If you were a kid in the early 80’s that got a boxed Barbie you probably remember getting a Barbie fold-out ‘World of Fashions” promotional brochure. You probably also obsessed about all the dolls and fashions you REALLY wanted that looked so super cool even though you NEVER saw them in-store. Many of us also circled the highly desired items lol!
Well, top of my wanted list was Sweet Roses PJ. The sweet face with closed mouth and dark brown hair….so lovely and demure. Really, she was the antithesis to blond, extravert Barbie.
So I found a Sweet Roses PJ that had slight rodent chews to nose tip and forehead and decided to see if I could salvage her. If so, it would be a perfect opportunity for a rebody & restyle play.
The damage was not deep…but noticeable. I rebuilt her nose tip with acrylic top coat that I coloured to match her skin with high density acrylic paint. I did the same with her forehead and then used a matt sealer on top. Admittedly the photos don’t show up the small imperfections that I can see (with my glasses on) due to the way the light is bounced of the top coat. The photo’s haven’t been photoshopped apart from a slight hightening of contrast. I’m happy enough with the display-purpose results that I’m not going to fiddle around with the repairs anymore.
I had her laying around repaired and in a new body fer several months when finally the perfect dress came along! It seemed simple enough but the colour and the rose on her shoulder just screamed modern Sweet Roses PJ at me.
So I teamed the dress up with some gold accessories and paint the straps of her shoes gold to balance out the look.
I think she is super-cute now and am so happy to have her on my display. Her face still has a real old-school vintage feel so I wasn’t sure how modern clothing would look on her despite the new body. I think I’ve found a nice balance in keeping with her original vibe and have saved a vintage doll in the process – yay!
