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

First sewing of 2019...

Today I finally got to doing a bit of sewing for my dolls, having spent the first month of the year doing all sorts of other things apart from dressing my dolls.  

So I thought I'd make a knit dress, with hat and socks for Dylan, my Robin by Little Cosmos Dolls.  I chose this blue knit fabric which is printed with little fox heads because I think blue looks lovely with her tan skin tone.  The fabric is actually from a pair of pyjama trousers which I bought from our local Lidl late last year.  The striped fabric is from a baby onesie and fortunately matches the printed fabric perfectly.

In other news, I've sold 4 dolls in the last few weeks but still have a way to go....and am still dragging my feet.  My son is coming over for a visit from Wednesday but when he has left again, I promise that I'll pull my finger out and get dolls listed on Ebay, there can be no more umming and ahhing, it has to be done 😟

Although I've not sewn for her in ages, I thought I'd share a couple of photos of one of my favourite Sasha girls, brunette Stella from 1969-70.  She has falling hair so I've never washed or brushed it, but there's plenty there so she's doing fine.  Here she is in a dress by A Passion for Sasha, which I'm ashamed to say she's been wearing since the day she got it....which must be since the spring of 2016!!!!!  Ooops!!  (Socks by  me, shoes by Noreen Walters).

 
Apart from that I've nothing much else to tell you for now, except to say thank you for continuing to visit and comment on my blog!

I hope you all have a great week and that the weather is not too bad where you are!  

Big hugs, Sharon 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

November Already?

Oh my goodness, how did we reach  November already?  I was only half way through October, blinked and it was gone!  Well October was a busy month for us as at the beginning of the month my son Brendan came to visit for a week!  It was a lovely week, we had a lot of fun but the time just rushed past and soon he had gone back again to the UK 😢  But whilst he was here we went to the gym together, went out for meals and just generally had a great time!

Of course there was also a small amount of dolly time and I've been doing some sewing for my newest girls, the Little Cosmos Dolls, Bastian and Robin, as well as tiny Annic by Irrealdolls.

I made Sienna (Bastian) a pair of jeans....here she's wearing them with a Superman tee shirt that I made some years ago for another doll:

 
I wanted to get Sienna a new faux fur wig, but having looked around on Etsy and Ebay, I decided that I'd make one myself.  The problem is finding just the right sort of faux fur, I really don't like the faux fur that has a high nylon content.  Well as luck would have it, I just happened to be shopping in Lidl and there they were selling brown furry cushions, in just the sort of fabric I was looking for!  So I grabbed one, brought it home and unpicked it.  I then made a pattern and soon Sienna had her wig.  The fur is longer than her existing faux fur wig so I was able to pull pieces at the back into two little pigtails!!!

In the meantime, Annic by Irrealdolls, who is now called Anais, got a nice new outfit.  It was one I bought at the Dolly Day event in Barcelona back in June.  It was intended for my Hana Angel but it was too long on her, so Anais is the lucky recipient....I added the hat and the bag which I made many years ago although I think it would have been better in black...

I thought she looked very old fashioned and even more so in sepia....

Apart from that, little Pip, (Irrealdoll Enyo in Toffee) got changed into something warmer for the autumn....he's the first to get changed, I hope you're impressed 😁 .... let's hope I can get the rest changed before the winter turns into spring again!!!  His lovely striped jumper and hat are by my late and dear friend Maisiedoats, who passed away far too soon, his jeans are by yours truly...well me!!! 

Apart from that, nothing much else to tell you except to say that I have another new girl on her way home as I type!  She is coming from the UK and hopefully she will have arrived in time for my next blog post.  

I hope you all have a great weekend and thanks for visiting.

Big hugs Sharon xx

Oooh How Did She Slink In?

On the 4th October another little resin girlie managed to sneak her way into my BJD collection....as always, I will use my regular excuse that this little 'purchase' was my way of helping the Spanish economy!!  What a hero I am!!  But I do like to do my bit to help out my fellow countryfolk 😊

My latest arrival is called Annic and she is a 22.5cm tall resin ball jointed doll sculpted by Laura Garijo who is from Sevilla, Spain, and is the name behind Irrealdoll.  Laura groups her dolls by size and each grouping has a name.  The dolls belonging to this size group are called Setitas and Annic is the second doll of this size sculpted by Laura.  On Laura's website, Irrealdoll Annic she explains the inspiration behind the 'Annic' name:

"Her name was inspired by a beautiful deep blue mushroom known as "Entoloma Panniculus" in the scientific spheres"

Annic comes in two skin tones, 'Peanut', which is quite light and what is often referred to as 'normal' skin in the bjd world, and 'Truffle'.....I chose Truffle because as you'll know from reading my blog, I have a real fondness for tan skinned dolls.  The colour is lovely, very soft and creamy and I'm very glad this was my choice.

I chose Annic with the 'sad' faceup because, well you know that too....I love sad faced dolls!!!  She really does look like she's about to cry in some photos, which I find very endearing.  She arrived nude but with a pair of tiny, random coloured, 6mm glass eyes.  The eyes that I received were a light green but I decided to try her with a pair of slightly bigger, 8mm, violet although naturally for me, I would like to get her a pair of brown ones at some point.

I love this small size, she can wear lots of different Blythe outfits and even some (but not all) Blythe footwear.  Fortunately I'd bought 6 pairs of shoes and boots in advance of her arrival, so she's got lots of choice at the moment.  

Her wig size is 4 inches and I had a wig in mind for her but wasn't sure that it suited her once I tried it, but I've now cut it shorter so below you'll see photos of her before and after it was cut.  She's currently wearing a hat in the hope that it'll flatten the sides down a bit.  I do so wish that the doll companies made wigs that not only fit the size of the dolls head, but also were in scale.  I don't like wigs that have waaaay too much hair for such tiny heads!

Sam, my Elfdoll Hana Angel, has wanted a friend in her size and scale, for ages.  So now she is happy to have Annic to hang out with 😉 I think the two of them look quite cute together!

Here the two girls are playing "One potato, two potatoes, three potatoes, four!" 

Trying out a Blythe dress that I made years ago...

Photos taken today after her hair cut....I hope I don't regret it, the wig was nice but I just didn't want such long hair on this tiny girl!

Thank you for visiting!  I do so hope you've enjoyed seeing this little new arrival and hope you're all having a good week so far.  I might not be around for a week or so because my son Brendan arrives tomorrow for a weeks holiday with us.....he was supposed to arrive tonight but that's a story for another day.

Big hugs, Sharon xxx
 

 

A New Arrival!

I was going to be good this year and try to sell more dolls than I buy, but we're just over a week into the New Year and I'm already one step down the 'slippery slope'!!  Having said that, I have sold one doll already, so maybe I should just stick with the 'one in one out' rule that I've always had.....

So today my first new girl of 2018 arrived  and so far I am very happy with what I see.  The new girl in question is Hannah, a Sylvia Natterer doll by the French company Petitcollin.  I wasn't going to buy any more Natterers but her little face called out to me.  What's a girl to do? ;)

I already have another modern Natterer in this size from the same company, Alice, and it wasn't until I photographed her in a natural light that I really fell for her, so today, when Hannah arrived, I took her straight outside to photograph her.  Like Alice, Hannah looks great outside.  So without further ado, here are a few photos of her that I took.  I will take some of her with the rest of my Natterer family when I get the chance.

Hannah in her default outfit, which is colourful, modern and well made:

Hannah close up.  I believe these dolls are handpainted.

 

Her rooted long blond hair is nice and thick:

Whilst I had the camera out, I took some photos of my little Marley, Secretdoll tanned Meng, who came to live here in December last year.  I couldn't resist trying her for size in this pushchair (stroller) that I've had here for a while.  I think she has such a baby face that she looks quite at home in it!!! 

Having said that, 'at home' she may be, but she certainly DOESN'T look impressed!!!

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy the rest of your week :)

Big hugs Sharon x