More of #53

Before I turn #53 into my mini me, I thought it’d be a good idea to take lots of pictures of her in her original state.

Blondie #53

I’ve only had her a few days, but I think she may be the most photogenic of all my dolls – I have yet to find a bad angle when photographing her! She looks great in t-shirts and jeans…

This Disneyland shirt is still one of my favorite sewing projects.

…Especially Disneyland t-shirts! (I still wish the mini collectible Mickey Mouse ears were large enough to fit American Girl dolls!)

She just needs a bow and arrows…

She also looks great in a fellowship cloak. It sort of makes her look like she could be a young elf – maybe a relative of Haldir’s?

As cute as she is in her original state, I’m excited to turn her into a brunette! Hopefully she’ll look something like this…

Brunette with a couple of freckles – she definitely looks Maltese!

I can’t wait until the new wig arrives! ♥

Soon to Be Mini Me – My American Girl #53

Soon to Be Mini Me, My American Girl #53 | American Girl

After almost a year of seeing all of the amazing custom dolls American Girl collectors have made, I decided I wanted to try my hand at it, too! If I were really brave, I’d try the works – eye swapping, wig swapping, custom paint… but I’m not. So, I’m starting out simple – wig swapping and a tiny bit of custom paint to make a sort of “mini me”.

The Lovely #53!

I’m starting with a My American Girl #53 as a base. She seems to be one of the more popular dolls to customize, and I can see why – she’s lovely! Her dark eyes and light ash blonde hair and eyebrows are a striking combination. Her face paint is really pretty, too – I think her lip color is a little richer than many of the MAG dolls.

#53 is also my first Josefina mold doll. I actually didn’t like the mold much when I first started collecting, but it’s really grown on me – that and my face shape is closer to this mold than the classic mold.

To be honest, I already almost chickened out of customizing 53. I saw this picture of one…

25th Anniversary American Girl Doll – Photo by Madison Children’s Museum

…and began to seriously rethink my wig plans. But unfortunately (or I guess fortunately in this case), my #53’s wig is pretty… flat. I try to fluff the top of her hair as much as I can, but the top remains flat and just the ends fluff slightly. So now I feel better about getting her a long brown wavy wig (which hasn’t arrived yet, but hopefully soon…).

#53 up close

53’s eyes are darker than mine, but from farther away mine look pretty dark, so I don’t mind. And otherwise, the closest to mine are the crazy-hard-to-find “amber” eyes that MAG #26 has (which would also involve boiling water and popping out eyeballs and… yeah…).

I opted to have her ears pierced (like mine), but I didn’t expect she’d come with a little set of mix ‘n’ match earrings, too – that was a pretty nice surprise! I’m impressed with how easy the earrings are to swap and how well they stay in. I almost wish I’d gotten Isabelle with pierced ears, too.

The only other change I’ll be making is adding a few small freckles on her right cheek to match mine.

I’m nervous about the face paint and wig gluing, but I’ve been studying up on the ways that have worked best for customizers, so hopefully she’ll turn out alright. 🙂