Fabric sort out!

I spent hours today trying to sort out all my fabric.  I ironed each piece before photographing it, then folding it ready to be put in individual plastic bags.....I'm trying to organise it so that I know where everything is.  I found brand new fabrics that I'd forgotten I even had!  I ended up taking more than 200 photos, which then had to be uploaded to my laptop, then resized, then each had to have the exposure adjusted because they were a bit 'off' due to having been taken indoors with flash.


Just some of the fabric ready to be sorted and put away!  My poor dolls and sewing machine are practically buried under this lot!!!

Anyway, even after all that, I only made the tiniest indent into the fabric, so have the rest to look forward to tomorrow!!!

With a bit of luck.....

With a bit of luck

A duck

Will come into your life.

When you are at the peak

Of your great powers

And your achievement towers

Like a smoking chimney stack.

There’ll be a quack,

And right at your feet,

A little duck will stand.

She will take you by the hand

And lead you,

Like a child with no defence;

She will lead you

Into wisdom, joy and innocence.

That little duck.

We wish you luck.

Michael Leunig

When the little girls want.....

.....What the big girls have!

Fiona, my 25cm tall Little Fee, wanted a new dress "Just like Meggie's!".  Well Meggie is a Sasha, so quite a bit bigger, but I thought I'd give it a go!  I was going to create a pattern from scratch but thought I'd have a go with an exisiting Sasha pattern and reduce it to fit.  It took quite a bit of reducing but I actually cut straight away into the fabric because I have quite a lot of it and I'm really lazy when it comes to 'trial runs'.....I always think "if it doesn't fit X doll, I'm sure it'll fit someone else here...."  the benefit I suppose of having 'too many' dolls! 

I'm really pleased with the fit.  I think I'll narrow the shoulders ever so slightly on the next one, but apart from that, well she's delighted with it!!!

My Sashas family....

Here is the second installment of the Q&A about dolls, this time it's the turn of my Sasha family:

1. How long have you been in the Sasha hobby?
Since about October 2012 when I started to look for my first Sasha.  I then received my first one, a boy who I called Devon, in early November 2012...he has since moved on.

2. How many Sasha dolls do you have at home?
I now have 13!  How did that happen?  I have 4 Gregors and 9 Sashas.

3. What are their names and type?
Millie - Blond Sasha from 1971
Ellory - Redhead Sasha White Dress from 1979
Alejandro/Alex - Brunette Gregor Dark Jeans Puddle Eyes from 1973/74
Gabrielle - Brunette Sasha Pink Dress with Enhanced Eyes by Shelly from 1979-82
Meghan/Meggie - Brunette Sasha Puddle Eyes from 1973/74
Bailey - Brunette Sasha wide faced from 1971 now wigged
Devlin - Blond Gregor PJs wider face from 1969
Liesl - Gotz Wibke with repainted eyes by Shelly from 2000
Lyric - Gotz 1960s Sasha Slate Eyes blond
Emilio - Brunette Gregor from 1970s, rerooted by me
Jack - Brunette Gregor wider face from 1971, now wigged
Lindt - 1960s Gotz Brunette Sasha slate eyes
Aspen - Sasha Kilt Girl from 1969

4. Which doll have you had the longest? How long has it been?
I've had Millie the longest, it's been about 14 months since I got her!

5. Which doll is your favorite?
I don't like to have favourites but there are some I like more than others!!!!  Lets leave it at that!

6. Are you waiting on any dolls now? If yes, which one(s)?
None.  I'm trying not to add to my dolly family for the time being, so that I can enjoy what I already have.

7. What is your grail doll?
I think that there are several of Kendals girls, particularly her Gotz girls, that would be Holy Grail dolls for me I think!!

8. Did you learn something new because of this hobby?
I have been learning about the history of the Sasha dolls and how they came to be made, I've also been learning how to tell the approximate age of a particular doll.  I've found that there is a lot to learn but it has been fun doing so! 

9. Have you made any friends you might otherwise not have because of this hobby?
Yes, I've met some really lovely lovely helpful people who've pointed me in the direction of dolls that they knew I would love.....You know who you are!!  I've yet to meet them but really hope to do so this year!

10. What are your doll plans for this coming year?
Eventually I would like to have another Gotz girl, I would like a redheaded slate eyes girl to go with my blond and brunette.  I'd also love to eventually have one of the sharp nose Gotz boys too...oh and maybe a toddler!  To be honest, there are sooo many lovely ones that I'd not turn away if they came knocking on my door!!
I am really happy with what I currently have so I'm not desparately hankering after anything at this moment in time.  I would like to add Sasha sized props to my collection so that I can take more interesting photos.  I would also love to make more things for my own dolls as well as for others.....I just need to get myself organised!!

Here is a mosaic of my Sasha family as of today!

BJD Meme

People were being tagged over on Flickr to do a  BJD Meme, so I thought I'd give it a go...I'm going to do two, one for BJDs and one for my Sasha dolls as they are two very different types of dolls!

If you'd like to have a go then please do so, it's great to read about others dolly interests and how they got into the doll hobby!

1. How long have you been in the BJD hobby?
I received my first BJDs in August 2006.  I ordered one from Denver Doll Emporium and then saw one I loved more at Dollmore, so ordered her a week later, they both arrived on the same day!

2. How many BJDs do you have at home?
I have 25;

3. What are their names and sculpts?
I won't list them all because there are too many,  so here is a mosaic I've just put together:

4. Which doll have you had the longest? How long has it been?
Narsha.  She was my first BJD and is still here 7 and a half years later.  She's been through a lot of changes and now has a custom faceup by Raven.

5. Which doll is your favorite?

To be honest I used to say Narsha, but I really love Fiona and Samantha too....in fact I find it really hard to have a favourite!!

6. Are you waiting on any dolls now? If yes, which one(s)?
No, I've not got any BJDs, or any other dolls for that matter, on order at this time!

7. What is your grail doll?
I really don't have a grail doll any more.  I've had them in the past but none at the moment.

8. Did you learn something new because of this hobby?
Yes, I have learned to sew, knit and crochet, although my knitting and crochet aren't great.  I have also learned a lot of other useful crafts along the way!

9. Have you made any friends you might otherwise not have because of this hobby?
Yes, I've met some wonderful people through the dolly hobby and have actually met one of them a couple of times when visiting the UK.  I've also got really really close friends who I speak to every day on-line and they're all over the world!

10. What are your doll plans for this coming year?
I'm inclined not to plan very far ahead when it comes to my dolly hobby, however, I would really love to get some good props so that I can use them in my photos and I'd particularly love to improve my photographic skills. 

The Three Kings....

Tonight is the night when good girls and boys all over Spain leave their shoes by the door for The Three Kings to come on their camels and leave them their presents!!  In the morning, if the children have been good, their shoes will be filled with lots of goodies....but if they've been naughty, they might only be 'lucky' enough to receive a bag of carbon!!!

I was going to blog about my dolls leaving their shoes out but instead I had a nice surprise myself....so thought I'd write about that instead.  The Three Kings came to me early!!!  Brendan and his girlfriend Virginia brought me the cutest present, it is a little muñeca made of foam sheeting and represents me and my five dogs!!!  She is a little smaller than I am at about 12 inches tall and is wearing an exact copy of an outfit I wore to a party back in the summer, even down to the necklace, watch and earrings....even her hair is like mine!! As for the little dogs, they are so cute!  Each one is wearing the exact colour collar of the dog that he/she represents and each has a little name tag attached to their collar!  I'm absolutely delighted with it!

She's made by a lady here in Estepa who also has a page on Facebook if anyone is interested in her work!

Fofuchas de Tere & Cia on Facebook

 

Practising close-ups/portraits....

My husband Brian bought me a lovely new camera for Christmas, it's a Canon EOS 600D and came with two lenses, one of which is a long range zoom one....I hope to get some good scenery photos soon!  I'll be putting my Canon EOS 1000D on ebay soon.

In the meantime, I'm practising getting some close-ups and portraits using my Macro lens which was one of my presents last year.  I haven't used it as much as I should so am rectifying that now!

Here are some photos I took today.  I took them inside with flash, but to eliminate the glare, I wrapped the flash in white tissue paper....I like the effect! 

The only thing with the Macro lens is it shows up every spec of dust and every stray hair that I can't see with the naked eye!

Fiona, Little Fee Ante by Fairyland - Yosd sized, 27cm resin ball jointed

Sunny Song,  Bong Sun Hwa by Elfdoll - 14cm resin ball jointed

Sunny Song is very hard to photograph as she is so tiny and her eyes are very small.  She wears 4mm or 6mm eyes and still you can only see a small part of the iris.

The three Monnaemi Sisters, back row left Minx and right, Twig, both Min del Re sculpts by Elfdoll, but made in different years. Minx has a custom faceup by Raven, Twig is default.  Front row, Sunny Song.  All three girls are 14cm tall with very skinny bodies!

Samantha, Hana Angel by Elfdoll - 20cm resin, ball jointed

For these photos of Samantha, I used ordinary bubblewrap for the background, I love the effect, the 'bubbles' make great 'bokeh' as they are hit by the difused flash.

Finally for today, I took these three photos of Bailey.  I wanted close-ups without the flash making her eyes look flat, plus I wanted to show how sweet she is in her pink fleecey hat and scarf by Dee!

Bailey, 1971 wide faced brunette Sasha wigged with Prince Gregor wig