Tangkou Doll Nostalgia

Got my Tangkou dolls out the other night to look at them, they had been lingering in a box on top of the tall bookcase. I have Jenny Wonderpants (Chinese Girl), Minty Seadevil (The Gap Year), Lily Pancakes (France) and Flea (Aussie). I am not that keen on their bodies but they can be fun to dress and pose and they have interesting faces. 

What to do with them? Most of their clothes are from before I could sew very well and before I could make patterns, so their wardrobe could do with an update. I put Jenny Wonderpant’s hair in bunches because it’s no longer in  the stock style and there’s a LOT of it and it tangles easily. They could do with some more shoes, which I might do something about next time I have spare money. 

I did think about attempting to draw on their faces a bit, but they all look lovely to me as they are. Even the one with terrible eyeliner that I did with human eyeliner which I understand is A Bad Idea generally. 

They seem to have gone out of business a while back, the website’s been gone for ages but you can still get the dolls and clothes on ebay from either the original company or someone who bought old stock from them. They just never really caught on as a (much) cheaper competitor to Pullip and Blythe. 

Two posts in one day

This felt like it should be a separate post, so...

I have opened an Etsy doll patterns shop, which contains a total of one (1) items. Here is the link, though the only thing for sale so far is a loli-style Ellowyne pattern. I think it's fairly cheap, at least. I may add more patterns to it at some point, but that all depends on my sewing "journey" etc. Like I currently have a mostly-finished MtM Barbie hoodie pattern I'm working on but I don't know when/if I will ever get it good enough to put on Etsy. I've made that damn hoodie so many times already, you know?

Also I feel like I should apologise for my absence even if nobody actually reads this blog. I was on tumblr for a while and I'm theoretically on Instagram as well, but the latter doesn't really allow for posting Extensive Thoughts and I don't really enjoy logging in and out of various tumblr accounts and then forgetting the passwords for them.

I aten't ded

I find myself in a weird position where I know I want to sew but I don't know what kind of doll to sew for. I have too many dolls? No, I don't have too many dolls, there is no such thing as too many dolls. Dolls I have been liking recently include:

- Tonner dolls, mainly Antoinettes because I prefer that more "realistic" body to the very stylised Tyler shape. The size makes for a different sewing experience, with some things becoming easier at the slightly larger scale and some things needing more detail/work. Hemming ballgowns by hand is bad enough at 1/6, you know? The downside is the posability, which isn't great though the expressiveness of the faces makes up for that a bit.

- Ellowynes, which are technically not Tonner dolls somehow? These are probably the largest dolls I sew for, and I prefer the ones with inset eyes. I now have a Lizette as well, which is something I craved for actual years before I finally got one.

- Makie dolls may be no more in terms of manufacturing but I still enjoy sewing for them and dressing them in cute little outfits. Very expressive dolls and I have I think 7 and of those I designed 5 of the faces myself (the miserable ones, mainly). They might just be my favourite kind of doll, though obviously there aren't too many of them out there and they're no longer in production.

- Made-to-Move Barbies are also a favourite, for the stellar articulation. I have yet to get one of the Curvy ones, but I've seen one IRL and they look really good. The main thing stopping me is that would be yet ANOTHER size/shape of doll to sew for and I am already a bit paralysed by choice on that front. Very good for rebodying old heads, I have rebodied "Manuella" my favourite Barbie and shoved a couple of So-In-Style heads onto MtM bodies. Love the posability.

- I got my Tangkou dolls out last night and had a look at them, though the body shape is a bit funny and the articulation somewhat lacking. Good bobblehead dolls, though, with stronger features than Pullip and less hipsterness than Blythe. (I only like custom Blythes, in terms of looking at pictures of dolls. The stock ones are... kind of dull?)

Do you associate styles/fashion trends with specific kinds of dolls? My Ellowynes tend to end up either EGL or super-casual, as a for instance. I do want to expand their lolita wardrobe a bit, but I sometimes shy away from how much more fabric they need compared to Makies and Barbies.