new doll plans

Can you believe it? I can't believe myself. It's only been < 2 months since I got my new doll and I'm already thinking about the third one, though I guess it already has been a couple months since I've started thinking about this one.

Some of you might already know what I'm talking about! She goes by the name Darjeeling (although I've recently decided that she should probably have a "real" name too - her actual name is Haerang Yoo/유해랑) and she's a classmate of Lenny's who's rumored to be a witch with magical powers. I'll be developing both Lenny and Darjeeling's stories in time, since they're both very closely tied together :)

The doll I have in mind is a SWITCH Shiho on the HD57 B-cup girl body, making her slightly shorter than both of my girls. I'm really excited!!... to save up $600+ not including all the stuff I have planned for her closet...

Look at all that BLACK AND RED. I almost named her Hongryeon (홍련/红莲) because of how much red is in her closet theme... Oh, and here's a picture of what her character design looks like, extracted from a piece I'm working on ;)

❤ mura

[review] maodoll glass eyes

I said I was going to do this in my  last post, so here goes nothing! I've checked the MaoDoll Taobao and it appears that some of the eyes that I ordered are no longer in stock. However, I highly recommend them because their eyes are incredibly detailed and well priced for a pair of glass eyes! They're only 75 RMB, which translates to roughly $12 USD.

Polaire is wearing Z01 eyes in 16mm. The base color is brown, with lime green detailing extending from the pupil. I wasn't expecting them to have glitter in them since it wasn't visible in the product pictures, but I was pleasantly surprised when I held them under the light! These eyes, like the other pair I bought are high-dome, so if that's not your thing, I wouldn't recommend MaoDoll to you. Other than that, they're superb!

Lenoire is wearing P01 eyes in 16mm. They're periwinkle blue-based with purple lines for detail. When I saw the product pictures, I thought these were going to be primarily blue eyes, but they look lavender from far away. These are really lovely, luminous eyes that have a nice bright glow to them in any kind of light. They're still in stock so if you'd like a pair of your own, here's the link!

I only have 2 dolls with eye colors that are pretty much set for their characters, but if MaoDoll releases more colors and I get my next doll soon I know I'll definitely be ordering from them again ;)


❤ mura

closet update!

Yesterday I got notifications for 4 packages, 2 of them being my things from Taobao and Nine9 Style. Unfortunately, by the time I was finished with lab, it was already too dark for me to take proper pictures of anything. So this morning I got up nice and early to take a bunch of pictures :)

 

This one is my favorite because it's by far the EASIEST outfit to put on. It's super cute, too! I bought it from 42workshop on Taobao, the same place as where I got Lenny's sweater/long black skirt outfit from.

This is the qipao that I waited weeks for! At the time, the seller only had the DD version of this in stock, but they later asked me for my doll's measurements so I suspect this is custom made. Sadly, while I really love the fit of this outfit, the part between the bust and waist is a little too small for my doll's relatively wide torso, and I'm scared that the seams are beginning to rip :(

 

Bought this one off a sales post on the BJD Addicts Sales and Commissions page. It's perfectly cute, but again, because Little Monica girls have a really wide torso for SD13 size dolls, it doesn't quite fit right. I might remove some of the snaps in the back and replace them with hook-and-eye closures to help the dress actually close up in the back.

Lastly, here is a cute denim dress from Rosemary Shop on Taobao! They're an independent shop that makes very cute and girly clothes for SD and DD. The wonderful shop owner even gave me a necklace as a free gift! Will definitely be ordering from them again.

I still have clothes in the box that I haven't photographed yet, but I'll be getting around to those soon. Also, did you notice that Porii has different eyes? I bought some very lovely high quality glass eyes from MaoDoll that I will be reviewing soon. :)

❤ mura

杏眼桃腮

The title of this blog post is a Chinese phrase literally meaning almond eyes and peach cheeks, and as you can probably guess, it's referring to a girl's beauty! I thought it would perfectly describe my lovely girl Polaire, who's the subject of my post today. I've been working on a project that I started almost a month ago, and only recently have I made some serious progress with it. If you refer to some of my previous posts, I've mentioned things about the origin of Polaire as an MMO avatar that I used for various game, the most recent being a game called Blade & Soul. Here's how she looks in game, if you haven't seen my post from earlier - and it just so happens that the outfit that I'm trying to recreate is the outfit she's wearing in that screencap!

Here's a stack of materials I've collected for this project:

A rigid satin taffeta, a white chiffon-like fabric, some shiny black stretch lycra, and braided elastic.

The outfit as I've adapted it consists of a corset/leotard piece, a shirt with balloon sleeves, two wristguards, a neckpiece, and a set of leggings with a lace inset. Some of the items in the original game outfit can't be translated into a practical sewing design, so I've made changes accordingly. For instance, I've omitted some of the detailing on the leggings and corset simply because it's impossible to create 3D details in such a small scale/I simply don't have the materials or skills to do so. Without further ado, here's my progress so far! I've completed the corset and the shirt.

The corset consists of 13 pieces (and 12 identical pieces for the lining) and is completely handsewn because I'm at school and I don't have access to a sewing machine (I also suck at sewing with the machine, so I'd rather just not). My first few attempts were with the machine and they didn't work out, so this is actually Mark III of the corset =3= I'm still waiting on my black ribbon for the fastening so I'm temporarily lacing it up in the back with a few loose stitches.

 

Here's my most recent update! I finished the shirt just yesterday, and I just edited the shoulder ties a bit today, but I don't have pictures of that right now. The shirt closes up in the back with snap closures, and the sleeves have elastic stitched into them at the cuffs. So far progress is going really well considering it's only my second time sewing an outfit (the only other time I've sewn a major project is a red Christmas dress I made for Lenny)... I'm going to start drafting the other pieces soon!

❤ mura