Some years ago, I found two 23" My Twinn rescue dolls, Madison and Ariel, on ebay when I was still learning about dolls. I completely fell in love with their look and set out on a mission to rescue and restore them. You can see they looked a bit rough with their tangled hair and faded eyes when they arrived. But I was eager to see what I could do with them and focused on the potential.

I might have been naive, because my first attempts at restoring classic 23" My Twinn dolls had mixed results, and it was really nothing like restoring an 18" doll like American Girl, which I was more familiar with.

For example I knew that they needed new eyes. While Madison's eyes were still recognizeable as brown, they were slightly tinged red and it wasn't the look I wanted for her.

I couldn't even tell for sure what color Ariel's eyes once were. Maybe light brown or hazel? Admittedly the faded gray color was cool, but I thought it would probably keep fading, so the eyes needed to be replaced either way. The problem was I had no idea how to do it.

Like I couldn't just remove their heads like you can with 18" dolls, and all the research I did about heating up the vinyl and possibly cracking it intimidated me. So I left them on the shelf for a long time, trying work up the nerve for the eye surgery.

And just as I predicted, the eyes continued fading so that a year or two later, the glowing red eyes staring out me was all I could take and I finally decided to do something about it.

First of all, I spent about a day combing out their tangles (and apprecating the lovely quality of their hair!)

Then I went looking through the various eyes I had ordered during the long break, and picked out these two.

The dark green was exactly what I had envisioned for Madison when I first got her, so that was all good.

But I also wanted to recreate the faded gray color Ariel's eyes had once been (without actually being faded). Realistically I knew that was probably not going to be possible.

I couldn't find anything too similar to that color, so I decided to try aqua colored eyes for her.

Here I was about to start heating up their face/ eye area to remove and replace their eyes. (I removed the wigs to avoid damaging them.) Not gonna lie, I was mildly terrified.

So it actually turned out to be a trial. I think the eyes were much harder to remove/ insert than I thought they would be. I almost gave up in the middle of it when I couldn't get the new eyes in. The vinyl seems far less flexible than for other dolls, even when well heated. And I was so worried the area around the eyes would crack or tear before I got them in!

But persistence pays off, and one way or another, one finds a way. I eventually had to cut open the back of Ariel's head to get her eyes in, although I found out that's fairly common when changing eyes with these dolls.  Here they are with their new eyes finally in.

I immediately loved Madison's new eyes. This photograph actually makes them look more green, although in person they have more of a green-brown look to them. They're so unique and exactly the look I wanted.


I was less sure about Ariel's new eyes. While they were very pretty, the color was a lot more intense than I thought it would be. It was kind of discouraging because Ariel's eyes had been the biggest trial to get in! I wasn't sure I wanted to go through that again.

So I just quickly added eyelashes, dressed them, and spent another long era trying to decide if I was going to keep these eyes or not.

Here's Ariel and Madison with another of my 23" Twinn projects, Danielle. I was doing some rescuing on Danielle too at that time, but the work she needed was relatively minor, just a new wig.

After a year or two, I just wasn't satisfied with Ariel's eyes and made the decision to try to swap them out again. My biggest motivation was that I had found some lovely pale gray eyes that reminded me a little bit of the faded gray eyes that I had originally wanted to recreate. That was enough of a sign for me.

So here Ariel is with her new gray eyes. This is the look I was finally happy with.

And here's Madison, who was also still waiting to debut.

Fast forward again to the present day when I finally found a little time to finish what I started long ago. If you notice, I did a little makeup enhancement on both of them, removing their eyelashes for better access.

The enhancement is very light, just a touch of a sun-kissed blush, eyelid and eyebrow definition.  FInally, they were truly ready to complete their new look.

I had long had this dream of giving them a steampunk theme: gears, goggles, everything, but I wasn't sure if I could do it because it would require very unique clothing. For years I actually looked for 23" steampunk doll fashions, but found nothing. Nothing at all in the right size, not even a pattern.

So the only thing left to do was create my own pattern. . .

Fortunately I had already done that, kinda sorta. And by that I mean my Fanst'sy Frock dress pattern. It's a versatile style because with different fabrics you can make it look fantasy, pirate, steampunk, or whatever.

The only problem was that the pattern was designed for 18" dolls, not 23". So I began the involved process of customizing the pattern for 23" dolls.

Because it's not like I could just enlarge it and call it done. 23" My Twinns are proportioned differently than most 18" dolls, so I had to do a lot of adjusting along the way.
 

I also selected fabrics and trim that I thought were Steampunky, including repurposing or dyeing them to get just the right look.

Choosing and assembling the steampunk bling was especially fun. I did keep it low key though. I could have gone a lot more gear and gadget heavy, but I didn't want it to overshadow the underlying fashion, so just a couple of gadgets each.

I also dug out these 23" My Twinn sized boots I had gotten years before in anticipation of my steampunk vision coming true someday.
 

I also wanted to try making steampunk googles for them, using a cute pattern I found from Doll Project. The pattern is for multiple sizes, but I used the Blythe/ AG pattern and just lengthened the straps. Perfect fit and a lot of fun customizing!

In the end, it really took a bit of effort to create my 23" My Twinn Steampunk dream, but when the dresses and accessories were finally done, and the dolls and their fits were assembled,  I have to say the results were awesome!

Madison and Ariel will probably be going to new homes soon. I had a lot of fun getting to know them since 2015 and finally giving them a chance for a second life. I hope they continue their adventures wherever they may end up.