Trades: Fayette and a Feeple 65 body

("Shh", Granado Fayette says, "I fit so much better on this Maiden body than Mercury's head did"). Mercury was intended for a Male/Female sculpt, and the end result for M/F heads is that the necks always gap on the female bodies. It wasn't too bad  with M/F heads on the older bodies because the Nuevo female has a big neck and the male 64cm and 68cm bodies had sort of normal-SD-sized necks, so it wasn't so noticeable. The Lads, and the new Evol and Embody bodies have MASSIVE necks-- so it's gotten pretty incompatible for switching. (sad face emoticon). Anyway, Tabitha is just as cute, and way more photogenic in her current form. Also since she is "small SD sized", like an old Luts Delf girl, there are a ton of clothes ready-made for her out there. This dress was very inexpensive and came with stockings, it was purchased from BlueBlood Doll, who I recommend highly. I like their acrylic eyes, too!

I also swapped an Evol body for a Feeple 65 body. I liked the Evol, but I already have one under my Granado Enoch, and it is a heavy body and a large one, and I am trying to downsize a bit. My trading partner had a Jupiter head that needed a body, and I can always use another female body, so it was a good trade; I knew the Feeple body has some issues (I took one apart a couple of years ago and it was ...complicated), but I was ready to take this one apart and mod it if necessary. So the first thing I discovered was that this FL65 had magnets only in the feet, which made me happy. But the neck key was behaving oddly, so I took it off, and this is why:

The bead is supposed to be dead center in the key, and this bead was warped--and also not sanded too well. I tossed it out, and sueded the neck instead:

(That is just a chamois from the auto repair store; it's some kind of microfiber that works just like real chamois with 100% less goat). Next I wanted to restring her since I had cut off the old string from the key. The old string was pretty heavy, I wanted to swap it for 3.5mm so it would travel better through the knees and the neck ring.

Since this body has a tendency to snap backwards when sitting, I wanted to do everything I could to minimize this. I wanted to be sure the main strings went in front of, and not behind, the arm strings. This way the arm strings could act as a stop for the back arching behavior:

Heavier, real suede at the top of the torso piece:

I also wanted to try the "A frame" stringing on her, where one string goes up to the neck to hold on the head, and the other string just goes through the pelvis. This puts less tension on the torso and also makes it easier for the doll to sit, though sometimes you have to work the torso back and forth a little to get this lower string to seat properly when you bend the doll to sit.

Hip plates go in next. The pointy parts go in the center, Left and Right are marked with initials:

The two knee pieces are fitted together here (I wanted to be sure I had the two correct pieces before I tried to string them together. The narrower string fits well inside the knee without crowding it.

And finally the foot goes on to the ankle piece. As much as I hate the fact these feet come off in boots, the separate pieces make getting the feet on so much simpler. It's also a flexible joint--she can point her toes. And now that she was all together, she can stand up perfectly! I also added some soft wire inside her arms, after being so pleased with the Fantasia Doll's performance with wires there:

And yes, she can sit too!

You still have to fiddle a bit with her hips--those inner plates aren't too helpful for sitting, and I don't quite understand how the inner slots are supposed to be aligned with the hips, but it does work. I might put a bit of hot glue sueding on top of the regular sueding in her torso, just to keep her posed in different angles, but this is very good without wiring inside the legs/torso. And now Laurel has 2 bodies; though I think I will keep her on this Feeple body since it's her native body. Someone else gets the Fantasia body. I wonder if my Iplehouse Doria head will fit? :D