footwear!  

And for ME, the solution was simple, as I NEVER plan to have their FEET showing …. I just CARVED THEM ALL into BLYTHE SIZE FEET.  Sure, they don’t look that great, but the blonde ones have PINK FEET anyway, due to staining from the red boots, but again, as long as they can wear BLYTHE and/or BARBIE SIZE FOOTWEAR …. That is all I need.  I tried to make an “arch” but that was sort of futile … but at least I got the size down.

            BLYBE CLONE feet are okay.

            BLYTHE:  LEFT AS IS.

HERE are some of the CLONES out there:  (if anyone owns these pics and has any objections, by all means let me know and I will remove them from this directory):

"Blybe" ... has more of a "Blythe-like" shape body

Basaak  (Spindle body)

Close up of ICY DOLL and her wonky mouth ...

Strange looking ... this one is:  BLYTH  (no "E" )

I think this one was a "CCE" ... Color Changing Eyes

THIS is an "ICY" doll ... for some reason, they cost about $75. and above ... they have a VERY strange face (my opinion )

This one is called "JECCI 5" or something like that

<>

This one is really rather pretty ... saw this on ebay I think ...
BLYH  (no "T"  ... no "E"  )

YEP, JECCI FIVE  (I believe it was some sort of department store promo doll)

THIS is a LITTLE BIG EYES doll, that was on ebay I believe.
SHE is the same as MY LITTLE BIG EYES DOLL.
You can see that this person has done a bit of customizing on her

I am sure there are many (?) other clones out there, but these are the ones I discovered in MY research.