Gymboree Outfits for Our Hearts For Hearts Girls

Hey guys!  I'm so excited to share this with you. :)  This week, my main focus is going to be housecleaning (I have to get ready for two parties in a row!!), but I'm trying to get a bit of blogging done so you have something to tide you over. ;)  

I wanted to share this post because I've had at least one person ask me about ideas for extra clothing for the Hearts For Hearts Girls dolls.

Sometime before Christmas last year, my mom's cousin (the one who sends us tons of clothing and toy hand-me-downs for the girls) sent us 8 adorable rag dolls from Gymboree.  They were called GymBelles, and were super soft and cute.  What we loved most about them, though, was their adorable clothes.  Many of the outfits they had were outfits that my girls had worn from Gymboree when they were younger.  We chose 3 of them to go in the girls' stockings, I kept one, and my aunt kept the other 4 for her playroom.

As you can imagine, it didn't take long for my daughters to discover that the clothing was removable.  They had a lot of fun trading outfits between their dolls.

Well, yesterday, while we were getting ready for church, Middle Gal discovered that the dress from her doll fit her new Nahji doll perfectly!  I got super excited when I saw how adorable Nahji looked in her lovely dress!  When my aunt saw how cute the girls' dolls looked at church, she very graciously gave up the remaining 4 dolls so that we could shamelessly steal their clothes! ;)

The GymBelles are no longer being made (at least, I couldn't find them on Gymboree's website...it looks like they've moved on to another type of doll, and I'm not sure if the clothing is still removable).  The tag on the one I have says 2002.  I did find a few on eBay by searching "Gymboree doll" or "Gymbelle doll".  Anyway, I just thought I'd let everyone know in case you have these lying around somewhere.   If nothing else, you can keep your eyes open for them at thrift stores and yard sales. :)  

Here are the 4 dolls my aunt gave me for the girls.

This is what the tag looks like on the front...

...and on the back.  The tag is attached to their hand.

Here is Nahji in the dress that clued us in on the compatibility of the Gymboree dresses.  Isn't she ADORABLE? ;)

Here are the girls in 3 of the new dresses.

This blue, green, and purple mermaid dress looks great with Nahji's coloring.  It even matches her sandals and earrings! :)

The dress includes a mermaid tail at the back. :)

I love how darling this springy green dress looks on Rahel!  I think green is definitely her color! ;)  (For those of you who are wondering, I gave my youngest daughter her birthday present early so that all three girls could play with their H4H girls together.  It was very helpful in keeping the peace! ;) I hope to do an official Rahel review later.) :)

Sweet Rahel

Consuelo looks lovely in this dress.  The pink flowers go great with her pink flats.

After I put the dresses on them, I noticed that the GymBelles dolls' purses were attached to their hand by a single thread.  I realized that it would be easy to remove the thread and then have coordinating purses for the Hearts 4 Hearts Girls! :)

Consuelo's pink purse

Rahel's green purse

Nahji's mermaid purse

Here's a group shot of our 3 lovely ladies. :)  (Rahel does have shoes...somewhere.  Perhaps it wasn't wise for me to give my youngest the doll with sandals that didn't fasten!) 

P.S.  May I just mention how much I love the uniqueness of the face molds of these 3 dolls?  Their faces seem pretty similar when they're not right next to each other, but when you see them all together, you can see the slight variations between their eye shape, noses, etc.  Well done, Playmates toys!  :)  

I also managed to get the mermaid crown off of the one doll, so Nahji has her complete ensemble.  Unfortunately, I pretty much destroyed the other two headpieces when trying to get them off. :(

I did want to let all of you know that not all of the dresses fit.  The adorable black velvet dress was too narrow in the shoulders.  I think with a little bit of alteration it should work.  Basically, just look for a GymBelle doll wearing a dress with a wide neck or stretchy sleeves.  The difference is so slight that I'm sure a seamstress could figure out a way to modify the non-fitting dresses.  However, for the rest of us ordinary mortals... ;)  

Hope you enjoyed this post.  Have any of you found any other clothes that work for the Hearts For Hearts Girls?