I've been working on the final set of costumes for my Fashions book. It needed a cut-off point or it would never get printed, so the final photos to be included will be those of Matias and Agnes' family. I'd already completed Agnes' gown last summer, and Matias' formal outfit last month... Then at Christmas when I decided they'd have a daughter, Olivia, she needed something to wear as well, and I thought it would be nice if her dress would be in similar colours to her mother, I chose a gray/green brocade, and a wide pink lace, and started work on it... I had originally made her a flower wreath for her hair, but decided to make her a hat as well. Velour is a much softer fabric than the fabric of her dress, and therefore makes a better crown, so I used some leftovers from Agnes' gown for the crown of Olivia's hat.... With Olivia having a hat now, I thought Agnes needed something to replace her flower wreath as well, so I made her a little Medieval cap. It was the same design I'd used before, but this time I added parts of a necklace I'd found at Value Village. I stitched the chain of pale blue rhinestones across the front, and secured the front of the necklace with the dangling pink and pale blue pendents across the back.... Then it was the baby's turn. I used the same brocade as Olivia's dress, but felt that the shiny flower designs were too big for such a small dress, so I used the wrong side of the fabric. All my pink laces were not really suitable, so I just used some pink cotton and stitched on some fine, narrow, white and cream lace. Then, to eliminate messy hemmed edges on the very fine brocade, I made the gray/green overskirt panels double thickness, stitched the edges, and turned them right side out. When working on such a tiny garment I find it's necessary to hand baste every seam before running it under the sewing machine. And even then, especially with curved seams like armholes, I often have to pick out the machine stitching and do it again. Sometimes more than once. But eventually after redoing a few seams on the machine, then finishing by hand, and doing all the embroidery and embellishing, the tiny dress was done, and the baby had a cute matching outfit.
December 29th was National Tick Tock Day, and time for the mice to do their annual maintenance to help keep the clocks running smoothly....
Milo had filled his tin... ....but Peach was still trying to decide.... The others were busy sampling the ones they'd chosen... Peach and Milo sat down and started sampling the cookies as well... After polishing off most of the cookies in his tin, Aaron wasn't feeling so good. "Are you okay?" "No. I think I ate way too many cookies." "I should have stopped after the first five." "Same here." "But they all just looked so delicious."
The first week of December was Cookie Exchange Week, and some of the kids got together to exchange cookies. Some brought cookies they had made themselves, while others brought ones they had purchased. ...so there was quite an impressive selection. They started sorting the cookies they wanted into tins.... Aaron kept offering Angela the chocolate chip cookies that he had made. But she was only interested in the macarons. They were her favourite.
After baking cookies, the kids wanted to make a gingerbread house. They had baked the parts and put it all together, and were busy just doing the final decorating....
We ended 2023 on a high note. New Year's Eve is our granddaughter's birthday, and is always the biggest family gathering of the entire year. She was turning sixteen, and asked for a "colourful" cake, so that's what we made for her.... The younger children greedily polished off the lollipops... And now today another new year begins. Although I'm not totally finished with the last one yet. At least not with Christmas photos. I still have plans for plenty that I still wanted to take. One of which being a couple of family get-togethers at Christmas. Which meant I had to finally make a decision about Matias' and Agnes' children. I had already decided on baby Mika, but thought an older sibling would help bridge the gap between the parents and the elf baby. So I chose Olivia, my prettiest, fair, orphan BID, to become the 'big sister'. She's human like her Dad, while the baby is an elf like her mother. So I spent four days between Christmas and New Year's Eve making her a gown, inspired by her mother's. I'd run out of pink silk ribbon, so had to order some, and can't finish her dress until it comes. Which means that family get-together will end up postponed for a little while yet.
I don't really have any long range plans for the rest of the year. There's no point in making them anyways, since plans always seem to change. I will say that I ordered two little Myou children to become Baron and Naomi's young children, once I transition out of the porcelain babies some time later this year. Which means I'll need to make them some period clothes. I still have two books to complete, that were both started last summer. I don't know which one will be next after those. One thing for sure, is that I will offer calendars again towards the end of the year, as the response to them has been very positive. So I'll end by wishing everyone a very happy and healthy New Year! May 2024 be one of our best ones yet! I've had an adorable little DreamHigh Studio Baby Elf for a few months now. Way back in the end of May when Donny was getting ready to send out Otto, the Otter, I wrote to him to ask that he not send me my Otto for a while yet, as we were going away for several weeks on a trip. Then he offered to send me the Baby Elf I'd ordered, early, as a compensation for having to wait so much longer to receive my Otto. So the two of them arrived together a few months later, in August. I assumed that my Baby Elf was one of his samples that he used for the promo photos, as no one else had theirs yet. Then in August he released multiple face plates for the Baby Elf (sleeping, pouty, smiling) as well as offering everyone another opportunity to order the Baby Elf. So, the wait time for the much earlier pre-order from May, was pushed back even further. Yet, I already had mine, and was avoiding posting photos, knowing the reaction I'd get from others still waiting for theirs. I really didn't want to deal with the drama. But hopefully everyone will be getting their Baby Elves soon, so it's probably safe to share some photos of mine now. My plan was always to have the Baby Elf, with its cute little elf ears, be Agnes and Matias' baby. She was the perfect size, but I thought she needed some hair... She needed some fine little wisps, but I thought an actual wig would make her head look too big, so I painted her hair on instead...
Sara, Alex, and Bella were busy making cookies.... And another batch was ready to go into the oven...
With it being the holiday season, Matias couldn't very well attend any gatherings in his armour so I made him something more 'casual'...
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AuthorMartha Boers is an award-winning Canadian doll maker and costumer specializing in fantasy and historical-style costumes. Archives
April 2024
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