Dress Forms

I’ve started working on my collection of doll art for a show our doll club is hosting in September. It will be at a small but very active gallery called Coast Collective. Currently there are 25 of our members that will be showing their work. The gallery hosts “ A place to bring people together to celebrate our rich cultural heritage on the West Shore.”

I am going to do at least 2 of these dress forms as part of my theme for the show. This costume will not be removable, it’s meant to resemble a change of clothes for the doll that I will using as my focal point. Don’t you hate that I’m giving you clues but nothing more. You’ll see what happens soon…

This is the first part of the first dress form. It’s coming together well. I’m developing the outfit right on the dress form without a pattern, just draping the fabric then pinning and cutting it to fit, then I will stitch it to the form itself. I hope to have the rest done by tomorrow…

The pattern for the dress form is by Lincoln Mold Company and is a free download. Just scroll down the page to find the link. You have to sign up for the newsletter to get the pattern, but they are not intrusive with their newsletter. I modified the instructions for the stand to suit my own ideas. For the stand I used a wooden candle stick and coaster for the bottom. The top is an upside down candle holder with a paper rose on top, as my muse loved flowers of all kinds and the these paper roses seemed perfect for this.

Frank the Frog

If you’re seeing this blog update in your email, it’s because I changed the pictures of Frank. They were so dark and just didn’t look frog like, so I took him outside, and the pictures are much nicer. Now at least he looks green as a frog should. The fabric I didn’t mention before is a spandex and I bought it from a friend who makes dancewear for children. The colour is tricky to photograph because it’s like a hologram, it changes from blue to green and the in between colours. Click here for Cathy’s page at Fabric Traders.

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I just finished this for a friend. It’s Felicity Frog by Judith Prior, but it’s going to a guy, so I had to make it a Frank and masculine. I don’t think leaving it as a female would have been a problem, but Frank looks pretty cool to. The only thing I didn’t have was a mini microphone to go with him as my friend goes to Karaoke nights.

I gave him some beat up beach type shorts with a blue suede wrap around his waist, and a blue suede tie to match his blue eyes. The hat came in handy and some of the material from his shorts is wrapped around the brim.

The fabric was an interesting choice. Not to forgiving at the edges so it does start to run. Slow and easy when working with it and it’ll come together. I think poor Frank looks more like the creature from the black lagoon, but I know he’ll be taken good care of in any case…

The Mad Hatter

My Mad Hatter is done. Julie McCullough has such a fun imagination. He was a joy to make and so bright and colourful. I did a couple of things differently on him. 

First I changed his shoes. These are the original shoes in the pattern, but for the doll club challenge we had to make some kind of runners for our doll. They are going to be displayed at the Victoria Quilt Show next month, so it had to be either runners that the doll is wearing, or perhaps a table runner the doll is holding…just something that is runners. I did that with his shoes, the only thing I changed was to add grommets to his shoes and thread laces through.

We also had to use the challenge fabric, not all of it, but some of it and it had to be visible. I used it on the hem of his pants and the handle on his tea cup hat. We also had to have two stars on the doll, again they have to be visible. The theme of the Quilt Show is “ Quilting With the Stars”. I added stars to his lapels and cuffs. I gave him a cup of tea to enjoy while he’s at the show and hopefully he won’t spill it all over the place like he did in the movie….Stomping all over the table just won’t work at the Quilt Show.

Now the hair. Julie has done fabric tubes for hair, and although they are so darn cute the way she did them, after seeing the new Alice In Wonderland movie with Johnny Depp, (Trailer Here) I just had to give my Hatter the same kind of hair.

Luckily I have some Tibetan Lamb Hair that is bright yellow/orange, just perfect. I also did one other change. Instead of doing the small eyes that are Julie’s trademark, I used larger ones and glass. They just seemed more in keeping with the doll.

He’s all together and looking like mischief is afoot. Gwen, I gave him the bow tie you suggested, doesn’t it look good. ;o))

A Mad Hatter Throne

I am putting the finishing touches on The Mad Hatter by Julie McCullough (it’s a new pattern and oh so cute). I will post pictures in a couple of days. For today though, I thought you might like to see the chair/throne I built for him.

My first thought was to be able to make him a chair out of small twigs from trees, but knowing my time was limited and that I would have to spend a fair bit of time gathering the same size pieces, then work at putting them all together, I decided that I would try something like that when I wasn’t in such a hurry. I went searching for inspiration and found it at Safeway, yes a grocery store, in the floral department.

It begins with a woven basket, just what I wanted to, a black base and it’s built on a heavy wire frame. The base is a bit smaller as the basket is a slight V shape, but the smaller end becomes the seat part.

The next thing I found were two metal napkin holders at the dollar store. I brought my prizes home and got to work. With pliers in hand and help from hubby, I got busy and took them apart and them sort of put them back together in places. Looking at the picture below, I used the sides of the napkin holders for the arms of what the chair would become. The other napkin holder I used just the domed shaped pieces, turning one of them upside down and created the back of the chair with that.

I’ve taped pieces back together for the sides, and left out the center scroll parts for the back. Then I laid the pieces down on the fabric, traced around them and created covers for the three pieces.

On the above piece, I did a stitch with the sewing machine close to the domed edges just to secure them being a larger piece. Once they were all stitched closed on the open end, and in the case of the big one, stitched around, then I trimmed the edges with some black/white soutache trim. Aren’t they looking interesting and you can just barely see the design of the scrolls, which is okay to….

The last thing the chair needed was a cushion. I wanted it to be bright and cheerful to match how flashy the Mad Hatter is going to be. I made it with red corduroy top and bottom, with black/white checks in the center and button tufted the seat. Doesn’t that make it look great and the trim around the back and arms joins the look together.

 

Now here it is all put together. He’s sitting on it a bit like a throne and his feet dangle. Looks great. Will show you how he looks in the chair when the whole look is together.

So when you decide you need something for a doll to sit in, don’t use the standard chairs if you don’t have to. Get imaginative and creative and your dolls will thank you… My Mad Hatter is looking pretty giddy sitting watching me….Stay tuned….;o)))

Won Park Master of Origami

A friend sent me an email showing the art work of Won Park, a Master of Origami. I have never seen his work until now, but it needs to be shown everywhere. He does amazing work and all with just dollar bills. Here are some examples of his work… and some links to follow to see more..

Won Park – The Master of Origami Paper Folding

Origami is the traditional Japanese art of paper folding. The goal of this art is to create a representation of an object using geometric folds and crease patterns preferably without the use of gluing or cutting the paper, and using only one piece of paper.

Won Park is the master of Origami. He is also called the “money folder”, a practitioner of origami whose canvas is the United States One Dollar Bill. Bending, twisting, and folding, Won Park creates life-like shapes inspired by objects living and not– both in stunning detail.

One Dollar Koi

Two Dollar Chinese Dragon

Two Dollar Spider

One Dollar Penquin

If you would like to see more, you can here, or just put his name in google and do a search. Pages of links will show up and some that will show you videos of him at work… Enjoy…

PS… the email that is currently circulating saves he lives in a renovated garbage truck…Not so, he’s living in Honolulu Hawaii, but the garbage truck looks pretty amazing and someone could live in it I suppose… ;o)