Presenting my third faux baby, Delia [pronounced Deel' ya].  This doll was enhanced by me from a  doll called "Beautiful Baby Michelle", which I ordered from a retailer with a very modestly-priced inventory.  As you can see, the original doll had a beautiful facial structure, because it was made from a sculpt by the talented Kimberley Durden. 

Three photos below show her the day she arrived:

* The first one was taken with the original hair ...a black modocrylic wig which suspended the straight synthetic hair down the sides and back of her head, ending at least an inch and a half shy of where a real baby's hair would actually stop growing.  Unfortunately, that inch and a half was significant on such a small head.

* The second photo shows an anomaly with her left ear.

* The third zooms in on a vertical strip of flesh color straight down the center of her upper lip ...unfortunately I didn't realize at the time that I could take all the lip paint off by scrubbing it with non-acetone nail polish remover (unless it had been done with ink) and make the entire lip area lighter, which would have made Delia look more realistic.

Because of these disappointments, I wrote back to the company and we settled on my getting the doll for half the price plus shipping, which I think was fair.

The body they had given her was cloth but it was hard and square; it turned out to be filled with a stuffing which did not smell very good.   They had weighted neither the head nor limbs.  I resolved to replace that body the minute I laid eyes on it, because not only was it not jointed, but the legs began just below where the belly button should be !  I'm not making that up:  only a smidge below the waist was where the two legs emerged.  Thanks to that, the body was at least three inches too short to be credible with the size of her head.

What I did first was pull off the objectionable wig.  If I ever do that again, I will glue a circle of felt onto the scabby area where the wig was, before trying on another wig ...because in this instance I snagged hair on the new wig.

I glazed her eyes (they are not the best eyes, but I've seen lots worse).  I painted convincing lower lashes instead of the sun-ray-style lines from the factory.  I went over the upper lashes with a dark brown Sharpie because they had a very synthetic-looking orange highlight for some reason.

I did gentle blushing on her face, neck and ears with Old Rose ink, and I corrected the flaw in the upper lip by just matching their lip color, which - as I mentioned above - I wish I'd done differently, but it's too late now because I sealed it. 

Then I gave her a Berenguer body in which I placed a trowser sock full of poly-pellets, surrounded by polyfil.  I gave her Berenguer limbs too, with their funny little hands and feet, very plump, which I also blushed with the ink.  This body has jointed legs but the arms are not jointed.

I weighted her head and the Berenguer limbs.  As I was to find out later, I should have put more weight in them; she weighs less than 4 lbs. plus a few ounces even though she is 22 inches.  I think a better weight would be 6 lbs. so I will use more weight next time.

I glued a magnet to the inside of her head for a pacifier.

Finally, I found a beautiful mohair wig for her in ash blonde.

Here is a photo of her with a nylon stocking over the wig to put pressure on it while the [Gem Tack] glue dried: