Oliver

I’m working in another medium for a change of pace. That’s not to say I won’t go back and forth between clay and the usual fabrics I use, but this is a nice diversion for now.

This rabbit is made from upholstery fabrics and a few simple embellishments. While I made a bit of a sewing boo boo making the vest, it turned into a happy boo boo. This is Oliver and I’ll show you what I did wrong and how I fixed it. Oliver and Licorice ( who you will see in the next post) both have jointed limbs so they can be posed however you like.

Here you can see I’ve used one pattern of upholstery fabric for the arms, body, upper legs and head. The ears and lower legs are another and the vest is a lighter, mostly a pillow weight fabric.  Because I don’t like seams like the neck to show, I made a collar and fastened it at the front with a black patterned button.

The mistake I made was to sew the vest with too large a seam, which made the armholes too big. First I made some caps to fit over the shoulders, but that wasn’t enough.  

Using a complimentary silk fabric, I made ruffles to fill in the hollows of the armholes. I used the same vest fabric and made cuffs around the wrists to cover the seams where the hands are attached. The hands were made with a stretch fabric.

The final touch for Oliver were his boots  A few months ago I was given a bag of leather pieces taken from a jacket she had cut up. It’s a lovely soft leather making it so easy to work with for doll shoes.

Oliver’s boots are made from a few pieces pieced together, and completed with metal eyelets and waxed thread. Everyone that has seen his boots, love them. They really look like a real boots and have a bit of an aged look. It’s great when you work hard to make something special like boots and people recognize that.

Yes, I did thread it through those little eyelets and tied it with a nice bow. ;o)  Stay tuned for another post to see Licorice Allsorts.