I thought my Lily would look wonderful as a larger butterfly fairy, like my Phairby....
But I didn't want to just make a larger version, so chose another of my favourite butterflies - the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. I made the wings first, by forming the shapes out of wire, and gluing pale yellow cotton onto the frames, and painting them. Both sides of the wings are painted identically, even though in real life the butterfly wings would only have looked like this from the back. The real wings are a dull, muddy colour underneath, which would be the side facing the front of the doll. I didn't want that, so went against accuracy, and painted both sides the same.
Then I needed to come up with the embellishment design for the underskirt. Due to my astigmatism, and the resulting tendency to always make any straight line go off crooked to the side, I drew on the embellishment lines with a friction pen, so they could disappear later with the heat from my iron after I was finished. The lines sure helped!
I used five different fabric flower petals, and ten different beads....
After lightly pressing from the back, the lines disappear....
The main dress is black, and the overskirt is also beaded along the edge...
There is a lace collar, more flower petals, and beading at the neckline. I had cut the bodice too short at the waist, so had to add a black satin ribbon to extend it...
I still needed to come up with a way to attach her wings....
I hot-glued the two sets of wings together, covered the join with a strip of black fabric, and stitched on a huge black snap. The corresponding snap was stitched onto the back of her bodice.
Unfortunately, due to the endless rainy weather, I've yet to take photos of Lily in her finished costume in the spring flowers. Hopefully the opportunity will be coming soon.
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