Long Hot Summer....and not over yet!

It has been a long time since I posted on here, I apologise for that....I didn't have the heart for it back in July when we lost our little dog and then things just got busy!  I threw myself into sewing for a while and time just rushed by.  I can hardly believe that we are almost at the end of September already.  

The weather here continues to be beautiful and sunny but you can tell that it is 'Autumn' because of the change in the quality of light and the way the sun doesn't stay as long on the one spot that I like to sit in to catch a few rays on my deck 🌝

Back to the sewing though.  I did a trade with a dolly friend in the UK, she sent me a cute doll that she no longer wanted and I made outfits for two of her dolls.  The doll I received is Winona by the American artist Connie Lowe.  I wasn't sure that I would like the doll at first, but when she arrived I really liked her face.  I wasn't over keen on her body shape, she has a very big tummy, but I can work with it.  Here are some photos of her, she hasn't got a name yet...maybe she will just be called Winona.

This is how she looked when she arrived.

I didn't think the red wig did her any favours so I changed that and her eyes.  I saw her as being an Asian child and decided to give her brown eyes....it's funny but most of my BJDs seem to end up with  brown eyes, regardless of their ethnicity, I just love brown eyes.

I don't think this girl is pretty but I do think she has an interesting face.  For me pretty dolls are great, I love how they look but sometimes....sometimes they're just that, pretty..and pretty sometimes gets boring, so hopefully this interestingly faced little girl will have lots of adventures here with me in sunny Spain.

So here are some of the outfits that I made for the trade, the first ones are for the little Olivia doll by Helen Kish.  Olivia is one of my favourite dolls and it was nice to sew for her for a change, even if my own Olivia didn't get to keep the outfits!

Summer dress with short socks....

Striped overalls in pale blue and white, with gingham 'accents', red cropped tee shirt and head scarf...

Skirt in lovely Japanese print fabric, with white with pink hearts knit 'body/leotard' and short striped socks...
 

Machine embroidered smock type dress with matching loose shorts underneath...

The next two outfits are for my friend's new Kaye Wiggs Missy doll so my KW tanned Layla, being the same size, is modelling for me....

First we have a simple summer dress with a simple ribbon bow for her hair....

And finally my friend liked the Japanese print so much that she asked if I could make something for her Missy in the same fabric.

This outfit consists of skirt, short sleeved tee shirt, hoodie with front zip opening and socks....

Another of my lovely dolly friends got her first BJD recently and she had nothing in this size for her new girls.  I made the following outfits for her....her doll is off having a new face up at the moment so she's not able to wear them until she is all put back together again, but hopefully she'll be happy with the fit.

Firstly this little dress which I actually made by downsizing a Sasha pattern!

 
 Then I made this outfit for a boy doll....Tyrone, my tanned Little Fee Ante is my 'boy' model!

My friend wanted a tutu and so I cheated and made this 'no sew' tulle skirt with printed tee shirt and ankle warmers....

I believe I made some other things too, but it's possible I forgot to photograph them!

Another dear dolly friend of mine in the UK got some gifts for her girls...a flowery summer dress....

Flowered shorts and machine embroidered tee shirt....Shorts are made of cotton pique.

Shorts have a big bow on the back....

I also made the same shorts in a spotted cotton pique too....but forgot to photograph those.

Finally I made an outfit for one of my own girls, well actually I made this first but never got around to showing it on here!!

Erin, my Harucasting Eminor, got herself a nice summer outfit consisting of shorts and cotton top....

I have more doll news but will keep that for another post.  I hope you've all enjoyed seeing my girls modelling for me and that you've enjoyed your summer :) 

Thanks for visiting, big hugs Sharon xxx

A little bit of sewing......

As the interest in my dolls has started to come back, so has my urge to sew for them again.  Over the last week or so I've made a couple of dresses for the Little Darlings which I showed in my last blog post and now I've made a few outfits for my BJDs (ball jointed dolls) so I thought I would share the BJD outfits here.  

First of all I decided to make a summer dress for Angel, my tanned Ziya by Youpladolls, using a pattern that I've had here for many years as it came from a doll magazine back in about 2008.  I've used this pattern many times in the past but hadn't done so recently.  It is a pattern designed by Zozolala, the Dutch doll seamstress and I thought it would be a nice style for Angel.

I decided to add a frill to the bottom of the dress using a contrasting fabric which I also used for the shoulder straps. 

The bodice is a little loose on her but I like how it hangs.  The pintucks are a nice feature and add a bit of interest to the bodice.

  
Next, using a pattern from Tirin & Katten, I made a summer dress for my Eminor from Harucasting.  The pattern comes in many sizes and I decided to use the biggest size, designed for the MSD Imda 4.3 and increase it by 10% as Eminor has a slightly bigger bust than the Imda.  

I decided to leave the hem with a raw edge, just for fun and then to wet the dress and screw it up and twist it about a bit!  I love how this style suits her so much.  I've never thought of Eminor as a girlie girl,  but she certainly looks it in this style of dress with her hair loosely piled up on her head and her little brown Mary Jane shoes.  I think I need to make more dresses for her now!!!
 

Sorry about all the similar photos of her but I just couldn't choose as I love this girl so much!

And finally today, I made a dress for Anais, my Annic by Irrealdolls.  Anais is just 22 cm tall and very slim.  I decided to use the same pattern for her as I used for Eminor above but this time I would try the pattern for the Imda 2.2 size doll.  I measured Anais's chest and established that she had approximately the same chest size as the Imda 2.2 and went from there.

I think that next time I would slightly increase the size of the pattern before cutting it out....maybe by about 5 percent and also slightly increase the length of the bodice.  I think that a bodice that sits a little bit lower down rather than right under Anais's small bust line, would hopefully eliminate some of the bulkiness.  

The bodice in this size is quite tiny and fiddly to work with and being fully lined doesn't help, but I'm pleased with how it came out.  I used quilters cotton for this dress but the pattern does suggest that finer fabric would work well, so I might see what I have that's thinner for next time.  Also, I ironed the gathers down as suggested in the pattern, I think I'd want to do that a bit differently too as I don't like how some of the gathers are hanging here.

I also have another idea for an outfit for Eminor, this time using the bodice part of the pattern and instead of making it into a dress, using it as a summer top....and adding some shorts.  Hopefully I will make a start on that tomorrow.

Watch this space!!!

I hope you've enjoyed seeing a little of what I've been up to on the dolly sewing front.  Thanks so much for visiting and I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Big hugs, Sharon in Spain xxx

Introducing Harucasting Eminor...

Last night my husband returned from almost a week in the UK spent with his family and grandchildren.  I stayed home to look after the dogs!  Whilst Brian was over in the UK I arranged for him to meet up with my lovely friend Sue so that she could give him my Eminor by Harucasting that I recently had sent to her from the artist in South Korea.

Without further ado, here is the lovely girl!  (Sorry that the photos are a little repetitive!)

Eminor is named after the artist's favourite chord apparently!  

 Her resin colour is called Soft Tan and it is very light and creamy. 

Her beautiful faceup is by the Russian artist Blisslacosta, I love those freckles which actually are on her forehead too, but only lightly.

The wig I had in mind for her was too big, so she is currently wearing this one which is the colour I wanted for her and very close to the style I had in mind.

Eminor has small eye sockets and she needs to have eyes with a low dome.  I wanted brown eyes but those I had were not suitable because of the dome size, so having made these a while ago from resin, I tried them and they fit perfectly.

Eminor comes with two pairs of hands, a pair like the one shown in the photos below.....

And a second pair that are more open hands....I've not tried those on her yet.

She is wearing a raglan sleeved tee shirt that I made some time ago with no-one in particular in mind, and it fits her perfectly.  She is also wearing a pair of 'aged' jeans that I've had for ages, they also fit her which is great because up until now I have been justifying keeping them as they fit no-one!!!!

Now all she needs is a name!  I will take more photos of her posing soon, she poses beautifully.  I will also try to do some comparison photos with other MSD sized bjds that I have here.

Have a lovely Easter weekend, I hope the weather is good and the sun shines down on you.

Big hugs Sharon in Spain xxx

Rainy Day, Dolly Play...

This morning we woke to rain and as the day went on, so the rain got heavier, to the point that we needed our lights on in the middle of the day!  It doesn't rain that often here in southern Spain but when it does, my goodness does it rain!

I'd planned on taking some outside photos but with the awful weather that wasn't to be, so I decided to set up my indoor 'studio' lights and the second backdrop that I received a couple of months ago from Ebay.  You may remember I posted about the first of the two backdrops here:  

If-you-go-down-to-woods-today   

So the second backdrop arrived and was more similar to the first one than I remembered but that wasn't a problem as they are very cheap.  It needed ironing as, like the first one to arrive, it had been folded down to fit into a smallish envelope.  I used my iron on a cooler setting as the backdrops are sort of plasticised fabric, and I didn't want to burn it.  This one is not as good as the first one though as it has paint/printing missing on the creases, but I guess for the cheap price, what could I really expect! 

I have been changing some of my ball jointed dolls into warmer clothing, so thought I'd use the backdrop to take some photos of the girls in their winter wear.  I attached the backdrop to the wall with poster tack and then, as suggested by Sandi of Xanadu Dolls blog I used the ironing board as the 'table' for the dolls to stand on, and I set up the two photographic lights on their tripod stands.

First to have her photo taken was my Fairyland Mini Fee tanned Chloe, with her German Shepherd dog.....I think there is too much light in this photo but when I turned off the lights, so there were shadows created which made the backdrop look very artificial.  The backdrop has sunrays coming from the top left hand corner as you can see.  This is supposed to represent sunshine coming through the trees.  I believe it looks too artificial and unnatural....(any suggestions gratefully received!!!)

Next up we have Dylan, my Little Cosmos Dolls Robin, wearing a different wig.  I'm not sure it's 'her' but will keep it on for a while.  I think I'll probably go back to the red plaited wig in the end!

Riley Mai, (Ppinkydolls Malisa) hasn't had any camera time in ages, so I took a few photos of her too.  I changed her eyes from brown to these two toned, blue/green eyes.   I'm actually thinking of changing her body from her original resin one to a hard plastic Pure Neemo one....so watch this space! 

 

This poor girl hasn't had a change of clothes in probably a couple of years!!!  So I think that'll be my job for the next few days, find her another outfit that suits (and fits!) her!

Next up we have tiny little Marley, (Tanned Meng version 4 by Secretdoll) who I had been thinking of selling as I couldn't 'bond' with her.  I decided to change her wig and eyes and as soon as I saw her in this wig so I realised just how cute she is, she just hadn't found her 'style'!!!.....she will be staying!!!

Finally we have Gala (Adori in Milky tan by Harucasting).  Gala has had several changes of clothing over the summer but I kept forgetting to photograph her.  But now she is in her winter outfit looking all cosy and warm!

I think what I've learned this photo session is that the studio lights are great for eliminating the shadows behind the dolls but I've come across other challenges.  The dolls look a little bit pale and washed out and the colours do not 'pop' like outside photos do for me.  Also, the tripods on the lights are not really tall enough for the dolls when they are standing on the ironing board, I need to take it all a little lower.  So here we have two studio lights, one on either side of the dolls, and an overhead spotlight bulb in the ceiling.  I didn't use the flash in any of these photos, so it really is purely the studio lights. I think I need to find a way of defusing them!  

Well I hope you've enjoyed seeing some of my little girls today.  I will change some more soon and take more photos....hopefully the weather will be dry and I can go back to taking them outside.

Have a great week ahead!

Big hugs Sharon xx