The Second Mrs. Claus

And this is the last doll of the year. I’m really happy with how this one came together as well, and it was a sprint to the finish line. Never again will I be making dolls or anything for that matter at such a manic pace.

I thoroughly enjoyed everything I made this year, but next year I will for sure be slowing down a lot. The pace I set this year, but way too much but a good lesson at the same time, to pace myself.

Now on to Mrs. Claus. This doll,  like the two Santa’s and the other Mrs. Claus are all adapted from Barbara Schoenoff’s designs. The patterns are available through Doll Makers Journey. These dolls are very tall, 30” but they really look amazing when they’re done.

Some details of how I made this one. The coat is wool and trimmed with a lovely soft hairy fabric, found in the home decor section of a fabric store and is generally used for pillows. I used the Santa coat pattern for this Mrs. and the first one. I just redesigned the shape of the coat.

The last one went straight down. For this one, as you’ll see in the next picture, doesn’t go all the way down, it stops just below the knee and is curved. It looks so pretty in real life. I lined it with a sparkly Christmas print. Because I was rushing to get it done, I forgot to take a picture of the lining, but you can see some of it on the cuffs.

 

You can see the three layers of her skirt. The bottom one is grey velvet, the second is red dupioni silk and the top one is black velvet.

I also gave this Mrs. Claus a big jingle bell to hold, but red to accent her clothing.

After needlefelting her hair in place, I added some bling in the form of a pretty rhinestone bow, hair barrett. She has another one that is rectangular in shape on the neck area.

She has this fun red/black chequed print for her leggings, her lacey underpinnings and black ladies socks. I had this ostrich type feather boa to trim her boot tops. For this grey/black couple I have given Mrs. Claus the lantern, but have attached it to the base. Inside is a tea light the shape of a flower and when you turn it on, it goes from one colour to another. So pretty. I turned it on and turned off the light in the room to see the effect. Perfect. ;o)

When her skirts are down and straightened out, the grey one comes around the back of the lantern. It doesn’t get hot, so she’s safe.

And finally, here is the lantern open and you can see the flower shaped tea light. So now I’m done. The customer came here yesterday to pick them all up, and they seemed very happy with them. Well now until the New Year, I’m just going to take it easy and enjoy some down time and think about what’s coming up in January. Time will tell. Back soon….