Dottie.Dollie

Wednesday, 30 September 2015

Sunday, 20 September 2015

Alice

You know that this year marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Alice in Wonderland right?

Well I thought I would make a cloth and clay doll inspired by Alice. She's a little bit quirky, to tie in with all the strange characters that she finds down the rabbit hole, and also through the looking glass.....

Many of those characters have been reproduced on Alice's apron, I hand tinted them to make them stand out nicely. Her blue cotton dress is lined and buttons at the back.

Alice's Illustrated Apron

Alice has stiffened and painted cloth limbs, a soft cloth body, and a hand sculpted Paperclay head and shoulders.

Her legs have hand painted red and cream stripey stockings, and she wears hand made leather shoes.

Alice by Dottie Dollie

Like the real Alice she's off on an adventure, hopefully I can tell you more about that soon.....

Thursday, 17 September 2015

Throwback Thursday.......

......to last Thursday, when the sun shone, and the coast beckoned me away from my work.....

.....and it felt so good

Friday, 28 August 2015

Procrastination.....

You know I have a short attention span right? And I'm easily distracted?

We've had a lot of visitors over the last few weeks, so work has been rather stop:start this makes my mind wander......and a wandering mind leads to work avoidance, and procrastination.....which leads to random new projects!

Yesterday I started something very unusual for me, a dress for myself. I used to make a lot of clothes when I was a teenager, but then I discovered doll making. I'm so used to sewing in miniature, that the long seams on real life clothes seem to go on forever!!!

I had my eye on the Bettine dress from Tillly and the Buttons, it looks so casual, and comfy, especially in jersey

A quick trip to Franklins, my local sewing shop (just a 5 minute walk!), and it was all systems go......

I selected a viscose print, and a printed cotton jersey to get me started.

I had to adjust the pattern a little, to accommodate my large bust, and still wasn't sure if it would fit well, so I decided to make up the jersey first, even though I've never sewn jersey. I figured that the stretch would help, if I hadn't made the new pattern quite big enough....

I found some tips for sewing jersey here, even though I don't have a walking foot, the stretch stitch on my machine seemed to work really well.

The top stitching around the neck band is neat and even, I love the sleeves, the length is good, and the cuffs are a nice touch. I managed to get a neat finish on all the seams, and the neck casing. The adjustments that I made to the width of the pattern worked out well, but the bodice, and the skirt come up rather short, so I will be lengthening both of these before working on the viscose version.

I think this colour is great for Autumn, but it works well with my navy Birkenstocks too, so if we get some more sunny days, it'll still be good to go.....

With a little more adjusting to do, this won't be the last thing that I sew for myself this weekend.

Whatever you're up to this Bank Holiday weekend, enjoy yourself!!

Wednesday, 29 July 2015

Shop Update

We've been dog sitting this week, so with early morning walks, cuddles and playtime taking most of the day I'm behind with listings!!!

There's been so much grey, grey weather too, which makes photography hard.....

But here's the latest brooches over in my Etsy shop right now

Cutie Kewpie Bunny Brooches

Rose Pink - Antique Doll Brooch

Rose Mint Green - German Doll Brooch

Wordless Wednesday

Monday, 20 July 2015

More Unloved Dolls!

All of my doll brooches start life as a broken, discarded doll that never made it out of the factory. Even though they had a tough, unloved start in this world, I love each and every cheeky, chubby face. I feel so lucky to be able to salvage them, and share their cute faces with my customers and followers.

If you fall in love with a face, but would like different hair, eyes, or maybe a hat, please contact me via Etsy, and hopefully we can make your dream dollie too.

I've been working on another little batch of brooches, after a couple went AWOL in the post, and I had some custom orders to complete. Doll faces are quite addictive to make, so a few extras are now on their way to my Etsy shop ......