I’ve been working hard on a new project and I wanted to show you some of the progress pictures. Are you ready for a peek behind the scenes to see how I make things?
I’m making doll-sized mouse ears! I love wearing my ears whenever I go to Disney (and sometimes on other occasions, too). I looked for ears that my dolls could wear, but I couldn’t find any. It seems that Mattel has made a few Disney Parks themed Barbies in the past which come with ear hats, but these are hard to find now, and I was worried that they would fit my Disney Store princess dolls because they have bigger heads than traditional Barbies. So I set out to make my own.
The base ears were modeled on the computer and 3d printed out of plastic. My husband and I went through several attempts before we got these right. We finally made decent ears in two sizes:
The narrower size fits Barbie and other Mattel dolls, including the older princesses. The larger size on the right fits DS princesses with wider heads like the Frozen dolls and Merida.
They look really cute on the dolls. We made them in black and white for two different styles:
But I didn’t want to stop there. Half of the fun of the ears is all the different ways you can customize them!
The next step was experimenting with bows. I already had a number of colors of ribbon in two different widths. I sat down with the hot glue gun to see what I could do. My daughter actually has a lot more experience with making bows, so she helped me develop the right technique to make tiny bows look perfect.
Here are the ears with their bows on:
For the final touch, I created symbols for each of the princesses, printed them out, and glued them on. With a coat of clear nail polish to seal the edges, the ears were ready and looking beautiful!
Finally, I dressed up the princesses in all of the new outfits that I’ve been working on, and it was time for a photo shoot! The ears look wonderful modeled on the dolls. I’m so happy with how they turned out, and I’m lucky that I had so much help from my family to get them just right.
These were so much fun, I can’t wait to make more! Which character would you like to see me make ears for next? I could make a set for princes (although I don’t have all of the prince dolls), or maybe villains, or even Star Wars! Write a comment with your ideas and help me choose.