Home and Us

  We went out the other day and made a few pictures of the lake where we live. It's a private community. It is also gated, which I don't like, but I don't have any choice about that. All in all I do really like it here. We have been here for about 30 plus years, and it's home now for sure. Years ago we bought a lot here and decided to build us something to live in, which we did and it has evolved  over time into a pretty comfortable place. We bought some more lots around us, so we wouldn't get crowed by neighbors to close, and that is nice. It gives you room to breathe and lots of green empty spaces that make home more peaceful and quiet. I think a lot of people ( by today's standards ) would find the house lacking in a few conveniences, like central heat and air conditioning, but we have plenty of heat and air conditioners to keep us comfortable enough. Here is a  picture of me and my husband bobby,  and our dogs, Tootie and Fruity. I have always shied away from getting my picture taken, but why worry about it now. I told my husband to just take a picture of me at my worst. My shirt is on inside out. HaHa   In the weeks to come, I thought I would share some pictures of  our house and us. I have enjoyed seeing other folks pictures of their homes and them doing various things, so I thought I might do that too. The lake is beautiful and it is nice to be near so much water to enjoy.

Fashion Update

I made a few quicky pictures of my fashion. She is evolving steadily. I have her arms ready as well as Henry's arms, but haven't  sewed them on yet. There is always some little something to hold you off a little bit longer before getting everything in place. Look at her hair, isn't it just beautiful. I don't take any credit for that. I bought her hair. It's human and jet black, long and silky. I never had hair as pretty as this. My husband likes it down, but I still am hoping for a fancier hair do. she has delicate hands with stitched fingers, but they are not like an Izannah doll. I can't describe them, but you will see them soon enough. they are very dainty, but not tiny. She has an hour glass figure, big heavy upper legs, and fat shorter feet. She will need  hefty shoes for them.  I have decided on cream colored gauzy fabric for the underslip  and vintage cream to yellowish dotted swiss lace fabric. this particular fabric is hard to find, but I lucked up on a bunch of it awhile back. It was in huge curtain panels. I could never have bought enough fabric or found this on a bolt anywhere. Anyway, this is the plan. I have been looking for patterns, but nothing is anywhere near as big or fat in the chest and shoulderplate as she is. I'll keep looking though. I'm not sure I could, without tons of trouble, change the pattern to fit her from what it is originally. Henry is telling me that he is in the picture too. He also is coming along very well. His arms will be finished soon, and on to making him some clothes too. He is a sweet boy, but a little more grown up than I planned. Isn't that the way of doll making, or is it not enough planning or experience on my part to know how and what I need to do to get just the right look. I don't think I will ever have that kind of experience, and maybe it's better. My mistakes brings good things sometimes too. Have a happy doll making weekend and we will be posting some pictures of the lake and  some pictures of ourselves ( ouch ) on my next post.

Making a French Fashion doll

A very sweet girl I know loves black dolls. She loves all dolls, but has a huge collection of black dolls of all kinds and sizes. she mentioned to me that I might try to make her a black French fashion doll. Well...I began to try to search out pictures of the black french fashions, and through all my looking I found only about 3. Pictures abound of the white fashion dolls, but not so the black ones. I never saw one that I could really use, so I began to sculpt a beauty of my own, based on a white fashion. This doll is made of cloth. The head is another molded cloth head that I used to make this girl, or should I say Lady, so, this is the only one I have of her and no mold to make any others. I have bought her a black human hair wig that has long curls. I debated about a platinum colored skin wig, but decided it might be to modern, and we don't want modern, we want antique with all the frills. If you have looked at many fashion dolls, you probably have seen them with an empress wig, it is a wig that has curls piled on top of the head and long curls down the back, that is what I wanted, so we will have to try to style her hair that way. The hair is very silky and smooth, so I don't know how that will work out. For the moment I put cut off safety pins in her ears to keep my holes open for her real earrings she will have. Road block after road block has appeared before me on this doll, mainly, the leather arms. the body suit, the clothes and hat, and the French fashion shoes she will need. She needs all sorts of extras like a corset, a bustle, stockings and her jewelry. I am leaning toward Pink silk stripe fabric, as I think that would be very French. I just decided to put up her picture and one more of another doll I will talk about in a moment. This has and will continue to be a long undertaking. I stepped way out of my comfort zone on this doll. HaHa, but I am determined she will be the toast of Paris.   The other doll shown here is Henry. Henry is not finished yet, he still needs his lambskin wig, and a few other things. He is a sweet boy that the same girl wanted to go with her Izannah family she already has. Henry has been good and caused me absolutely no trouble and I will reward him with a set of clothes that includes a pretty white  shirt of vintage dotted swiss fabric that has big tuffs of cotton all over. I just love that stuff. If anyone has any suggestions about clothes, please tell  me, I am not very knowledgeable about lots of clothes, and I need to get the best dress I can for my fashion doll.

Learning to make shoes

  I have wanted to learn to make shoes for a long time. When the doll is made with barefeet, it is, while not necessary, nice to have them a pair of good shoes to wear to finish off their outfit. Most of the people like the barefeet, so that is what I make the most. There is a pattern I found that makes a cloth shoe that looks like the old fashioned hightop boot. By changing the pattern some, I made it smaller with snaps on the inside to close the flap securely for putting on and taking off the boots. The buttons on the outside are for show,  and do not work.  I wanted to use the old shoe buttons, but they have to have button holes. The snaps are easy, hidden on the inside of the shoe and it is so easy to put the shoes on. One of the dolls has on the first pair of shoes I have made, the other doll will get some too, but maybe a little shorter on the calf of the leg. It took me days and days to figure out the adjusted pattern pieces and I know I can improve on these with time, but atleast I have a start. The pictures of these two dolls are dressed up for the UFDC National Convention. The little shoes are not really hard to make once you get the pattern right. You cut two pieces of each part, sew together, turn outside in and sew up the hole. there are 4 pieces, the sole, the flap, the heel and the toe piece. I did put in a hard cardboard sole on the inside of the shoe that sits on top of the cloth sole. It was smooth white and looks good and keeps the shoe sole rigid and correct. The inside piece of cloth is your liner of the shoe. I made my shoes black this time, but in the future, they can be brown, white or mixed colors, also I learned to gesso the outside of the shoe white first to keep the acrylic paint from bleeding in to the liner. the last step is to polish your boots with regular shoe polish that you put on, let dry and buff off. This needs to be done several times. this gives a soft skin and the look and feel of real leather.

 I do think that most people would like for their dolls to have a pair of shoes like this, especially the Izannah dolls, so I will have to keep working to make different size patterns to fit larger feet.

Izannah Dolls headed to the UFDC Convention

One day I'm gonna break up my writing and picture showing style, but for now this will have to do. You have heard people say they can't do two things at once, well that's me. I have to do one thing at a time. I was making some dolls, just extra dolls, not for anyone in particular, and I talked to a lady who is going to the UFDC Convention in Washington DC. this year in July. She is going as a vendor this year, so she has lots of time for selling dolls. She makes porcelain dolls and she is a doll appraiser. She is going to take these girls to the convention. I am getting ready to make their clothes. I tea stained some cream calico fabric and will make two dresses just alike for these two, unless another color seems to look better on one of them. They are nice big hefty dolls about 22" tall with comfortable bodies, The upper legs have been weighted to help even out the overall weight. I imagine they will weight about 2 lbs each. I like these dolls, they each have been finished out in the rougher, more worn and aged look. If they are not old when I start working on them, they are definitely older when I get through. A few sessions with me and my nifty dental pick will do that to any doll. Bless their little doll hearts. I will post some pictures of their ( going to the big convention clothes )

 as soon as I'm done.

Katherine's Izannah Doll

I made a doll for a very sweet and gracious lady named Katherine. She wanted an Izannah doll that looked old and had the same sweetness and personality that Izannah Walker was able to give her dolls. Well, that is a tall order. To me Izannah Walker was unique and very gifted to create and bestow on her dolls an aura of  quiet sweetness that we don't see on other dolls. In the folkart paintings of long ago you do see the small children and their pets who are precious in there innocence, quaint clothes and backgrounds. I did my best to make such a doll.

Izannah Rag Doll Pinkeep

 I made, or thought I made a normal headed rag doll to give to a friend of mine, but something happened. Somewhere along the way, the pattern went wonky and this girl came out with a small head and tiny neck.  ( what happened? ) HaHa. I started to discard the doll altogether, but she was kind of cute after I got her painted, so I made a pinkeep out of her. I intended to make a good rag doll with the gusset in the head to make the head deeper, but ended up with this doll. She will be a faithful helper to any person who sews, keeping the pins at the ready all the time. Her dress is a really old calico that I have no idea where or when I got it. I made some adjustments and put it on her with her quilted pinkeep. She do

es boast a pretty slip underneath her dress too.

Mona Lisa's new dress

Here is Mona Lisa all dressed up. I can't make straw bonnets, so I made a cloth matching bonnet for her. The dress is antique reproduction blue calico. I saw it on Silent Stitches web site and just loved it. Her underwear is cotton with cotton lace with no ageing at all. I thought the white against the dark blue would be pretty. the lace is a little tan though. This waist line on the dress is my own design. It has a double waist band, and gathered top with a narrow collar around top. I am not a seasoned seamstress, but we have much improved in our clothes making and are venturing out to a little more complicated dresses. Friday we went to the Highway 11 flea market. We traveled about a 20 mile strip. It is fun and I always enjoy it. I found some cotton lace, some small vintage doll clothes, sewing thread, twine, and a bunch of toys for the kids. I also found what I think was a bedspread, but it is super thin and the designs on it are faded and some worn off.  I think it will make some good slips, or some rag doll dresses. Happy doll making to you all through out

 the summer.

Standing Bears

 After looking at lots of bears over time on ebay and other blogs, I decided to get a pattern and try to make some. I got the sitting bears and standing bear patterns from Sweet Meadow Farms. The pattern is nice and not to difficult to do, or else I wouldn't have been able to make them. I made simple primitive country bears out of osnaburg, as with no experience in bear or animal making I needed to keep it simple, but I will say, that I do really like them a lot, even though they don't have fur. The sitting bear is cute, but I really like the standing bears. They seemed to have more character to me, I guess it's in the head shape and they are so cute just standing there. Here are pictures of the two I finished. I have another, but it is still naked.

My little Sweetie Belle

  I have another little beauty made by Sherri Farley who I have named  " Sweetie Belle ".  As many of you know,  Sherri's blog site is Make Do Dolls, and you can see many wonderful cloth Dolls, cloth Animals,  as well as,   doll chairs she has for sale,  and she makes ornaments from molds which are so special. I like George and Martha Washington in particular. This little doll I now have is a black cloth doll filled with cedar sawdust, and has a hand stitched face. Sherri knows I like red dresses and so she made Sweetie Belle a beautiful, perfect fitting Red dress, a special multicolored petticoat, and her chemise and pantyloons. A

long with the doll, Sherri sent a cotton bale that is the perfect size for my doll to sit on to watch our comings and goings everyday. She is sweetness itself, meet and quiet and such a treasure. This little cotton bale is a lot like the huge 500 lb. bales that used to be baled up around here, as we have many gins around here. they are no longer in business as big commercial companies now do all this work. Some of the buildings do remain for us to see. I do need to make my little girl a sunbonnet and although she has a little friend for now, perhaps a baby of her own. Thank you Sherri for this little special doll and for making me see by looking at her work, that when I make dolls or clothes I need to go the extra mile to get perfection like she does.

Izannah Dolls

Two Izannah Dolls, different heads, different look, but with the same painting technique on each.  These are new molds, and I like both of them. I described these dolls as having been primitively painted, but in reality, while this process for these two was short, it required restraint on my part, and knowing how to stain and then apply finishing touches. You can get a fine polished look by sanding and painting and repeating the process a lot, and some dolls need this, but these two were painted in three steps taking only about a good week to finish. First, I gessoed the doll, then, without sanding at all, I painted one coat of oil paint and let dry, then I began the distressing, using a super gentle sanding over one time, then taking my tools,  I distressed my girls as much as I thought they needed, with various tools, such as a dental pick, and turning the sandpaper on edge to get better splitting. After all this was done, which only takes a few minutes, I mixed up my oil stain using burnt umber oil paint and Ivory black oil paint, and mixed this in cold pressed linseed oil. Once the stain is put on and rubbed off, I went back with my paint and applied heavy flesh color where needed, touched up the eyes, worked on tweeting out the mouth and cheeks, which on the cheeks you have to be careful using not to much paint, and a very dry brush. the texture of the cloth on the doll is rough, but the extra buildup of paint in certain areas, gives the appearance of old paint that has not began coming off yet, atleast this is what it looks like to me. I don't think you can appreciate the look of the doll with just the head, but it needs the whole body painted in the same way and appropriate clothes to get the full effect of a old looking doll. My experiments continue and I am still learning new things I can do on the dolls. These instructions are for anyone's benefit and hopefully you will be inspired to try some ageing on your dolls.

Mona Lisa

This is Mona Lisa, a 19" Izannah doll. She has a molded cloth head, stitched fingers, applied thumbs and ears and painted boots, also an aged sateen second skin. She has been undergoing ageing experiments for quite a long time, but now I am satisfied she is good. I actually think she is beautiful. I'm not totally done, as I have to touch up arms and legs, and paint out and polish her boots, and of course make her some clothes. I have not ever mentioned this before in my blog posts, but if there is any interest in this doll, I will be happy to talk about it, as my husband needs a new lawn mower, and I will have to help him pay for it. She will be reasonable, and not listed at an outlandish price. It takes me a long time to make clothes, and lots of people want to get or make their own clothes, so if I don't have to make the clothes, it is easier for me. email is Martha@maboriginals.com