Doll

First- HAPPY BIRTHDAY PETER!

Now, to business- I continue to be in the mood for cutting out so I am piling up the zip-lock bags.

This basket holds 12 bags of fox. I pulled out my bin of orange wool and basically cut up anything that was big enough. Then, when I was done and had moved on the the next thing, I found one more sweater. It’s in the fox basket, waiting for me to get back to these.

And dogs. I never got to fully play with the pattern when I first drew it up. Now I’ve done some modifications (different varieties) and am in the midst of cutting out a bunch. That meant pulling out all the stripes-

And all the wool that seemed like “dog”.

I also cut out some more Lumberjacks and also some new design wool men- I will keep it a surprise. You know, in case it turns out to be a big flop. I am having a great time, pulling out all the bins and enjoying all the fabrics. Of course my studio looks like a bomb went off but I will get it all back in place soon enough.

I got my box of samples back from that book project I contributed to. I’d sent these off a year ago! I’m happy to have them home again.

Let me see. What else do I have to report? I will be in Brooklyn for the Renegade Craft Fair on June 23 and 24. It is in a new venue- Williamsburg Waterfront. I am so excited to be participating again this year!

I applied to be in the San Francisco Renegade show in July. I’ve got my fingers crossed. Flying across country to do a show is a bit scary but I’d love to try!

I’ve been kept away from my studio for more time than I’d like by too much computer-based business but it always needs to be done. The Land of Nod work was keeping me busy last week and is moving forward. So much going on!

Last thing- I have decided that I’d like to try hiring someone to help with my sewing. I’m thinking that I’d start with just 1/2 day per week and see how it goes. If you are local to me and are interested, shoot me an email- mimik@pobox.com. I’ll be putting signs up at some local fabric stores. Not sure how else to find the right person. The latest Craftypod interview with Lorna’s Laces gave me the last little push that I needed (I’d been thinking about it all week!) to explore hiring someone.

There are the times that I am finishing up a lot of dolls and the times I am starting them. I find it amusing when people comment at how quickly I finish and post dolls when I am in finishing mode. They don’t realize all the pre-work that goes into each one. I have been working on these tattooed men since last Wednesday (3/28). I work every day, even weekends, although not all in the studio unfortunately. On some of the days I could only spend a few hours on them.

As I said in my last post, I started out with some tests of my new cutting and dyeing system. I spent all of last Thursday cutting out the fabric to be dyed (ie only the “skin” pieces). I cut out enough for 20 dolls. Friday was for dyeing, washing and drying. Then everything needed to be ironed, the other pieces needed to be cut out- shoes, boots, pants/tights, the sewing lines marked, then the sewing began. I divided the pile in half and started in on the first 10.

I sew them by starting with a flesh-ish colored thread. I sew the hands to the arms, the head to the body, etc, through all 10 dolls. Then I thread the machine with black thread and do the shoes/boots, etc. You get the idea. As they get sewed up, there is trimming to do and lots of clipping of curves.

Lastly comes turning them right-side-out. It is always a magical moment!

And this is where I was at lunch time today, 8 1/2 days later. I had 7 completely sewed and turned, 2 waiting for final clipping and turning, one where I forgot to sew one of the boots so it will wait until the next round of dolls gets to black thread.

This afternoon I started in on the next 10.

And this is just the beginning. Next comes the stuffing and finally, the giving them life part, the face and personality. And by the time I get to that, this part will all be forgotten!

I have finished making up most of the backlog of partially finished dolls. So, time to start making new ones! I am starting in on a group of tattooed men. The first step to making the tattooed people is dyeing the toile. I decided to try something new this time. Instead of dyeing whole pieces of fabric, I decided to try cutting out the pieces first and dyeing these smaller pieces of fabric. It worked really well!

I have had trouble getting the larger fabric pieces to dye consistently- in other words, I’d end up with a lot of blotchy fabric. (I’m really not all that good at the dyeing part.) This time I cut out all the toile pieces for each doll and also the parts of the doll that are made of plain fabric- the head, hands, and ears. I safety-pinned the parts together at an edge. I did a test group and they turned out well enough to give me the confidence to cut out a whole lot more. I now have 20 men cut out! That photo is a pile of parts, dyed, washed and dried and still pinned together.

Next, I unpinned them and ironed each piece flat, then marked the pattern onto the back sides. I keep the individual doll pieces together in zip lock bags.

I now have a lot of fabric that looks like this-

And I still have to make the pants/tights and boots for the fellows. I’ve pulled out all the fabric possibilities.

I seem to be in the mood for cutting. I’m not sure if I will go forward with sewing these guys or keep cutting out more dolls and piling up the zip lock bags!

It’s that time of year. The studio needs to be cleaned and the Stuff needs reorganizing. I try to figure out what I am actually using and make it easily accessible. I also try to go through all the fabric regularly, getting rid of things I will probably never use. I call this turning the compost. It’s only kind of a joke. I now have three bags of fabric that I’ll be taking to my crafty meet-up next week. Give-away time!

Here are some in progress photos because it’ll be a while before everything settles into place again.

It all started with a large bookcase that needed to be moved out of another room. I always need more shelves so I took out the measuring tape to see if I could fit it into my studio. The reshuffle began! I moved the bureau towards the window (of course there was already something there- out into the hall that stuff went). The bookcase that was already in my room was emptied and moved across to it’s new place by the closet.

It is now filled with books, tea cups and cotton fabrics, mostly toiles and other tattooed people components.

The new (to my room), bigger bookshelf fits perfectly. I’m filling it back up with the books that were in the other bookcase plus other things of course.

Then I decided that I needed a new way to store all my other cotton fabrics. I have been using them a lot more this year and the bins under the table system was just not working. One trip to Ikea later and you can see my new drawers. Here is a better photo-

This is great! I can see all the fabric easily and there are enough baskets to put all kinds of goodies that have been in piles or in bins that I trip over every time I walked through the room.

The plastic drawer bins and the small wooden bookcase on top of the fabric drawers used to be where the bureau is now. Are you confused yet?

I have had this little set of metal drawers sitting on the floor for about 1 1/2 years and I now finally have a place for it. I filled it up with beads, charms, sewing notions I’ve collected for robots and papers for making tiny books.

There are lots of little problems that I haven’t quite figured out yet. An example is my thread rack- I like it where it is but I know it will slide right off at the worst possible moment so I need to figure out how to attach it to something. And then actually do it.

And some real life desk pictures. I started working on some tiny worlds. Then I moved on to something else. Yep, I just piled them up, as much out of the way as I could push them without bothering to put them away. Because I’ll get back to them any minute, right? Okay then.

And that poor tattooed lady. I have a ridiculous number of unfinished dolls in my studio right now. I should try to focus on finishing them up. Somehow it is sad to see them all waiting for me. If I just worked on finishing things I would probably be busy though February at least! It’s good though too- it is an easy way to start in again because a lot of the decisions are already made. So, time to get back to work!

I’m very impressed!

This was taken at night, with one fluorescent equivalent to 75W bulb. And everything is in focus. Cool!

And this one too-

Fun!

I feel like I am moving in slow motion. I’ve been working on a few things. Some of the poor tattooed men on the table  went down to Connecticut and back, several times, hoping to get some stuffing. But no. They are still as flat as I seem to be feeling.

I am working just as slowly through all the emails that backed up in the week of distraction. If you haven’t heard from me about something, you might want to try again. I may have lost track of your email.

I did have a birthday recently and bought myself a new toy… um, no, I mean important tool for my business.

An IPad! And I made my present a present! I tend to get a bit overwhelmed when confronted with a new electronic toy so I tip-toe around it for a while. But, hey, I know how to make a felt sleeve. We are bonding.

And, I’d love to hear about your favorite apps for crafty biz and for fun.

And lastly, thank you so much for all your kind words and condolences regarding my Dad. I added a link to his obit at the bottom of the post.

and not much is happening around here! Things are going on in my life- they just aren’t showing up here.  I’ve been doing boring projects like cleaning and weeding, projects that I forgot to photograph before I sent them out- sleeves for some computers, and secret-for-now projects- gift type things.

The garden is looking amazing. So many colors!

Lavender-

Poppy season!

The crocosmia are just starting.

Coreopsis “moonbeam”

and Butterfly weed.

Daylilies-

And in the back, my favorite combination. Blue lace-cap Hydrangea and anything.

And an oakleaf hydrangea.

My desk is not completely bare of dolls. Now that I finished the *secret project* (I’ll tell later), I pulled out some partially finished dolls from before Brooklyn and I’m giving them faces, and hair. And life.

Speaking of Brooklyn, I will be going to Renegade Chicago in September- hope to see you there!

Okay, what else? I’ve been going through my scrap box, thinking quilt thoughts. We’ll see if anything materializes. Tomorrow I am driving up to Vermont for a few days. I am going to visit the Shelburne Museum. It looks like there is a lot of interesting goodies there- I’ll give the report when I get back. I think that’s it for now. Hope you had a great long week-end (in the US). The Boston fireworks were amazing!

Remember this lady? She was one of my favorite dolls of last year. Around Christmas time, I cut out all the pieces for this new lady, stuffed her, pinned on the birds and started doing the applique. Then, I put her aside. And there she lay for these last months. Finally, last weekend, with a vow to finish up some of the many partially finished dolls that I seem to be stockpiling, I got back to work on her.

The funny thing is that I would never have chosen these colors to work with at this time of year. She is most certainly a winter palette.

And this is what is on the work table now-

Hmm, which ones are boys and which ones are girls?

Once the doll is stuffed, most of the rest is hand stitching. Breasts sewed on with a ladder stitch.

The face is sketched on with water-soluble marker.

Figure out what kind of hair-do she needs and then draw up a pattern. I always draw a pattern because if I love how it comes out, I want to remember how I did it!

Pin the hair in place and stuff.

Sew.

Stitch the face.

Hah- That makes it sound so easy! I often cut the embroidered faces off several times before I am satisfied.

Stuff the arms and stitch the fingers.

Arm to shoulder.

Hmm. She needs a belt. Pull out a variety of trims and hope I have the exact right color.

A strip of vintage cotton bias tape-

A length of vintage cotton rick rack.

And a button.

Spritz all the blue lines, let her dry and she is done!

Thanks for all the comments so far- I’m glad everyone is enjoying seeing how I put these together. Tomorrow I hope to take her “beauty” shots. It was too wet outside today for a photo shoot.

I have a plan to put together a process book or slideshow so that when someone asks me- Why are these dolls so expensive? – I can show them. I’ve been trying to remember to take photos as I am working on some new projects. Here is what I’ve got so far.

Making a tattooed doll.

The project starts in two places. The fabric-

I am always on the lookout for appropriate fabric. It needs to be the right scale, the right color design,and  images that I like. I buy mostly on Ebay and Etsy. Besides the toile, I need plain fabric for the head and hands and fabric for the clothing.

Next, I over-dye all the fabrics. Every pot comes out slightly different! One challenge is to get some of the plain fabric to match some of the toile.

And the design is the other starting place. I have an idea in my head and I need to get it out on paper.

From the paper, I make muslin models. Tweaking is almost always needed.

When I get a design that I am satisfied with, I trace out various parts of the original to make the pattern pieces. The pieces for this one are- head, upper torso, shirt, breasts, pants, boots, arms, hands. Later I will figure out the hair.

I trace the pattern pieces onto the fabrics.

Sew everything up and when I turn the doll right-side-out, it is so exciting to see how she looks!

Next, stuffing. And then all the details. First, the breasts.

That is what I’ve got so far. Now back to work!