I finally gave Delphine the much needed haircut and finished her sweater. She approves on both count. I struggled a bit with the shorter length but it's nothing pigtails or a hat cannot fix.
On a less happy note, after purchasing a natural fiber wig for Serafinn from sleepingelf on etsy I was so enthralled by the improvement that I decided to redo her face-up. Big Mistake. She is close to ruined now, and really no longer cute. I learned to leave things alone I guess and am going through a kind of creative crisis/self doubt. Hopefully I can step away from the situation and focus on more productive endeavors...
This entire week spent fighting a cold (battle still ongoing) has turned out to be a great big waste of time, naturally. Sunday I had enough and slowly worked the face-up of my TBL Blythe. There were small victories (I really like her nose) and complete disasters ( I cracked one of her fantasy eye chip). I have invested in better artist grade pastel chalk and it turned out to be such a good move, now I must do the same with brushes, for the lower lashes and brows. She still needs a haircut, the scalp as it is weighs as much as the rest of her body it seems!
Her name is Delphine, she is British and therefore she picked a Liberty of London print for her lids. She is waiting for me to sew her more clothes, in the meantime she is borrowing from Serafinn. I feel that she needs a felted helmet, a sweater, a dress.... too-much-fun-not-enough-time. Imagine if I had a real little girl?! EPIC.
When Miriam first showed me this really useful pouch, containing a travel sewing kit I couldn't help but look closer and marvel at the textured decorations she had added to the fabric. Many, many years ago I bought a large leather/suede piece. It is one of the rare things I have not de-stashed over time, along with the very zakka Kokka print I must have purchased when Finn was a baby. I knew right then and there that I needed to finally make a dent in that hide.
The process of sewing the leather went exceptionally well. I used the smoother side of the skin this time but would love to switch to the sueded side next. I made use of the upper feed dog on the BERNINA 780 that let me bypass a large walking foot. I had no stretching or sliding around of the leather pieces, which is nice of course! As far as needles go, a microtex did the trick, for every step.
The pattern instructions are really exceptional, I should have followed them, but I didn't (sigh). Therefore my leather patches are ever so slightly... not matching. I'll survive. I attached the lining as an independent step, to have it a little further than the outside from the teeth of the zipper. I just despise it when things get caught in there, don't you? Next I might try to sew the bottom corners a bit rounded, more to come very soon on this subject. You can get the pattern for the Leather Accent Fold-over Pouch by LBG studio on Indiesew here.
This specific pouch I made as a thank you gift for a great collector of Blythe dolls. She is known in the doll universe as House of Harlow, Harlow is one of her dolls. She organized a meet in Salt Lake City last week and brought us all kinds of clothes to choose from for our own debutantes Blythe's. Her own collection is incredible and it gave me an opportunity to not only hold in my hands a real Blythe but to also look closely at some pretty famous customized dolls. Thanks to her generosity Serafinn is ready for the fall, take a look:
The little camera charm was a gift from another great collector with (in my eyes) just as many marvels as House of Harlow.
I ordered this factory Blythe from China over a month ago to account for shipping time, face up and new wardrobe to be completed in time for E's 6th birthday. I thought I had until the 15th but really it must be done by the 3rd! Hence the mad rush this afternoon to complete an entire face-up (carving and painting) in under three hours. It's not my most precise work to date but I really like the mouth and would like to try the shape again.
The things about being six and playing with doll is that unless they come with several dresses, they are not that interesting. Since I am pretty attached to this new girl already I really want her to be a hit. Therefore I am sewing her at least three dresses (two down). I would be terrible Blythe customizer, once completed I could never send them back! I never know what they will look like and it's like meeting a new face every time... To ensure against a bout of selfishness here I fitted her with a pair of fantasy sparkle emerald green eyes from Cool Cat, ewww but perfect for a six year old!
She was born this weekend, and her hair alone (fashioned from cheap human hair extensions and then dyed red) worked my fingers raw. She is named for her many freckles and coloring, her skin tone to start with was plastic pink. It took three successive layers of chalk and sealant to give her a little bit of a (yellower)tan.
When I ordered the Basaak (very affordable but terrible Blythe clone) that became Serafinn, I placed an order for a head thinking it wouldn't hurt to practice a bit more. She therefore inherited Serafinn's terrible body, while Serafinn enjoys a nice jointed one. I had no idea that Clementine would end up with so much personality, that hair alone is ridiculous! she needs a better body, someday...
I took her outside on a whim to take a few shots for this post and realized a few things. The-terrible-body is extremely difficult to pose, her original eye-chips need to go and her hair is quite frizzy. Plus it immediately started raining, so back inside we went to regroup:
The dress I made on Sunday, using the sleeve of a chambray shirt, the coat is so far the only piece of clothing I purchased. It is hand made and has two interesting qualities: the Disney fabric and mini toggles. I don't plan on buying clothing for the girls, sewing for them is part of my motivation* for making them in the first place. The shoes unfortunately I will have to but for now they are always-barefoot-girls...
By the way, this is what the face looks like before anything is done to it, you can see on this picture that I have sanded the back plate already:
* I have not examined too closely the other parts of my motivation to collect dolls ; )
The Blythe clone (Basaak) I had ordered from Thailand arrived on Saturday. I was so impatient to have her in my hand but when she was finally there it was made immediately clear what the ebay seller meant by poor quality, not comparable to an authentic Blythe. The Thai on Ebay are masters at frank disclosures. After a moment of doubt I soldiered on and started taking her apart, first discarding her stiff body, which I replaced with the second hand jointed one you see above, sanding her face completely and washing her hair with dish soap many many times.
Carving her face is much harder than YouTube /Flickr makes it sound. Finding the right tools for the job is a bit of a guessing game but after a good 3-4 hours of trial and error I had learned a lot and decided to stop while I was ahead. The first attempt at painting the face was a bit similar, easier though than carving.
I replaced her eyelashes, gave her sleep eyes, a hair cut and voila! my girl is all new and I can't stand it she is so pretty. Creating a face is a bit like having a baby, really hard work but you just can't help but being happy and in love.
This is what she looked like before all the violence:
I sewed everything she is wearing before she arrived, making friends with the Bernina 580 decorative stitches. I found one (713) that gathers as you sew with thick strait stitches. I can see myself using it over and again where I want fullness and don't need stretch.
The beret was knitted last night, you can find my Ravelry notes here.
I really hope to sew somthing esle for her tonight, a little cape maybe...I wish I could make her shoes too. Much more to come with Serafinn no doubt!
I had the oddest time shopping for tiny snaps at Joann's on Friday night. The convergence of moms frantically trying to put a last minute Easter outfit together for their daughters and the tattooed and pierced crowd of equally tardy Comic-Con attendees made for excellent people watching... What were they all planning to make with all this Superman-Spiderman fabric? I will never know. And to the woman trying to decide between the linen and and quilting cotton for a dress... enough said.
Moving on to the tiny snaps, Oh How I Hate You! But sometimes you must, and so I did, for the good cause of putting this charming minuscule dress together. You see I have a Blythe (copy) and a half coming my way through the distant asian post and I am afraid she will be naked (!). To spare her the indignity I am making her a small wardrobe. Starting with this dress which took me almost as much time and effort as a human sized version. Except the cutting, that was fast.
The dress turned out slightly more Ralph Lauren than expected, the original pattern in Japanese was less preppy. For this version I used a monogram handkerchief set I bought at a charity shop in France in March purely for the laundry tag ribbon that was used to tie it together. Don't fret, it must have set me back no more than 1 or 2 euros. The blue fabric is from the left overs of Thomas' upcycled shirt used for my Sorbetto tank top refashion. The buttons are beads and of course, it's closed in the front by the dreaded snaps. Anyone with a tip to make hand sewing them in less horrible. Hot glue maybe...
Blythe dolls have one or two cords with pull rings at the back of their heads that people use to change the color of their eyes and the direction of their gaze. I plan on replacing the rings with keys. In times I hope to find small keys for this purpose but for now the two smallest ones above will have to do. I thought of using pampilles (crystal pieces above) but they really would be too fragile. Picture pretty but not practical in the least...
Having solved the problem of dress for the time being, I have decided to name the girl Serafinn. It's a play on words between Seraphine and my son Finn. He thinks it's perfect and fully endorses the enterprise. So much so in fact that he has already placed an order for a "boy one", which might be named Jonathan, "a very cool name" apparently. Let us hope I turn out to be decent at face carving/customizing, no promises!
Note: If like me you have never heard of Blythe dolls, they are these large headed Japanese plastic doll that some brave artists sand down, carve and paint to create exquisite objects that are then photographed in a variety of cute poses. Check these out for example.
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