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A Sorta Face-up Removal Tutorial from a Newbie’s Perspective

yaranoface So for a while now I had been dissatisfied with my Yara’s face-up, as her eyebrows seemed too close to her eyes and her lip color was a little too bland for my tastes. Being an artist I already knew I had all of the pastels and watercolor pencils to do those nice natural face-ups you see online, so after reading some more tutorials I finally decided to take the plunge and I went out to grab a fresh can of Testors and some acrylic gloss.

So, first things first, on every tutorial you start with washing off the existing face-up. I remember that a couple of the tutorials I had seen said to just wash the face with warm water and soap, using a toothbrush for scrubbing. Well I did that and the face-up didn’t budge, not an inch! Though the eyelashes fell right out nicely after the soaking, so I picked them up and saved them for later. I remember thinking to myself that Asleep Eidolon then must seal their face-ups really well, but instead of congratulating myself on the quality of my own doll, I was instead vexed and decided to head over to DoA to find out more about removing face-ups.

On DoA the first thread I come to is recommending using Acetone to remove the face-up, but I’m like, wait a minute won’t the Acetone eat the resin? Curious though, and really wanting to remove this face-up now that I was committed, I read on. Apparently you can use Acetone or nail polish remover to remove the face-up, BUT you need to be sure to thoroughly wash off any residue, because leaving Acetone sitting on your resin will indeed ruin it. I guess there are two different camps on this issue though, those who feel you should not use Acetone, and those who think it’s ok as long as exposure is minimal and you are sure to thoroughly wash it afterwards. Desperate to get the face-up off I decided I would try some nail polish remover that had acetone in it. I did so, and slowly the face-up started deteriorating and I was able to begin to scrub it off. However there are problems with nail polish remover. First of all, if your nail polish remover has any tinting in it, it can stain your resin, and secondly it is still going to take a while and be smelly. I knew from experience with image transfers that pure Acetone would probably work better, so throwing caution to the wind I finally took some pure acetone to my dolls face and within seconds the face came clean and she is not horribly disfigured from contact with Acetone.

So in the end my advice is to screw trying to scrub a face-up off with soap and water. If you have a factory sealed face-up, it is so not coming off with soap and water, not even if you scrub it with a toothbrush or nail brush. This is good news though because it means your face-up is really resilient! Previously before I tried this I thought face-ups were much more delicate than they are. In the end, just use straight acetone which you can get cheaply at any hardware store, just be sure to wash and rinse thoroughly afterwards.

Next I’ll write about my adventures with sealer and whatnot. Right now my Yara’s face has a fresh coat of Testors on it that looks like it’s ready to take pastel. Adventure! XD

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Pullip’s House – Framing the Windows and Doors

dollhouseprog03

Today I started framing the windows and doors that we cut out yesterday. I’ve begun by taking some 1/16th thick basswood that is 1/2 inch wide as my windows are, and using it make the casing. I had been considering using popsicle sticks, but the longest popsicle stick I could find at the craft store wouldn’t fit the lengths of most of my windows. Anyway you can see a progress pic up above. Since this is very small wood I used a crafter’s saw that is basically like a big X-Acto blade with a serrated edge to cut the pieces to size. I made sure that all pieces were cut to size and had a snug fit before I glued them into place. I think it is worth the extra effort to do this to your windows since it makes a nice clean straight edge, hides any errors you made, and also looks more authentic.

Continue reading more tips about framing windows

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Pullip House Progress – Mini Window Cutting Tut

dollhouseprog02

As you can see, we got all of the windows and the door cut out today! It’s finally starting to look less like shelves and more like a little house at this point. 🙂 As it were, it was quite easy to cut out the windows and doors after assembly, but before putting on the roof and base box. You could just turn the dollhouse to which side you wanted to work on and use the saber saw to cut out the window and door holes without need for setting up saw horses or anything. However I would recommend cutting out your door before assembly since the door comes flush to the floor and it can be tricky business to cut it out after being nailed and glued.

I’ve prepared a brief little tutorial on how we cut out the windows and doorway for anyone who is a beginner like me and needs some ideas. 🙂 So read on after the cut for the tutorial

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Sewing Tutorial – Front Jeans Pockets

I always found the front pockets of jean patterns to be the most difficult. My first attempts at making jeans for dolls generally had non-functioning jeans pockets. :p However this is all going to change because I just found a really great little Jeans style front pocket tutorial! Now although the tut is for human sized pants, everything shown can be easily used to make doll jeans. So without further ado here is the link to the tutorial, and I shall be off to create a new pair of jeans for my girl!

http://sewinspired.blogspot.com/2007/07/jeans-style-front-pockets-tutorial.html

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Skinny MSD Panty Pattern & Tut

Ok, so this pattern and tutorial is for making panties for a skinny MSD. The doll I was working with is my AE Yara, and in comparing her measurements with Unoa, it looks like this panty pattern should also work for Unoa and the 43cm Narae. Anyway before I get on with the tutorial, all I ask is that you don’t post my pattern elsewhere or use it for monetary gain.

With that out of the way, we are ready to begin! Now I’m going to put the rest of this tut behind a cut since it’s very image heavy, but you’ll need the pattern first, so here is a link to grab it:

http://genkigirl.com/dollyblog/extras/skinnymsdpantypattern72.jpg

Now once you get this pattern, print it out at 100%. If it prints out anything other than 100% the sizes will be off, so be sure to check your scale when you print. To double check that it printed the right size, I marked along the side where each inch would fall, so compare that with your ruler. If it doesn’t match up to your ruler, it’s been printed wrong.

On to the rest of the tut!