Bathing Beauty ~ Recolored

I really need to get my butt in gear!! Need to pack for our trip home...hate packing...hate the car ride too while I am at it!! Its soooo long! And what I have been doing instead?  Recolorin pictures! soooo productive!

I really like the way they look when I am done with them, BUT..they aren't perfect...the things I cant figure out yet is:

1. How do I get the edges smooth after I cut the image out of the background?
2. How do I replace the pixels that look like they were cut out during the extration?
3. How the heck can I color the hair and get it to look right?

The thing with vintage pictures is the color you pick from your palette ISN'T going to be the color that the picture ends up being. Its different from each picture it seems, depending on if it is black and white..or sepia or yellowed from age along with the texture in the picture. I am not sure how to fix this yet either. Bright colors seem to work best but I dont always want to use bright colors.

Ok...so here is my original photo ( I LOVE bathing beauties!)

Cute isn't she??? I LOVE the old bathing suits!!! Cute and sexy yet her butt isnt hangin out!

Ok..so I got this vintage frame from Itkupilli btw..have I mentioned that I LOVE her collage sheets??? Anyway so this is how that turned out:

I was pretty happy with that, so then I recolored using this palette:

I think she came out cute!!! I figured out how to whiten her teeth...but I think I made her one ankle too skinny........my only concern is if I make it super large...the lines wont look so smooth..and I dont know how to fix that!!!

anyone have any suggestions???