Monster High custom clothes tips

I have been having a lot of fun designing and making clothes for MY (I say they are for my someday, but we'll see, LOL) Monster High dolls. After looking at the prices of these clothes, (WOW) and the awesome stuff people were doing, I thought, I sew, I can do that.  Then I tried sewing together a simple vest and soon realized that heming the arm holes, neckline and putting on sleeves, well, any one who makes clothes will probably say, "duh! Those are tiny, that's insanie!"  So I said screw it, I'm gluing those suckers.

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Hot glue works amazingly well on fabric and hold seams together just as well, if not better, than stitching. There are some tricks though. 

1) wipe the fabric seam on the end of the glue gun to get just a tiny bit of glue and smooth it onto the seam. You don't want a bead or string of glue, the glue will harden and it won't be flexible if the glue is too thick and it will make your needle sticky, which will make your machine not work. 

  

2) squeeze/pinch the fabric together with your fingers. Yes, you will get glue on your fingers, but using such a tiny bit of glue will not burn them.  Then trim any excess glue and/fabric with scissors. 

3) stitching doesn't matter on sleeves or arm holes, but can stitch over the neckline and it's so much easier!  Also the glue keep the edges from fraying. 

4) glue on collars, buttons, belts! Lace and ribbon. So much easier and holds up great!

5) last tip, I zig zag all my edges before heming, that way I don't have to double fold and the edges won't fray. Or you could use fray stop. But that that takes a while to dry. I don't have the patience. 

6) it's important to remember, these detailed type of clothing are not for hard use or play, or for small children. 

Also, it's fun posing them for pictures!  My husband says all I do is play with dolls all day, making them clothes, furniture, cases, redisning their house, doing their hair and taking pictures... Well, yeah!  It's a great life. 

Check out my other blogs for DIY doll stuff using card board. 

Made this special for Clawdeen to go with her purple and black boots. 

Below is a custom design, requested by buyer. 

Etsy

Monster High doll coffin bed and book shelf

                                                  COFFIN BED

For monster high dolls or any kind if 10-12 inch fashion doll.   I also made a bookshelf with miniature candles. Pictures are posted after the bed.  

My latest creation, using the same techniques as the Doll/coffin case

I didn't take pictures, step by step, but it's the same concept. Cardboard, hot glue, paper, lace, ribbon...

The bedding I sewed and lightly stuffed the mattress and pillow. 

                                                  Bookshelf for dollhouse

Miniature skull candles made with skull beads, round beads and a toothpick for the candle. First I covered the toothpick in hot glue to make it rounder, then dipped it in candle wax.  I let the wax drip down.  Most of the time, there wasn't much wax, so I had to blow the wax down. 

Etsy

Monster high/fashion doll rerooting

In previous posts, I have gone step by step on how to build a custom wardrobe for your monster high, Bratz, barbie or any other fashion doll.

http://dyidollwordrobe.blogspot.com/

Now I'm trying my hand at customizing dolls, specifically, Monster High dolls. I love how how the joints bend for posing the dolls and the shape of their heads and bodies. They are an excellent resource for customizing. They have easy to remove heads due to their softness, which is also handy when rerooting. 

So, step one, let's get rid of that hair!  I have researched many methods and techniques and this was the quickest and easiest for me. 

                                                      REMOVE HAIR

1) run the head of the doll under hot water to soften and expand the head to make it easier to remove. 

2) once removed, if you plan on reprinting the face, (details in another post) now is the time to get off the factory paint. Use 100% pure acetone (nail polish remover) to wipe off the paint.

3) to remove hair, cut the existing hair off as close to the scalp as you can, then pour some acetone into the neck, to loosen the glue inside the dolls head. 

4) Use anything you can fit into the head to scrape the glue from the scalp from the inside. As you scrape, most of the hair should come out. The best tool to pull the hair out of the inside of the head, are surgical clips with long handles, more comenly known as roach clips. 

                                                     DIY REROOTING TOOL

Now you will need a rerooting tool. The best and easiest way is to get some tapestry needles and an X-acto knife. Remove the blade from the knife (you will not be needing it) and cut the end of one of the tapestry needles with wire cutters. (Terrible pic, I apologize).

If you haven't chosen a type of doll hair yet, there are many choices.  I suggest you go to any beauty shop and select a package of fake or human hair weave. They come in different qualities, which vary in price, and cone in many natural and unnatural colors. You can buy the pony tail type ot sew on weave.  It doesn't matter. I like alpaca mohair. It hasn't as strait or silky as weave, but can easily be dyed and have a great look. This is what I used for my custom doll. 

                                                       ALPACA MOHAIR

Mohair comes either washed or unwashed, combed or uncombed. If you buy washed and combed, you are set go.  If you buy unwashed, then it will be uncombed and you will have to wash it. I bought washed, uncombed.  For this project, you will heed a wide tooth comb (I used a dog comb) and a stiff brisseled brush (I used a tooth brush).  Later, you will need your rerooting tool. 

Pick out a very small peice of mohair and find the ends. Use the comb to comb out the hair, starting in the middle and work your way to the ends. Then use to tooth brush (dampened) to condition the hair. 

To the left is the piece you start with, then on the right is your finished piece. 

                                                        REROOTING

Twist the hair at one end as tight as you can and slip it between the two pronged needle. Then, at an angle, stick the end of the needle, with the hair, into one of the holes on your dolls head. (I used a "build a monster" high doll, the do not come with hair.  So I got to skip the hair removal part, but that also leaves no holes for a guide).  I poked holes along the hair line with my needle as a guide. 

Push the needle down as far as you can, watch the hair get to pushed in to ensure you got it. Pull the tool out. The hair will stay in. So much easier that threading!  Give it a little tug to make sure it's in. Until you glue it, it will pull out, if pulled to hard. 

Work along the outside edge, across the hairline on forehead, behind ears, along the base of the skull. 

This is a very slow and tedious process, but well worth the work!  

Finished pic posted when I finish!  I will also repaint the face and post a DIY. 

Here she is, hair complete and face painted. I customers made the dress too. 

Etsy