Doll

Introducing the latest fairy. She reminds me of the colors of early spring.

I embroidered her eyebrows since her last appearance-

I made her hair out of old sewing thread. I have lots of old cotton thread from my mom and mother-in-law. Most of it is not useable on the sewing machine- it breaks too easily or is cut or one even had been scribbled on with crayon. I plied a number of colored threads together (including a pink and a green) and embroidered the back. The edging is a lot of the thread, twisted together and stitched in place.

her wings-

and a side view-

I was fighting with the skirt. For some reason it wasn’t working right, so I turned it around and tied it in the front. Better! The green trim on her bodice edging is an old piece of trim I found in my parents’ basement when we were cleaning it out. I think it is probably from the fifties. I also used it on the chimera I made for Month of Softies, so long ago.

Family get-together at our house. Julian, we missed you! The empty space at the end of the sofa is for me and my laptop-

and, we had some tree work done last friday. That guy was really high up. The yard is so much better now. I’ve been wanting to do this for 10 years.

Eleanor has been home (from Chicago) and is now delivered back to college. I visited the friends and relatives in Connecticut. Now I can get back to work and finish up some more fairies.

I was hoping to have finished these fairies by today, but that is unlikely with family and life and house and all.

free advise- don’t sew on an embellishment with lots of little beady things until you have finished all the rest of your sewing- your thread will get tangled in it with every stitch!

I love making these little flowers.

I am having trouble with this one’s hair- sometimes it feels like the doll is arguing with me… argh!

first of the new batch of fairies is done-

I liked the shadow she made on the house.

Another picture here at flickr.

Beautiful dolls from Sondra at Friederike! Lucky, lucky me!

Here they are making new friends-

Soon, I will hang them up on the bedroom wall where they belong.

really good pictures here.

did you see where Robot 2 has ended up? Here, with Friederike!

And did you see the Killer Slippers over on Poppalina? When I saw them, I needed that booklet! Thank goodness I was able to snatch one up for a few dollars off of ebay. Now I wait…

I worked on these all day yesterday. Stuffed with wool. Wool dust is everywhere now. Sewed closed on the back-

Next they got their sexy figures and a start on their faces. I put pins in for their eyes before I embroider them in. It makes them seem more alive.

I’m very fussy with the faces so I do a lot of picking out stitches. The purple/lilac body doll is one of the fairies from the first series I did in February. I embroidered a face, gave her some hair and embellished her with trim… but it wasn’t working for me. First she sat around for 5 months or so, then I took off the trim. More waiting then off with the hair, and finally yesterday, as I was working on these other ones, off with her face. Here we are, starting over.

And another. I am happy with the lips and the noses so far today. I am working on the eyes. Next it will be eyebrows and hair.

fat fairies actually-

and in the garden-

musicians-

and working on fairies-

I had a wonderful surprise yesterday. Last month I cleared out a container full of old cassette tapes. I threw some away, others I piled into a box and brought up to my studio. Slowly I’ve been listening to them and deciding if they are worth keeping (a lot are damaged in some way- they sound like a warped record). It has been a strange trip back to other times in my life, as far back as the early 70’s. Yesterday, I tried out a tape with no label- I thought it might just be a blank tape. Little kid voices started singing “Happy Birthday to you”, slowly. Eleanor and Julian, I think. They got to “Happy Birthday, dear (who was it going to be for???) mommie/ mom” -they hadn’t agreed on that part I guess- I got chills! They went on to sing several more songs- talk about being sent back to another time! I could picture the whole project being organized and excecuted.

wow, 2 finished projects to post about in one day!

Here is the finished “make-do” pin cushion for Tina.

I glued the pin cushion to the glass but also put these strings on. I thought it would be a good reinforcement and I also like how it looks-

And here is Little Red Ridinghood 2-

a detail of her face-

and body-

and here she is flat- “I fell down and I can’t get up!!!” - sorry, don’t quite know if anyone would be interested in this view but here it is anyway-

I put up some more dolls and postcards on my Etsy shop if you’re interested.