My Way Pria

I never should have said that I'd share this girl by the end of last week.  It seemed like such an easy goal at the time, and yet here we are.  My estimates are--sadly--always wrong.  Three big events conspired to mess up my schedule last week, one of which was that I had to drive to Boston to pick up my granddog (a 10-week-old dachshund) who I'm babysitting for ten days.  I'd forgotten how much work little puppies are...but they're certainly cute enough to make up for it.

Some of you might have seen the updates I made to Claire (the crazy-eyed girl from my last post).  Since that update, I've changed her eyes yet again.  I've taken pretty much all of the advice that was given to me in the comment section at this point, so my next attempt will include a new (less intense) pair of resin eyes, darker eyelashes...and a fairy dress!  I'm hoping that will do the trick.  If not, this has still been a fun project to work on.

Today my mission is to show you the latest My Way Kid makeover.  I named this girl Pria.  Pria is a Sanskrit name that means "dear, beloved."  Pria started out as a dark-skinned Kid with light brown hair, brown eyes, and the Mischievous face:

19" My Way Kid with dark skin and the Mischievous face.

She's a cutie with bad hair and a shy smile.

Speaking of cute, let's get something out of the way right at the start, shall we?  I'm bursting to show off my little granddogter.  She's the cutest.  She's rarely snuggling like this, though:

Her name is Stevie, after Stevie Wonder.  And also a little bit after the Schitt's Creek character.  I call her Wonder Dog, or "Hey, Stop That!"

For most of the waking day she's playing with toys, or "toys," like this (brand-new) box of tissues:

Don't ask me where all of the tissues went.

She's a little spitfire, this one.  I'm doing my best to keep the house all in one piece, but it's a struggle. I love her to bits though.

Ok! Now that's out of my system and we can get back to talking about dolls. 

Much like in the My Twinn world, My Way Kids with dark vinyl are rare.  These have been the hardest for me to find.  I really like working with them, though, because I think the color of the vinyl is very pretty.

Despite her vinyl color, Pria was not a pretty doll when I got her.  She had a scraggly light brown wig, really tippy feet, something funny going on with her shoulders, and I could not get her to look at the camera: 

She was a difficult doll to pose.

Her body was in pretty good shape, though, with just a few mildew spots and some dirt on her vinyl.

I have to admit that I found something endearing about her strange gaze and posture.  She looks a little shy--uncomfortable in front of the camera, perhaps:

Can I be done now?

But I couldn't leave her like this. I needed to help her find some confidence!

Her wig was glued really far back on her head (which you wouldn't guess from how long her bangs are), and this meant that the pate seam on her forehead was exposed:

That can't help with confidence.

I couldn't really tell what was going on with Pria's shoulders from just looking at her and posing her.  No matter how hard I tired, I could not get her shoulders to look level, and my attempts to do so usually caused her head to tip one side.  There was definitely something wrong.

So, I removed her head and started to work on the body.

As you know from Lucy's post, I've decided that my routine with these girls will be to remove the entire piece of fabric that holds the cable tie around the neck:

But you can see that with Pria's neck, something strange was going on.  The plastic piece that attaches to the head was offset to the right in a significant way:

I didn't take any pictures of this, but the problem was that an extra link of armature had been inserted into the vinyl arm on the right side, making the right arm shorter than the left.  Usually there's only one link of armature inside the arm, but in Pria's case there were two.

I widened the hole in the arm so that I could pull the armature out and then re-attach it the correct way.  I counted the links of armature on each arm to be sure that they were equal.  Then I sealed both arms with hot glue to hold everything solidly in place.

Once the arm was sorted out, I reinforced the vinyl-to-fabric seams with vinyl glue, washed the stuffing in the washing machine, washed the fabric body in the sink, and then left everything to dry while I worked on the head.

Here's Pria's head right after I removed it:

The factory wigs on these dolls are a mixed bag.  Some of them look cute, others look awful.  None of them feel very nice.  Pria's wig was especially bad, I think.

I removed the wig and threw it away.

Here she is without her wig and eyelashes:

Better.

With the eyelashes gone, it's easier to see why Pria couldn't look straight ahead.  Her right eye was tipped slightly towards the center of her face.

The color of these eyes is different from other My Way Kid eyes, too.  They don't have the same iris pattern as, say, Raye's brown factory eyes had.

Either the My Way Kid factory switched the type of eye that they used at some point, or this doll had replacement eyes.

The eyes didn't have a plastic mechanism holding them in place, either (you can read about that mechanism in my first My Way Kid post).  

The eyes were just glued into the sockets with what looks like Gorilla Glue:

Yikes.

I bought Pria from an eBay seller who I mentioned before.  This lovely person had a bunch of My Way Kid doll parts that were left over when the factory closed in 2004.  She'd been doing her best to assemble the parts she had, and I think she must have run out of the original eyes and the plastic eye inserts.

As scary as that glue looks, it was not too difficult to remove the eyes:

I cleaned away all of Pria's factory paint, sanded the glue out of her eye sockets, washed everything with soap and water, and then sprayed her head with Mr. Super Clear.

Once the sealant had set for a day, I gave Pria her new, dark brown glass eyes:

I glued the eyes in place with hot glue, and then I reattached the pate and glued the seam:

Apparently, I didn't take any pictures of my painting process, so I have to fast forward to the finished head.

I gave Pria a beautiful black wig from Doll of a Kind, thick eyebrows, and black eyelashes (only on the top):

I painted her mouth to be larger than the molded areas, similar to the factory paint that she had at the beginning.

Pria's body turned out pretty well.  Or at least this is the most success I've had so far with these dolls.  That's not to say she's perfect, but the outcome is an improvement on past attempts.

Here she is all put together:

I heated and flattened her feet twice, but she's still not very good at standing on her own--even with shoes. I think her vinyl just goes back to its original shape a few days after I change it.

Anyway, here's how her torso looks in front.  Notice that the side seams have been let out of her waist:

I tied off the original stitches in the front midline seam and then did my own hand stitching up the rest of the way to the neck and all around the neckline:

I added fabric to the neck piece, but it still doesn't fully cover the cable tie:

This result is better than Lucy's funny patch, though.

I'm keeping track of the lengths of these neck pieces, but even though Pria's piece is longer than Lucy's, it still didn't make it all of the way around.  I'll figure out the ideal length eventually.

Pria's body is very clean, but there's one remaining yellow spot on the back of her left shoulder.  This spot is not mildew--it's glue, and I can't remove it:

I gave Pria's body slightly less stuffing than some of the other Kids I've worked on.  This makes it more cuddly and less lumpy.

I made Pria a purple peasant dress with hand-dyed flower trim:

The dress is paired with yellow shoes.  I glued embroidered flowers from the trim onto the shoes so that they coordinate with her dress.

I was able to make this dress without any flaws or mistakes.  It even has a straight hem (shocker!).  I need to keep having successes like this if I'm going to attempt Cinderella's dress in a few weeks!  Ahh!

Of all the colors I bought to make these gauzy dresses, the purple is my favorite.  Purple is definitely Pria's color, too.

Pria's coloring is most accurate to real life in the full-body pictures.  In the close-ups, she gets a little overexposed.

Here's her portrait shot:

And the comparison GIF:

I think she's looks more confident and happy now, don't you?

Pria's wig is beautiful, and looks great in person, but it casts a lot of shadows on her face.   It's easier to photograph her with the hair clipped back:

I almost forgot about Pria's bracelet, but she reminded me that I should have her show it to you:

Like the other bracelets, this one has glass beads and acrylic letters strung onto a colored elastic band that's tied in a double knot.

Here are a few more shots of Pria with her hair clipped back:

I have a stash of clothing that Julie from Fairy Tale Blessings made for the My Way Kids, and Pria saw a purple flowered party dress in the mix that she really wanted to wear.  

Even though I'd already made her a dress, I decided she should have this, too.  Purple is her signature color, after all!

The dress came with a tie-on headband, and I added some white shoes.

Here's the dress without the headband:

And then with the purple hair clips:

I took Pria out into the sun for a few pictures.  The bright light washes out her complexion, but I still like to show a contrast to the indoor pictures:

I really love the Mischievous face.  She looks so young and sweet--like she has something she wants to tell me, but she stopped talking to smile so that I could snap her picture.

The features of this face don't look mischievous to me, though.  I think I would have called this the Impish face or the Curious face:

It was very satisfying to dismantle the scruffy, dirty, original Pria and figure out what was wrong with her shoulders.  As I mentioned before, the quality control on these dolls was pretty bad, but the flaws that I've found so far have been fixable, and the basic design is still appealing to me.  In fact, lately I've found myself more eager to work on these little ones than I am to work on the My Twinns.  They are a lot of work, though!

Here's a summary of everything that was done for Pria:

-her head was separated from her body

-her old wig, eyelashes, and eyes were removed

-the detachable pate of the head was removed

-all dirt and factory paint was washed off

-the head was coated with Mr. Super Clear UV cut matte sealant

-new brown glass eyes were inserted and glued into place with hot glue

-the pate was re-attached to the head and glued in place with hot glue

-the face was painted using artist grade acrylics

-the face was given another light coat of sealant

-the back midline seam of the body was opened and all stuffing was removed

-the piece of fabric at the neck was removed

-all stuffing was washed in the washing machine

-all vinyl-to-fabric connections were reinforced with vinyl glue

-an error in the construction of the arms was corrected and the arms were glued to the armature

-the fabric torso was washed and bleached by hand

-the body was re-stuffed and the back midline seam was re-sewn by hand

-the side seams in the torso were let out

-a section of fabric was added to the neck piece and it was sewn back into place by hand

-the vinyl in the ankles was heated and then cooled into a more flat-footed position

-the head was re-attached to the body

-a premium wig from Doll of a Kind was glued at the front and back with hot glue

-new eyelashes were secured with tacky glue (only on the top)

-Pria is wearing a handmade purple dress with hand-dyed floral trim.  This dress is paired with coordinating yellow shoes and a beaded name bracelet.  Pria will also come with a beautiful purple party dress made by Julie from Fairy Tale Blessings.  This outfit includes a headband and white shoes.

Flaws: Pria does not stand well on her own, despite my efforts to flatten her feet.  She has wedges in the heels of her shoes, too, but those don't help much.  She also has a small gap at the back of her neck seam where the cable tie is visible and can't be hidden.  She has a small yellow glue spot on her shoulder that did not come out with washing.

I can't sell Lucy and Pria while the puppy is here (I won't have any time to pack and ship anything!), but when I get back from Boston on Thursday I'll put them in my Etsy shop.  Probably in the late afternoon. Claire's sale will have to wait while I pull together a fairy dress for her and take some more pictures.  Meanwhile, the Belle bodies are clean and drying and soon I'll be able to make some more progress on them.  There's a lot going on!

Right now, though, Wonder Dog needs to stop chewing on the edge of my computer (that noise is the worst!) and go outside to frolic and pee.  Have a great weekend, everyone!

Pria has sold. Thank you!