Surprise....I'm also working on the coral dress again

I finished up (a bit) on the coral dress.... I know, I hop around more than the Easter Bunny...  I must have trouble focusing everything is shiny thing...  So, here's where I am on the Coral dress:

For the bodice, I want to make it from a stretch mesh and applique a painted coral from the skirt fabric onto it.  All is well, except I've misplaced the fabric paint.  Ugghhh.... here I go again.  Too many projects at once.


I also want to make a "peasant" dress -- what that will entail, I'm not too certain, but I've sketched something out and I'm going to scrounge up fabric from my craft area -- should be interesting.

A couple years ago, my daughter did a photo project, it was with a portfolio theme of "fairy tales" -- the characters were "re-imagined".  I made a dress for Alice -- Alice in wonderland -- I want to try to recreate something like that for a doll -- I'll see how it works....  Neither Agnes nor Adriana are the "right" age for such a dress.  I remember wanting a Dollstown doll and had I gotten one, it would have been perfect for Momo!! (That Dollstown Momo was just so cute)  -- If you are unfamiliar definitely google Dollstown Momo.

Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately) -- I need to put some of my dolls stuff on hold and work on a quilt for my youngest daughter.

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I was killing time today and came across this!

It is the first ceramic one that I have come across, so I had to have it!

It has a small chip on the leg -- there were no more...  Want it anyway!  Of course it would be on the side I'm photographing!

The white spot on the rear leg is the chip....  

Hey my CP (crappy photography) is what makes my blog "charming" -- ;)

It is the perfect size.  Why didn't I just photograph the other side you ask??  Well, worse than the chip is this giant paper sticker that says this container is not suitable for food consumption... It is all over this thing... really who would have used this and for what type of food???  I think it's original purpose is to put soaps or bath beads...   Adriana loves it (or I should say I love Adriana in it!)

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This is where I am on the orange feather dress....

More "progress" -- I've added feathers... there are a total of three rows.  Long, then medium then short feathers.... I still need to trim the feathers and the bodice needs work... I got to working on this and well, I know I have others that need to be finished, but I must have a hard time focusing (Oooohhh, shiny thing.... and I'm on to something else.)

I will finish the beading on the yellow dress, it was late at night and my eyes were too tired for that so I figured I'd work on something else.

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I'm still working... I've been cramming in a lot, but I actually found

some free time and Adriana helps take my mind off things, so I finished the waistband of her skirt, added a hook and eye closure and started staking out where I want the feathers -- so they lay correctly.  I have the feathers sorted into 3 sizes.  I'm starting with the longest.  They will be placed mid-skirt and cover the tail of the skirt.  Then medium and then small to hide the top of the plume!

Now that I've started applying feathers, I'm not sure if this is a scene out of follies bergere or something I saw my grandmother dusting with (the old feather duster) -- either way, I rather like it thus far.

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As promised... My most "unique" fashion doll

I remember reading that she might have been from the French caribbean islands -- when they saw fashion dolls and attempted to make something similar.  Is it an antique? -- I have no way of knowing. At the very least, it is a primitive leather fashion doll.

She is quite primitive -- really a great doll though.  I got her at the Florida Fair grounds.  I remember the guy didn't take credit cards and I didn't have enough cash... -- I "found" a check I had stuck in my purse for something else (I thought it was fate -- so I bought her) -- never regretted that moment.  I think she was $100.  I really wanted her, I didn't even barter, I said "I'll take it." -- then the guy got nervous -- he said "what do you know about the doll?"  Honestly, I answered "Nothing, I just like it." -- He thought I secretly knew he had some kind of treasure and wasn't saying, but my reply set his mind at ease.

I really don't know anything about this doll, other than I like it and the stitching is very similar to french fashion dolls.... where the seams are placed, yet it is very primitive.  She does have applied thumbs and applied ears.  She eyes are inset under the leather.  Her pate is like a muslin material.

She' a petite beauty with separately stitched fingers.

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Giving some thought to "fashion dolls"

This came up because I'm on a quest.  To find my fashion doll "collection" if you will.  There are many talented artists out there.  I love, love, love the work of so many of them...  I have to save and wait and save and wait, but in the end it will all be worth it.  The doll I'm working on getting now, I've been saving since November.  Once she is acquired, I will work on the next one.

I have to chuckle when people say Barbie was the first fashion doll.  Well, yes and no.  The first American fashion doll that was mass produced is probably accurate.  Even so, wasn't there Jan and Kitty Collier and some others??

I'm not a "fashion doll blogger" so, I really don't get wrapped up in who came first.  Speaking from my own experience, I owned Barbie (and Francie and Kelly (I think that was her name and it wasn't the little doll they have now-- it was in the Barbie family) and Tammy -- not Mattel) as a child -- I loved those dolls.

I digress....

Back in the late 80's I became somewhat obsessed with antique fashion dolls when I walked into a store and there I saw it... A headless doll.  I knew I had to have it.  I asked the woman and she apologized for not having a head.  I wanted it any way.  So it started.  (This was back before EBAY when you had to find a person who specialized in dolls, etc.)

Here's a pic of that doll now.  (I keep her under a bell jar on a dresser).  I searched in vain for a head for years -- news flash more bodies survive than heads -- so there are a lot more of them looking for heads than the other way around!  So here she sits, but she is always an inspiration.  I think of the finery she must have had at some point.

Amazing detail... individual stitched fingers, stitched toes.

She's got patches/repairs to her but her kid is taut and well stuffed (I'm assuming cork) -- They don't make 'em like this any more.

I was also thinking of another "fashion doll" I have.  I once saw a similar one in a magazine -- I've never seen one before or since...  

Please revisit my blog, I'll try to get some photos of her posted.

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Had a thought... about butterflies???

Don't know why -- and I'm usually not the type -- I had a thought/dream for a dress that involved butterflies....

It wasn't a childlike butterflies all over type of thing, it was a sheer material with square/quadrants -- each one "trapped" a small butterfly.  My thought was how would one make the butterfly?? feathers? painted? embroidered? -- some other method??

I'll sketch this and leave on the way back burner....

As I sketched it (fast and dirty -- the only sketching I can do)  When-- I thought maybe the little butterfly should look like it just landed and it is perching on the fabric...

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