Some portrait shots of Paige in the pink petals of the crabapple trees....
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I took some comparison photos of Naomi with two of my FID ladies in order to show the difference in resin colours. Bianca, on the left, is Iple's Special Real Skin, Naomi is SJ Peach Cream, and Yvette is Iple’s Normal....  Naomi is definitely warmer than Iple's Normal. I did compare Naomi's hands with Yvettes, and they are a close match, but Yvette's hands have been blushed, and Naomi's have not., so after blushing they'd become darker. I don't have any IH Peach/Gold dolls so can't say how she compares to that, but my guess would be that she's lighter.  Naomi has wider hips than my Iplehouse ladies, but all my Fashion sized costumes are either high or low waisted Fantasy gowns, so it doesn't matter, and they fit her just fine.
SartoriaJ doesn't sculpt the protruding nipples on their ladies, so they won't stand out through thin stretchy clothes like the Iple ladies. Not that I have any clothes like that for her anyways. I got her with the 'Pose Elbows' which means her arms can swivel at the elbow joint, allowing for more natural posing possibilities. I had to remove her hands in order to get the tight elastic bands, that hold up her hanging sleeves, on the upper arms, and SJ conveniently included 'dressing balls'. They were really easy to switch out since the 'S' hook on her hands is very long, and the end on the elastic into her arms is pinched shut so it won't pop off. I also changed her feet to the high heel ones, and she also has the elongated 'S' hooks there, making it very easy to switch feet. However her high heel feet are very high, and it was hard to find shoes that worked. I took a few photos of Rosie with white blossoms the other day....  I've been indecisive about keeping her ever since she first arrived a year and a half ago.  But with the arrival of Naomi, Rosie's fate was sealed...  I finally made up my mind to put her up for sale.
And she SOLD, and has moved on. A while back I did the first round of fabric selections for Miho's new gown. I have in mind for her to be a Sorceress, or Dark Fairy, so chose a dark purple velour with irregular gold glitter patterns as the main fabric for her skirt and hanging sleeves. I cut out the overskirt and sewed on the first trim, then hemmed it by hand...  I wasn't feeling especially inspired so it didn't go anywhere for weeks. Then, knowing Naomi would be coming soon, I figured I really needed to get Miho's dress done before I got majorly distracted again. So I started beading the front edges of the over skirt in hopes that it would help inspire me to get going. I tried one of the Outlander under bodices on her in order to hopefully help with a bodice design, but it was way too 'modest'....  Not knowing what I wanted for the bodice, I figured I'd start on the hanging sleeves. I wanted dagged edges, so drew up a pattern based on the hanging sleeves from my Mirror Queen pattern. I traced the pattern onto the back of the sleeve lining fabric.....  The right side was going to be velour, which has a 'tooth' and tends to 'walk', so I wasn't going to make my life more difficult by cutting out the velour and lining fabrics and then try to match them up. Instead I just pinned the lining with right sides together onto the velour, and basted around the entire edge by hand, with white thread so I'd see it when it came to machine sewing. My eyesight is bad enough, especially with dark fabrics, which is why I chose white thread.....  After machine stitching along the white basting lines, I had to remove all the basting thread, and then I applied Fray Check to all the inner and outer points on the dagged sleeves. After that dried, I finally cut out the sleeve a quarter inch from the stitching lines, and clipped all the way around. After sewing the top of the sleeves together, I turned them right side out, worked all the points into nice points, and pressed the sleeves....  By this point I was just letting the costume decide what it wanted, and it wanted a beaded edge. At first I considered just beading the upper edge of every point, but the sleeves wanted the entire edge beaded. So, since it's best to go with whatever the outfit wants, I complied. And after finishing beading the first hanging sleeve, it decided it wanted an embroidered line all the way around as well. So, again I complied. It was becoming obvious just how irregular the gold glitter patterns were on the velour, but there was nothing I could do about it, and I wasn't going to start over. Hopefully it won't show too much on the finished gown....  I had chosen a pleated fabric for the underskirt, and machine hemmed it, which made the bottom flare out.  So I wet the bottom, crumpled it tight, and wrapped it in a paper towel and let it dry. It dried nicely 'pleated' like the rest of the skirt. But then the skirt wanted embellishment - MAJOR embellishment with lots of beading and fabric flower petals - like I used to do occasionally on art doll costumes, but hadn't in years, ever since I did it on the Queen of the Night's underskirt. Oh well, I figured this would probably be the last time I'd ever do something like that again, so I'd go for it. So I chose the petals I'd need, and all the appropriate coloured beads.  The panel to be embellished on the underskirt wasn't going to be very wide, since I only had nine of one of the flower petals that I wanted to use. So that meant nine rows. I sewed two rows of lace along the bottom front of the skirt first, then removed the centre back stitching on the skirt, so I could stretch the skirt flat on an old embroidery frame....  This is the final design. My eyesight is really bad, so it's hard to see what I'm doing (things are double, warped, and out of focus) and it's hard to get the needle to come up where I want it. It usually takes a couple of tries. However, I'm determined to get this costume done, and I'm finding it helpful to pin the flower petals in place so they don't move.  I have yet to start the beading on the second hanging sleeve, so knowing it will take at least five days, there's no hurry with the skirt embellishment. I'll just aim to complete two or three rows a day. And the way time seems to be flying these days, I'll be done in no time.
Now if I could only envision the bodice design, and which of the three fabrics I've selected to make it from. But one step at a time..... I'd been taking portrait studies of several of my dolls in the blossoms this spring, but wanted to find a tree with something other than pink crabapple blossoms. So we packed some dolls in the car and headed out to look for some. We found one along the town line. A lone apple tree at the side of the road, that blooms beautifully each spring, and has branches low enough for doll photos. So Yvette posed for several portraits among the blossoms....    
 
 I've personally never liked wearing anything sleeveless, and I guess that applies to my dolls as well. Some of my little Kaye Wiggs girls did have a couple of summer sundresses with bare shoulders, but I didn't care for the 'naked look'. I tried making 'arm warmers' for them but considered that a lame solution. So I made two little short sleeve T-shirts to wear under the sundresses instead.....  So no more unsightly arm and neck joints, and no sunburnt shoulders....  Of course if it gets really hot, they can always take them off....
With carpets of yellow dandelions everywhere, a few of my girls wanted to go out and pick some...        My newest Fashion size doll arrived today. She's Naomi 45 Aphrodite, by SartoriaJ in Peach Cream, with Dew bust, Pose elbow, and default makeup.  I put her into the pink sari gown every new girl wears when they first arrive, and then tried on all the wigs her size. Right now I'm liking this one. Although it was rather windy so the super fine hairs were blowing all over the place....  I love her faceup. SartoriaJ has the most amazing makeup artist.  She's from the same company as my Jude, although they will not be a couple.  I'm thinking she's the perfect girl for Baron, so will have to change him into something suitably formal so he can meet her....
Milo opened the box....  "Yummmmm!"  "Well, help yourself..."  So everyone took a slice....  "It has my favourite toppings..."  "Mine too.."  
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AuthorMartha Boers is an award-winning Canadian doll maker and costumer specializing in fantasy and historical-style costumes. Archives
April 2025
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