We have a new Value Village in town, so we go visit every Tuesday on Senior's Discount Day, to see what treasures we can find. Last week we found this little cocktail sword set, and several of my little critters were eager to try them out....
Thought it might be fun to see if any of the other old Barbie costumes fit my dolls. Just two more did. Milo looked rather dashing in Allen's Elizabethan costume.... Meet Sir Milo Drake, or is it Sir Milo Raleigh? I managed to fit Peach into the second Elizabeth gown.... Sir Milo reporting back to his queen.... I made these costumes way back when I was 17, for a grade 12 project on Historic Costuming. The clothes barely fit my KIDs, and it was quite some chore to get them on. Both ladies gowns are wide open at the back, and the skirts hang to mid calf - which is why I'm only taking close-ups. These are the three dolls who own the costumes....two Barbies and Allan As intricate as they look, they really aren't sewn very well. They are a total mess on the inside, and there's no underwear at all - just some wire hoops tied together with seam binding to hold the skirts out. The fabrics came from a box full of fancy fabric scraps I bought at the bazaar at the church behind our house. They were selling Girl Guide cookie cartons filled with all kinds of different fabric scraps for just $5. I asked the lady if I could mix up the fabrics in the boxes, and put my favourites in just the one. So that's where the satins and velveteens come from.
I wasn't the best at estimating how much seam binding I'd need for the grey skirt puffs, and ran out. The store didn't have the exact same seam binding when I went back (ran out twice), so the puffs are several different greys. (something I'd never accept nowadays!) Anyways, it's nice to see my sewing has improved over the years, and now I feel a little tempted to make some Elizabethan costumes for my dolls. But I'm too busy with fairies, so they'll just have to wait. Probably forever. It's way too hot out, and I'm way too busy working on fairy costumes to take doll photos today, so I thought I'd share some of the very first pictures of my very first BJD.....Ryung by Elfdoll, in some of the very first fairy costumes I ever made...... The very first one was inspired by a painting by Linda Ravenscroft, and the next ones were variations on it. The new fairies I'm working on are this same style, but with more varied fabrics, and they will have dragon wings. I'm making three different colour combos, and two of each.
I'm still trying to figure out for exactly which doll. The patterns I'm using were designed for an Iplehouse JID, but will also fit a Kaye Wiggs MSD. Problem is their sleeve. JIDs have much slimmer arms, so if they are made to fit a JID, they won't fit a KW's arms. And if they are made to fit a KW girl, they'll be way too wide for an IH JID. I've thought of using stretchy fabric, like most other people, but feel I can't get the detail or nice fit I want with that, so I'm going to use regular fabric. So the dilemma is, which girl do I make the sleeves fit? Kaye Wiggs MSD or Iplehouse JID? Or maybe one of each colour combo for each one? I think that may be the best. Today, September 7th, is the anniversary of the birthdate of the Princess Elizabeth Tudor,
born on this day in 1558, to King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Lonnie borrowed one of my Barbie's dresses, and Holly's curly red wig, to pose for a portrait paying homage to the great Virgin Queen.... The Saturday before Labor Day is traditionally Bacon Day, so Leona fried up
a mountain of bacon for the kids to enjoy.... A few pictures of Leona in her laboratory, caring for animals with a little assistance from Maya.... Rats are a lot easier!
Iplehouse had said they'd be releasing their first Fashion guys in October, but now they are going to release them next week - on September 6th. The first three guys are shrunken versions of Felix, Arvid, and Lawrence, and I thought I'd be safe, since I had been hoping for a Fashion Rex. But then I had to go look at the pictures of Lawrence in their Carved Heritage series, and I think I'm in big trouble. If the smaller Lawrence looks anything like his larger EID counterpart, I may just have to get him. After all, my Miho, who hasn't arrived yet, will need (or want) a companion. I can't wait to see what the Fashion guys look like next Tuesday!
The other day was 'National Toasted Marshmallows Day', and even though I post those Special Days photos on my Facebook pages, I always forget people here like to see the old photos again from time to time. The original photos from Toasted Marshmallow Day, were some of my favourite from the Year of Special Days project three years ago.... Then I remembered I also had marshmallow toasting photos from a camping trip once....
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AuthorMartha Boers is an award-winning Canadian doll maker and costumer specializing in fantasy and historical-style costumes. Archives
April 2024
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