It's a good day to be Queen

Character Music Score: Song of the North (Celtic Version) by BrunuhVille

Finally, the vision has been made reality. This is how I've always pictured Astrid in all her Queenly glory. A modest Queen not given to displaying her wealth or royalty but proud of her clan heritage and in tune with the earth beneath her feet and the sky above her head. She embodies the protectiveness and nurturing will of the Mother Goddess.

I finished Astrid's outfit yesterday but it was late at night so I didn't want to take photos until today. She is wearing a similar dress to the green vine ones in terms of pattern and design but in a lighter, more neutral colour. She wears a plain surcoat over the dress coupled with a simple silver necklace and a modestly designed bronze crown. Her hair is the colour of fire, her eyes the blue of the sea.

The Lady in Blue

I have this gorgeous medieval dress that I bought years ago, maybe 9 or 10 years ago. Anyway, when I bought it, it wasn't in the best condition but it never got worse, until recently. I thought about trying to fix it, attempted it but it just made things worse. You see, the fabric itself was beginning to tear and come apart. I couldn't bear the thought of taking this dress apart or throwing it away so I decided to keep it as a model of what a medieval dress should look like.

And then I started looking at the parts that made up the dress and thought, "I wonder if I could reconstruct it from scratch." Well I did that but it was you could say very different from the original. I really don't know who the maker of the original dress was as I bought it second-hand. But here goes...

Sewing Adventures Ahoy

Today's Playlist:  Something Just Like This ~ The Chainsmokers & Coldplay

Another day, another sewing adventure. Over the past two days I have been working on Rune's outfit. I found this neat little outfit pattern and tutorial by Lomi's Playground.

Overdress | Pirate Wench Outfit

I learned how to do lining for an outfit for the first time. That was fun. And this is also the first time I've installed eyelets which was ... interesting. Of course I learned a lot again with this one and I had to adjust the dress a lot because apparently a Littlefee which the dress was designed for is much chunkier than my Bimong girl. I will make this outfit a few more times until I can perfect it. My first attempt took an entire day. Hopefully now I've wrapped my head around how to do it, it might go faster. I want to do a green overdress for her and a lilac overdress for her with different colour combinations for the pirate wench dress.

The Advisor's Robes

It took me two days and one false start but I was able to finally complete Amaryll's outfit. I went into it with a specific idea of what I wanted and ended up with something that was completely different but I like way better. I learned so much about sewing with this outfit. It's not perfect and there is a lot of room for improvement but I'm happy with my end result. I will try and make this again with better finishes at some stage. I also made her necklace and head piece. Her bracelets are actually fashion rings meant for humans but works perfectly for doll scale.

I'm just so happy that I was able to make something myself. I used no pattern for this but was inspired by the blue outfit worn by Guinevere in the 2004 movie 'King Arthur'.

Music Playlist: Song of the North (Alt. Version) ~ BrunuhVille

Changing Faces

Recently, I've been really focusing on practicing face ups on the EAH and MH girls. I'll tackle resin soon but for now, it's vinyl.

I was hoping to show the progress I had made on my Shiva but I decided I didn't much like the outfit or the painting I did on her leg so I decided to go back to square one. Hopefully I will have some progress to show next week. I went and purchased a better brush that can make much thinner lines so I think that will help particularly with the tattoo work on her legs.

I actually do have a few projects on the go right now but more on that later.

These are my first attempts at pure acrylic face ups for the girls. I had a lot of fun doing these. I made a ton of mistakes but I also learned a lot.  In these first attempts, I didn't bother with any guideline or preliminary sketches. I just put paint on the brush and went for it.

My very first full acrylic face. This was an Apple White sculpt. Her hair was too gooey and glue infested to keep sadly. I wanted to take this photo for posterity. I was going to keep it as I love the colours however, I ended up wiping it. (More on that later.)

Of Fashion and Floral Shirts

I wanted to post up some pages from "The Dress - 100 Iconic Moments in Fashion" and "Iconic - The Masters of Italian Fashion" - both by Megan Hess. for Xanadu.

You can click on the image to view a larger version than the one that shows on my blog page.

I don't think I've mentioned before that I'm a huge fan of fashion illustrations and even dabbled in it for a little while.

May The Fourth Be With You

Today is May 4 here in the land of Oz. Or otherwise known unofficially as Star Wars Day. Hence the title of this post. So I thought it'd be neat to showcase one of my very special dolls just for this occasion. She's possibly the longest doll I've had because I sold all my Xena dolls a long time ago and they would have been the longest dolls. (Kind of regret selling them now but hindsight.)

She was a special portrait edition Queen Amidala which my husband hunted down and surprised me with for Christmas back in 2000. The doll itself was released in 1999. There weren't many special portrait editions released. I only know of one other, in the senate gown but I was sure there was also one in the ceremonial gown which is near impossible to find.

She had been displayed in her box for quite a number of years to retain her value however, about two years after I started collecting resin dolls (2011), I decided to take her out of her box because I had zero intention of ever selling her and it seemed a bit sad to see her cooped up in her small box so I naturally de-boxed her and she now stands proudly in my display cabinet.

I loved the costumes found in Episodes 1-3 even if the movies themselves weren't really the best. Especially Queen Amidala's elaborate outfits. This particular one was one of my absolute favourites along with the ceremonial gown.

A Little Bit of Country

It always seems like there is never enough hours in the day when you are working on projects... and then you run out of glue at the most inconvenient times (after the shops close for the day!). 

Today's new diorama (for Momoko, Barbie and Poppy Parker) has a bit of a country feel. This seems to be a little normal for me as I really love the country style for interiors.

This one is another corner room with white wood floors, blue vintage style wallpaper with panel style trimmings. The table is my first attempt. I will have to remake this with four legs instead of three and perhaps a little lower.

Lara: A Work In Progress

This update is technically from last weekend as I took these photos then. I would have loved to have started work on the final product this weekend but on Thursday morning, I twisted my back the wrong way so have been resting it as it will take three weeks to completely heal. On the positive side, this means I can finally catch up on some of my K-Dramas that I've been missing since I started working!

This is the prototype for Lara's top before I did the hemming on it. This was probably my fifth prototype attempt and  I am much happier with this. There still needs to be some slight tweaking on the final product but overall, I'm happy.

Sunday Afternoon Blues

Happy Sunday!

I hope everyone has been enjoying their weekend. For me, it's been too short and too busy. I haven't managed to get half the things I wanted to do with my dolls done at all. I did make some cupcakes though. Vanilla with frosting and strawberries. These tasted quite light and delicious. 

I did manage to do the first prototype for Lara's top.

Eve Models

I finished Eve's skirt a few days ago but have been in the process of upgrading to a new computer thanks to the hubby. It's so nice to have a computer that plays my graphic intense games without the constant lags.

Before we get to the skirt, this is my mostly finished Totoro. A few issues to iron out I think. He is just missing his whiskers which I am thinking of using thin strips of leather and gluing to his face. I'm just not sure if I have a thin enough piece of leather in my beading stash.

Josef, I Am

As promised, today is all about Josef (mostly).

He is my resident Inn gardener with a green thumb and a gentle way with plants and animals. He was one of Xaviers' older brother, Geraints' friend. Since his older brother disappeared, Josef has been somewhat of an older brother replacement and the two have formed a strong bond. Whilst Xavier has given up, Josef continues to investigate what happened to The Medusa; the ship Geraint and his crew were aboard when it disappeared into the Bermuda Triangle.

[Incidentally, Geraint's back story is lifted from a roleplay campaign I wrote back in 2004 that centered on a crew aboard a ship bound to the Bermuda Triangle to investigate the mysterious disappearances that happened there. I have a fascination with that place and it tends to crop up in my short stories from time to time.]

 Josef got his new wig (finally!). The white fake fur wig he was wearing previously was just a stand in but this is the one I had my eye on for him for a while. It's taken me a while to actually order it so it's nice that he finally has his own wig. I really like how the colour really enhances how pale he looks despite the fact that he does spend time outdoors in the garden.

Project Updates

I did manage to finish Eve's skirt but I'm not happy with it yet. The wide elastic I used was really stiff and didn't sit right on her waist. It would pop out the front in a weird way so I am pulling her skirt apart and redoing it with a softer elastic.

I have finished some things over the past few days.

The dragon plushie is done. I ended up not stuffing the arms or ears and going with how he was supposed to be originally. Sewing around the arms, ears and horns were a bit of a pain so I would probably look at changing how those bits come together to make it less of a hassle. The prototype is not bad but not perfect.

I also found a cute little pattern of a basic plushie (hubby says it's the gingerbread man). I was much happier with how that one turned out. There were no instructions for this one (the instruction page was missing), so it was basically figure it out yourself.

Busy Little Squirrel

I've been a bit obsessed lately with plushies. I had heard about them but never really looked into them until I picked up a pattern from Gingermelon, specifically this pattern. I still have a bit of work to do to figure out the errors but these are my first drafts:

Obviously they are not perfect. The bunny was the first attempt and there's a few issues. The bear is my second attempt and was a lot more stable but still having a few issues with attaching the paw parts. On the bright side, I learned what a fell stitch was and I am really loving the blanket stitch. Because the pieces are so tiny, they are all made using handsewing.

They're also ideal for Pullip size dolls.

The Winter Jacket

First up, I got a shipping notice for my Bimong Chuu on Friday, 16th January. I was pretty shocked actually, not only because I ordered a face up with her so expected her to be longer but I ordered her on the 6th January which makes a week and a bit! Fastest shipping ever!

My Nine9Style items also shipped so hopefully they both get here within a few days of each other. Fingers crossed!

Back when BJD Magazine was still running (their website seems to be gone now), they had some pretty awesome tutorials. I am glad now that I printed some of them out but never got around to trying out any of them until today.

I decided I wanted Maiya to have a Winter Jacket as she is the only doll I have here who seems to want to wear a lot of different outfits.

It was super easy (and fast) to make. Handsewn of course, it's the only way I sew these days. I may have to adjust a few of the measurements to make it fit better on her but overall, I am quite happy with the result. I may also try a different fake fur because this one just goes everywhere.

In other doll related news ...

I have my Popodoll 68cm body up for sale on DoA. I also put up Minifee Carl. I'm hoping they sell but I don't know. The market seems really bad right now. I'm also hoping to get up both AOD bodies I have some time this week.

So, if by some miracle, they all sell, I will be down to two full SD sized dolls (DS Saint and Soom Epidos) and five SD floating heads (because I am keeping the AOD heads because of the face up and sculpts.)

I debated getting a new body for Deirdre (AOD Qian) but I am not sure. The only body I found that I liked apparently has major issues with the legs and being able to stand so that was a deal breaker for me. Plus the legs were strung separately and I'm not a fan of bodies that do that. I might re-shell her later down the track or not.

And to end this text heavy post, a photo of Xavier in his new style.

Colour me pink

In my last post, I mentioned that I was working on the sweater for Rune. I am hoping it fits as I am not really sure how much slimmer/bigger she is compared to a Littlefee but at least I completed a sweater with a collar and everything.

Not perfect but it's finished at least. I would have to say the first sweater shirt that I have ever finished.

I had forgotten how relaxing handsewing was. And it's perfect for doll clothing. The fabric was in one of those scrap bins and is slightly stretchy. I love this kind of fabric. The colour, not my first choice but that's probably why it was in the scrap bin!

Trial and Error

The three tier skirt was a disaster so I will have to try that again some other time. However, I did end up having a pretty productive day. I completed a cushion cover for the SDs.

I initially tried using my sewing machine but ended up throwing it in for handsewing instead. My machine and I just don't get along.

I also finished some "chilling out" pants for Deirdre.

Sorting day

I am pretty happy with Maiya's outfit now although I am still undecided on Jade's eyes. I think green is nice on her but maybe something smaller... And I am still thinking Jade's hairstyle needs to be something else. I don't mind that wig but I'm just not sold entirely on it for the character.

I switched their bodies (again) and put Maiya's head on the B-Line body. It's bigger noggin seems to sit better proportionally on that body than the smaller A-Line. Jade's head also looks a lot better on the A-Line than the B-Line. I don't know why her head (modded Shushu dreaming) is smaller than the regular OE Shushu head. It seems weird.

I took a photo of the two sisters together and I have to say, Maiya kind of looks much older than Jade in this shot. It makes me think maybe she might be the older of the two. Which could explain why Jade enjoys a life of freedom whilst Maiya is bound to spend her time learning the mine field of the court at her mother's side. Being groomed to be Valinor's next Queen would be exhausting. And somehow, I don't see Jade's free spirit (and tomboy tendancies) to be well suited to court life. I'm still deciding if I want her to be an archer or a swordswoman.

I also went through my old fabric stash today and came across this:

It's hard to capture on camera but the fabric has a slight sheen to it which is quite lovely. I had bought this ages ago with the intent to make Deirdre a 3 tier skirt but never got around to it. I'm going to use this tutorial as a base for the skirt. If it turns out all right, I might even make one for myself.

I also found a bunch of tutorials on that site that I will use to make more stuff. Obviously I will have to adjust for bjd sizing.

Leggings - Yes! 
Pajama Pants - I could totally see Deirdre wearing these during her downtime. 
Patchwork Quilt - Have always wanted to try my hand at patchwork quilts. And the tiny girls need one.
Grilling Apron - Well, Josef does need an apron being a chef and all.
Rag Rug - How perfect would this be for Kestrel and Wren's room? ...would also look good in my kitchen!

...And that's just to get me started.