Sally Skellington at Reverend Jacks

[RevJack]

So my wife has a thing for The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Jack and Sally. The house is full of Jack this and Sally that.
So I'm going to make my wife a Sally Skellington doll.

Sally Skellington

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I have my Lovely blue elf from AiBei (Profile Picture) who has graciously offered to share a body with Sally.
A few weeks ago I go a hold of Aibei and ordered a Blue Head #4, also called "Cherry" that I will be modding to resemble Sally Skellington.

Aibei Head #4 - Cherry

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The main modifications needed are the stitches holding Sally together (she is a rag doll after all). Initially I mixed up a batches of black and off black TPE paste with the intention of extruding black stitches directly onto the doll. The damn stitches spread out after extruding. I'm using a 14g needle with way too much pressure the push the thick paste out and they still spread out. And they look really stark on my pink pocket pussy test-bed.

Practice Stitches on Pocket Pussy

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Did a little research on the film, and the actual Sally in the film did not have stark black stitches on her face, they were bluish like her skin, sometimes lighter sometimes darker.

Sally in the film

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NEW tactic, more subtlety. On my TPE sample graciously provided by AiBei I used a soldering iron to melt in a seam, and then placed blue and light-blue stitches across the seam. I recognize it is all sloppy as hell, it's a TEST ya know. I need to put some black stitches on the blue TPE to see how stark the contrast is. I'll do that tonight.

Melted seam and bluish sutures

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So folks, how about some aesthetic opinions... Black, Blue, Light Blue sutures? And should I melt the seam or extrude it?
Whatta ya think?

Reverend Jack

[YungSynth]

Nice, can't wait to see how she turns out

[Rock13]

Wow, that's really cool! I think your biggest challenge is going to be the eyes. Sally has great big eyes and the openings on your doll are going to require some serious modification if you're to pull that off.

[seagull]

Holy sh.t! That is out there along with the centaur build
Possibly the stitches could do with a slightly darker blue color
Not a fan of heat on delicate work but there are some really skilled owners

[RevJack]

Well, Rock is trying to play the devil on my left shoulder with the eyes issue. The angel on my right shoulder is saying that remaining attractive will get me further with the wife than an obsessive attention to detail.

[justintime]

well this is a project RevJack. Good for you, these things are fun , as long as they don't over whelmed. Looks like you have a gift for creating.
Looking forward to seeing how this goes.

[RevJack]

Here are the black and off-black TPE stitches.
So far for the face I have a vote for blue and a vote for the off-white.
I need to take all that blush off, and replace the red eye-shadow with ... Dark Blue?

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[seagull]

The top pic of Sally has slightly darker blue on top eyelids
However if using standard eyes to retain your wife's approval, too much blue will overwhelm the appearance
Will probably require a bit more experimentation to an already incredible project

[dollcurious4321]

Fantastic idea.

What about melting the seams in, darkening the inside with makeup, and then using twine or yarn to actually stitch with. Keep it real.

[RevJack]

Fantastic idea.

What about melting the seams in, darkening the inside with makeup, and then using twine or yarn to actually stitch with. Keep it real.

I'm with ya, I intend on melting the seams in, but sewing with actual thread was very problematic. The TPE is so easy to tear, and the slightest difference in tension pulls and distorts the skin. I tried actual sutures (total disaster) and thick black carpet thread. Easy to discuss, very very difficult to do. You're spot on with melting the seams in though.
Rev. Jack

[seagull]

I tried actual sutures (total disaster)
Added that to resource

[RevJack]

Wow, that's really cool! I think your biggest challenge is going to be the eyes. Sally has great big eyes and the openings on your doll are going to require some serious modification if you're to pull that off.

Alright Rock, if I can keep the physical eyes the same size, but switch to big white with little black pupils that would be an acceptable risk (as in wife do/dont like it) since I could swap them back out if they are too creepy.

Anyone know where I can get such things? I hit up a bunch of vendors but have come up short - and don't really want to go overboard with MF eyes.
Anybody seen solid white eyes with just a little black pupil?

[Rock13]

My previous comment was based on my assumption that you wanted your doll to look exactly like Sally. I certainly don't know of any eyes that look like hers that would fit into a doll's eye sockets. What you might be able to do is use a pair of standard eyes, paint them white, then just mask them and apply some tiny pupils. Perhaps even use more stuffing if you want them to bug out a little bit. It's an ambitious project, for sure, and I reckon that unmodified eyes would look just fine. I'm not sure how far you want to push it.

[seagull]

Ping Pong balls with a black dot on them perhaps?

[RevJack]

Ping Pong balls with a black dot on them perhaps?

Not the right size Seagull. I mean real doll eyes. Who makes custom eyes other than MF?