New Eyelashes for Elin…

As I was going through the line at Wal Mart today I got a funny look from the guy who was checking me out… I guess I didn’t look like the type who would be buying false eyelashes. Well, actually I’m not… never worn a pair in my life, but I was buying them for one of my girls… my “girls”… you know, my dolls! I thought I would change Elin’s eyelashes… She’s my little 10” ball jointed doll, made by Iplehouse. She’s actually referred to as a BID; Baby Iplehouse Doll. There was nothing really wrong with her old lashes but they were a little sparse and she’s always looked sort of “sleepy” to me for some reason.

I picked out a pair that I thought would be fuller but not too long. There are a gazillion different styles of lashes…the ones I got were $2.98.

I gathered all the things I would need, white glue, tweezers, toothpicks, a new plug of Mack’s Silicone Earplugs (for holding in the eyes) and Elin. She looks a little afraid, don’t you think?

The first thing I did was remove the old silicone and take out the glass eyes.

Pull on the old lashes and they’ll just peel off.

Measure the length of the eye opening with your tweezers and transfer that length to the box. You’ll be cutting where the mark is. (You’ll want to use the inside shortest length next to the inside corner of your dolls eye.)

Take a small amount of glue on a toothpick and place it on the inside of the eyelid. Now this is the tricky part…take your lash and situate it in the upper eyelid part. It slides around and does all sorts of moving but it’s pretty forgiving…just keep holding it in place. It was hard to take pictures, while I was doing it, so there are no pictures of me doing it.

After I got one layer in, it still looked pretty much like it did when I started.

So I decided to use another section of the lashes… the middle section. I cut it the same way and applied it the same way, only on top of the first row of lashes.

It still didn’t look thick enough to suit me… so I decided I would go ahead and add the last section of the lashes to Elin’s eyes. I was beginning to wish I had just bought the thick lashes I was debating about at Wal Mart.

When they were dry I used my fingernail through the eye opening and pushed it up to snug all the lashes together. After it dried a little longer I pushed the lashes up toward her eyebrows to curl them upwards a little bit.

I know it’s hard for you to see the difference but in person it’s much easier to see. It is a subtle but nice improvement and I’m happy with how they look. Although one of her eyeballs is drooping… gotta go in and smoosh it up just a hair.

Here is the before and after pics again… Hope you can see the difference. Now I think she deserves a new dress!

(If you’d like to see the blog post where I painted her from a blank, click here.

See you tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne