Introducing Dominic

There's a new guy in the house. Dominic, by SartoriaJ, arrived on June 22nd, a whole eight months after I ordered him last October. I've never had to wait that long for anyone ever before!

Anyways, since I was determined to work on my House Elves, and I didn't have a costume design in mind for him just yet, I quickly made some underwear, socks, and pants, borrowed Lawrence's formal shirt, and found a half decent Monique wig, so he could stand in my work space where I could look at him and hopefully get inspired as to what I want to eventually make for him to wear.

But that Monique wig just screamed 'Musketeer', so I put the JID Musketeer tunic, hat and cloak on him.....and had to take a photo...

As good as he looks as a Musketeer, he won't be staying one. I ordered him to become a companion to Miho, so he'll need something more suited to the Fantasy Medieval period. I will also need to make him a wig, with long dark brown hair, and maybe some graying at the temples. I'll think about it.

Another Look

After finishing the last three elves, it was Dominic's turn. He had been wearing a JID Musketeer outfit since he arrived, but then I needed the shirt he was borrowing, so he ended up in Rex's Outlander outfit, looking straight out of Poldark....or Treasure Island....

I wasn't looking forward to making his wig, so thought I'd try getting rid of the bangs on the 'Monique Lovely' wig he'd been wearing. So far they'd always been hidden under his hats, but as a Medieval nobleman he wouldn't be wearing a hat. So I wet the front of the wig, covered it with a cloth and pressed the bangs back with my iron. Not bad....

The wig would do until I got up the courage to make a mohair one.

A Purple Shirt

I started working on his outfit, not really knowing the direction I wanted to go. But he'd need a shirt for sure, so started with that. I used my pattern for an Iplehouse Muscle body since it's comparable to a SartoriaJ Athletic body, but forgot to check the length of the sleeves against a bent arm. SartoriaJ dolls are all a bit bigger than Iplehouse dolls, so the sleeve was going to be too short if he bent his elbows. The sleeves were too nice to just throw in the garbage, so I decided to add an inch wide strip of patterned silk at the tops to make the sleeves long enough. Then I embroidered the collar in matching colours...

Posing with Miho for the first time. She looks so fine and delicate beside him.

I thought it would be nice if he could attend the upcoming wedding with Miho, but wasn't ready to work on the rest of his outfit yet, so tried a bunch of borrowed pieces on him. I tried on Baron's knight surcoat and the Wizard's coat...with an assortment of different trims...

I felt it made him look too scholarly, like an Italian Renaissance Nobleman. Plus it was all a little too 'purple'. I haven't decided exactly what the rest of his outfit will be just yet, so he will be temporarily wearing Baron's surcoat. It will do for now, until Baron needs it back.

Dominic's Wig

I've been doing some more work on Dominic's wig. The Monique Lovely wig he's been wearing since he first arrived has a combed back centre part which would be almost impossible to duplicate if I tried to make a wig from scratch. So I've been trying to improve upon it. I'd already heat set the long bangs of the wig to the back, but it still didn't seem quite right.

The biggest issue with commercial wigs, in my opinion, is that they just don't look good on the guys. They don't look masculine enough. Mostly because men have a totally different hairline than women, and they need sideburns, which the wigs just don't have.

So I decided to try make sideburns. I took some pins and marked where they should be on his wig, removed it from his head, then cut bits off the bangs that had been pressed to the back, and hot glued them to the inside of the wig cap between where I'd marked with the pins. Then with some more trimming, and some hair gel, I thought he looked a lot better.

I also cut some more off the length. It's still not 'perfect', and could still use a bit more trimmingbut I'm a lot happier with it. It would be really nice if I didn't have to make him a mohair wig.

SartoriaJ dolls have a rotating elbow joint, but the elbow itself just won't hold a pose in any kind of bent position. In that regard Iplehouse guys pose a lot better. So I wired his arms so he can finally bend his arms and do something other than just stand there with them straight down.

Dominic's Surcoat

I had been staring at Dominic for weeks, trying to figure out how to finish his outfit. He needed a surcoat over his shirt, but I really didn't have an idea in mind. So I decided to just star, and see what happened. I ended dup using some of the same silk brocade that I'd used on the tops of his sleeves...

Coat & Dagger

I made him a robe/coat, and a sheath for his dagger, and made a chain for him to wear....