Calcifer is no longer doing the no-pants dance!

As I mentioned before, Charmander is kind of a larger "bear," and his shape isn't superbly conducive to a lot of things. Pants in particular are a challenge because of his short legs and rather large tail base. Myself, I don't mind him without pants as I don't think they're entirely necessary for him. However, I came across a pair of overalls that I thought I could re-purpose for him. 

I ended up cutting the top off the front and back, and shortening it significantly before reattaching it. I was able to avoid shortening the straps by trimming it off the bottom instead, which worked well. The straps have two different sets of snaps so that you can make them longer/shorter. For this outfit I used them on the longer side just to show a bit more of the stripes beneath since the shirt's collar is already a similar color blue. I think that with any of the other shirts of different colors, I would use the shorter length instead. I made a large tail-hole  that suits him pretty well, and re-hemmed everything aside from the legs.

Overall (pun possibly intended?) I like how they turned out, and I may investigate some additional overall options in the future. I still think pants would be a weird fit on him, but this style works nicely.

More Pokemon Spam!

My apologies for all the Charmander spam, he's just so cute and photogenic! I also spent the weekend working on some clothes for him, which was surprisingly easy and fun. Since he's a larger "bear," he actually more-or-less fits into some infant clothes. I've used some thrifted baby clothes before for bjd clothes, so I thought I'd try it for him as well. Mostly I had to take the hem up quite a bit, but otherwise they work pretty well.

I try to choose items that don't look completely like baby clothes, as I prefer them to more like miniature adult clothes. This shirt does have little side snaps on the neck, but it's not overly noticeable or identifiable as being specifically for a baby. It also helped with getting the shirt over his head, so it's not a bad addition.

This item was actually a jean shirt that I cut the sleeves off of and re-hemmed. I have additional plans for decorating this, but I thought it was cute even in it's base form.

Hipster Charmander liked Pokemon before it was cool... I couldn't resist a little plaid shirt, especially paired with the jean vest. This one was also taken in at the bottom, and might eventually need some trimming for the sleeves. 

The last shirt, which is much more orange in reality than it looks here. I also hemmed this one quite a bit, but otherwise it fits nicely.

Halloween Fun!

I haven't been able to do a lot with the dolls as of late due to my illness kicking up a fuss again, but I was able to do a few small things for Halloween which was nice! I made a costume for work, and a prop for our Halloween decorations which were themed on Hocus Pocus.

The costume was a onesie based on my dog Bear, who is a tri-color Pembroke Welsh Corgi. I have seen a lot of white and tan ones available online, but I really wanted one to match him. This is a picture of him for reference.

A picture of the finished onesie! Very comfortable and warm. I could wear these all day.

This is a picture of the Book from Hocus Pocus, which has always equally fascinated me and creeped me out. 

My version isn't entirely screen accurate, but it was a lot of fun to make!

Shoe Making

 I'm going to be taking St. Christopher with me to our local ren faire for my birthday this year, and I've been working on an outfit for her. I shall post pictures of the finalized outfit soon enough, but I decided I needed to make her some simple shoes.Initially I wanted to make them to be tall boots (hence the first two pictures), but decided I really liked them as booties instead.

And the finished product! They're very simple, but I like that. I used the lace that is present in other parts of the outfit, and the brown felt will work well with the theme (Sort of wood elf/fairy). I do need to make some additional tweaks to the outfit and perhaps make her some wings, but I'm undecided on that yet.

Dolly Haul

A quick dolly haul to round out the week! I'm headed off to a weekend wedding for one of my best friends, so I may be a little delayed in posting on Monday depending upon how busy things get. I should be taking a small "field trip" tomorrow that should provide some blog-worthy fun, but we'll just have to wait and see how everything goes.

Today's haul involves the pretty wood-patterned dress from Anekochan'sdollies (paired with my handmade belt piece and the lace leggings) and a pretty plaid shirt and scarf combo I purchased off DoA.

Dolly Sewing/Dolly Haul: Forest Style

I haven't had a chance to sew much as of late since I've been quite sick, but I'm finally starting to feel a bit better so I managed to get some sewing in!

Some of the new doll's style is greatly influenced by the forest, primarily due to some elements in the story that relate to it. So I've been keeping en eye out for foresty pieces of clothing and accessories. I stumbled upon this dress by anekochansdollies and realized it was perfect. It is shown here in her photo, on a mannequin of sorts as it is custom for the new Resinsoul body. It's fairly simple, which is actually nice as it can easily be accessorized.









To go with this dress, I wanted to find some accessories that were more in the realm of green. I found this pair of lace leggings on DoA, and hemmed and hawed over them for a bit before finally going back and purchasing them. They arrived this week and are quite lovely all around Well made, and they have a distinct "fairy tale" sort of feeling to them. The item pictured on top is what I worked on today to go as a sort of waist clincher/faux corset. Again I wanted something green, with a bit of a whimsical feel. The nice thing is I have plenty of both the plain green and patterned green fabrics left to make some more items with. I think they would actually make a pretty nice dress as well together.

A small detail shot of it!

Dolly Sewing: Crop Top, Plaid Shirt, and Harness

The new girl does tend to wear a lot of dresses, both due to her personal style and my own wish to put her in them. However, she also needs some more laid back elements to her wardrobe both for alternatives and due to story elements. One such item is her plaid shirt, which according to her story she "borrows" from her father. Initially I looked to purchase a shirt, but I couldn't quite find the right one. Most had silver threads or strange designs, which wouldn't do. So I decided to craft my own instead. This was a bit intimidating as I wanted it to be fairly accurate to real plaid shirts (with the various overlaid fabric pieces, cuffs, and working buttons. This is the finished product, which I'm particularly happy with!

The plaid shirt here is shown over the other two items I'v recently made: a white crop top and an elastic harness. I love how harnesses look and feel (I own a few myself!), and I thought it would work well for my girl's style. It's hard to show this without having it on the doll, but this gives you the gist. Once she arrives I will take some photos of her in it as well.

A Fox of My Very Own

But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world....
~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

I recently watched  The Little Prince movie, and I immediately fell in love. I have never read The Little Prince before, but this movie pulled me into its world and convinced me that I need to. It reminded me a great deal of Coraline, and even a bit of Paranorman in some ways although it was created by a different studio. The animation was very well done, the plot and action suited the story, and the music was beautiful. 

The story follows along with The Little Girl who lives in a boring, grey, predictable world. She is struggling with growing up and the pressures her mother places on her future. She meets the Aviator by chance, as the older gentleman accidentally shoots the propeller of his plane into her house. The two connect, and he shares the story of The Little Prince with her. Of course adventures ensue, with a mix of real world and fantasy that come together in a wonderful fashion. If you have a chance to watch it, I absolutely recommend it.

While watching the movie, I was charmed by the fox toy that The Little Girl finds in The Aviator's house. He was very cute, and I have a weakness for fox plushies (as evident by my growing collection of Nick Wilde plush...), so I thought I would try and make my own.  He is a little different than the fox from the film as I couldn't find the exact fabric, and I wanted to tweak a few things. I will also probably switch out the current buttons for something slightly different in the future, but overall I'm really pleased with how he turned out.

I drew up the pattern myself, taking into account that he was mostly a tube with legs and a tail. If I make another one in the future, I will shorten his torso more as I do think it turned out a bit too long. I would also adjust his tail attachment as it currently does not allow him to sit very well. I would also probably add weight to his bottom/legs for this purpose as well. For his back I chose to do nine stars rather than a full coverage pattern as nine is my favorite number and it was simpler to sew a set amount. Overall I think his ears were the hardest part, and I would certainly tweak that part of the pattern in the future.

Some photos for size reference, he's actually quite big! He also does jingle like the fox in the film as I added a small pocket of bells to his head. So when you tilt him this way or that, there's a soft tinkling sound.

Dolly Closet

 Lately I've been suffering from a bout of insomnia that's been bad for my waking hours, but fantastic for cleaning and crafting! The other night I decided I wanted to create a dolly closet of sorts so that I could display the new girl's clothes. This was the 3am brainchild of wrapping paper, a shoe box, a plastic balloon stick, and some felt. Oh, and a lot of double-sided tape. I added the flowers after the fact, and they work well as a stopper for the bar. It's more of a temporary set up, but I quite like how cute it looks. I made the hangers out of cardboard as well, and added some little clips for the skirt. I will be making some more clothes so that hopefully I can fill up the whole "closet" before she arrives.




Another image showing the little shoes on top. I think this looks so cute! I definitely want to make a better executed one with different materials in the future.

Doll Sewing: Starry Night Dress

I just finished making this dress for the incoming girl, and while it's not exactly her style, I'm quite happy with it.

Back of the dress with the cape/train detail.

Rock Bonnets!

Poor Emmanuel is pretty much my guinea pig for everything at this point, but thankfully he's pretty amenable to it. :)  My friend Sara Richard is a fantastic artist, and she often posts sketches of things she's working on. In particular she had been doing a lot of fashion designs lately, and I think these sprung out of that.  She created something she calls the "rock bonnet," which is pretty much what it sounds like.  A bonnet, but done up rock'n'roll style with spikes and chains and all sorts of goodness.  I loved the designs (1,2) and decided to try and bring one into reality.  Sewing in miniature for pattern testing always seems easier (and cheaper!) to me, so Emmanuel became my victim volunteer.

You can sort of see him trying to yank the thing off here... ;)

Art time!

Not doll related, but art related.  My stepsister is graduating this week, and I wanted to give her something special as a gift.  She really loves unicorns, and I thought it might be neat to give her a gift inspired by them.  So this piece is sort of supposed to be reminiscent of the unicorn's horn. I have a little story written up to go with it, about the elusive North American unicorn that sheds it's horn every year like deer do their antlers. So the crystal piece is supposed to be a found piece of unicorn horn (no magical creatures were harmed in the making of this jewelry!).  I still need to make a box and a card, but I thought I'd take a few shots of it with my resident magical creature, a dragon I painted when I was in kindergarten.

Progress!

Tonight was accessory night, and I made Emmanuel a set of rainbow bracelets. I got a little more fabric to work an another shirt as well, but I think that will have to wait until tomorrow.  More to come!

Sewing time!

I'm working on some new clothes for Luna this weekend, and here are some of the results. The shirt isn't done, I think I'm going to crop it a little more and I still need to do some hemming.  I have another dress in the works as well as a pair of pants/shorts.  More to come!

Cosplay Preview- Mini Party Poison!

This is just a preview of the jacket, but since that's a huge part of the costume, it's kind of a preview of the cosplay too. :)  Uri and I have cosplayed as killjoys before, but not with his own real outfit.  Technically we both have our own killjoy personas (Baby Berzerker for me, After Burn for him), but since I have the Party Poison jacket, I wanted a PP cosplay for us as well.  

So this is the jacket I've been working on for the last couple of weeks.  It's based off a pattern from Undead Threads for a trench coat/duster, but I shortened it.  The details were hand sewn in felt, and the Dead Pegasus patch was embroidered on.  It technically still needs the lighter blue strips on the sleeves, but I totally forgot about those when I bought the fabric, and therefore I didn't buy the felt.  So when I hit the craft store next that will be remedied.  For now it's looking pretty good though.  As a note, the jacket actually sits right, I just forgot to fix it for the photos.  So it's not really uneven.

More to come as the cosplay progresses! 

30 Day BJD Challenge- Day 16

16). What is your favorite item of dolly clothing?

I think I have too many to pick one favorite, but here are a few I really like.

This outfit shows two favorite items, the new sweatshirt I referenced in the last post (which I've been wanting forever), and my favorite pair of dolly jeans.  They fit Uri perfectly, and are really nicely detailed.

This shirt is actually Uri's as well, but I don't have a good shot of him wearing it.  It's a copy of a shirt I have, so when we wear them we match.

This was a dress I got off a doll at Goodwill.  Unfortunately the doll was damaged, but she was beautiful.  She was actually made by a local doll maker, and her entire outfit is handmade.  There is an underskirt/petticoat and little bloomers under there as well.  Extremely detailed, and really beautiful.

Mori Uri

Spent last night working on a new mori outfit for Uri.  The bloomers are the same from the previous outfit, the top I made from an old linen shirt I had bought years ago at Goodwill.  I *love* Uri in this style even more than I thought I would.  I can't wait to get some pictures of the two of us together.

A couple of detail shots taken with this cool old trunk my roommate has:

And my little "helper." :)  Bear assumes that any time I'm sitting on the floor I'm free game, so he kept crawling into my lap and knocking my camera out of focus.  So I had to take some pictures of him too.