The Bag of New Girls and Eye Transplants

I finally got around to putting together the bag of doll parts that Mrs. Smith got for me. I was able to make five complete dolls. The little Storybook doll needs an arm and she is not put together the same as the rest, so I am saving her for another day.

Luckily we had found some clothes while thrifting.

I made the dresses for the two left-hand girls. The one in blue has part of a hat glued to her hair, which she will have to keep on until they all go to the Bunch O Hair Salon. The middle one originally had a huge ruffle around the bottom of her skirt but it looks much nicer without it. The colorful outfit of Girl #4 involves a small bathing suit, a midriff top, and a skirt. Girl #5 is wearing what appears to be pajama pants and a slightly too big top.

I thought one of the girls had her eyes stuck closed and tried to loosen them with a crochet hook, but then we decided someone had maybe painted over her eyes. It's hard to tell.

Sort of like Little Orphan Annie with blunked-out eyeballs

I wanted Auntie Berman to paint in eyes, but she refused. One of us got the bright idea of an eye transplant. But who would be the donor?  I remembered that I have a few extra Barbie heads.

"I like her eyes!"

It would bother me to take an Xacto knife to an innocent doll's head, but it didn't faze Auntie Berman a bit. (You may recall she once scalped a small doll in a failed experiment involving hair.)

The donor looks at her eye.

With the aid of a hot glue gun, the operation was quickly completed.

Don't look too closely.

It does look like she has bags under her eyes, but we prefer to think she's wearing goggles of some sort and it gives her a steampunk look. Anyway, she is very happy to see again. (The discarded Barbie head was given to a very happy dog for his amusement.)

Next, the new girls went to Wayfarers Inn.

"Lovely kitchen!"

Alice and Reginald show the new girl the dining room.

"What a beautiful bathtub!"

More New Dolls and a Bathtub

I have neglected Wayfarers Inn because of my bad case of Barbie Fever, but today we went thrifting and at Salvation Army Warehouse we found four little dolls. One was loose and three were in a bag that Salvation Army had originally tried to sell for $29.99. We asked the manager (we'll call him Pedro) how much and he said "Let's see, how much is a third of that?" "Ten dollars," we said sadly and started to turn away. "Okay," he said. "How about $7 for all four of them?" We accepted that gratefully. We like Pedro and he is always very generous. We found a few more things and moved on.

First up is the black doll, not quite a Carmen Miranda but I think we can Carmen Mirandize her:

Alas, she does NOT photograph well

She does not really have fangs but every picture I took of her made her look like she has them. Lola Gladiolus and Glorious Dolorious are not quite sure what to think of her. I am sure that once she's dressed like they are they will all get along fine. Her name is Lena Argentina.

An exciting find at Goodwill Bargain Bin was a bathtub!

Flora, Goldie, Sally, and Bonnie think the bathtub is wonderful.

It was a candle and still has wax in it, but that makes it look like it really has bathwater in it. Kind of dirty bathwater but that makes it more realistic.

The girls argue over who gets the first bath.

One of the new dolls turned out to be: MRS. CONSTANTINOPLE!

"Darling! I thought you went down on the Athena and I would never see you again."
"I was rescued by a fishing boat and spent six months in the Azores." 

Everyone is thrilled for the reunited couple and refreshments are served.

"I just love happy endings," Lily whispers to Starla.

The other new girls meet in the music room.

"My, what outlandish clothes," Cassie whispers to Georgia.

The Dutch girl on the left is new from a couple of weeks ago. I got her at work. The one in the striped dress on the right I also got at work and then discovered she is missing her right arm, but maybe I will find a spare.

"A piano and guitars and a victrola! I like this place."

So the other two new ones we got today are the girl with the red vest and lace apron and the one in the gold dress. I'm not sure what countries these girls are supposed to represent (other than the Dutch girl), but they are very colorful and I don't think I'll remove their clothes.