a few of my favorite pics from the new sweaters posted.
nice and cozy
who says you can’t be cute and warm?
i made my first sale on etsy this week. you wouldn’t think it would be that big of a deal. i’ve been selling bears and patterns for almost 20 years now. but this is a new direction for me and hopefully a change in what i’m doing. bjd’s allow me to incorporate so many more crafts than anything i’ve ever done before. i can knit, crochet, sew, quilt, bead, needle-felt, woodwork.. well you get the idea. for someone with craft add they are perfect! i can keep changing without switching hobbies all the time 😆 anyway i sold a hat this week and hopefully it’s the first of many
i’ve been working like crazy on a new line for my minifees. we’re going to lake louise later this month and i want to take a bunch of clothes along and do a photo shoot in and around the chateau – depending on the weather of course. ananda got a new face up in preparation. poor girl fell and chipped her’s earlier this fall. and i desperately need to figure out how to fix ember and shaelyn’s bodies so that they will pose properly before then. if anyone has any ideas on how to fix recalcitrant minifee bodies please post suggestions in the comment section!
i finally managed to join in on an adoption meme going round on flickr. i got tagged just before we went on holidays but since there were people still doing it, i figured better late than never. basically it works like this. you take a group picture of your dolls or make a collage of them, whichever works better (due to the widely disparate size of mine i figured the collage was a better bet) then people look at the dolls and decide which of them they would like to adopt if they could pick one without changing anything, and vote for their choice in the comments section. each person that joins in is then “tagged” to do the same with their crew.
so this isn’t all my dolls, since several of them are undergoing revision right now and are in pieces but they are the ones available for photos
top row left to right: smidge, mr tumnus, beezie, amberglas
2nd row: noah, skylar, crystalorn, kiri,
3rd row:eilidh, tiera, cailyn, quinn
bottom row :becca, ananda, shaelyn, ember
who would you pick if you could take one just as they are?
here’s a quick comparison of ember and shaelyn, taken together ’cause someone commented that the girls looked a lot alike. when you see them together the similarities are mostly superficial – they both have heart shaped faces, but not much else the same.
they haven’t been getting a lot of camera time lately. both of them are on really gimpy bodies that need fixing but i’ve had a lot of time and health issues this year and haven’t been able to attend to theirs. hopefully we will get that cleared up one of these days, because they both are lovely girls and deserve more time.
at the last minute i decided i didn’t like the way the skirt was going so remade the fabric and started over. the bodice was right but i changed the skirt ruffles around
and i redid the underskirt as well to give it an airier and less substantial feel
i had major problems convincing ember to pose properly. she looks very awkward when standing.
i learned how to make a collage in photoshop to focus in on the details
and since she hated standing we did her glamour shot sitting down, which i think was particularly effective
once again i took a break from making the dress to work on something else, in this case beading a necklace to go with it. after several attempts that yielded nice necklaces that just didn’t work with the dress i finally made one that i think will work
the white looking beads are actually clear aurora borealis beads and look much prettier in person. even if it doesn’t end up working with this dress i am happy with the result
i love doing face ups and seeing how i improve with practice, but always hated adding the lashes ’cause i just couldn’t seem to get the hang of it. it would usually take half an hour of fighting and glue everywhere! not to mention i would be unhappy with the result. so when trying on a dress caused ember’s lashes to come partly unstuck i decided to try andreja’s method and it worked amazingly. who would have guessed that cutting them in pieces and using tweezers instead of trying to push a full length strip into place with a toothpick made such a difference. less than a minute per eye and i have perfect lashes!
for anyone else who would like to see how she does it here is a link to her video
i decided to go with the underskirt idea to add the bottom ruffles. i made a net underskirt with just enough volume to allow movement and gathered it to a waistband, which i finished with a hook and sewn eye.
the skirt is raised in the front so that it is easier to walk without stepping on it, and flares to a slight train in the back
next step will be to finish the top…
i started on the skirt for the dress. the first layer of skirt ruffle is done, and that is the end of my “art quilted” fabric. i’m happy with how it is coming out so far. i made the ruffle to be flat in front and increasing in fullness to the back. i’m thinking now i may make the rest of the ruffles as a separate skirt so that the dress can be worn long or short. as long as i keep the top part narrow and soft, it shouldn’t wreck the lines of the over skirt.
it is just pinned in place at the back as i still haven’t decided on the closure and also need to add the top ruffle.