The two new wigs are washed, tamed and dried. I especially like the auburn 'Cherub' wig with it's curly wisps around the face - but it has a bit of hot glue showing through right at center front. I don't think I can fix it, in fact I might make it worse if I try. I guess that wig is just going to have to always have a headdress over it, although the glue doesn't seem to show up too much in photos, so maybe it won't be too bad. Maybe some paint will hide the glue.

I like the brown 'Mandrake' wig too - it's considerably wavier than my other brown mohair wig. I also sewed three tiny buttons on the yoke of the 'Chickies' dress - I've often felt it really needed something there, and I had some tiny, deep red, Barbie shank buttons from 40 years ago. My original baby dress didn't have any buttons there, but I feel the doll dress looks nicer with them.

Now I'm sewing wefting with two more colours of mohair - a long, wavy, dark auburn from a goat called 'Lucifer', and a very long, almost straight dark brown from 'Jessie'. Hopefully I'll get the center front part perfect on both of them this time.

I gave in to temptation and glued the first two wigs after the wefting was sewn. I'm using my Kaye Wiggs girls as wig models since they have such nice high, rounded, 'dome-shaped' heads, and they are a lot shorter that the other dolls that will share the wigs. Here's the puff-ball auburn and dark brown wigs - it's always fun to see them on dolls before they get tamed. Now they need to be shampooed and conditioned, then combed. That will majorly reduce the bulk.

Today I have to sew the wefting for the next two wigs. I'm a little nervous about using the really long mohair. I KNOW what I'd like the final wigs to look like, but working with very long mohair has some very special challenges - it's so much harder to comb and control, plus it's too easy to use way too much hair. It's fine to have 'pouffy' shorter hairdos, but for really long hair I don't want a big bulky silhouette.  I'm also still not very good at making a neat center front part - the hot glue almost always seems to show a bit, or make some chunky areas right in front, and it's one of those things where practice doesn't make perfect. Each time it's like doing it for the very first time, and I never know just how it will end up looking. Each time it's a gamble that can't be undone.

Well, I'm finally "biting the bullet" and addressing those new mohair wigs I've been wanting (and needing) for some time. It's a messy, labour-intensive project. I've crocheted four wig caps, sorted through the bags of mohair and drawn up four patterns - sets of lines the length the weftings need to be. I'm using dyed angora goat mohair that I bought years ago from the woman from Edgewood Angoras who raised goats just for doll hair. 

Many people use the term "mohair" to cover both Tibetan lambskin and the hair from angora goats, but they are not the same at all. Tibetan sheep are raised for meat and their pelts are used for a host of products - including doll wigs. But real mohair comes from angora goats. It gets shorn off yearly, is cleaned and dyed, and also used for many things including being spun into yarn, and it's also used for making wigs for dolls. 

The mohair I have comes in lengths from 3-15". The really short mohair was shorn off the goat twice a year from an older goat, or once from a younger goat.  Longer mohair was shorn off yearly. And the really long mohair was shorn off only once every two years. To get the longer mohair, the goats would have to wear "cloth coats" to keep their coats reasonably clean, otherwise they just become a dirty tangled mess full of burrs and other plant material. The woman I bought my mohair from named all her goats. They all had different amounts of curl in their hair -  some goats had very tight curls, while others had loose waves - so she was careful to keep each goat's locks separate, and would label the packages of dyed hair with the name of the goat it came from too - I have mohair from 'Jezebel', 'Hope', 'Rebecca', 'Hero', 'Delilah', 'Cleopatra', 'Pharaoh', 'Lucille', among others.  I've already sewn the wefting for one wig with some beautiful dark auburn mohair from 'Cherub'.

Now I'm making the wefting from some lovely dark brown mohair from 'Mandrake'. He had very curly hair, but the mohair I have is among the last that was sold and it's full of plant material, so needs considerable combing before I can even sew it into wefting.

I figure I'll sew the wefting for all four wigs at once, and then glue the hair onto the individual caps. I know if I just finish one wig at a time from start to finish I most likely won't make more than one or two, but if the wefting is all sewn I'll have to finish them all. At least that's the plan - I could get fed up untangling and combing the dirty mohair. Hopefully the locks from the next goat are cleaner!

Well, all three Medieval ensembles are already spoken for - that sure was fast!  More than a month of work, and poof, they are gone!  At least I have some wonderful photos to remember them by. The outfits are all up in the Gallery 2011 now. 

Well, I sure didn't get far sorting through my stuff for tomorrow. I went through all the huge boxes in the front closet - brocades, metallics, satins, sheers, quilt fabric and all my cottons - but never got to the ones behind the dining room door or the dozens of boxes in the basement storeroom (yes I have my fabrics EVERYWHERE!). It was a sentimental journey handling all those fabrics - many are reminders of dolls made long ago, and others are dreams for outfits not yet made. I got rid of anything really small since ball-jointed doll clothing takes a lot of fabric, so no point keeping the tiny remnants anymore.

Finished 'Rosalind', the final Medieval ensemble for my EID women today and took a few photos. This gown is green and I had difficulty deciding which wig went best with it. After trying several, Carina ended up with the red wig. I really need to make some more mohair wigs!   Maybe next week. 

Now I need to decide which doll I'm going to make something for next. I had thought Tedros (finally) but I want some sundresses for my Kaye girls, and I need some "turn of the century" things for some dolls to take with me when we go to the eastern seaboard in October - no point in waiting until the last minute! I'd better get those out of the way first, and then I can work on more things for sale.

Right now I'm going through all my many boxes of fabric and supplies, and taking out everything I know I will never use or that is too small or unsuitable for BJD clothing. Saturday is our annual doll club picnic and I figure that's a good place to bring all my unwanted stuff. Many of my boxes of fabrics are so full the lid won't even fit properly, so I'm hoping to get rid of a lot of stuff. Problem is, it's hard to part with things. Each piece of fabric represents a 'dream' - the outfit I had in mind when I bought it - there are fabrics for Elizabethan costumes, lots of pretty "Rococo gowns", "goth fairies", and endless other exotic things. 

Finished another Medieval-style gown today, and thought Carina deserved a turn at modeling this time. I love the colours of this gown, but the fabrics are quite stiff so it doesn't drape as well. Playing with the veil helps to soften the look. This ensemble is called 'Juliet'. 

The best spot in the backyard for doll photography this time of year is on the picnic table with the garden and pillar out behind. It works really well with the bigger dolls.

Still working on my next two Medieval-style EID outfits. The under-dress for the purple and gold ensemble is just about done - only have to insert the eyelets in the sleeves. I'm just 1/4 the way around with the beading on the hemline of the green and gold under-dress. All the dagged sleeves are done - took them with me up north last weekend and embroidered all the edges while Jan was out kayaking. Everything is coming along nicely, but it will probably still take all of next week to finish both outfits - maybe longer. There's quite a lot of handwork and beading to do on the over-dresses too.  I'm especially liking the purple and gold combination, and can't wait to see them finished!

A customer was interested in 'Opal", my last SD fairy outfit, but wasn't too keen on the feather ornaments, so I made a selection of small hair-clips with matching coloured yarns and flowers. 
 I've been looking for alternate ornaments to replace feathers in future fairy outfits so this provided the perfect opportunity to try something new. I especially like this new look with the lavender Tibetan lambskin wig.

Took some photos of Hazy out in the backyard dressed in the purple EID Medieval gown. She looked absolutely gorgeous, so I created a Favourite Photos page to officially introduce her...

This morning I tried my EID Asa's medieval-style gown on my Hazy-Super Gem to see how it would fit her. Hazy's Super Gem body is a tiny bit taller, but she's slimmer, especially in the waist. I think it fits her quite nicely - she looks very beautiful in it. The gowns are more roomy than on Asa, so I just laced up the over-dress a bit tighter. Anyway, it's nice to know the dress can be put on a Super Gem too.
 
I don't know which one I like better - they both look beautiful in it....