I’m working on my cornrow dolls hair- so far I am very happy with it. The picture below is a view from the inside. This is the part that will be glued to the dolls head.
and here she is with the wig pinned to her head. I need to figure out how to finish the ends at the forehead. The braids are made out of black wool roving, which I stitched onto a felt wig cap.
I am working on the finishing (I hope) details. Sewed the snaps onto the shoes and lace onto the jacket at the wrists and collar. I am gluing the wig on- I do it in stages, so I don’t make a huge mistake or mess- that is why the doll has a purple sock on his head. The sock puts an even pressure over the wig area while the glue is drying. Also, I’ve dyed the lower arms to be a peachy flesh tone. I spritzed the arms with water so that they were damp and then painted on the dye.
Much more successful this time- Here is my chair hat… um, I mean the kitty bed, before felting-
and here it is after 2 rounds in the washing machine, drying over a cake holder.
It is now dry and looking great and hopefully I will be able to convince one of the cats to get into it (next challenge)… then I’ll post another picture.
Guess who Peter wants to be for Halloween? My next knitting project…..
I’ve been away dealing with elder-care issues again. Very stressful. Here are some good things from the last 5 days-
I bought Peter (14 and kid 3)- some dorky Lands End shoes that were on sale. This is what he did to them with Sharpie markers- Cool, eh?!
On the way down to the “old homestead” on Thursday, I stopped in to see Helen, an internet friend. This is a first for me- I only knew Helen through mailing lists, then emails. Now we can put faces into the voice in the mailings- much better! I got to see the dolls she makes and also her extensive doll collection. WoW! It was great! Here are some of my dolls communing with her self-portrait doll.
On Saturday afternoon, Eleanor (kid 1) came up from NY and school and we went to the new IKEA in New Haven. Lots of fun. She got kitchen stuff and bedding, I got things for my work and things for the kitchen. I bought a package of 6 cork placemats… I am going to use them when I need to pin little things down- like blocking small knitting projects. Seems like a great tool- I’ll see how much I use it. I also bought myself a lambskin- either I’ll cut it up for doll hair or it will make my chair more comfortable… it reminds me of babies. I also bought some beautiful rust red linen- one of my favorite colors.
Yes, and just what I need, More Fabric!
I filled up the back of the car with more of my Mom’s fabric stash- silks, linen, wool and God only knows what… I can be sure a piece of the fabric is a natural fiber when it has moth holes in it…
I started another kitty bed while I was away. try and try again.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JULIAN! Now you can vote! (kid 2)
gee, this has been a family heavy post…
I’ve got the tunic done- hurrah! It fits!
I am now making shoes and shaping the wig… i.e. the doll is sitting on my table with a purple sock pulled over his head- the sock is holding the damp wig in place while it dries. Hopefully this will make the wig fit better before I glue it in place.
I will be away for 4 days- it is unlikely that I will be able to post. I have a whole bag of projects to work on though- we’ll see if I have anything to post/show when I get back.
I finished my kitty bed project… I am really not very good at these felted projects…
I did better on my swatching this time- the swatch looked very promising.
Here is the bed, knitted but not felted-
Here is the bed, drying over a large bowl, after so many washings that I lost count (6 maybe?). It is definitely felted, but has no body. It is very floppy.
Here is Mango, not lying in it. I couldn’t get him to stay long enough to take a picture. I am going to put it on one of his favorite sleeping spots, and see if he’ll get used to it.
I spent the day working on the golden baby tunic. I used a pattern from Sewing Victorian Doll Clothes as a starting point. I’ve used this pattern before when I made the Godey lady. Here is a photo from the book-
What I was wanting was the sleeve design. The victorian (and earlier) sleeves were a very different design from today. This curved sleeve was used in men and womens clothing.
I copied the pattern and adjusted it to fit my doll and made a muslin model. If I had been smarter, I would have read the directions through again… but that’s not how I do things. Also, I never really learned any sewing techniques beyond about intermediate level. When I dive into a project with linings and piping and slippery, sort of metallic fabrics, I am really in over my head. I worked really hard on the tunic today- lots of intense concentration, basting, backing up, ripping out stitches, and, when I started feeling too stressed, worked a few rows of knitting- Well- my knitting is coming along VERY well! HA!
Lots of the sewing is done by hand- because I can’t figure out how to do it by machine. The openings are too small or I just need the control of hand stitching.
This is a photo of the inside at the armhole. If a real person had to wear this they wouldn’t be very happy about all the lumps in their armpits… that is one good thing about sewing for dolls- they wear what you make them and don’t complain.
I have just about finished it now- I am sewing on the closures- hooks and eyes.
I’ll finish, photograph and post tomorrow. Right now my eyes and hands hurt.
I had some good luck at yard sales yesterday… all rescheduled due to heavy rain on Saturday. I found a pin cushion to add to my stack- the new one is the big one on the bottom- $1!
A local Japanese cultural club had a big yard sale- I went hoping to find craft magazines or Japanese cute fabics. I didn’t find much of that (only one piece of pink Hello Kitty fabric), but came home with a whole bag of other stuff- some clothing made of beautiful woolens, great colors and textures, a leather bag to use for shoes or whatever, and misc. decorative Japanese printed cloths. One has a picture of a grotesque old man, one with lettering, several with blue and white patterns, and one with animals. They had lots of great books, but I didn’t buy any. Some I was very tempted by- classics like Ferdinand, but in Japanese. Now if there had been any TinTin… definitely!
Things are moving along! I made the bottoms- with a bit of gold rik-rak trim on the bottom edge. The tunic is in progress. The pieces are all cut, I made bias trim and have started putting it in place and some of the parts are stitched together. I did some decorative top-stitching in gold thread. So far I am very happy with how it’s going!
I have also started on my kitty bed project- did a swatch and made sure the yarn really felted this time. I am going to use some of the blue yarn I’ve got and have no desire to wear… it will be a very becoming color on my orange kitties.
I had to go to 4 stores to find large size double-pointed knitting needles! Geesh! I was looking for size 11’s, dp, at least 9″ long. I went to my favorite local art/craft store- Playtime, JoAnn’s, Michaels and finally Wild and Wooly in Lexington. They had 8″ size 11 in bamboo (which I don’t like), and they cost more then $11. I settled for aluminum 10.5, 10″ long for $4.75. I am trying to knit loosely “til I can switch over to my circular needles.
