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Knowing that all the dandelions were completely free of weed-killers and other poisons, Willie decided she wanted to make some dandelion wine. So several of her friends offered to come along to help her gather the flowers....  Willie climbed up into the cart and packed down the flowers, as everyone brought them...   Nami and Winston picked large armloads.....   Ever since the government banned herbicides and weed-killers a few years back, the dandelions have been taking over, and each spring there's more and more of them. Parks and boulevards, or anyplace that gets mowed regularly, become a carpet of yellow each spring. Personally, I think it looks beautiful, and nowhere more so than down along the lake last week...     It was the Victoria Day long weekend here, and we went to Windsor to visit our daughter's family, and our two youngest grandchildren. It wasn't the best weather, with lots of rain the first day, but it was warm, so no one seemed to mind..........after all, children and puddles just go together...
"My boots are filled with water!"  Elliot discovered that umbrellas make great boats....  Then back again, in the evening, after the rain.....  
 I finished Tiny Talyssa's fairy costume last night, so took her out in the garden for some photos...  Talyssa always reminded me of my niece's daughter. Not only did she resemble her, in my opinion, but she always had her bangs in her eyes in much the same way too. Unfortunately the doll's head is shaped like a 'jelly bean' in that it is very high and round, with nothing much in the back. So this wig did not fit well at all. I ended up having to cut a lot off the bangs, and then trim them some more. They ended up sticking way out, so I had to use hair gel to hold the bangs down (with plastic wrap over her head to protect her face up). The wig still keeps slipping forward, since there's nothing in the back to hold it in place. I ended up making her a 'flower fairy' hat to help minimize her very high head. Then I took her outside for some Flower Fairy photos....      Continuing with my series of Victorian portraits, finally one with just the children....  ...and in colour....  The final outfit in the Victorian collection, was the little sailor suit. I struggled with trying to figure out whether to make the opening of the top at the front or the back. Both had their advantages and disadvantages, but the outfit would be very small, and I wanted to keep 'bulk' to a minimum. So I finally decided to make the top open at the back, which wasn't 'historically accurate', but sometimes ease of sewing, and the final look are more important (lesson learned from the coat). I stitched the striped neck insert onto the navy blue top, all the way around the neckline.  Then I made the collar as a separate unit. I decided against attaching it on one side only and using snaps on the other, since it might look uneven. The entire collar would be separate. I designed it so the front 'points' would not come to a sharp point, but a little wider blunt one, so that I could better hide tiny snap fasteners under them. The collar is lined, sewn all the way around, leaving an opening at the back neckline, so it could be turned right side out. After clipping the corners and curves, and turning it right side out, I stitched the back opening closed, pressed the collar, sewed some wider silk ribbon under the points, for the ties to make into a bow, and sewed tiny black snaps at the collar points on top of the ribbon, and on the front of the top. I used black snaps so they'd not stand out against the navy blue. I thought it worked quite well...  Of course, now I have to pay attention that his collar is centred around his neck, which I didn't do in this photo. Or I could sew a snap under the back of the collar to hold it in place.
It's been seven months since my tiny Talyssa arrived with her broken finger. I've been feeling very frustrated because the new hand that I was promised back then, has never arrived, even though I've asked about it several times. I did glue her finger back on and covered the join with a tiny bandaid, but I've not felt inspired to play with her or take photos since that very first day....  Anyways, I decided to try get over my funk, and make something new for her, in hopes of getting my enthusiasm back. My other two Kaye Wiggs tinies - Cinnamon and Tillie - are currently fairies, so that's what she should be as well. So that means making a fairy costume... I found a big silk flower at Value Village a while back, and bought it for the petals, which I thought would be nice for a fairy outfit. So that's what I'm using....  The flower petals are very nice, but they only come down halfway to where I want the skirt length to be, so I'm sewing narrow strips of petal from another part of the silk flower, onto the pale pink underskirt, hoping it will tie the two together, plus give the flimsy tricot skirt some more fullness....  The wings were made yesterday, and are ready to put together....  It's obvious by now that I figured out how to redesign Steve's Victorian cloth coat. I took a close look at my FID Tuxedo to see how Iplehouse makes such a perfect, small, lined jacket, and tried some of their techniques, leaving the lining loose inside around the armpits. It worked perfectly....  Then he needed a walking stick and a top hat. I made the hat out of cloth-covered cardboard, with black leather trim, using a technique I learned years ago at my sister's doll club. The outside turned out really nice, but it's a mess on the inside. However it will do for now. I was surprised at how big the hat opening had to be. Iplehouse JIDs are not scaled down humans, but are proportioned like 'dolls'. Which means they have a large head. Then add in the thickness of the wig, and the opening had to be huge. I was concerned the hat would look WAY too big...  "You sure have a big head, Dad!!"  And because I know everyone is dying to see what the dolls look like in colour ....    |
AuthorMartha Boers is an award-winning Canadian doll maker and costumer specializing in fantasy and historical-style costumes. Archives
September 2024
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