Good evening...

Lots of things to do , mostly RL, I am afraid.

I did buy an Edwardiand gent from Ebay recently :

Very nice and with just a bit of help he can stand on his own two feets :-)

I also dressed a housekeeper. No done very well, I know, but the poor gal will have to do with this right now. Will re-do her later. The doll is excellent was made by Sherri Colvin , she sells wonderful character kits.

And  best of all: today Frances Peterson ( view also last post) and her DH visited me this afternoon. It was great ! I should really make a wall of fame and collect sigs of miniaturists who have come and visited me :-)

Anyway , here are some photos:

                                                             Frances

                                                  Frances and Walter

   
                                                            Frances and I

                                                 Beautiful REAL Peterson Pillow :

PS Frances also happily photographed my other rug , wonder whether that will show up as a mini, too !!

It is becoming a tradition...

If it is possible in any way , I love to dress dolls during days-off, esp when they are two in a row. And this time of the year I usually dive into one of Kathi Mendenhall's patterns . They are not for the fainthearted , though....And my results are never, ever as good as Kathi's , whatever I do, but still...I think the result is OK.
The doll was bought at Michelle Mahler's.
For the hat I owe Hazel Dowd big time, as she provided me with a nice sturdy mold for making hats. Very useful!! Thanks Hazel ! I also had bought ribbon and lace from her at several fairs, which also came in very handy, as I had to switch from the original fabric to some from my stash ( and I think it is my friend Marlene who sent me this - it may have been Sis, though:-) One gets older...)
Believe it or not, this outfit represents two days of plain,solid,hard work . Doll hasn't got her purse yet, that will follow later. As, maybe , more decent pictures. But this is it for now!

and now: meet my grumpy wizard

                                           Who has gone to occupy my Four Candle's shop.
The doll was made by Sherri Colvin, I dressed the guy following a pattern recently published in DHMS .I think I must kick his clothes inside a little, as he sticks out of the shop now:-).
And yes, I am going to rearrange that wig :-)

Day off .. so meet Doris.

Since I have taken a week off , mainly tp lay, although unfortunately also  need some RL things to be seen to, I dressed this Nancy Cronin doll that I accidentally unearthed :-). Originally she should have been a chique witch, but seeing that face I decided that she would make a great cook in my Highwayman....

She really is a  character. I love Nancy's dolls big time :-)

Witches grunged and done

Petra ( who is a  wiz at knitting and crochet ) made two nice shawls for the old ladies. I did warn her that they would not go easy on their new clothes , but Peta did not seem to mind...

here are the shawls as I received them :

The I gave them to the old biddies , and oh dear

 GRUNGY !!!

I also grunged the clothes and added some bangles from a bracelet I happened to see in a shop when checking out buying some knitwear. The bracelets were horrid, but the bangles contained a five-pointed star, keys (big)  a lock, etc. So some of them were nicked by them , too .

Anyway, here are the gals in close-up

No 3 wiill be finished later on !

Last down !

And here is gal # 3 , she is heading for the pub

Wot she , ugly ? Don't let her hear that ,you will be for it!!

Two down, one to go

 Remember I had recently ( finally) started on the doll kits made by Nancy Cronin?

This was on Sept 27 when I had given them shoes, stockings, and pants ( after having put them together).

Two of the gals have now been dressed. They will get a  shawl, once I have located a sock I can vandalize for better use.
The dresses don't look much, but I can assure you that a lot of hard work was put in! Esp as I tend to sew whatever I can.
the hats are leather, btw

Elga wondered where they were going to live, so for her benefit I am adding a pic of this "room". A nice kitsch-y wooden lantern. which has to be dressed up , of course.
Elga, it will live in the guestroom.... :-) Hope you are not afraid of witches having a teaparty while you are trying to sleep!

Working on Witches and a Wench

I am currently workimg on dressing some wqitches made by Nancy Cronin )  actually they were made for a MSATminidolls project in 2010 or so  , but I simply did not get to it, m0ostly being sucked up by the BBB, I am afraid.
Whatever, here we are and after several days of hard work, this is less or more where I have got

You can see that a lot is still to be done, trims, wigging, draping , etc. Still, they have their shoes on, and all of them have hats waiting for them ready to wear. I made two witches´hats

( this is actually both from a tutorial on Gina Bellous site and a tutorial placed into Dolls House Miniatures  issue 215 by Kastle Kelm Miniatures.

Off now, as I will stop again for two days, due to festrivals coming up !

Meet Edwina

My new housemaid!
She is a bit past "best by"date , and a   lovely kit by Sherri Colvin . I put her (plus a  gent that I don't know yet who he will be ) together day before yesterday and I dressed her yesterday. This evening draped her skirt and apron. She is due to get some towels or so in her hands , as soon as I have got them . Baby wipes seem to work well, so will go out and buy them on Friday and see whether it will work.
I added a belly and a  big bum, as her face was rather fat :-) Gent got some extra sculpey body, too. Arms and legs were padded ( kind of quilt padding , cut into strips).

.
I gave her stockings and shoes ( even buckles on her shoes) and a crocheted collar.I will have to look whether I can still find some sombre ebony medaillon in my stash , containing locks of her parents'hair or so...

OK here are the shoes :

and here is Edwina herself ! Right now down in the kitchen , but I think I am going to send her to the bathroom , it is quiet there, anyway.

Other doll dressed

I am getting into it, it appears!

This lady comes from Helena Reijnen . Also a lady that hung out nekkidly in my big drawer of nekkid dolls. The dress went together quite easily, actually. It was glueing mostly. I usually prefer to sew the clothes, but given the construction of the clothes, that was not an option, so I went along.
My first attempt at wigging looked horrid, so this morning I peeled the wig off and did a  second try. I do like her now. Cannot think why I used to find wigging quite easy and it has become hard , I mean hard!!! Frustrating big time!!

( and yes, she is a teeny bit pregnant ).......

WOOOHAAA ! Stacy 's dressed!

Finally ! After having several tries at dressing this beautiful little gal by Stacy Hofman, I finally clad her. My, that was an operation. First tries: dresses too stiff or too modern. Could not find fabrics or thik of decorations to go with her beautiful hair decorations, that Stacy had so painstakingly made.
Finally, I saw a pattern in DHMS last year, called Wisteria Bride by Sue Johnson. I do not need any bride, but reckoned it could double as a ball dress, as the fabric is a soft golden  color. Upon inquiring, Sue delivered the fabric pack needed for thsi dress,a LOT of silk and several laces that I would never have been able lo locate myself. Thank you Sue !
 The original decorations were roses and wisteria; would have liked it, but the flowersoft that I used on other projects is prone to bleach up in the strong light of my house and after a year it looks awful. So I settled for roses only , both wire (faux enamel and silk roses) and wire leaves,
Umm, remind me not to use Dupion silk again, unless I have to... draping is surely not my strong suit, sorry...

I also altered the bodice, since this doll is petite, and the original bodice of the pattern was a bit too modern, too.

After decorating the dress, I also added some rhinestones to the hair decorations, to make them  coordinate better with the dress. And now I have sent her to the ball. She will get a fan, promise, but not right now. Later.

Stacy again

Some ( well, a long) time ago I partly dressed the doll I called Stacy after Stacy Hofmann, who made her and partly decorated her.
Trouble is, she is a wonderful, beautiful doll and her hair ornaments(that Stacy made) are exceptional, so I wanted some dress to go with it. I finally found some brocade which I thought would work, and I tried- it doesn't , not for me, at least.
She and I have been staring at each other for months now while I sought to find an answer for the question how to finish the dress nicely. The answer is : it won't work, whatever I do.
So I have bit the bullet , cut the clothes off and am now trying for another dress, only partly brocade, combined with , probably chiffon. I hope. Well, I do hope it will work...
Some parts have been cut out by now and are drying.

Adella, with picture an'all...

BUT : I finally dressed Adella today.Remember I got stuck some months ago, as she was losing her arms all the time, as if that was the nature of creation? Well, of course I could not agree to that,so I had plonked her into a box and left her there.
Last week however, I heard some hollering, first softly , then very loud; and then I saw someone waving from the box. Spooky, but it WAS Adella, wanting her tea after a two months wait.
Of course, my camera died on me before I could take her pic, but I promise to add her tomorrow here.
Mine is not the best attempt at doll-dressing ever seen under the sun, but given that everything went wrong while I was dressing her, I am really glad I brought it off this time!!
Time to put up my feet and think what a clever little thing I am!