A Finish.....

This is a doll I have just finished for a mermaid challenge at the Dollstreet Dreamers club. The doll body is from a book by Patti Medaris Culea called "Creative Cloth Doll Beading". Her head is from another book by Patti called "Creative Cloth Doll Faces".

I had a hard time finding a good place to take pictures as it was a bit overcast. I probably could have gone outside but it was about 81F/27C at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Sweltering and no breeze. Opening the back door was like opening an oven. 

I haven't made a doll in awhile so the face was a challenge. I made a big oops with her mouth and covered it up with white gel pen. Then to hide that I gave her extra pink cheeks. In person it looks okay but in the pics it looks a bit extreme.

She has a very rubenesque figure so making a bra for her was a bit of a challenge. I'm quite pleased with what I came up with. Wired shell like shapes.

And here she is.......

I am so glad that she is finally finished.

Take care :)

WIP - Mermaid

I've been quiet lately as I have been working on my mermaid doll for the Doll Street Club challenge. Things are moving along slowly.

It's a good thing I still have until September 15th. Doll makers will tell you that sometimes the doll you are making has very definite ideas about what it wants to look like. I know that sounds weird but it's true. I have changed her look so many times but I think I'm okay with what I have now......on the bottom bit anyway. Her very bodacious top part is giving me grief.

She is from a pattern by Patti Medaris Culea. Patti did a lot more complicated beading than I have done. I kept it simple by only doing an edging. It turned out that I was very limited in my bead selection as I wanted to use what I already had. I picked out six colours that sort of matched the fabric.

I had some issues with the 7 separate "scaled" pieces that you are supposed to wrap around the tail. Hmmm.

 

After attempting that a few times I gave up. I didn't like the look with all the closed end bits showing up on the front here and there. It was sort of unavoidable if you wanted to cover the tail with them??? I felt it looked unfinished.

I ended up unpicking each end of the 7 bits and sewing them altogether into one strip. Even then it wasn't quite long enough to cover the tail even spreading the strip out as much as possible. Annoying. I didn't have any more fabric to try something else so I decided to go with what I had.

Then I had a problem. I didn't want to use Patti's idea for covering the raw seam between the torso and the tail. She used synthetic organza chiffon. She sealed the edges using a candle. It's very pretty but I couldn't see myself doing that...OMG. A disaster waiting to happen...LOL 

 

To fill in the gap from the end of the strip to her body I decided to use what the pattern designer had already provided. The actual pattern piece for the tail had an edging but the directions told you not to use it. To cut the edge straight instead. Which I did. So I cut a scrap of the fabric using the pattern piece. Then I used "Wonder-Under Pellon transfer web to attach it to her torso. It was pretty old stuff but it still worked.

Still needs something though....sigh. Tried a jeweled belt sort of thing but not quite right.

Still a work in progress. 

Take care:)

WIP ...........

The doll club that I belong to is having a mermaid challenge. I decided to use a pattern from "Creative Cloth Doll Beading" by Patti Medaris Culea. The doll is called Franalizia of the North...you can see a pic here.

Obviously there will be beading involved. Nothing too complex. I've chosen a piece of batik that I bought at a quilt show some years ago. It's got shades of pink, orange, peach, purple and even a gray blue. I'm not a fan of pink but the other colours sort of make it okay. I do have a lot of beads I'd like to use up so this is a great project to do that:)

I have all the mermaid tail pieces sewn. There are a lot of fins as you can see. Now to touch up a bit with my iron, do some top stitching for wiring in the fins and start beading.

This should keep me busy for awhile....LOL 

Take care:)