Making dolls into TV show characters.

If any of you have seen the show Once Upon a Time, you will know what I'm talking about in this post.  If you haven't seen it, you might still enjoy seeing what I've been doing with Karina, but the characters probably won't make as much sense.

Karina and I discovered this show last fall.  I saw previews for it with Anna and Elsa and decided to check it out.  I enjoyed it and Karina and I started watching it.  For Christmas, I got the first two seasons on DVD, and bought myself the third later.

Karina and I have just had so much fun with this show, and one day I read a blog where the mom had used an 18 inch doll and turned her into their favorite character from the show, Emma.  That gave me the idea to do the same, but on a much less expensive and smaller scale.  Thank you, Barbie dolls, for existing in so many forms.

First, I made dolls for Karina.  I made all her favorites.  I mostly went to thrift stores and found cheap Barbies I could work with, and a few of them I bought new simply because I needed them to have a certain kind of hair or feature and I couldn't find it secondhand.  But I had so much fun making them for her, that I began my own set as well.  I'm going so share photos of them here.

Just to be clear, I'm not affiliated with the show, the doll manufacturers, or the network.  I'm not affiliated with anything but myself.  No one gave me money or anything else.  It just happens that Barbie dolls come in a wide variety, are easy to find, and can be found inexpensively.

These dolls are mostly incomplete.  But my friend Rachel wanted to see them, so I'm sharing them before they're really "done". 

Okay, so I thought only one at a time was going to load up, but apparently Blogger really wanted them all on the page at once.  I can work with that.

I am dressing the characters for their lives in Storybrooke, not the Enchanted Forest.

First is Regina (the Evil Queen).  I just made this shirt today and it was the first time using this pattern.  It's okay.  I will probably make or buy her a new one, but for now it's okay.  This doll is one I bought new because her face looked so much like Regina's to me.  I cut her hair. 

 This is Emma, the main protagonist.  I think she came in a set with the doll I used for Regina, but she is a basic blonde Barbie and any number of them would have worked.  The jacket was a crazy amazing ebay find that came on a doll I thought I might use as Ruby, but I couldn't bear to try dyeing parts of the doll's hair, so I just gave the doll to Karina to have.  She has cool red streaks in her hair.  Anyway, here is Emma.

 This is Mary Margaret (Snow White). She's a thrift store Disney Snow White doll whose hair I cut short and then glued the bangs on.  She doesn't have a real outfit yet, so she's just wearing a coat someone else made that I bought on ebay.

 This is Maleficent.  Her hat was super hard to make and I'm still not happy with it.  I found one tutorial on making a fedora.  The tutorial was by My Froggy Stuff on YouTube.  I made Maleficent's top and jacket and my aunt made the pants many years ago when I was a little girl, so they just came from my stash (now the girls' stash) of Barbie doll clothes.  There's a better look at her face farther down (thanks, Blogger).

 Something went really wrong with Blogger and it didn't include the closeup of Maleficent, so here she is.

Here is Captain Hook.  He doesn't have a hook yet because I refuse to chop off the doll's hand and I haven't yet found a suitable cover.  I do have the hook, though!  My dad found some little screw hooks at the hardware store.  Isn't he the best?  The doll is new, a Ryan doll (Barbie) because he had the best face for making Hook.  I painted his beard and mustache, darkened his eyebrows, and added his pirate eyeliner.  Then I sealed his face.  A billion times, because every "matte" finish sealer I tried ended up shiny.  I finally just gave up and he looks constantly sweaty.  His jacket came from ebay and it's a story.  There was an old Ken doll for sale with this jacket.  The price was good, especially compared to the prices people were asking for JUST a jacket.  I finally decided I'd get it and use the doll to try to make a Rumplestiltskin.  That was a royal failure, but in the end it worked out.  Karina wanted a Neal doll, and I was able to make that Ken into Neal for her.  Oh, and she's in bed so I don't have pictures of her dolls.  She has Neal and Henry, and I don't have them.

 Here's a closer look at Hook.

 This is another new doll I found very inexpensively at some big box store.  He's Prince Charming/David, and I did nothing to him because he already looked great.

 Here is Ruby (Red Riding Hood).  I love her character and I wish she'd come back on the show more.  I made her cloak and the jacket you can kind of see under it.  The doll was a thrift find.  The pants were bought from Etsy or ebay and the red top is from the Sparkle Girlz line at Wal Mart.

 Okay, here is what I ended up with for Rumplestiltskin.  He's far from perfect but trust me, he's a LOT better than my last efforts.  Plural efforts.  Some serious collectors will be so mad at me but this doll was a Patrick Dempsey as Robert Mackay from Enchanted doll.  I didn't do much to him though, other than paint his eyes brown and make his eyebrows slightly more angry looking.  I am going to gray his hair some and he needs some stubble on his face.  I haven't done any of that yet.  The suit is from Etsy.  I should have taken a close up of his face.

 This is one of the best finds yet.  This doll looks, to me, just like the character of Zelena, who is Regina's even more evil sister.  I have not found another one like her even after scouring literally thousands of listings on ebay.  I have no idea what Barbie this is but she is perfect.  Her outfit is not done at all, in fact, this is not really her outfit at all.  But she was indecent before, so she needed something. 

 Here's Cora, Regina's even more evil mother, and she is a work in progress.  She was a thrift store find.  I painted her eyebrows and tried to add some lines to her face.  She needs a little work and her hair isn't even close to being done.  She'll get a new dress, too.  This doll's head was actually on a ballerina doll, and there was a headless doll in the bin, so I took both and put the head on the other doll.  It's a little wobbly, but for now it's okay.

 This is Belle.  I haven't done anything to her other than put some clothes on her.  I got the jacket from the same ebay seller as Snow's coat. 

 Robin Hood.  Same face sealing problem as Hook, which is why he looks shiny.  He's a regular thrifted Ken.  I used sharpie to darken his hair a little and I painted his facial hair.  I made his jacket and pants.  He won't keep the jacket though.  He's going to get a shirt and green vest.

 Oh hey, another look at Belle.  I made her skirt.

So those are my dolls.  As I said, Karina has her own set, including a Henry and a Neal doll.  I think all of her dolls except Hook and David were from thrift stores.  Oh, and Regina.  But still, Barbies are pretty affordable, depending on the ones you want, so buying those few was not a big deal.

I have learned how to sew a jacket for a Ken doll, pants for Ken, a jacket for Barbie (and had to alter the patterns many times to get them right, and they still need work), painted faces, and just had the best time.  My mom is now going to borrow my DVDs of the show and start watching, too, just because of the dolls. My mom has always been a doll collector.  I guess I am too now.