I tried out some smocking on this dress. The smocking worked just fine with the wool and gave the waist a nice stretchiness.
I like how the edging came out here- very fancy.
The light in the studio-to-be room is amazing. I am going to start posting pictures of my progress- maybe that will help keep me on track.
another doll inspired by mermaids and Heather Ross fabric.
This was an interesting doll to work on. I put her body together before I received my Heather Ross fabric in the mail. When the fabric arrived, I realized that the color choices I’d made were not especially good for what I was hoping to do. If you look back at the wip post, you can see that originally I had thought about using different fabrics. As I was playing around, I pulled out my bag of orange cashmere pieces. I set aside a dark orange-red for this doll and also pulled out the bright orange to use on another doll. Well, the bright orange ended up on this little dear. Never, in my rational mind, would I have thought these colors could work together- but in the end, I couldn’t pull them apart!
Her hair is wool boucle fabric hair and the buns are made of wool felt balls. I love her face.
Here are all her outfit pieces- skirt, pinafore and vest.
back view-
And, the 2 girls together.
this girl has just about the opposite look of the last one although they might be friends once they get to college.
She has a lot of pieces. A brown wool skirt, a wool coat, scarf and hat, and a school bag with a buckle and button closures.
Her skirt comes off too.
The coat-
I had a hard time figuring out how to finish the coat. It would have been easy to spend a week on it or make it so bulky that it wouldn’t fit on our girl. I ended up finishing the edge seams with wool felt. It worked pretty well. I made the coat close with thread loops- I am sure that isn’t the right name for them but I am coming up blank and getting no help from google.
Here is a side view- thought you might be interested. I don’t usually photograph this angle but thought she looked very determined.
And here is a back view.
and one last picture- in the garden-
Yes! I finished one!
Below is the first face, shown in the wip post. I redid it and like it much better, although I will still be experimenting with applique shadows. The new eyes have a small border of a darker purple felt.
Her boots have embroidered buckles and felt straps-
Photographing her was a challenge. Dark colors are often difficult, and the weather didn’t help- here is a windy action shot- Tim-ber!
wips- work in progress. or maybe ufos- unfinished objects. Anyway, they are piling up.
These 2… I am trying out a potential dress piece on one- orange cashmere. The other, going nowhere yet.
Now this one- she was going really well. Then I started in on the coat and got bogged down. She is looking just right, just what I had in mind, but there are technical issues. How to finish the coat properly…
And this one- she was suppose to be the partner of my mermaid dress girl. Guess I’ve gotten side-tracked. I am pretty sure I know what I’m going to do with her hair though…
This morning I started in on this one. Here she is at lunch time.
And then again, right before dinner time. She is my goth girl. Playing around with felt shadows.
I’m moving forward, but nothing finished yet. This is how I work- several dolls inching forward at the same time. And then, a whole group gets finished around the same time and people ask me how I do it!
and another more classic one-
Some of my new felt- I love having so many colors to choose from. And the button- it has been in my stash since 1980.
Two mermaids together-
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I am trying to do some catch-up posting.
Amy suggested that the slightly injured kids I did a few weeks back looked like they’d been in a playground tussle. That is how I am thinking about them now. I’ve made another skinned knee girl.
I won’t be listing any more in my Etsy shop for now because it clicked-in the other day that it is only 2 weeks to the South End Holiday Market… Yikes! That said- if you think you need one of these dolls as they go by, email me (mimik(at)pobox.com). I don’t want to spend a day figuring out photos and descriptions for Etsy when I ought to be making more, but I am happy to sell them directly… does that make sense I hope? Then, I will have an update on December 15.
Another party girl with little buns. This time she is dressed in soft pastels.
Here she is, out in the sun. I love the shadow.
This is a crazy, crazy time of year. I am not keeping up with postings or my emails. Just in case you are waiting for a reply…
I wish that I had this dress for my daughter when she was little-
It is all cashmere and so soft.
This doll is what I’d imagined for my autumn color inspired girls. She has finally showed up!
She also has felted wool roving dreadlocks. They look completely different from the ones on Flower child. I used different kinds of wool- not on purpose. I have a bag of mixed colors of roving and there was a small ball of black- I think merino wool. I divided up the wool into “snakes” and ran them through the washing machine. They came out looking like slugs. Not what I was expecting, but I love them.
