When the children's backgrounds were dry, Narae guided them through drawing a big tree. "Place your marker right in the middle of the page, and draw a line down, curving it at the bottom to make the trunk of your tree. Then another for the other side, and fill it in. And add some grass." "Now, to draw the branches, you start at the top of the trunk and draw lines out from the middle.." Holly wanted to make her branches differently, but wasn't sure if that was okay... But Narae said they could draw their branches any way they wanted to...
3 Comments
Teagan brought one of her dolls dressed up for St. Patrick's Day this morning, and asked to have a picture taken. I don't have many green props, but we had the girls decorate cupcakes with green icing, so we had some 'props' to use........
It was time for another art class with her first group of children.... "Today we are going to start by painting a colourful background..." "It's meant to be the sky, so it's best to stay with lighter colours..." Everyone started painting their backgrounds....
It was June of last summer when I decided to steal the costume off of a porcelain Gibson Girl doll that I'd painted at a porcelain doll class many years ago, and remake it to fit one of my BJDs. This was my porcelain doll.... ...and now Isis in the remake.... The trim on her jacket took three tries before I was as happy with it as I was going to be. I only had the trim that had been picked off the original jacket, and it was barely enough. I had started sewing it on, but the braid was soft and kept spreading, so it was all bumpy, and I didn't like how it looked, so I picked it all off. I bought some very fine black ribbon, and tried sewing that on, but it refused to curve and looked even worse, so that got all picked off too. Finally, I drenched the original braid with FrayCheck to help give it some more body, and hopefully keep it the same width throughout. And that worked! I added some 'extensions' (don't know what is the correct term) to the back of the jacket... Isis is nowhere near as slim in the waist as the original doll, which had a cloth body, and no amount of corseting is ever going to help, so her jacket just fits 'naturally'. I have two KID Victorian outfits already, so now would like to use the leftover scraps of this striped fabric to make one (or two) outfits for a BID. So they can all go out for a walk together.
Everyone was thoroughly enjoying themselves.... There were so many yummy things to eat.... The cakes were delicious too....
Angela and Paige had a joint birthday party, with all their friends. Their little sisters, Erzulie and Nami, invited Byuri, since her big brother was having a birthday soon too.
With their birthdays being the same day, Paige and Angela wanted some portrait shots taken of the two of them together... ...and with their younger siblings...
I'm continuing to struggle with the Victorian remake. If it wasn't for all the work, and the time it would take to make a new skirt, it would have been so much easier to just start from scratch. But I liked the fabric and colour, so am determined to complete a finished outfit. The jacket needed a blouse of some sort underneath, so I designed a sleeveless top with a stand-up neckband and lace ruffle at the neck. I ended up sewing the lace ruffle onto the finished neckband after the fact, as hand sewing would be so much more precise.... I had the basic jacket bodice sewn together and tried it on, but it was too small under the armpits. I had designed the jacket pattern on a naked doll, so had not accommodated for the extra thickness a blouse underneath would add. So I had to sew strips of fabric onto both the front underarms, to add a 1/4" more width. Of course that meant adding the same extra strips to the lining.... Then there were the sleeves. I tried everything to make them fit the new doll - including covering the side seams with fabric so the sleeves could have snaps around the wrist, and adding a wide lace ruffle at the wrist to lengthen the overall sleeve - but in the end it just wasn't going to work. They were still going to be too short, and the bottom openings wouldn't be wide enough, with snaps, to fit around the lower arm. Fortunately I still had a very small amount of the original fabric, and even though I had had other plans for it, I decided to make entirely new sleeves. I didn't have the exact same pink trim, or pale gray satin ribbon, but I found some that was at least close colour-wise.... Now I can finish the jacket, and hopefully there are still enough scraps of the stripe fabric left over so that I can make a tiny, matching little girl's dress.
Paige arrived along with Angela on December 12th 2016, exactly a year and three months ago today, so she's finally celebrating a belated birthday as well... Little sister Nami, posed with Paige.... Paige loved her cake.... Nami did too....
It's been exactly one year and three months since Angela arrived, and I've finally gotten around to throwing her a little party. I know I'm late, but with everything going on, it just couldn't be helped. At least she is having her special day now.... With her dark complexion and pale dress, she's not very easy to photograph.
Her little sister and brother dressed up to celebrate her special day too. They are both also light brown, but being a much older resin formula, are considerably lighter... |
AuthorMartha Boers is an award-winning Canadian doll maker and costumer specializing in fantasy and historical-style costumes. Archives
April 2024
|