Modest is Hottest!
This may be a little off topic, but I just had to share.
A couple years ago while surfing around Pinterest, I saw this idea and though genius! A mother, like myself who was sick of seeing unclad barbies lying around willy nillly, took a sharpie and well… here is the result.
We only had one barbie at the time, and call me a prude if you must, but you better believe I got my sharpie out and drew on that cute little suit. Well, I wasn’t totally happy with the results. Mine had pen marks and when I tried to go over the same spot it lifted off the first layer instead of darkening it. So, while it was better than nothing I still didn’t love it.
Fast forward a year or so. We now have more than one Barbie and I really wanted to fix the problem (which is my girls know how to take the clothes off, but not get them back on)… enter nail polish. That is when it hit me, I could not only cover up these immodest dolls, I could make it SUPER cute and totally colorful!
If you love this idea, please share it!!!
And of course I am going to show you how I did it…. (just in time for Christmas… yes, I just said the “C” word before Halloween, I am a rebel like that!) So I bought some brand new Disney princess dolls to demonstrate how easy this is.
Here they all are fresh out of the box, with their hair all pristine and their dresses still in place. Live it up girls, that is the last time you will look this good!!! (it only takes one tiny 2 year old to change that REALLY quickly!)
And about 3 minutes later…
Goodness, I love this little mini girl!!!
Okay, so the process is really easy. Just lift the doll’s arms out of the way and start with the top line. I usually do a sweetheart neck line in front, and carry the line diagonally down the side and joining it in the back, then just fill the body portion of the doll below. Move the legs as necessary, just watch out, because sometimes when you move the leg it will hit the body. You can do as many coats as you need, and you can re-coat as necessary. Also, if you mess up at all you can remove the spot with some remover on a q-tip.
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Between coats, they can practice a little yoga in the sunlight as they dry out.
Give them a good hour to cure, if you do more than one coat, you don’t want ugly smudges! The best part is all the color choices you have! And this is what you get front and back:
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Hey everyone! It looks like a MODEST pool party on the roof of the Barbie Dream house!
So what do you think? So excited about having modest Barbies around in between outfit changes! If you like this idea please share it! Thanks guys!
EDIT: So apparently people are ticked that I painted nail polish bathing suits on my barbies… so here is my response. I should explain that it is hard for me to express this without being passionate after the lash out that I have received in the last couple days. So forgive me for my somewhat passionate and defensive response.
Genius!! When my girls were young, I used sharpies on both the male and female barbies. I wish I would have thought of fingernail polish. Awesome idea!!
I like it!! That is the most annoying thing about Barbies…they very rarely have clothes on with kids around and it just seems wrong somehow–they look so much cuter with pretty perma-swimsuits!
That is the coolest thing that I’ve ever seen! Wow! I’ve never even thought of this!
So I don’t have girls but if I did I would totally do this!
To boy barbies and girl barbies (boys would get swim trunks of course.)
I don’t loath naked barbies but I also don’t think they’re attractive at all.
This is such a cute idea. Thank you pinterest!
And thank you for sharing your revamp!
PERFECTION!!!!!!!! I recently packed up all my old barbies from my childhood home to save for my future children… needless to say they are all naked and in a box… I remembered how much fun it was to play with my moms retro strawberry blonde goddess and hope that some day my future little ones might get a kick out of them too. Thanks for the stellar tip. I will use it before they bare all 😉 to my visiting toy box lovers. I might add a little vintage black and white suit in there too. Thank you!!!!!!
What about nail polish as another alternative? Variety of colors and some are quick dry!
Funny you say that, nail polish is what the whole post is about!!
Genius! I love that you coordinated their suits with their original outfits. Stylish Princesses even at the pool! Lol. Pinned 🙂
What a gorgeous and wonderful idea! So pretty and so modest! I love it! Thanks for sharing!
This is such a funny post! Loved the yoga drying photo. I would have never thought to cover up Barbie, but it looks like a bathing suit for sure! Now if only my butt and boobs looked half as good as that one Barbie in the blue shiny suit . . .
It’s very cute and well executed for sure, but I worry little girls will attach stigma to a woman’s naked body. It’s not something to be ashamed of as very few humans are born with swimsuits on, whether immodest or modest. Kindly, I’d feel a little less ick about it if Ken was shown to have been given the same treatment.
I don’t own a Ken doll yet… that is the only reason he doesn’t have it! I have an edit on the post at the bottom if you want to hear a response from me about the stigma about our bodies.
I totally agree with Piper, well said.
I really enjoy this post. Very clever idea. I really respect what you are doing God Bless you! Your a Great mom.!
I love this idea! It’s genius! I wish I had Barbies around the house, to try it on, but of course, my daughter has about 1,000 toy horses and no interest in Barbies 🙂 Well done and thoughtful idea with the nail polish!
I freaking love you girl! You keep it up! I think that it’s so sad that people feel the need to criticize you for your choice to make something modest. I don’t understand why people feel the need to say that just because a person is modest, they are a prude. You keep on being an inspiration to us! I love reading your blogs seeing your beautiful daughters grow up in pictures!
I am so sorry to hear that people have lashed out at you and made egregious assumptions about your parenting because of this! I think it’s a fantastic idea! Those naked dolls don’t teach anything about anatomy anyway and the painted swimsuits are so pretty. These days modesty is under attack the way promiscuity was fifty years ago. People seem to think that if you are modest you hate your body, when really it is quite the opposite! Thanks for the idea and keep your chip up. There are others out there who totally “get it”, though it’s usually the naysayers who tend to be more vocal about their beliefs.
I love this! Kids always leave naked Barbies around and there’s no need to buy the Barbie swimsuit either. I’m logging this one away for when I have kids. Oh and sorry to hear about the negative backlash you got from this post. I think what you said was great. I’m a teacher and I have to say that if every parent followed your line of thought more closely it would help a lot of the issues I deal with at school.
Thank you for posting this! I totally agree with you! Sorry that many others don’t.
I absolutely LOVE the idea of painting bathing suits on all those naked Barbies! I complelty agree I hate seeing them naked all over my house! I have a 4 and a 5 1/2 year olds that also can’t seem to redress the dolls yet. I also TOTALLY agree with your “edit”. Can’t believe anyone would give you negative comments for painting a Barbie…… Thanks for this great idea!!!!!
Damn straight! Sorry… I’m not much of a curser (cusser?) but some occasions call for it. I have to say, I don’t even know you and I’m just so proud of your edit responce. I couldn’t have said any of that better myself. I personally, am a fan of the covered Barbies/Dolls. Seriously, what’s the point in naked Barbies? In fact I remember some of my Barbies, growing up, having little texturizing over the bikini zones, to make it look like she was wearing underwear. …and sticking with the underwear theme – I don’t remember anyone getting their knickers in a twist over THAT.
I think this is a wonderful idea. I remember wondering as a kid why barbie didnt have on underwear…….