Operetta Deluxe Fashion Pack Review

 

 This is the Operetta Deluxe Fashion Pack. Apologies for the potato-quality photos. It comes with everything seen above: two outfits, red heart / treble clef earrings, glasses / facemask, a red belt imaged after stacked dice, and a pair of red and white heels with stacked dice for the heel support. These heels were later recast and used for Frights, Camera, Action! Operetta, and the belt was recast in black for I Heart Accessories Operetta. The model used here is Freaky Fusion Inspired Operetta -- hence the Frankie-like hairstyle.

 

 

The dress and purple shrug are my personal favorites from this set. The dress mirrors 1950s fashion, with a wide, poofy "poodle" skirt and a narrow bodice. The shrug has an embossed treble clef on the upper left breast and a shiny purple collar with spiderweb-like edges. The dress is white with purple spiderwebs, spiders, music notes, and swirls. There's a black swirl detail from the waist to the bottom of the skirt, echoing the pattern of the included earrings and glasses / facemask. The dress and shrug combo look very nice with her tattoo and her facial scar.

  

 

 

The red off-the-shoulder top has a band of red and black musical motif fabric across the top, which pairs well with her tattoo. Her pencil skirt is black and has five white lines (like a musical staff) with very small white dots top-stitched along the lines. While I liked the lopsided appearance of the glasses / facemask in the package, I found them to look a bit dopey in reality. The earrings appeared too big and too heavy, and as they were molded rather than painted, their detail was hard to see. That's a shame, since the same motif is repeated throughout the other fashion pieces.

 

 

Like all the Fashion Packs, this one came and went pretty fast. Fashion Packs now demand two to three times their original price online and are very much sought after by collectors. I'm pleased with the larger pieces -- the clothing is definitely worth the cost -- but most of the plastic pieces lacked detail and quality production. 

Updates All Around!

Howdy y'all!

FIRST: I won NaNoWriMo (yay!) with "The Abyss Gazes Also", but it's not over yet. If you haven't checked it out yet, you can right here. We're on Chapter 53 right now, heading into the climax, and it's getting good reviews, so come along for the ride!

SECOND: Look at these fine-ass ladies who recently came to stay.

Picture Day Operetta and Music Festival Abbey.

Our local Walmart is moving out all its old stock, and both these lines are on sale for $10 each. Check your local Walmart for end-of-season deals too! Spring 2014 dolls are coming!

Here's Abbey with just the front piece of the box removed, still attached.

Here you can see everything the doll comes with. The Music Festival line is a budget, or minor, line, but I think you get a good amount of quality accessories for the lower price. She wears a 1960s style blouse with one dropped shoulder, gathered waist and elbows, and ragged-edge three-quarter sleeves and waistline. She has a blue-and-purple faux denim mini with frayed edges. Her melting ice belt in blue translucent plastic is re-used, and I usually despise belts, but in this case it helps to keep the edges of the blouse from curling up.

The one stand-out piece of this outfit, for me, is the boots. Translucent blue melting ice boots, knee-high, with removable bright pink spiked shackles. You can't tell me that's not awesome. (Her blouse and adorable headband also prompted me to get her. I just love the style!)

I mean LOOK at those boots! You can also see her VIM pass and her earrings in the shape of one blue snowflake and one purple crystal. I wonder how many other Abbey dolls don't include her signature "ice crystal" choker?

Now on to that lovely lady from the catacombs...

Picture Day Operetta! I'd been looking EVERYWHERE for her, and B wound up running into her at Walmart, which was unexpected. She was on my must-have list for the following reasons:

- One, she's Operetta.

- Two, the Picture Day sets are fairly cheap ($10 - $15 in most stores right now, $19.99 on release) yet come with some of the greatest accessories and design for their price point. The clothes in this line are consistently well-made and gorgeous. The Fearbook is worth it if only for the sheet of stickers within.

- That jacket! Finally, an MH letterman jacket for a ghoul!

- Those shoes! .. OK, basically the fact that she's 1950s ghoul cool reincarnated. Spectacular.

However, as you might guess, that cute little "hairdo gone astray" image of her on the Picture Day boxes translates to "glue-stiffened unmanageable coil of hair" in 3D, which also left her face spattered with glue; and the back of her head has been pressed so firmly against the box that any shape her carefully crafted ponytail and pompadour might have had, has been destroyed. So, yes. She's on my "imminent boil and re-do" list.

I noticed also that her left hand is deformed and will require some careful trimming with an Xacto before it can bend as normal. Other than that, she's flawless.

The coat is cut just under the bust with three-quarter sleeves. The main body is purple pleather, with an MH logo printed on the upper left breast. The sleeves are white faux leather. The coat has knit acrylic trim at the cuffs, hem, and neck. It's well-made, though I worry about the longevity of the pleather, and it looks absolutely fantastic.

The corset is a removable piece with thin velcro closure and printed white stringing. It is structured just as a small corset should be, in panels, and it fits just right.

Operetta has a handbag shaped like a red and black dripping heart, with a music-note "tail" detail on one side. The bag is small, just big enough for a ghoul's iCoffin, but I do appreciate the nifty curve in its strap, designed to help its weight balance on a doll's arm.

On her left wrist she wears a simple black bracelet, common to the dolls released in this line and around this same time. On the right wrist she wears a bead-detailed red bracelet, a recolor of Lagoona's Dot Dead Gorgeous white bracelet.

Here are her amazing shoes, with molded and painted buttons and a red seam along the inside of the ankle. I can't get over these. They're gorgeous.

Her facemask is still heart-and-cobweb shaped, but this time the spider at its edge is bright red, adding some visual punch. On her right ear she wears a long earring of black vinyl records.

This is the full complement of accessories with this doll: jacket, corset, dress, fishnet stockings, bag, bracelets, facemask, earring, and shoes, not to mention folder with spiderweb patterns and closure, stand, and brush.

The jacket, shoes, socks, and corset could easily be added to other Operetta outfits, without disrupting her basic style themes.

The dress, leopard print interspersed with music notes and treble clefs, combines the "strapless" (clear plastic straps) look of the Ghouls Night Out designs with the tulle, patterns, and ruffles of the Dot Dead Gorgeous line. It's elegant, fierce, and adorable, all at once. That's Operetta in a nutshell!

So, in conclusion, I'd say the Picture Day line are worthwhile, for your own collection or for storing as a future investment. This is the second "basic" Operetta doll and in my opinion she's a gem. It's obvious Mattel put a lot of work into her design and the craftsmanship used to put her together.

As for the Music Festval dolls, I feel their costumes make them worth the cost, but they don't offer much else. If you have a favorite character, get them in this budget line if only to have some variety; otherwise, these dolls will soon be on deep discount, so keep your eyes peeled.

Up next: Pattern layouts for common MH outfit pieces!

Super Simple Monster High Clothes, Pt 1

Howdy!

I love the clothes Mattel designs for most of my MH dolls, but sometimes I've just got to shake things up. What with winter coming, I've been thinking about how to keep them warm, too. So today I'm going to show you some super simple clothes you can make to keep your MH ladies and gentlemen both fashionable and cozy.

First: Socks!

Heels are great and all, but sometimes a ghoul's gotta just kick back and chill for a while. Rest your tootsies in a pair of petite slip-on socks.

This project requires very little sewing, just to close the toe. You can do it!

Materials:

- an unwanted shirt - T-shirt, button-up, anything

- a pencil, knitting needle, or other long poky thing (Heath, you best stop that giggling right now!)

- (if sewing the toe closed) scissors, needle and thread

* I like to use brightly colored or contrasting thread on my MH projects. It fits them just fine!

Step 1:

Cut off the hem of the shirt in one long strip, being careful not to cut into the hem or cut it open. (It's not the end of the world if you do!)

Step 2:

Decide how long you'd like the socks to be by holding the hem up against your MH doll's leg. I like the look of ankle socks on mine, personally, but you might prefer knee-high, mid-calf, or even no-shows, right under the ankle. Mark the length of hem at the start and end point of each sock, from toe to leg, so you know where to cut.

Step 3:

Cut the hem at the points you've marked.

If you've chosen not to sew the toe closed, congratulations - just turn 'em inside out and you're done! Pop 'em on your doll and enjoy.

Step 4:

Sew one end of the hem closed with small stitches. Use the pencil or knitting needle or what-have-you to turn the segment of hem inside out.

Extra Ideas:

- Hem the tops of your socks to stop them from fraying. I like to leave them loose, for two reasons: a) I really despise hemming and b) I like slouchy, droopy socks.

- Trim the tops with a bit of lace, ribbon, or ruffled fabric in a contrasting color.

Can my Monster High doll wear these socks under shoes?

Technically, no. MH shoes are made to fit tight to their feet. But you CAN measure the amount of sock that would be showing over the top of a doll's shoe, cut that amount from a hem, leave the toe open, and push the sock up over the top of the shoe. It looks pretty good with closed shoes, scrunched down a bit.

Next up: Stockings! Plus, crafting Monster High clothes from mismatched, unloved socks.