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Going on Vacation

3/26/2011

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I'm leaving on a trip to the warm sunny south today, so if anyone tries to contact me there will be no response.  

I've decided to bring two dolls along; Narae with several of her outfits, and my Rosy whose borrowing a couple of outfits from Ryung. Hopefully I'll have interesting photos to post when I get back home.
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To Take, or Not to Take?

3/22/2011

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I'm heading south soon and had decided not to take any dolls along because none of them had anything to wear that would work with palm trees and sand beaches. I was just thinking "pirates or buccaneers", but then I realized I do have several sun dresses for "modern girls vacationing in the tropics". So now I have to decide - do I take one or two, or do I not?

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Pattern PDFs

3/21/2011

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Well, I figured out how to link to a PDF with my patterns, so it's easier for people to download and print them out. No more fussing with image sizes and enlargement percentages. So now the 'Country Ruffles" and 'Cute & Colourful' patterns are available to download as free PDFs.
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Still Beading

3/20/2011

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I'm working on a spring goddess outfit for Cuprit, and spent much of last week painting the edges of the scalloped velour strips gold, and then starting the beading. The green and brown velour strips will be the 'over-skirt' and also hang from the elbows on the sleeves. Each strip takes almost an hour to bead, but I am getting a little faster as the end is finally starting to appear over the horizon. The upper sleeves and bodice have already been beaded, and I found the most interesting dyed fabric for the underskirt. I don't know if the whole outfit will be done before I go on vacation, but the farther I get, the less there will be to do afterwards. I'm looking forward to photographing Cuprit wearing this costume in the woods this spring.
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Reworking the Free Patterns

3/19/2011

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Since I'm no longer editor of 'Adele's Creative Costuming Newsletter', I've decided to remove the link on two of my patterns which first appeared in recent issues of that newsletter; 'Country Ruffles', an SD-size outfit, and 'Cute & Colourful' for slim MSDs. I'm working on creating my own webpages for them so the patterns and instructions will be available for free off my own website instead. The patterns themselves are proving to be a bit challenging, especially the ones for 'Cute & Colourful' because they were originally drawn on larger paper than the standard printer size.  So now I have to re-draw those patterns from scratch, scan them in, then post them. I haven't yet figured out how to add a pdf for people to download, so for now everyone will just have to drag the patterns off my site and enlarge them when printing them out.
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Cute & Colourful (MSD size pattern) and Country Ruffles (SD size pattern)
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Spring Crocuses

3/18/2011

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My early crocuses are in bloom!  
So, of course, I wanted to take some photos of someone with them. At first I thought of 'quickly' making a new little fairy outfit for Cinnamon, but I really didn't have time since nothing worthwhile is ever 'quick', so I just made her a new lavender wig, and stuck a nice little pink butterfly onto her back........ and suddenly she became a spring flower fairy.
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Family Portrait

3/16/2011

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From individual photos it's difficult to get a sense of the sizes of my dolls in relationship to each other, so this morning I took everyone down to the studio for a 'family portrait'. From center back, clockwise, they are; Cuprit (by Soom), Rosy (by SupiaDolls), Narae (by NarinDolls), Asa (by Iplehouse), Cinnamon (by Kaye Wiggs), Miki (by Kaye Wiggs), and Ryung (by Elfdoll). The only one missing is Tedros, and he's a bit taller that Cuprit.
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Resignation

3/16/2011

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I decided to resign my position as editor of Adele's Creative Costuming Newsletter. Even though it was fun at first, and there were some amazing issues published, it became a challenge always coming up with new things to share about the dolls I made years ago. After publishing two sets of free BJD patterns in the newsletter last year, and seeing the eager reaction, it became clear that I needed to do more of that kind of thing - but I wanted to publish it under my own banner - right here on my own website.

So, the Spring 2011 Newsletter will be the last one, but Adele will keep all the back-issues up on her website, so they can continue to be a reference and source of inspiration for anyone who comes across them.
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Re-Purposing Baby Clothes

3/14/2011

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My Miki was standing around with nothing to wear, so I decided to start remaking some of the old baby clothes that I'd saved. No one is ever going to wear them again, and I sure don't want to give them to Goodwill, so why not re-make them into special doll clothes for some of my cutest dolls to wear?  Then they don't have to stand around waiting in their underwear while I'm working on someone else - like the fairy commissions that I'm starting to get inquiries for.
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This little blue dress was made entirely from a dress I made for Mary for her first birthday. I picked the entire original dress apart, made all the ruffles narrower, and even cut the new collar from the old collar (from the back, where it wasn't stained), and re-used the snap fasteners. The blue ribbon is original too.

I'm also in the process of painting all the edges of the velour strips for Cuprit's Spring Goddess outfit. The gold paint enhances the edges of the strips and prevents any unravelling at the same time. It's just a very tedious, monotonous job, which will probably take a few days.

In the meantime, it's starting to look like spring outside!  My early crocuses are even showing their colour. In a day or two they will actually bloom!
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Started Two New Outfits

3/11/2011

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Well, I started a new outfit for Cuprit, and the scalloped strips have been dyed and are hanging up to dry, dripping excess paint on the plastic below.  Once they are dry, they need to be heat-set, washed to remove excess paint, then all the edges need to be painted gold. Then they have to be beaded.

In the meantime, I've started a new pattern for Miki so she'll have something to wear when the special outfits her size get sold. I've decided to make some of my old baby clothes into doll-size dresses for Miki (and Layla, when she comes). No one is ever going to wear those old baby dresses again, and they are too sentimental to me to throw out, so I figure take them out of storage and make miniature versions for some of my dolls. I'm starting with a flouncy blue dress I made for Mary when she was very little. Picking the dress apart felt a bit weird at first, but after awhile it got easier. Now it's all in pieces, and I have to carefully press everything before cutting out the pieces for the new dress.
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    Author

    Martha Boers is an award-winning Canadian doll maker and costumer specializing in fantasy and historical-style costumes.
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