Tag Archives: Clothing Design

Flowers and Fairies

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We’ve been blessed with rain twice in the last week, with a chance for more in a few days.  We are back in extreme drought, which makes any bit of rain we get very precious.  The plants are soaking it up and putting on a bit of a show.

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I finished putting in the plants in the newest flower bed in my back yard.  I’ve been planning this bed for a while and I’m super thrilled to get it in this year.  It will help keep my foundation watered, if nothing else.  The rain helped the plants in this bed immensely, as well as making my garden happy!  I am not sure why, by my tomato and pepper plants in containers on my patio have already put on fruit while those in my garden are about a month behind, even though they were planted the same time.

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In addition to gardening, I’ve been working on the Flower Fairy.  She’s all dressed up and has arms now!  She has a linen petticoat lined with a ruffle and a second petticoat of embroidered netting.  This is topped with her skirt of a silky gauze.  She was at this point 3 or so weeks ago when I went to the last CTADS meeting.  I attached arms that night and the next and there she sat until this weekend.  I got her bodice and corset constructed and embellished this weekend.  Now I have her sleeves to make, after which, I’ll need to give her a face!  Her head is already sculpted but I’m waiting to draw her face until I finish her costume.

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Her skirt and corset have been hand-beaded.  The beading on the corset took me most of the afternoon.

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I designed her bodice with flowers in mind.  I wanted the impression of flower petals and leaves opening up around her.

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I really like the asymmetrical hemlines in the fashion magazines right now, which is what inspired her skirt.

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New Doll: The Searcher, Intro and Progress

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I started a doll for the All Dolls Are Art 2012 Silent Auction and she didn’t get finished.  I’ve picked her back up again after finishing my Stretching Art and Tradition piece as she’s one of the pieces I’m submitting for the Celebration of the Doll exhibit at IQF in Houston.  I had to pick a name for her, and called her the Searcher, although I haven’t really thought up for story yet.  I’ll give her a better name, like Lina, the Searcher of Dreams or some such thing once I’ve had a chance to figure her out.  Normally, this part of the process is the beginning of a doll for me.  In this case, not so much.  Any way, here’s the current state of progress.

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Her creation is an entertaining story of calamities.  I started out with the fabric for her tunic, which is some rayon challis I hand-dyed.  The same fabric is used for her pants.  I added the velvet for the apron and the turban to the mix, also one of my hand-dyed fabrics (this one, hand-dyed indigo velvet, is available in my Etsy shop).  Since I had a definite purple theme going, I pulled some purple toned hand-dyed skin fabric out of my stash, laid out the freezer paper templates, not really paying attention to grain on anything but the face, and started constructing her figure.  After I started stuffing, I noticed something weird.  The first piece I stuff is the torso.  It was really, really long.  Then I stuffed the legs.  Whoa!  More weirdness, one was really long and skinny, the other, short and fat.  Hmmmnn.  What’s up with this, you ask?  Unlabeled, one-way stretch fabric.  I also ended up with one long arm and one short arm.  Because I was short on time, I went ahead and put her body together and it was really wonky.  So, her costume design was conceived to cover up the flaws in her figure.  LOL.  I ended up with a pseudo 1001 Arabian nights costume crossed with an east Asian flavor out of the need to cover up the maximum skin and hide the figure.

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Later I added the purple daisy trim (hand-dyed too using similar colors, but not intended to go with this fabric).  Since I had more time, I dug through my stash of Treasures of the Gypsy trims and ribbons and added the purple and gold braid at the hem of the tunic, the beaded trim at her forehead, and the purple rick-rack at the neckline.  She’s going to get a necklace or a scarf to go around her neck.

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She’ll also probably get a ton of beads to bring some sparkle to her turban and veil.  I’ve yet to finish her make-up and finish her hands (nails) and sculpt her feet.  I haven’t decided if she’s getting shoes or not yet.

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I have another piece to start for Celebration.  This will be the last in my Seasons of Goddesses series, the Goddess of Winter.  I really really want to do her in blues, but to go with the other 3, I think I’m going to do her in winter greens and reds.  I’m going to pull out fabric for her probably tomorrow or Thursday.  I already have a good idea of the costume and just need to finalize some details on her figure before I draft her pattern.  My goal is to have her pattern available for sale in time for the Houston quilt show.  We’ll see how that turns out!

Last, but certainly not least!  I’m an aunt again for the third time this evening.  My newest nephew (Sawyer) arrived (early!) at 8:23pm.  Mom and baby are doing great!

One Dirty Little Boy!

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I’ve been cleaning house and working on my Count to Ten piece this weekend.  He’s come a long way!  He got underwear and socks yesterday, made from a cotton onesy I bought Friday afternoon.  I took the left over fabric from the onesy and dyed it navy blue to make his shirt.  I made shorts from a pair of khaki 3T pants I also got on Friday and started on his tennis shoes.  I also started on and screwed up the t-shirt.  I took that as a sign to stop last night, and I went to bed.

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Here he is in his socks and underwear.

This morning, I got up and re-did the shoulder seams and neckline of his shirt.  I also reconsidered how I was doing his shoes and started over on them.  It took the better part of an hour and a half to make the first shoe.  I learned from a couple of minor mistakes and the second one took less time.  I got his shorts stitched to his waist and drew his face while his second shoe dried.  Then I added “dirt” and “bruises” and a “raspberry” to the little boy.  I also got his shoe laces inserted and his shoes tied.  Smile  I am so happy with him.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get more done!

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Front view with his shoes.

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His face.

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His shoes!

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Progress on Sirona

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I had a very productive day.  I got my floors cleaned by lunch time and after lunch, I sat down to work on Sirona.  I got her bodice gathered and stitched down.  I, then, designed the corset and constructed it.  There will be beads or trim or both around the neckline of the bodice and the edges of the corset.  I also got her sleeves made and used up almost all of the remaining lace from the packet I had. 

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I got my stuff packed up for my weekend play date and then sat down to draw Sirona’s face.  Unfortunately, this represents the one step back part of today’s program.  I don’t like her face or head at all.  I tried something different with this head.  I sewed it on the bias, to give it a bit of breadth.  Unfortunately, it didn’t work the way I wanted and I didn’t see that until I got the face on.

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Her nose is too big, her eyes too high on her face and I hate the mouth that I drew.  I was going for joyous and ended up with solemn-ish, going on bored.

So, if I can get up early enough tomorrow, I’m going to sew another head to take with me.