Dolls: Say Hi To Sandy!

   I can't believe how much I enjoy creating these little people. I love the way they acquire a personality of their own as I make them. As I complete each part of the process they tell me what I should do next, and when I finish, they tell me their names and their styles. That's when I decide what their clothes and shoes should look like, and I do my best to recreate the image in my head. In my last post I told you that my next doll would have purple, green and blue hair. Here she is! Say hi to Sandy.

   I'm in love with Sandy! She is the first doll I make that is exactly what I had in mind when I started making dolls. First: Her hair is 100% merino wool, the yarn is hand-dyed and the felt is SUPER soft. Second: Her clothes can be changed and played with. Third: She is super colorful; I love colors. I've seen many doll makers that focus on using pastel colors, I always find those dolls gorgeous and I love them, but that is just not my style. When I create I need colors, the brighter the better; colors make me happy.

    I'm super happy with the yarn I told you about in my last post. The 40 yards were enough for Sandy's hair, yet I had to use every single strand that I had of it and if I had more I could have probably used it too. I used Kona Taupe for her skin and acrylic paints for her face and shoes.

   When I finished Sandy, she told me that she was a summer loving girl with a high sense of fashion. So I made her a short strapless sweetheart neckline dress with a flowy skirt. I love the way the skirt creates the illusion of having a petticoat underneath.

   The only thing that left me thinking about the dress is that since I don't own a serger I just pinked the raw seams. The thing is, I make purses and I'm used to having to line every single part of a piece so the raw edges won't show. This tiny garment making thing is new to me and I don't know if there's a secret for fully encasing the raw edges that I don't know about yet, otherwise I'm happy about it and its construction. The back fastens with a plastic snap.

   I definitely like the look of painted shoes, I can create many styles and I can embellish them as much as I need. I also think they look cute.

   So far I've made 3 dolls with pretty yarn hair, and I love the fabrics I found for their skin tones. So many possibilities, so little time.

Dolls: Wool Yarn = Hair!

   Hi! Look what arrived in my Po Box last week. These are bulky, 100% merino wool, 40yds skeins. I'm super happy with this yarn, I can't wait to make another doll so I can try it. The only downside is that I already cut one of the skeins and I think the 40 yards won't be enough. The good thing is that their colors are SO yummy I could even try to eat them. They're squishy, smell like the real thing and the texture is GREAT!

   My next doll is going to have purple, green and blue hair. Yay!

Dolls: I Want You To Meet Jasmine!

   I absolutely adore her with all my heart; I think she is my favorite. Don't tell Becky, Amanda or Sheila!

   This time the details on her bangs are a little different but they were pretty much impossible to photograph due to that super saturated pink. You'll have to figure them out from this picture or take my word for that. Again, I used my novelty yarns and sparkly cords to give her a super cute mane.

This picture doesn't make Jasmine justice.

   However, I made a couple of minor changes to the way I put her together. One of them is that I made her naked this time so her clothes can be played with and I made her a super cute tiered peasant dress. You see that? I'm already talking clothes. LOL

This time I used Kona Chocolate for the skin. I love it!

   The other change was the shoes, my other dolls have felt shoes but I painted Jasmine shoes with my handy acrylic paints. I like them better this way; I think they look dainty.

   Oh! and this week I received my tracer light box! I have a template I drew myself for my doll's faces, I don't like drawing directly on the fabric because I want the dolls to have similar features and I want them to be as symmetric as possible. It made it super easy to transfer the face template to the fabric. Prior to its arrival it was pretty much impossible to transfer faces to fabrics other than Kona Flesh. Now I can paint anything on any fabric color. Yay!