My no-bake customizing Barbies method

Here’s how I go about making a custom OOAK Barbie doll. First things first: an idea!

Usually it’ll just hit me that I’d love a Barbie of a favorite character. For this explanation of how I customize, I’m going to use Chun-Li from the Street Fighter games. I’ve loved her ever since I first played Street Fighter II on Super Nintendo. I had the G.I. Joe action figure that was released around the same time as the live-action Street Fighter movie with Van Damme. And there are tons of Chun-Li figures, statues, and — yes — dolls. But none of ’em a Barbie.

Before I start, I decide how I want my doll to look. Photos help of course.

I wanted my Chun-Li to have her classic look of blue qipao, dark tights, ox horns hairstyle covered with white silk tied by ribbons, and white boots.

But Step 1 always for me is to find The Doll. This is a very important step and IMO makes or breaks the whole custom. So I set about looking for the base doll that I will transform into Chun-Li. My first stop is an eBay search. I use search terms like “Asian Barbie,” “brunette Barbie,” or “Chinese Barbie.” Then I look through the listings, sometimes thousands of them.

This can be time-consuming, maddening, and frustrating. I also happen to love it. It’s fun because it feels like hunting and shopping. It’s sort of the best of both worlds of window shopping and buying — because hopefully I will end up finding the one true doll that would be perfect for my OOAK. I will look and look until I find the doll that has the features that most perfectly match the character, paying close attention to face mold, facial expression, hair color, eye color, eyebrow shape and color, and lip color.

Mattel has a limited choice of Asian face molds, in my opinion. But I felt lucky to find my Chun-Li: a Fashion Fever Lea doll.

Now, a note here about hair and body type. I used to think I could bend Barbie’s hair to my will. I had to perm one doll’s hair. I’ve cut the hair of several dolls. I’m still rerooting one (heeeeelllllppppp!). And I’m not really looking forward to the bangs I have to give another.

Fourteen or so custom dolls later I’ve learned to try my best to find a hairstyle that will work with me, will maybe only need a few minor adjustments like a trim. I also have learned to be careful of the type of Barbie body I choose, depending on how I want her to pose, what size of clothes I’d like to use on her, and so on.

Step 2 is getting her outfit. If you can sew, great. I’m totally jealous of you, and you can make a true custom EXACTLY the way you want it. But remember, this is my no-bake method. So it is back to eBay. And if I can’t find what I need there, then I go to Etsy. I pretty much go wherever I need to in search of what I’m looking for, including G.I. Joe shops like OJIToys and even getting long sold-out Azone* pieces from Amazon Japan.

To start, I’d search “blue qipao” at eBay in the category “Dolls & Bears.” You really learn your way around a search box when you’re looking for specific Barbie pieces for a custom. I’d love a huge online shop of just Barbie clothes, shoes, and accessories — a highly searchable one where everything is accurately tagged by color, design, style, etc. eBay could use a total rehaul of the search sub-categories under “Dolls.” It’s not as precise as it could be. Sub-sub-categories by face mold, hair color, and so on would be so helpful.

OK, so nothing comes up at eBay under “blue qipao” or “blue cheongsam” under “Dolls.” So next I’d search “1/6 blue qipao/cheongsam” and then possibly refine that to the category “Toys & Hobbies—>Action Figures.” There you’ll find one-sixth scale stuff for figures from Hot Toys and the like.

Well, I’m not surprised that such a unique item does not readily pop up on eBay. Actually I think I need to search without using the correct name of the dress, maybe use something more generic like “Barbie Chinese dress.”

Ah, now the right type of dress is popping up, but no dice finding any in blue.

Well, it turned out I actually was fortunate with my Chun Li project in that Azone made her exact outfit in 2004, available in blue or pink! I didn’t start my doll until 2007, though. So I had to pay more than the list price for the outfit.

And here’s where I first discovered I have to be careful of the doll’s body type. Azone makes clothes for a slightly smaller doll than much of what Mattel offers. It was a battle to get Chun-Li’s outfit over Lea’s child-bearing hips. (This particular Lea has a belly button body.) But the Azone set was so nice. It included the dress with belt, a bodysuit for underneath, tights, and a headband that mimicked the ox horns hairdo. I didn’t care for the look of the headband, which leads me to…

Step 3: Accessories. Here’s where my no-bake take starts to require a bit of microwaving. Depending on what I need for the project, I often end up crafting a lil’ something-something of my own because it’s either too hard to find exactly what I’d like or just too durn expensive.

In Chunner’s case, I need to style her hair. She also demands her punk spiked bracelets! I trimmed her hair and put it into two mini pigtails. Customizing Barbies has had me spending a lot of time in craft and fabric stores, which is exactly where I headed for some white “silk” and white ribbon to cover her pigtails (which I’m faking to look like buns…Barbie’s hair can be too voluminous to accurately recreate a human-size hairdo in 1/6 scale).

I actually cut out circles from a paper towel to measure the size of the fabric circle I needed to cover Chun-Li’s buns. Paper towel patterns? LOL! But it works for me and is inexpensive. So I traced the circles on the part of the fabric that wouldn’t show and then cut them out. This next step is very important, I think, if you aren’t a sewer and working with mini pieces of fabric and trimmings for your dolls: I “sealed” the edges of the fabric circles with fray-stop. The name says it all: it’s a liquid you get in the sewing department that keeps stuff from fraying. After I cut the ribbon to tie off the silk coverings, I also applied fray-stop to each end of the ribbon.

And now for her spiked bracelets. I would first search for Barbie bracelets and see if anything would work. If nothing did, I probably would try to make my own out of black craft foam and either small hardware pieces from Lowe’s or maybe even jewelry-making parts. But, again, Azone to the rescue: they also made Chun-Li’s bracelets (some assembly required)!

And next is Step 4: Footwear. Chun-Li wears lace-up wrestling-type boots. I believe Azone made some, but I doubt they’d fit a Mattel doll. And they weren’t the look I was going for anyway. So I search for white Barbie boots. There are a lot of nice styles, but since Chun-Li is athletic, I decided I wanted boots for her that did not have heels. Which of course drastically reduces the options, especially when you’re talking about Queen of Heels Barbie. So I finally decide on these:

Step 5 is to box the doll, one that I’ve not often (yet) completed for the dolls I’ve posted here. If I find more room to store my custom Barbies boxed versus loose I may update this post with how I box dolls.

Step 6 is the fun part: share the doll with the world! Blog, Flickr, tweet, Instagram, Facebook, tumble that unique creation. Many OOAKers list their dolls on eBay. There are even communities devoted to doll customizing.

You can view photos of the finished Chun-Li Barbie here. She was the first custom doll I ever did. Since Azone did most of the work for me, she was pretty easy to make, although a bit expensive. Still, I hope this was a little glimpse into my customizing ways.

*You can find Azone pieces on eBay, at Hobby Link Japan, & at Hobby Search, among other places.

February 12, 2015 | Categories: browsing the aisle | Tags: barbie, barbie doll, cheongsam, chinoiserie, chun-li, custom, diy, doll, how to, ooak, ooak/custom/diy, qipao, street fighter | 6 Comments