First of all I should list all of the materials.- A fashion doll from the dollar store.
- Crinoline netting in a light green with a gentle sparkle to it.
- An iridescent fabric, I think it was a poly-blend, meant to feel a bit stiff.
- A patterned cotton with gold threads in the pattern.
- Gold cloth (which never gets used).
- Beads. Many, many, many beads.
The pattern I made myself, testing it with a light weight paper and adjusting as necessary, and even fudging it just a smidgen in the end. My inspiration comes from watching Hello Dolly! one too many times and enjoying other "period accurate" musicals. It's close to the late 1800's, without conforming to just one decade, and has a plain front panel to showcase the Victorian love of bead work.
I have this habit of giving all of my dolls undergarments. It just bugs me when they don't. So, the underpants are made from that purple fabric and the rest of it is cut out, even the gold cloth. The reason why it was never used is because the rest of the costume never came together the way I was hoping it would, so I had to switch things up for the waist band and do a little bit of improvising. I wasn't too worried about wasting the fabric, because it came from a very old scrap anyways, so it wasn't really wasting in the first place. The green crinoline that you see in the top of the picture wasn't used in the final piece, being that it was too stiff to be worked with properly, but thin shreds of it were used to tie on the heals and decorate the hat, which is not seen cut out here.
This is the crinoline underskirt I did end up using. It's a much looser weave and is older, so it's more worn and easier to move around and work with. I have found that to use older materials is sometimes the best thing to do, especially if the object wont face much - if any - wear and tear. And so the best thing to do if you need inexpensive, but worn older materials, is to go by your nearest thrift store and pick some things up. You need to look for the color, quality, and size of the materials. Say you're trying to make a prairie gown for a 14 inch doll. A large floral print that would look proportional on us as humans would not be well suited for the project. So sometimes you'll need to pick up an old dress shirt, a skirt, and even a dish towel. Think of them as raw materials, not as the items they are currently. This does take some time to get used to, takes practice. But I digress. Maybe I'll do an entry comprised of nothing but such tips and tricks.
Here, to the right, is the top of the dress, almost completely put together. It is here that I realized that the gold fabric just wasn't going to work, no matter how I tried. So I simply went without and ended up making the belt out of a wide ribbon scrap I happened to have. Lucky for me, because it was just the right shade of red. Although it is hard to see, there is very small top stitching along all of the color changes and along the front where I swear there are buttons!
As I mentioned before, I had to substitute the belt so the skirt got attached directly to the top of the dress. The skirt was in three sections: the front panel and then the side/back two. After the parts were all assembled, things became difficult. I don't often use that word, since I'm convinced that it has a poor effect on the mind and one's determination to get something done. But I'll admit, things became difficult. So there was the plain dress, no beads, lace, or ribbon; yet it still gave me problems.
1. The skirt did not want to fall properly over the bustle.
2. The skirt's overall length was too long.
3. Even though the darts on the bodice front were perfect, the back would not close fully.
4. The shoulders had been cut too small, despite measuring twice.
5. Same thing with the collar.
6. Same with the underarms for the puffed sleeve.
7. The sleeves were too long.
And so how did I manage to fix all of this and still make an amazing Victorian inspired doll? I became the craft-MacGyver.
First, I did a number of pin tucks on the skirt so it would form properly over the bustle. Next I hemmed the skirt. Since she needed to be fancy, I even used metallic thread (bane of all crafters existence). Then after I had made the belt, but before i stitched it to her waistline, I took the remnant of the remnant of the ribbon and made a nice little peek-a-boo back covering that luckily enough ended right at the top of the patterned fabric. Somehow it looked intentional. So far this has solved all but the sleeve length. To fix this final problem I gently gathered the last half inch of the sleeve and stitched pearl-beads to imitate cuff buttons.
Somewhere in between all of these little fix-it's I also completed all of the smaller bead work, such as the two lines of clear iridescent on either side of the front panel and the work along the collar transition. Then after stitching the doll into the dress, it was time for the finishing touches. Which means even more bead work. All of the draping beads on the train and on the front panel were done after she was completed. Then there is the hat. I ended up tie-ing up her hair, stitching it to her head, and actually using some hair gel to get it to stay in one spot long enough for me to stitch the hat to her hair. Since this was a rather cheap doll, it was the best I could do to get close to the Gibson Girl look. The hat is made from all of the scrap material, some spare beads, and lots and lots of gathering. Save the small circle in the center, that is all gathered ruffles.
May your stitches be true, and your thread never knotted.
I have this habit of giving all of my dolls undergarments. It just bugs me when they don't. So, the underpants are made from that purple fabric and the rest of it is cut out, even the gold cloth. The reason why it was never used is because the rest of the costume never came together the way I was hoping it would, so I had to switch things up for the waist band and do a little bit of improvising. I wasn't too worried about wasting the fabric, because it came from a very old scrap anyways, so it wasn't really wasting in the first place. The green crinoline that you see in the top of the picture wasn't used in the final piece, being that it was too stiff to be worked with properly, but thin shreds of it were used to tie on the heals and decorate the hat, which is not seen cut out here.
This is the crinoline underskirt I did end up using. It's a much looser weave and is older, so it's more worn and easier to move around and work with. I have found that to use older materials is sometimes the best thing to do, especially if the object wont face much - if any - wear and tear. And so the best thing to do if you need inexpensive, but worn older materials, is to go by your nearest thrift store and pick some things up. You need to look for the color, quality, and size of the materials. Say you're trying to make a prairie gown for a 14 inch doll. A large floral print that would look proportional on us as humans would not be well suited for the project. So sometimes you'll need to pick up an old dress shirt, a skirt, and even a dish towel. Think of them as raw materials, not as the items they are currently. This does take some time to get used to, takes practice. But I digress. Maybe I'll do an entry comprised of nothing but such tips and tricks.
Here, to the right, is the top of the dress, almost completely put together. It is here that I realized that the gold fabric just wasn't going to work, no matter how I tried. So I simply went without and ended up making the belt out of a wide ribbon scrap I happened to have. Lucky for me, because it was just the right shade of red. Although it is hard to see, there is very small top stitching along all of the color changes and along the front where I swear there are buttons!
As I mentioned before, I had to substitute the belt so the skirt got attached directly to the top of the dress. The skirt was in three sections: the front panel and then the side/back two. After the parts were all assembled, things became difficult. I don't often use that word, since I'm convinced that it has a poor effect on the mind and one's determination to get something done. But I'll admit, things became difficult. So there was the plain dress, no beads, lace, or ribbon; yet it still gave me problems.
1. The skirt did not want to fall properly over the bustle.
2. The skirt's overall length was too long.
3. Even though the darts on the bodice front were perfect, the back would not close fully.
4. The shoulders had been cut too small, despite measuring twice.
5. Same thing with the collar.
6. Same with the underarms for the puffed sleeve.
7. The sleeves were too long.
And so how did I manage to fix all of this and still make an amazing Victorian inspired doll? I became the craft-MacGyver.
First, I did a number of pin tucks on the skirt so it would form properly over the bustle. Next I hemmed the skirt. Since she needed to be fancy, I even used metallic thread (bane of all crafters existence). Then after I had made the belt, but before i stitched it to her waistline, I took the remnant of the remnant of the ribbon and made a nice little peek-a-boo back covering that luckily enough ended right at the top of the patterned fabric. Somehow it looked intentional. So far this has solved all but the sleeve length. To fix this final problem I gently gathered the last half inch of the sleeve and stitched pearl-beads to imitate cuff buttons.
Somewhere in between all of these little fix-it's I also completed all of the smaller bead work, such as the two lines of clear iridescent on either side of the front panel and the work along the collar transition. Then after stitching the doll into the dress, it was time for the finishing touches. Which means even more bead work. All of the draping beads on the train and on the front panel were done after she was completed. Then there is the hat. I ended up tie-ing up her hair, stitching it to her head, and actually using some hair gel to get it to stay in one spot long enough for me to stitch the hat to her hair. Since this was a rather cheap doll, it was the best I could do to get close to the Gibson Girl look. The hat is made from all of the scrap material, some spare beads, and lots and lots of gathering. Save the small circle in the center, that is all gathered ruffles.
May your stitches be true, and your thread never knotted.
No comments:
Post a Comment