Wellie Wisher Ruby Red Fashion Friend Comparison

Ruby Red Fashion Friends are a newish doll in the doll world. How do they compare to American Girl Brand’s Wellie Wishers? What patterns look on each?

Charlotte, Ruby Red Fashion Friends (RRFF)

Emerson, AG Wellie Wisher (WW)

I like both dolls very much. Each are pretty and make great play dolls.

Wellie Wishers , according to AG, is 14.5″, with a plastic/vinyl body. Head tilts for different poses. Nails unpolished. Knees and arms do not bend, moving only at the leg and arm joints.

Ruby Red Fashion Friends, 14″ according to the website, are ball jointed (9) with many different poses possible. Her body is vinyl. Head tilts for different poses. Finger and toe nails polished.

I’ve heard within doll groups that the dolls do slightly vary in height, which may be due to the body type (the limbs are held in place with elastic strings/cords). As you’ll see in the photos of the side by side comparison, both dolls are taller than their websites state. When all my dolls are returned to my from my publisher, I will compare the heights of all three RRFF.

Faces

The head circumferences: despite looking bigger, the WW doll has a smaller head circumference. This is probably due to the face molds/ shapes of each.

Ruby Red Fashion Friends face molds: designed by Dianna Effner (Hannah, Sara, Bella, Charlotte, Stella) and Ruby Ho (Kayla, Maya, Lila). They all have beautiful, unique wigs and varying skin tones.

RRFF have eyelashes! Such a pretty detail. Their faces are delicately painted, with blushed cheeks. Their eyes are very detailed and pretty. Their heads are not as “big” looking as the WW dolls.

Wellie Wisher heads look bigger proportionately to their bodies. Their faces are cute, but not as artistic. Eyelashes are painted on. WW look to all have the same face mold, but different details painted on. They also come in different skin tones.

Hair

The hair on the Wellie Wishers is a wig and nice, but I do worry about it becoming frizzy. I did not comb through the WW doll before taking the photos, so it looks a bit frizzier than it is.

The Ruby Red Fashion Friends also have wigs, but it is a better quality in my opinion. I’m not an expert, but it feels smoother and softer to the touch.

Feet/shoes

There is a difference here. The RRFF dolls have more slender, slightly longer feet. Many shoes fit them both, but not all.

Unlike the Wellie Wishers, RRFF have a space in between the big toe and other toes, making them able to wear flip flops.

Body

The RRFF is a bit more slender and has a bit longer rise (for pants/shorts). They have a slightly bigger body than both Wellies and Hearts for Hearts dolls, but not a huge difference. The main being the inseam and rise, as well as arm length. It’s important to remember the difference in measurement is also distributed through the circumference of the body (waist, hip, and chest).

For example, the waist difference is not just different in the front, it’s the difference is through entire waist measurement. So the Ruby Red Fashion Friend has approximately 1/8″ wider in back and 1/8″ wider in the back of her body. Does that make sense?

• I have seen others post the hip as 7 1/2″ and foot length 2″. I’m posting what I got when measuring Charlotte.
• I included Hearts for Hearts in the measurement table, because they also fit many of the same patterns.

Will the pattern fit? It greatly depends on at least 2 factors: how was it drafted and the design.

If the patterns are just resized from an AG 18″ Doll pattern, it will not usually fit well. In other words, taking an 18″ American Girl doll pattern, and using the printer to rescale, reduced to fit a smaller doll will only work if the have the same body type, proportions, and the doll itself is a scaled version of the larger doll.

Creating a sloper for specific doll body type and height, is the best way to draft a well fitting pattern. This method will take into account the proportions as well as overall measurements. This is what I do and found many of the patterns I’ve designed for my new book, Doll Studio Boutique, need no adjusting, when it’s an easy fitting design. The pattern may look slightly different on each doll, so minor adjustments may be something you’d prefer to do. If it’s a form fitting leotard, than the measurements are more important and should be doll specific. The adjustments I do recommend have to do with length, not circumference of the pattern. I find adding 1/2″ to the length of a skirt or dress is sufficient.

How about an example?

Kendall (Wellie Wisher) is wearing the Nightgown pattern from my new book, Doll Studio Boutique. The slippers are also a pattern from my book. They fit the RRFF just fine with no modifications. I will post as soon as Charlotte’s matching slippers are done 🙂

Here is Charlotte wearing her new nightgown, same exact pattern from Doll Studio Boutique. The only modifications: I added 1/2″ to the length and made it with short sleeves. I will be checking the long sleeve length soon. I suspect it will need 1/2″ to the sleeve length if at all.

Charlotte looks so sweet in everything I’ve sewn for her. This nightgown could easily turn into a pretty dress with the right fabric. More about fabric choices and a formal announcement of my book’s release soon…stay tuned!

I’ll be sharing many comparisons in the upcoming weeks. Little sneak peeks into the studio creative chaos as I sewed for my latest book, Doll Studio Boutique, as well as many more of the projects.

~Erin