Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Gone with the Wind and thank goodness.

 Once again I forgot to take the
before shots with the old clothes
but this is our doll with just her
cammies on.
The hair is just not able to be
combed so I just cut off the
scraggy ends and made sure
there were no spiders.
The trick is to make the clothes then decide
what goes on first. In this case it had
to be the hair up and the hat made.
 Here she is in all her finery and showing her the soft
green silk petticoat which went over the cream silk
petticoat which went over three layers of tulle.
And I can tell you I'll never make a ballet tutu, I hate handling tulle unless it's pure silk tulle and that's a whole other ball game. That ruffle was hand stitched.
At seven of the clock this morning, I decide, half awake, that she isn't finished without a trailing bow.
And here you can see the back of the finished hat. It was finished with just a silk bow but it needed a ribbon rose.
Her hair is now in a net fastened with pearl and diamonte pins.

Not a good photo of the hat but it's made from the green lace in the overskirt with off white feathers and while I hand stitched every inch, I drew the line at plucking chickens.  There are hand made ribbon roses, pleated georgette and pleated dress lace.  Around the brim I stitched pearls.
 This didn't show up as well as it should have.  The lace is pleated down the bodice of green velvet, finished off with a strip of guipure lace and stitched with loops of small pearls.
The bottom of the bodice jacket is also stitched with pearls as are the sleeves.  'Leg of mutton' sleeves at the top, pearls and tapered sleeves at the bottom which had to be the last thing stitched.
The brooch can be taken off and worn by the next owner.

 Don't look at the floor, by the mess I should have been
completing an entire Paris couture collection instead
of one doll. Trouble was sometimes I needed her to be high up then low down.
The lace in the overskirt is fine net with embroidered
flowers and silver spinkles.  Around the bottom are
diamonds which had to be glued on leading to an
unfortunate experience involving my hair and the glue
stick I was holding in my mouth.
And back where we started with the hat.
Don't look at the floor, didn't I tell you.

She's now safely at the Home, behind glass and hopefully will make a lot of money for the activities fund being first prize in the Christmas Raffle.  The girls are canny, they have decided on a cash grab by having a small lottery on who comes closest to her name
which hasn't been decided yet, Scarlett or Charlotte.


9 comments:

Elephant's Child said...

Oh my. I scrolled down. I scrolled up again. If there is any justice in this rotten world a kazillion tickets at $5 each will be sold in inadquate representation of the blood, sweat and tears you put into this little gem. The work you put in has me in complete awe.

River said...

She has turned out beautifully! She looks quite tall, I was imagining a small doll and you going cross eyed with stitching. You probably got a bit of the crossed eyes anyway. How tall is she?
I love the lacework and all the little pearls and the overskirt. The hat is a masterpiece!
I'm very impressed. And I hope she raises a lot of money when she is raffled.

MedicatedMoo said...

She's absolutely lovely - slightly petulant expression on her face as if she knows EXACTLY how beautiful she is!

R.H. said...

I was going to say what workmanship, but it's workwomanship

Superb.

Anonymous said...

Aren't you clever. She looks great.

JahTeh said...

EC, I thought I'd lost the game but the more I went into it, teh skilz came flooding back.

River, I think she's about 60cm tall, another thing I forgot to note. My great aunt was a milliner in the 30s. it's in the blood and she always said to do the hat first and everything else follows.

Kath, I thought I would try pink as everyone likes pink but she's a green doll and nothing pink would go near her but her green eyes are lovely.

Robbert, I'd hate to say that after a few G&Ts.

Andrew, I now have fulfilled my duties as volunteer fund raiser for the year and without blowing my own trumpet, she looks a cracker in the glass window. That's the trouble with making, you get too close to be objective and see all the faults so I'll take a non-objective look next time I pass.

Helen said...

Wow, mad skillz Witchy!!

Kelly & Sam Pilgrim-Byrne said...

That's amazing!! I vote for Charlotte, of course x

JahTeh said...

Helen, I'd have starved to death trying to make a living as a seamstress in teh olden days.

Girls, can't quite see Charlotte in this type of get-up digging for dino bones. Your blog is one I can't comment at which is why you haven't heard from me.