blog.awsumgal.com

This is a parallel project I have been working on in and around the Wedding Doll project.

I usually work on a couple of things at the same time. That way when I’m stuck on part of one project, I can put it on the back burner, so to speak and work on something else. The solution will come to me as I’m working. It would likely come to me even if I just stared off into space, but where’s the fun in that? As a result I bounce around from project to project. Keeps my mind from getting into a rut. I’m sure it looks like utter chaos from the outside but it works for me!

I have been commissioned to create a Pilgrim couple in honor of Thanksgiving in the US. My wonderful client realized that there was little time before Thanksgiving and is not too concerned about having the outfits for this Thanksgiving. I know that she would be very happy to have them in time so, I’m doing my best to complete them in a timely manner :o)

I did a little research and found out a couple of interesting things.

First of all, the pilgrims wore more colour than is generally regarded. They seem to get mingled in with the Puritans. I have often seem “pilgrims” depicted in black clothes and white collars. I understand now, that this is a more Puritan look. Also, buckles apparently weren’t around in the Pilgrims’ time. They came later, but as they are so often a colloquial accessory in images of Pilgrims that my dear client and I have chosen to include them anyway, despite their historical inaccuracy :o)

Here’s a lovely woodcut print that I found online that looks like the kind of Pilgrims attire I want to make:

I have chosen burgundy wool, that I have lined in off white cotton sateen, brown faux suede and ecru crinkle cotton for his shirt and her apron. (Apparently aprons were worn to protect scarce clothing. The clothing they brought with them was all they had to begin with, they tried to take care of it, I suppose.) He’ll get hemp and cotton, just above the knee, “stockings” and she will have an ecru velvet capelet.

Here is how things looked after the pattern drafting was done and I had already done most of the cutting and some sewing too.

These two outfits have many components to them as you can see by the pattern pieces above! ~Or maybe I just overcomplicate things Lol :o)

Here’s her outfit in process:

The lady pilgrim ensemble is almost finished. The fella needs more work, but he’s coming along nicely too!

Here’s a pic I took this morning after stitching her sleeves on and her cuffs in place…

I added a little lace at the neck. It is a festive occasion after all!

She still needs her cap, as does he, and they both need some footwear…….

Back to the salt mines with me!

happy Sunday!

~awsumgal

I have been working quite a bit on the wedding dress and have made some progress.

After plotting the pattern for the bodice I cut and sewed up a prototype. It was not up to snuff. In fact it was too small. All of the seam allowances inside the bodice took up so much room that it effectively made the whole bodice look too small and pokey. Ew.

So, I replotted the pattern making it a little bigger in all directions to allow for all that bulky seam allowance.

These are the new larger center front bodice pieces and their linings.

This is the center front and it’s lining.

I use my iron religiously. It gives a very clean look to your projects. I pressed the seams over a seam busting stick. This doesn’t mean ripping the seam apart (thankfully!)

When you press a seam over a curve like this it allows the seam itself to be pressed but doesn’t press the outline of the seam allowance into the front of your item, which can look unsightly!

They look like silky white bats. Quick, to the silken batcave!

Once the front, sides and back were assembled, as well as its’ corresponding lining layer, I could sew the two together. This way there won’t be any raw edges hanging around annoying everyone, including me!

Here’s the bodice portion on the doll body. I took one look at this and ran back to the sewing room to fix that obscene silken appendage! Yuck!

Ahhhh, this is much better:

Now the proportions look good to me. There’s no lace yet of course, or any other embellishments. The lace will go over the shoulder as well as down the front. The sleeves will be assembled separately and then hand sewn to the bodice. And of course the skirt.

I have been working on the skirt as well. There is a lot going on at the back with the generous scalloped train including a lace insert. Getting the approximate shape of the back of the skirt has not been easy!

Above are some preliminary plots of the back skirt. The one on the right has the center scallop too long. The side one should be longer as near as I can tell from the pictures. Also I had forgotten to add enough at the waist for some gathering, because the real one is gathered. It has taken many revisions to get the shape correct. With the silk portion done, the lace portion won’t be difficult ’cause it’s basically the same shape over again.

Also in process is the cleaning of Connies’ face. It doesn’t look good, I have to say. I’ve tried all the things that I’m familiar (spit shine, various soaps) and now I’m on to mild bleach concoctions. I have had some success with Benzoil Peroxide Acne formulations in the past. (It nicely took the black stains off an Angies feet) but it takes a long time. Some have said that if you put the affected area in the sun (covering up the rest) it can speed things along, but now that we’re heading into winter in Canada, we won’t see much sun until next April…sigh.

Here’s what I have on Connie at the moment.

The advantage to this over, say, a bleach pen, which are all the rage at the moment, is the consistency. This is a goopy cream which is easier to control than a runny bleach pen. (At least for me :o) You really only want this on the spot and not on any other part of the doll. Otherwise you’ll end up with whiter bleached out areas which look just as bad.

Here’s dear Connie with Oxy bleach on her mark…. poor dear!

I don’t know whether or not this will be successful. I’m sure many of you out there have had your own experiences trying to remove this sort of thing. I find it’s a bit of a crapshoot.

As a result, and because of timing I have decided to switch heads. I will keep on keeping on with this Connie and when I have something, hopefully positive, to report on the condition of her cleanliness, I will update.

Here’s the new face of the wedding doll (still a Connie)

The Connie on the right has lost a center front hairplug and I think someone tried to give her new lashes…. She seems an excellent candidate to become my bride. Fingers crossed that the other Connie’s marks will bleach out given some time…..

This post is plenty long enough and I’ve got loads more work to do.

Next time I will post about the other project that I’m working on… Pilgrim outfits for Dawn and Gary for a dear fellow collector……

til then

~ awsumgal

I have plotted the pattern for the wedding dress and I like how it’s coming along! We’ll see how it looks when it is silk and not paper….

After deciding where the seam lines should be to most resemble the dress, I had to true up the pattern. Small errors can make for huge fit problems! So it’s worth it, to make as sure as possible at the pattern stage, that everything will fit together properly. I also mapped out where the lace overlays and inserts will be.

So here’s what I came up with….

Looks like FUN doesn’t it? (Well, I think it’s fun, I know others who call it torture! LoL!)

The other part of this project is, of course, the doll herself! I already know who I will be using because my client and I chose her together when we met at the recent Dawn Convention in Atlantic City. We chose Connie to become our bride. Her hair colour is not as close to the real bride as it appears in the photos. Connies’ hair is much redder than the real lady!

I have chosen a lovely shiny brown that is much closer to the real deal. So she’ll be getting a brand new head of hair. When her hair is all rooted in, I will style it in an updo like the real bride.

Connie has a black dot on her cheek and a little mark from her Majorette hats’ chin strap.

This often happens to the Majorettes who are stored for long periods with their chin straps in contact with their faces. I will carefully attempt to remove this, as well as the dot on her cheek. I hope I’m successful!

I’m off to begin cutting the silk bodice pieces and to try and clean Connies’ face…..

ttfn

~awsumgal

Nov 12.08

Yippee! Blog’s ALIVE!

I have been asked by a dear fellow collector of all things Dawn (and I mean ALL things Dawn. This lovely lady has the most extensive collection I have ever seen!) to recreate her on her wedding day, dress and all!

Recreating something is always a little tricky. Trying to ensure that it resembles its’ full sized counterpart is a challenge all its’ own. Never one to back away from an interesting challenge, I eagerly told her I would do my very best!

And so it begins….

My client has sent me many photographs of her, her gown and her accessories from that day. Here’s what I’ll be emulating:

Doesn’t she look lovely!

After looking at the pics, my first step is to make a preliminary sketch to plot how I’ll proceed. Dawn dolls are often just too small to just scale down a full sized pattern. The pieces in many cases would be just too small to work with so it’s important to use as few pieces as possible while still maintaining the the right look and fit on the doll. Wedding dresses are usually fairly complicated, and the bodices are often a close fit to the body as is the case in the above dress, so I’ll be using four pattern pieces for the front bodice (not including the lace overlays) and two more for the back bodice (again not including the lace).

I have done some shopping for this project and I will be using white silk. The silk is quite fine and light and drapes nicely on a small scale. Some fabrics that drape beautifully on human scale or even larger doll sizes just don’t on someone as small as Dawn or Pippa!

Here are a few of the things I’ve pulled together for this:

The white silk, some tiny iridescent sequins, some possible trims and lace and lace pieces that I might be able to use on the bodice or the lace insert in the train. The lace inserts and overlays will be somewhat challenging because there isn’t much out there on a scale that small. I may have to embroider my own fine gauge tulle with iridescent thread. But we’ll see. I’m not at that stage , yet!

That’s enough for now……

Thanks for reading :o)

awsumgal

Nov 10.08

Slayer is sooo looking forward to her night tonight……. mwoa haa haa…….

Beware the Begoths!

Happy Halloween

~awsumgal

Oct 31 ‘08

I have just finished a new glamorous outfit for Dawn and Pippa that I have chosen to list at www.awsumgal.etsy.com Etsy will be performing “maintenance” tomorrow morning, so I wanted to show it here too, in case there are some bugs at Etsy….. :o)

Woman of Influence~by awsumgal

This regal looking outfit is perfect for the “bluebloods” in your Dawn and Pippa collection! Something a lovely dignitary would wear to an evening state function….

The outfit consists of a strapless gown, it’s gold metallic bodice lined in pale pink cotton/poly broadcloth. The skirt portion of the gown is a rich cotton print in shades of grey and opulent gold all on a cream coloured ground. The hem has been edged in gold metallic fabric, stitched on with gold thread. This gown fastens in the back with two gold toned pearl type beads and hand knotted thread loops.

Overtop of this flattering gown, a floor length cape graces her shoulders. It is cream panne velvet, that also enjoys a golden, sewn on, edge treatment all the way around. This long topper features hand sewn beading around the neckedge. Beaded onto strong beaded filament are clear glass and metallic gold seed beads culminating in opalescent clear glass teardrop dangles. This cape can be worn fastened at the front waist by way of a hand turned and beaded double loop and concealed hand turned brass hook.

She moves delicately, and whisper quiet through the reception in her matching, above knee length, cream panne velvet boots that have been embellished with a trio of beads on each foot.

At her throat she wears a necklace fashioned from tiny gold toned metallic and clear glass seed beads. This necklace fastens with a bead loop and brass hook. Her wrist is graced by a golden loop “bangle”.

Whether it’s funding for the arts, education, or the less fortunate, she will be able to garner support from the powerful for ANY cause this evening!

I hope you have enjoyed this outfit, thanks for reading!

~awsumgal

Oct 26, 2008

Hello dolly people!

I have just listed on *bay, for a change, an outfit for Dawn and Pippa. It’s very sparkly and red. Quite festive :o)

I haven’t done a gown recently and decided that the girls needed some new glam. Click HERE to see the auction.

Here’s a photo:

I went to the semi annual sewing show in Toronto last Friday and that is where I picked up the Sadi thread that I used around the waistline of this dress. It’s pretty cool stuff, this Sadi. It’s made of metal, but it’s coiled, so it’s flexible. They call it “thread” but you don’t really “sew” with it. You sew it on, ideally with the same colour of thread (gold or silver). You have to be careful handling it though. If you kink, or stretch it, it doesn’t bounce back into shape :o(

The sewing show itself seems to be moving away from actual sewing and needlework, and is more and more about things like scrapbooking and stamping. Lots of kits too. Which is fine if you like scrapbooking and quilt and knitting kits, which I don’t particularly! ( I like to choose my own colours, you see. I mean, isn’t that sort of the whole point in making something yourself? ) In fact it used to be called the Sewing and Needlework Festival. Now it’s called the Creativ Festival. It’s a shame really, because every year I go and I find less and less of the vendors that I am interested in. Oh well, there’s always that giant virtual shopping mall that is my computer Lol! I must say though, it’s just not the same……

But I digress….back to the Embassy Ballgown!

I hadn’t done much beading recently either, so it was nice to do some on this wrap and I like the way it turned out.

The little red centered gold bead thing is actually a bracelet. The floral motif was bead stitched first and then strung onto transparent stretchy cord for Dawn and Pippa to wear on their wrists.

I fell in love with this red sparkly fabric as soon as I clapped eyes on it. You can get lost looking at it! The little red sparkles have a tendency to migrate around, so it’s best not to handle this too much…

Here’s a close up:

I think Dinah wears red rather well!

ttfn :o)

~awsumgal

Oct 21, 2008

I’ve just listed on etsy “Miami Beach Walk” outfit and accessories for 6 inch girls. Here’s a pic:

A chiffon print pant and jersey rib knit T, handmade sunglasses and shoes and a crochet handbag. All handmade by me.

Click HERE to go to the “Miami Beach Walk” etsy listing!

I also have up on ebay at the moment a My Scene Barbie repaint with a custom pink summery dress.

I received this doll in a bunch of dollies and , to be honest, I didn’t like her facepaint at all! The style borders on the trashy, and is somewhat dependent on the colours used. Sometimes they look quite glamorous and sometimes, well….. not so much!

Here she is before:

I do NOT know what they were thinking with this one!

I wanted to see what she would look like with more natural, fresh make-up. I also washed, cut and restyled her hair. Here’s her after…

I actually bought a Barbie outfit to dress her in and it didn’t fit her! I made no changes to her body of course. I couldn’t believe it! Anyway she has a custom dress now!

She’s up on ebay for another two days. Click HERE to go to the ebay auction.

Have a great day!

~ awsumgal

The Official Dawn 10th Annual Convention doll is now up on ebay!! This is a fundraising auction for next years convention. Click HERE to go to the auction.

As the maker chosen to design and complete her ensembles (40+ of them!) I thought it might interest potential bidders what she looked like in the making. The doll in the photographs however, is my own doll, and is not the one in the auction.

Well first a colour scheme was chosen by our hostess, one that I love! Pink, silver and white. Delicious!

So I went looking for fabric…

A crepe backed pale pink satin and a very floaty white satiny poly. I found silver edged ribbon for her sash. I wound up hand making the flowers as the one above proved to be unpleasantly large!

Then I had to design the gown itself. I knew I wanted it long and that she must have a cape. I spent some time looking at pageant winners from the 70’s, and then earlier, and then later, and though there were many with merit the end result is probably more of an amalgam of many plus my own ideas.

Here is a tiny army of bodice tops, four for each dress. There were times when I thought I would drown in tiny pieces of pink satin….

Of course I made a little pattern piece!

After all of these were sewn to their mates, turned, pressed and gathered just slightly and paired up they were sewn to the waist yoke portion of the bodice. The lower bodice, if you like…

A little army of boob covers :o)

Here’s my muse:

And she has on her prototype sash. She’s getting impatient for the rest of it though….

After that i was on to the skirts.

The lower edges of the skirts were edge stitched, then pressed and hemmed. Then I began attaching skirts to bodices each one receiving multiple rows of stitching. I tried to take as much care with each and every one of these even though I was making so many. I didn’t want to cut any corners with any of them. I wanted to be proud of each and every one of them, and I hoped each and every collector would find something in theirs that they enjoyed.

Almost done!

On to the “lamblook” capes in the absolutely most perfect of colours! I broke the bank on this fabric, but I had to. It was the perfect thing! Only the best for Miss America!

Here I’m putting a strip of white fur around the capes. First pass by machine, the second by hand :o)

Above, they’re all waiting for me to come sew them by hand……

Much of the work is completed by this point but there was still scepters to bead, sashes to print, press, cut and stitch with beads, dress neckline to be beaded and hand turned silver wire hooks to be made and added. Also pearl type closures and thread loops on the dresses and beaded and silver thread toggles on all of the capes…

I was very glad that I didn’t need to make shoes for them all! Whew!

The tiara in the pic was made by me and is not the tiara boxed with the Glori doll on auction. That was lovingly made by the convention hostess!

Cue music, she approaches…

I hope you’ve enjoyed this perspective on my contribution to this official convention doll. The boxes and labels, not to mention the dressing of everyones’ doll, was accomplished by other dedicated volunteers and showcases the finished doll beautifully.

I have not covered my making of her accessories (the rose, scepter and sash) as this post is already rather long winded, but I would be happy to answer any questions about this outfit anyone might have. So go now and bid! Bid often. All of the proceeds go to the 2009 Dawn convention to help make it fabulously memorable! Thanks for reading!

~awsumgal

October 8 2008

I received Maureens’ Fluted Flutter in a lot of tlc items that had almost no gold left in the bodice but the skirt was in really nice condition. I have found that the metallics in many of the Topper items lose their metallic threading. I have had in my sewing room, a spool of gold metallic ribbon thread. I say ribbon because it’s not round, like thread but flat. It seems a very close match to what was woven into these metallic bodices originally.

I will say that you really have to want to do this because it’s time consuming and a little tedious. I thought that this Fluted Flutter was a worthwhile candidate. Here’s the before:

I’ve threaded a nice long needle with gold metallic blending filament (the metallic “ribbon” is double wrapped with invisible nylon filament) and I’ve woven it into the bodice base fabric. If you look closely you can see that the base fabric is woven of a fairly substantial cotton? thread and an invisible thread. Ideally you want to weave the metallic under the invisible threads and not the big fat cotton threads if you can help it. It looks better if you do. It’s difficult to accomplish though because those threads are, well, invisible! (OK not completely, but I’m sure you get my meaning!)

Here are a couple of pics of it in process…

Here I’m about halfway across the front of the bodice.

And here is the finished restoration:

The restoration is the one on the right (off doll) The other one needs to have the bodice resewn to the skirt. It’s actually not attached at all.

Here are the two Fluted Flutters side by side. With the second Fluted Flutter sewn together also.

The one on the right is the restored bodice, the left is original vintage.

I hadn’t realized just how different my two Maureens faces were until put them side by side.

The Maureen on the right is an A11c, the one on the left is an 11c and her glance is much more forward than the Maureen on the right….

Nifty huh?

I, like many of you Dawn collectors out there have a bunch of bodices like this in various colours that could all benefit from this treatment, but I’ll need a long spell of nasty weather before I’ll get them all done. (Winter’s coming!)

This weekend is Canadian Turkey Day aka Thanksgiving. So, I’m off to get a bird as I’m on turkey duty this year, then it’s back to the commissions that await me in my studio.

You have 40min left to bid on the 2008 Convention Goody Bag. Quick Go Now! Click Here!

later…

~awsumgal