Bell grabbed the jeans jacket before any of the other girls could claim it, and she looks great in it. I used some of the multicolor wool Kamelia gave me to knit a shawl and a hat for her. The colors are a great match for her pink wig. Look at those tiny buttons! Bell loves this jacket, and so do I. Thank you so much!

Judith shows off the flower print hoodie. It has real pockets at the front.

Solveig likes her new shawl, this wool was also a gift from Kamelia. I don’t know if it’s mohair, it certainly has the look and feel of it.

Thanks again for all the lovely stuff! Some of the fabric will be used next, I look forward to work with it.

Thank you, T.

I promised doll Yoga, and after I made some Yoga outfits for the girls they are ready for some exercise. For those who actually practice Yoga: I am well aware these are not proper poses, but it was fun to try.

Meet the contestants: Bell (Lara) on the original “Slim body” (OldSlim), Solveig (Rose) on the “New Slim body” (NewSlim) and Nina (she doesn’t have a name yet) on the “Naturally Posed slim body” (NaPoSlim). I will use abbreviations for this post, since the names for the bodies as they are called on the Raccoondoll website are rather long. The body review for the NewSlim body (released in 21) can be found here. Since I started writing this post I received Cindy on the Naturally Posed Glamorous body (NaPoGlam) as well, and everything I write about the NaPoSlim holds true for the glamorous version as well, it’s just a bit curvier.

The name for the Naturally Posed body (release 2023) is an accurate name for this new body. While the NewSlim already came with some posing improvements, this new body offers a completely different posing experience. Compared to the NaPoSlim the older bodies and other doll bodies appear stiff. The NaPoSlim does not only hold poses much better, it allows the limbs to move and behave in a more natural way. Slightly angled elbows, different knee joints and other changes make it possible to pose this body in new ways. It just looks more relaxed and natural, and the body holds those poses without effort.

And the NaPoSlim body holds the arm and hand poses close to the body without tricks and support. I wrote in my boxopening post that I am not a fan of the way the elbow and knee joints look. But once you have learnt what the limbs can do the aesthetics are negligible.

As you can see in the picture below, the NaPoSlim looks more natural even in a standing position. The arms look less stiff, and the legs can do relaxed looking contrapposto poses easily. The NewSlim body can do some of those as well, but the weak point of that body are definitively the ankle joints. The feet tend to move in unwanted ways and without shoes the joints are not really stable.

All three bodies can do the sitting pose in the following pictures. The NaPoSlim body needs a bit more turning and trying for the leg position, the simple leg-forward needs a bit of a pull out of the hip socket first. The arms can do straight and angled, and the body holds the pose very easily. The other two bodies needed a bit more balancing time. You can see that the NaPoSlim shoulder-width and arm joints allow the arms to go up around the head more naturally.

Nina’s left knee can lay flat on the ground, I just didn’t turn the mobility joints far enough. Still learning to pose the body.

All three bodies can do this as well. The OldSlim body breast part snaps into a sideways angle that doesn’t look very elegant and creates a dent in the silhouette. The hands don’t hold a head-touching position. The NewSlim body takes some balancing to stand in this pose. Her ankles are weak. The hands can touch the head. The NaPoSlim torso part moves most easily, and the arms touch legs and head willingly. Again, the NaPoSlim body looks most natural in this pose.

The hands are a problem for this pose, so the NaPoSlim with the flat hands has an advantage here. She can even move one leg up. The NewSlim feet and hands are not made for this, so I had some problems keeping them in that position. OldSlim as well as NewSlim look a bit stiff in the arms and shoulders.

The NaPoSlim knee joints might not be the prettiest, but they allow the legs to fold in a way the other legs can’t. The head can move back nicely as well, but that might change once she wears a wig.

Again, all three bodies can do this, but the hands and arms of the NaPoSlim stay in position, while the OldSlim and NewSlim arms can’t touch the head. The knee joints look definitively odd though. The OldSlim and NewSlim knees are just looking a bit prettier in certain poses.

It took some time to get the OldSlim into this position without her falling sideways, but she can do it. Her’s as well as the NewSlim body arms didn’t want to stay on the tigh, though. In this position the NaPoSlim needs a bit more encouragement to place the legs a bit apart, the knee joints make the legs want to fold automatically. Again, turning the mobility joints a bit more might have helped. But none of the other bodies could do the pose in the last picture, placing the hand on the tigh and keeping it there.

Now this is a pose only the NaPoSlim can do. Not that there would be much need to ever put a doll into that position. The OldSlim and NewSlim body needed one leg on the ground to keep them stable, they can’t “stand” on their knees. And they needed a lot of balancing to even hold the pose long enough to take the pictures. The NewSlim body wouldn’t stand with a torso bent back, and her arms didn’t want to stay straight either. The NaPoSlim can hold this forever. You could store her like that. Sorry for the bad light, by the way.

This clearly weren’t poses you would chose to show off clothes (well, except Yoga outfits), but I thought it would be fun to compare the different bodies in this way. As far as natural posing for every day use is concerned, the new NaPoSlim body is clearly the winner. Even in unspectacular poses it takes and holds the pose in a more relaxed looking way, and some of the poses I need for showing off clothes very often are so easy! Like putting a hand on a thigh. Last but not least a couple of “every day use” poses. If you own one of the older bodies you will know that these poses are not easy to achieve with other doll bodies.

I will write another post about the hands, feet, clothing and shoes and show the NaPoSlim and NaPoGlam side by side, but I didn’t want to make this post even longer. I hope you found this helpful and fun 🙂

While I was doing my sorting and cleaning I noticed that some of my older doll shoes start to feel brittle. Some soles came off, and with two pairs the faux leather starts to flake off around the zippers. It’s my own fault, and I should have thought about proper care and storage earlier.

I have to admit that I didn’t spent much attention on doll shoe care. They don’t get dirty, and if they are not on a doll they are in a box. But of course they age, and I should have looked into ways to keep them in the best possible condition. But I am glad I noticed before they start to dissolve completely. Some of them were more expensive than some of my own, and it would be stupid to shorten their lifespan by neglecting to care for them, right?

The nice thing about the doll community is that there are always collectors who are kind enough to share their experience, so learning the best way to care for faux leather was just a matter of asking and getting some very helpful answers. And that’s why I am sharing this post with you. If your dolls are anything like mine, they have a lot of shoes, even if they never wear them ;).

The basic things to keep in mind are actually pretty obvious once you think about it, but while dressing dolls and doing a quick shoe change they are easily forgotten. Apart from pleather care it’s probably a good idea to keep the shoes in a place where they don’t get damp, cold or too hot. They are probably best kept in separate bags or wrapped in tissue, but I know that is not very practical. But storing them at least not too squished will prevent the pleather from sticking to the next shoe. I use CD paper bags I don’t use for CDs anymore to store my fragile fashion doll shoes. Most of the rest is kept in the bags they came in.

Since brittle pleather tends to break first where it is folded, sticking something into bootlegs to avoid folds helps. I didn’t, because I forgot to stick the foam rolls back in after I used the boots. Thank god these white boots don’t show any signs of damage yet. I will use packing foam to make more rolls for the rest of my boots.

And now for pleather care. I use baby milk lotion for my own leather belts, this brand is probably not available outside Europe, but some similar lotion will be. I like this especially, it’s not too oily, it smells nice and it’s the best stuff to care for soft leather belts and bags I found so far. It’s called HIPP milk lotion sensitive. I just rub a bit of it with a soft tissue into the pleather. It feels a lot less brittle now – and the shoes smell good. This lotion is absorbed pretty quickly, but I would try to avoid getting the stuff directly on a doll.

Mailin and Bell got roped into helping me. While they were busy treating the shoes with pleather care I glued some soles back on, cleaned zippers of fluff and cut packing foam into tiny rolls. I still have not counted all the shoes. But it was a couple of hours work. And since I am now mindful of what neglect can do to doll shoes, I will hopefully remember to keep it up. At least once a year I will be bootblack for a day.

So if you have pleather doll shoes that could use a bit of care, the Pentecost holiday would be a good time to do a little bit of this to keep them in good shape.

If you know of a good treatment for fake suede, please let me know in the comments. I have some fake suede shoes, and getting them all lotioned is probably not a good idea. Enjoy the holiday!

Which I used to take some random pictures of my girls :).

Dandelion, Bell and Ludivine browsed through the box with woolen stuff. Hats are always a good choice, and Bell found a jacket that is slightly too large for her.

Judith received a letter from a friend who still lives in the colony, and she and Melisande both love muslin tunics.

Vasilissa didn’t get any new stuff for ages, so she’s the first to receive her Easter outfit. I wanted the shirt and shawl to match her eye make up, and it turned out exactly as I had imagined it. It’s a very subtle gradient dye in berry tones. I love how it makes her eye color pop. I used Simplicol expert dye for this, it’s a powder developed for hand dyeing.

The second one is for Bell, and this one is a fun gradient color mix in colors that are also part of her chest piece.

Dyeing experiments are kind of addictive. There is always something that could use a bit of color. I read a satirical short story by Ephraim Kishon ages ago. It’s about a man who wants to spray some small item with silver spray and falls victim to a painting frenzy. By the end of the story his front lawn is silver :-).
Anyway, I had this white lace I never used because the yarn is very shiny. It looked as cheap as it was. But with a gradient dye the lighter tone of the yarn looks actually quite interesting.

And last but not least some flowers, it’s spring after all. This is what my garden looks like at the moment –  well, at least that corner of my garden. Enjoy the holidays. Happy Easter!

I made lots of hats, and Bell picked one with grey stripes that almost looks silvery.

Judith has a new shirt and vest to go with the skirt I made a while ago.

Sophia is not sure if the bold pattern of her new blazer isn’t a bit too daring.

And Unnea has a white sweater.

This one was not a planned picture, I put Calliope in that chair while I was posing Mailin. My cat very gently placed her paw on the doll’s knee and I was quick enough to capture the moment. :).

Bell has new pants. That small scale animal print was a lucky find, it’s the perfect size for her.

Found these panpipes in a box. I had completely forgotten they were in there.

Bell tests this rather crunchy mattress and and decides she is not going to flake out on this one.

And she has some new clothes. The only bought thing is the black jacket (and the shoes). I had that jacket for ages and it doesn’t fit Iples in the shoulders. Bell likes it and it suits her, so everyone is happy.