My Way Mary

I don't usually do custom work (I'm way too slow and I worry about people being disappointed), but I had a neat opportunity a few weeks ago to make a custom My Way Kid doll for a person who has been really supportive and dear to me over the last few years.

The My Way Kids do not have realistic features, so it's a little hard to make a portrait doll with them, but because they were originally designed to be customized, I was excited to try my own version of this process.

My friend wanted a doll that resembled her daughter, Mary.  The real Mary is fair with light freckles, hazel-green eyes, and wavy brown hair.  The doll version of Mary started out as this Mischievous-faced My Way Kid with grey eyes, pale skin, patchy blushing, and messy blonde hair:

My Way Kid doll with pale skin and the Mischievous face.

I feel very grateful that I was given permission to share this amazing photo of the real Mary:

It'd be hard to ask for a better photo to use as inspiration.  Not only is Mary beautiful, but her flower crown, glittery green top, sweet smile, and of course that French fry, all make me smile and think of dream-filled summer days.

The Mischievous face seemed to fit Mary well, and she clearly needed the lightest skin tone.  I was excited about this because I haven't showed you a pale doll makeover yet.

This girl came to me in good shape.  Some of the My Way Kids on eBay have mildew in their cloth bodies, but Mary's body was in excellent condition:

The pale skin tone can look washed out in photographs, but it's quite beautiful in real life.  

As with My Twinn dolls, the extremes of complexion are the hardest to find with these My Way Kids, so a pale girl like this is rare.

The stitching on the body was nicely-done, but those side seams won't be around for long!

The seams between Mary's fabric and vinyl parts were not especially sloppy, but there were still some visible stitches:

I removed Mary's head and got to work!

Her old eyes were slightly crossed, which is endearing to me.  Maybe it's because my husband had crossed eyes as a baby?  Anyway, even though the heads have secure compartments to hold the eyes, it's still possible for them to end up a bit askew.

Here she is without her wig:

I pried off the back of her head and removed her old eyes:

This doll was not assembled by a Geppeddo kiosk worker, but rather by a collector who has a large supply of My Way Kid (and My Way Baby) doll parts at her house.  You can find auctions for her completed dolls over on eBay at Liza Doll's Closet. 

This seller (who is super-nice and helped me learn about the My Way Kids!) sometimes uses super glue to secure the plastic eyes.  Super glue certainly works to keep the eyes in place, but it's not my favorite substance.  It can be really hard to remove from vinyl.

Fortunately, Mary's eyes came out fairly easily, but she still has a bit of glue residue around her sockets.

The closest color match to the real Mary's eyes were these dark green glass eyes:

I love this color!

Once the eyes were aligned, I glued them into place with hot glue and then attached and glued the top of the head.

I tried hard to copy the shape and color of the real Mary's eyebrows, but they're so small, it's hard to tell.  It was really helpful for me to be working with a photo of real brows!

As much as I like the pale vinyl color, it can look almost sickly green in some of my shots!  Mary needed a lot of blushing to make her come alive.  

I gave her rosy cheeks, a spray of freckles, and lips that I tried to copy from the photograph:

As is my habit, I alternated working on Mary's head with working on her body.

The body didn't really need a lot of work, but I still wanted to disassemble it so that I could reinforce the vinyl-fabric seams.

I was careful about how I took apart the stitching on this doll.  I detached part of the neck, and then removed all of the midline stitches down the back:

I took out the waist seams and then re-stuffed Mary's body.  I re-stitched her fabric torso by hand, trying to be neater with my stitching than I have in the past!

Once Mary's head was re-attached to her body, we had to choose a good wig.  I couldn't find too many shoulder-length, wavy brown wigs (which was a surprise given how many wigs of this size there are on the market!), but I did find a brown-ish red ZaZou wig with a lot of curl:

I like the lighter ends on this wig!

And this human hair wig:

Mary's mom and I both agreed that the human hair wig was a better match.

I wanted to accentuate the curl in this wig a little bit, though, so I styled it with a curling iron:

It's pretty curly now (!), but those ringlets will relax a bit over time.

You might wonder why I decided to make so many curls.  It's because I also had this adorable photo of the real Mary in my head, and you can see that her hair is in a bunch of little ringlets!

I always end up with a big grin on my face when I look at these pictures.  She is *so* cute.  And she has another flower crown!

Anyway, once we'd settled on the wig, all I had to do was give Mary some new eyelashes and she was done!

Before I show you the finished doll, though, here's a peek at her re-sewed seams:

No more waist seams in the body!

And here's the back:

And the neck:

The vinyl-to-fabric seams look the same, but now they've been reinforced with some powerful vinyl glue:

To honor one of the real Mary's favorite colors, this little sprite got a pink dress:

Here she is from the back:

I really love the soft, natural look of this wig!

Here's a close-up so that you can see she has eyelashes now:

I've been using four-letter names for all of the My Way Kids, and I thought it was really cool that Mary's name fits the theme!  She has a little beaded bracelet with her name, too, which you can see in some of the pictures.

The Mischievous mold is probably the most common face (at least that I've seen) but it is probably my favorite!

Here's Mary's comparison GIF:

I haven't brushed Mary's wig since I curled it, but it can be styled without ruining the curls.  I think it looks nice when it's clipped back a bit from her face:

I like how the curls run down her shoulders:

I ordered some tights for Mary, in part because I had to hem her dress twice (I lost some fabric in that process), but also because I was curious to see what size of tights would work for these dolls. 

I like to order tights from Doll Secrets (on Etsy and eBay), and the size made to fit 20" Maru and Friends dolls are perfect for the Kids.

I think these summer dresses look better without tights, though, so most of the pictures do not include them:

Because the real Mary is wearing a flower garland in her hair for almost every picture I've seen of her, I decided that little Mary also needed a flower crown:

Sadly, this garland is made out of plastic flowers and not real ones...but at least it will never wilt!

Here are a few more pictures of Mary enjoying her new outfit:

I like how the garland looks when Mary's hair is clipped back a bit, too:

My dark basement was no place for this sunny little flower girl, though.  She really wanted to be outside!  

It's been so gorgeous in New Jersey these last two days, I snuck Mary out into my crowded neighborhood for a few quick shots:

She could have made a whole new crown out of all the flowering bushes that are in bloom around here!

I feel a lot of affection for these little dolls under normal circumstances, but getting to think about a real child while I was working on Mary made that bond even stronger.  It was a super-fun project for me.  

Mary is sold, of course, but I really wanted to share her with all of you!

Little Mary has inspired me to start fixing up a few more My Way Kids, and her garland has given me some new ideas about how to style Rapunzel's hair...so there's a lot to be done!  I'll get to work and see you again soon, I hope.