Ella in her own gown

I decided I needed more photos of Ella after her makeover, so I put her in her original gown for the first time since she came back home. For comparison, here is how she originally looked, right out of the box:



The picture quality is not great, but I was using my old camera, poor lighting, and a terrible background choice. Anyway, I took her hair down and attempted to straighten it with hot water, which did not work. So here she is after I tried to recreate her original hairstyle:



Which also did not work.  It was clear that she needed a reroot, so I sent her to Karin of Cloud 9, who was nice enough to switch her head to a new body at the same time. From there Ella traveled to Laurie Lenz, who repainted her eyes from blue to green. All in all, I think it was a vast improvement:



She seems much more alive to me now.



A close-up shot of her sweet face:



I really do love this gown.

More pics of Ella's makeover - just because

I just can't get over the awesome job that Karin and Laurie Lenz did on my Seventeen doll, Ella. Here she is last year at Halloween:



You can see how badly she needed a reroot, although her frizzy hair worked rather well for her costume as a ghost bride:



But after a reroot (by Karin), body swap, and eye enhancement (by Laurie Lenz), you can see how much more alive she looks!





I love this girl! :D

A dolly makeover!

Ella (Seventeen) was only the second big Tonner gal that I ever bought. I sent her out recently to have some work done, and well, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Before:


After:
 

Karin of Cloud 9 did the reroot and body swap for me, and Laurie Lenz did the eye enhancement. Oh! I also have Tex Bex to thank for selling me the new Teen body! One of my favorite dolls now has new life thanks to these three lovely ladies. :)

More pics!

Before:


This is about as tame as I could ever get her hair to be. And it was so thin that I could see through to the scalp in the back. Poor Ella. :(

After:


Now her hair is so long and straight and smooth... I love it!

Before:


I loved her sweet expression and neutral makeup, and I wanted her to retain her youthful look.

After:


I asked Laurie to give her green eyes instead of blue, and this is the result! It was exactly as I had imagined, and she looks so much more alive now! 

Before:

It was very difficult to get her to pose naturally.

After:

So much better!






I've been making her do a bunch of poses she couldn't do before - but I don't hear any complaints!  In fact, I think she looks more like she's smiling, now. Could be just my imagination... what do you think?

Spotlight on Seventeen

Another picture-heavy post! This is the second in my series of Retrospectives, featuring my favorite photos of my dolls from the last year. Today I'm focusing on Ella, my 1950's Seventeen doll. Her hair can be a little unmanageable, but she has the sweetest face:





Gloves by Tonner, jewelry by unknown - purchased secondhand in a large lot of various pieces





Seventeen's original gown by Tonner




Gown by unknown - received as a gift; belt is a people-sized bracelet :p

Shoes by Tonner









Unless otherwise noted, all outfits and accessories were made by me.