This lady is the last of the partially finished tattooed ladies that I had stacked up. She was the one who needed the most love and came very close to ending up in the trash bin. I put her together many months ago- last summer I think? She was “done” but I wasn’t happy with her face. I kept looking at her. Eventually I decided to un-pick the embroidery, a little at a time. Maybe it was the eyebrows that were wrong. Nope. Try taking off the eyes. Still not good. On and on until the face was gone. And then the hair too. There ended up being a sort of shadow where the embroidery had been. I tried washing. Well, that faded the dyed fabric of the face. At that point I tossed her into the think-about-later pile and there she stayed for many months.
I used a very traditional fix on her. I cut out a piece of new fabric and carefully stitched it onto the front of her face. This is a technique used to fix cloth dolls for many generations. When I first got interested in doll-making, I did a lot of research into early painted cloth dolls. Apparently when some of these dolls came into museum collections, they were found to have many layers of painted faces. How fantastic is that!
So now she has a new embroidered face and a new hair-do and I couldn’t be happier with how she turned out!
This is the best wall shot so far! Love that you are experimenting. Spring forward!
She’s delightful–very winning in orange and a perky scarf!
What a wonderful way to salvage a ‘don’t want to look at her’ doll :-) She looks wonderful, and you can’t even tell she has had a facelift.
Beth
Dear Mimi,
I think you did a wonderful job on her! I just wanted to let you know how much I love and appreciate your blog! I read it frequently and I can relate to how dedicated to your craft you are! As a plush artist, I like that you share your inner workings about your art. I also have a few plush tucked away in the closet that I am not happy with, but you have motivated me to take a peek and see if one or two of them need surgery.
Sincerely,
Jenny Smith, Plush Artist
Love all these. I just love the fabrics you choose for hair, etc. They are so perfect!
What a lovely story! Good that She didn’t end up in trash bin. Sometimes some things have to wait their time – it is true.
So glad that you didn’t give up on her! Her face is wonderful and I absolutely love her orange shorts.
She looks great! Congratulations!
I always look forward to your latest creations – just opened my Etsy Finds email to see your lumberjack is being featured – one of my favorites!!!!
What a unique and lovely doll. She has such great personality!