Make-under Bratz Dolls...

My latest hobby...

So a while back I posted about how I was trying to teach my daughter about modesty and hyper-sexualization, after which we decided to do a little purge through her Barbie clothes collection.  We then started sewing a few of our own little outfits for her dolls that were a little more fitting for a little girl to look to as an example.  Here are some of the Barbie clothes we either made from scratch or salvaged from what she already had...

Since then, I've had people write and comment about different ideas that are out there for giving dolls make-unders.  One of the ideas I absolutely loved was Sonia Singh's Tree Change Dolls.  I checked them out, and decided, "Hey, I can do that!"  And so Polly and I started making over some dollies!  I should mention that before all of this, I wouldn't allow Bratz dolls in our house because quite frankly, I think they usually look like little prostitutes, and that's obviously not the example I want for my daughter...now however, I seriously am embarrassed about how large of a collection I've accumulated from Thrift stores and whatnot.  I think I have close to 100!  I'm totally obsessed!  Does that make me crazy...?  Anyway, after painting the dolls, we make them outfits, and sometimes even hats or shoes if they need them.  Here's a few of the dolls we've done so far:

First off is Gabriella...

Before

After

This is Gabriella.  Gabriella lives on a fruit farm in Chile and is almost always happy, because she's an optimist.  She loves sunshine and the outdoors.  She has two younger sisters and loves to help them and play with them.  She is also a very hard worker, and loves being a big helper to her parents by helping harvest the many different types of fruit they grow in their various vineyards.  

So for Gabriella, we were lucky that she came with a very cute little corduroy skirt and some fun flip flops, but we did decide to knit her a little sweater, and make a little basket of clay peaches, which we formed, baked and painted.  The basket and hat came from the Thrift Store, along with Gabriella herself.  

Next we made Erika...

Before

After

Feet Before

Feet After

Erika's After Outfit

Here is Erika, named after one of Polly's Swiss Aunts, so naturally, Erika is from Switzerland.  She needed a lot more work than Gabriella.  We made her some overalls from one of my old pant hems, complete with little Swiss embroidered flowers.  She was then given some clay boots, which were baked and painted, and are much more sensible than her high heels.  We knit a cute little sweater for her, and finished her off with a little wicker "Swiss" hat that we found at the Thrift Store.  Erika had her eyebrows painted about 3 times, the poor girl, but she was very patient with me while I practised my fine brush strokes.  Her final eyebrows are shown in the top "after" picture.

Our 3rd Dolly was Kailey...

Before

After

Kailey underwent the biggest transformation of all in my opinion.  She came in a large lot of used dolls I bought locally through an online website, and when we got her, her hair was pasted hard to her head with some kind of paint.  It took several washes to get it all to come out.  After we got her hair all washed up, we painted her face and knit her a little cabled sweater, then sewed a little hat and kilt to go with it as well, because Kailey is from Scotland of course (Polly's favourite part is coming up with a unique little story for each doll).

Our 4th Doll was Kiko...

Before

After

Feet Before

Kiko's Outfit and Boots

Kiko's Finished Boots

When we bought Kiko (from the Thrift Store) we thought her hair would be red, but it turned out it was just discoloured from a thick layer of nicotine.  She underwent several thorough bath treatments, and when she came out, her hair ended up actually being pink!  We decided that she would make a very cute little city dweller from Tokyo, Japan.  We kept her little t-shirt, and knit some cute little overall shorts for her, which went perfectly with her "built-in" purple leggings.  We then experimented a little with her boots, this time using a mixture of silicone and corn starch to make some more flexible fitting rubber boots that pop on and off nicely.  We painted and sealed her face and her boots, and put her hair up in two little buns.

My niece acquired a doll next, and asked if I would paint it for her...

Before

After

This dolly needed to have a very colourful little outfit, because her hair was so colourful to begin with.  We got her face painted, her sweat suit knit, and my niece even made her a little headband for her workouts!

Doll number 6 was Skye...

Before

After

Skye got a fun, freckled face paint, some overalls and a cardigan, then she borrowed Kiko's rain boots to go puddle jumping, because she doesn't yet have shoes of her own...

Here is Annabelle...

Before

After

I'm pretty sure Annabelle is Polly's favourite doll.  She is from the deep south, and ready for a picnic.  Polly is totally in love with the regency style dress we knit for her :)  Her hat was one that I have had lying around forever and I never thought I'd use, but voila, we came up with the perfect use for it!  Annabelle just wouldn't be quite herself without her hat.

Our final doll (so far) is Amara...

Before

After

Amara was very intimidating for me to paint.  I was so worried about getting her facial features right and trying to bring out the perfect sparkle in her eye.  She is my personal favourite, because I am absolutely in love with her hair!  It's so soft and bouncy, and she came in near perfect condition from a doll collector that was cleaning out her collection.  Polly dressed her in this little blue basket weave dress that I knit, along with Erika's borrowed boots, and a pair of glasses we had laying around.  This won't be her final outfit I don't think, but I'm still debating on what kind of outfit would complete her look.

So there they are, Polly's Dolly's!  That's all we've made for now, but I've written down all my little knitting patterns as I've went, and am hoping to slowly have them tested and available to all of you!  Hope you enjoyed at all the transformations as much as we enjoyed making them!