Next up it was time to work on her skirt. The first try was a total fail. (For that I cut a big round piece of fabric and made a hole in the middle for the hips. It was way too fluffy. I may be able to reuse it for a ball gown later on though.) So I made several paper templates and kept testing until I ended up with this shape.
As a first step the top was turned up and sewn, with a rubber cord inside the hem.

When done I sewed the sides together and then I put it on the doll and made a knot. Careful that it sits tightly around the waist but still fits over the hips!
Afterwards hem the bottom and slit. As a last step the part above the slit is gathered a bit. Simply make some loose stitches from the slit up to the waist and pull the string, then secure the string.

Here Nareen shows what the finished skirt looks like.
The wig belongs to one of my other dolls (Eternia) but I wanted to get a first impression of what she'll look like later. The black hair makes her eyes shine and I look forward to the arrival of her wig!
Her wig is straight and longer, of course.

Now all she's missing is the top, the belt, the hood for the jacket and the earrings. Oh, and hair decoration once she has a wig.
Of course there's also the lingering pain of having to fix her torso and thighs. I must try to mix a colour similar to the old one and repaint her tattoos. The thighs will need some more sandpapering to rid them of the stickiness. I will not add more varnish, so I'll have to handle Nareen with extra care.

Overall I'm happy with how she turns out, despite all the errors I made. It's the first time, errors are bound to happen. If I would do her again I would not add tattoos except for the bird. They vanish beneath her robes anyway, but I wanted to have the option of showing her in a bathing suit or nightie too.

(Note from 2013: As I said, if I had only used Mr. Super Clear right away...)

It's Saturday again and Nareen's wig arrived! A new record, as I ordered it on Monday! And once again customs let it pass (rightfully, as it's under the customs limit, but they don't always believe that).
The wig feels very soft and it's shiny.

Wait, that can't be right. Nareen's head vanishes almost completely under the wig. It's for a Pullip, why is it so large? On the second picture I even dragged it over the eye mechanism in the back and the hair still covers her nose.
I've gotta ask CoolCat if this is normal and I have to cut it or pad her head or if they sent the wrong wig size by mistake. If I have to cut it I suppose I better get myself special scissors for hairdressers. I expected some cutting (for Nareen's side bangs) but not this much. ^^

As with all things that you do for a first time I have to learn some things the hard way too. One thing is that a soft busted Obitsu really doesn't like a heavy Pullip head. It was bad before but once the wig was on Nareen's neck turned completely floppy and she crashed backwards several times.

It hurt but I disassembled her completely to get to her neck mechanic. Gwen from Requiem Art pointed me to one of her video tutorials, and while it didn't cover this particular problem I think I found a solution.
After removing the arms and the pin for the head the upper part of her bust was removable. I couldn't get down to the inner mechanics though. So I put a piece of soft foam around the neck piece and secured it with a rubber band. When I had put everything in place again the neck was more stiff and there's nothing to be seen from the outside.

If this really helped still remains a mystery though because I couldn't reassemble her yet due to another thing learned the hard way: varnish isn't neccessarily the same as sealant, and even varnish that works fine on polystyrene and plastic miniatures isn't guaranteed to work on a doll. Nareens face had become sticky on the sides, same for her arms. Seems like it gets a little bit stickier every day. When I scraped some fuzz away it became obvious that she's taking on a black tint (we live near a busy street and there's lots of fine dust in the air which starts to stick to the varnish).
I'll go to the craft/art store later on and see if they have something on sale that specifically says "sealant", then I'll try to fix her.
If her body is ruined... well, sucks but I could buy another one. If her head gets any more damage I'll cry tough.

Thanks to Lirael (and Gwen) who advised me on good brands, but alas - none of them are on sale here.

(Note from 2013: I got the impression that the type4 heads don't wobble as much but the soft foam trick is still a good idea to apply since my newest doll is still a tiny bit wobbly. After all those years Nareen wobbles a bit again but it helped for a long time and her wig if very heavy due to its length, after all.)

In the meantime I started work on the earrings. I wrapped thick florist wire around a pen in the right size, then cut off the overlapping pieces with pliers. One end was run in a large bead, then I brought the ends as close together as possible, added a drop of superglue and shoved the bead over the ends and the still wet glue to secure the whole thing.
After the glue was dry I dunked both earrings into silver metallic paint. I rammed some pins through the side of an empty drink can and hung the earrings on them to dry. (Metallic paint needs several hours to dry. I could have used acrylic paint instead but it would require several layers of paint and varnish and still be a bit more prone to scratches.) When they're dry I'm gonna dunk the other half and put them up for drying again.
Then I just have to think up a good way to connect them to the actual earring piece.

Yesterday I bought a brush-on sealant/varnish that's water based. The source for the stickiness was the propellant in the spray can, said the shop assistant.
After some FUN hours of hard sandpaper work and after repainting her tattoos from scratch I gave her a thin layer of varnish with the brush. It was dry after 30 minutes and it's MUCH better. The only thing I don't like is that her face is now very shiny although it was matt varnish.
Here's the reassembled Nareen with freshly repainted tattoos and her finished top.
(In the back you see my ingenious earring-drying device. *g* In the upper right there's a pic of her top loose.)

(Note from 2013: No, it wasn't MUCH better. Her face was shiny like a billiard ball and it was only better for a short time. Then the varnish became sticky and collected dirt. In early 2013 Nareen had fuss on her face and a clearly gray tint. Furthermore the varnish started to peel off on her legs and at the rim of her face. I sandpapered everything possible to get rid of this stupid varnish and this time finally sealed her with Mr. Super Clear. NOW it's much, much better!)

Here she also wears her belt and jacket and the head-eating wig of doom is back! I was told that it's supposed to be this big and just to drag it as far down as possible in the back and cut it on front. So, out with the scissors!
Btw, I don't even have to glue it on, as the rubber band inside sits tightly on her head.

(Note from 2013: After some years this black rubber band left a black rim around her forehead though. The colour sank in so deeply that even sandpaper couldn't get it off again. So if you plan to eventually use another wig on your doll that maybe sits a bit higher take care to get a wig with a white rubber or put a silicone wig cap on her, the kind that CoolCat sells. Luckily Nareen will never be without bangs so this damage will never be seen by anyone.)