Next Class is the Cloth Izannah with the Portrait Style Face

Hi Dollmakers!  You've probably wondered where I have been, it's been so long since I posted.   I was busy making merry over the holidays, and then getting thru the yearly medical checkups and getting treated for high blood pressure.  I also have a new year's resolution to get more walking and exercise in for my health. It's time to get serious about getting fit.  And as my fitness trainer says "FIT HAPPENS" -  and it does with working at it.  Yup, I finally figured it might be easier if I had some professional help. 

What's up in the doll arena?  We are working on the small Columbians thru February and then in March and April we move onto the Portrait Style cloth Izannah doll that is featured on Gail Wilson's home page. Click on the title of this post and it will take you to a picture of this doll on Gail's website.  For more information, click here:
http://www.gailwilsondesigns.com/catalog/new_items.html  and page down about 2/3 of the way down the page.  She is 13" tall and wears an outfit that is a copy from an original Izannah Walker doll.  I will share my oil paints during class for anyone who wishes to try their hand at oil painting their doll face.

Class fee news!  For any one who has paid for three classes from me, any following classes will be half price or $25.  If you repeat a class you have taken from me before, the fee is reduced to the bee fee ($5/month). 

On the fourth Thursdays of the month, we will gather to make Hitty items from the Hitty kit club.  Next up will be chairs; upholstered or wooden.  There are also a few who will make another GW Hitty doll.  There is still room around the table if you'd like to join us.  The fee is $5.00 for all the Thursdays in the month.  We usually meet for classes the first and third Thursdays, the second Thursday is doll bee with the exception of the Feb bee (we talked Cindy S into teaching us the chenille blanket)  and the fourth Thursday is Hitty bee. 

We hope to see you there! - Have some doll fun today - Julie

Good Grain Lines and the Columbian Doll

Hello Doll makers!  Happy doll day to you.   Yup, she's finished and up on the Etsy Shelf where I keep all my Etsy offerings safe and dust free.  Here's a picture of her before she went up on the shelf in her dust proof cover:

There are additional pictures on the Etsy site if you wish to see more. Click on this blog post title to take the short cut there.  There will be a rare black version of her on Etsy as soon as I can get her finished.

Now it's time to prepare for the next doll class at Attic Window Quilt Shop - The Columbian Doll.   The antique Columbian doll that inspired our class doll lives at the Wenham Museum near Boston.  She was made by Emma and Marietta Adams  (1890's in Oswego, NY) .  Miss Columbia got her name as a result of winning an award at the 1893 Columbian Exposition of the Chicago's World Fair. She went on to travel internationally to raise monies for children's Charities.  For more information about Miss Columbia and her travels, please visit the Wenham Museum site at:  http://www.wenhammuseum.org/misscol.html

Today I will be making the body of the Columbian doll designed by Gail Wilson so that I have a class example for our first class on Aug 4, 2011. It's not too late to jump into class, purchase a pattern for the Columbian Doll from Gail Wilson and come to class with your sewing machine and basic sewing supplies.  All the skill required is basic sewing skills. The rest we'll cover in class.    Gail's website is: http://www.gailwilsondesigns.com  The columbian doll is in the historical section in the cottage industry doll.  Tell her you are taking my class and she'll let you know the items besides the pattern that you will need (shoe leather, buttons, etc). 

The first step in sewing the body is to find the grainline of the fabric.  This is parallel to the salvedge.  Easily done UNLESS the salvedge has been cut off. No worries, just find a similar fabric with a salvedge and find which way the stretch goes.   The stretch is perpendicular (at a 90 degree angle) to the salvedge. So now you know you want to lay the grainline indicators on the pattern along the not stretchy grainline of the fabric. 

 The next step, which I actually do way before I start cutting into the fabric is to copy my patterns onto cardstock and  extend the grainline on the pattern piece all the way to the edge of the pattern on both ends.  Then I laminate the patterns front and back and cut out the patterns.

On the fabric, I take a ruler and pencil and run a pencil line down the grain line. Take your time and make sure you have a good grainline.  If you are not flush with fabric, you may wish to lay out the patterns to see where the pencil lines should be drawn, then remove the pattern piece and draw the line. 

One you have a nice long pencil line (longer than the pattern piece), you can lay your pattern piece on the line of the fabric so that the extended grain lines on the pattern match up with the grain line on the fabric.  Make sure they line up at both ends and then draw around your pattern piece.

Why is it important to get good grain lines?  It helps to maintain the shape of the doll as originally intended by the designer.  If you don't follow the grainlines, you might end up with a short fat doll instead of the doll shape you were supposed to have. This means that the clothing may not fit well.  Having said this, there are times you might WANT to disregard the grainlines. For example, if you want to make a second doll with the same pattern and don't want it to be exactly the same, you can flip the grain line in say the head and end up with a fatter head.  The doll will look different, but if you keep the body the same, you won't have issues with the clothing not fitting. 

Here are two NY dolls I made, flipping the grainline on the black version to get a different shaped head. I ended up adding hair of yarn too, so it is really different.

Or if you wish to make the body short and fat too, you will need to adjust the clothing patterns to account for that. One way you can do this is to make your adjustments on the clothing fabric when tracing around the pattern pieces and then make the article of clothing out of paper towel. It's a good way to test the fit of the item on the doll without cutting into your fabric.  Once you have the perfect fit, you use the pattern tweaks on the real fabric.  

I hope I helped you become a better doll maker today!  Take a break from the summer heat and have some doll fun today! Thanks for stopping by - Julie

Upcoming classes

New York Doll - black version

Hi dollmakers!  What a good day for ducks!  It's raining and looks like an all-day rain: good for putting on a pot of soup (pea soup) and dollmaking.   I am finishing up my class list for the second half of the year newsletter at Attic Window Quilt Shop where I teach doll making.  The classes all start at 10 am, but we are ok with come when you can if you can't make the 10 am.  We usually go until 3pm or so. 

We are also aok with anyone who wants to jump in last minute - you just need to already have or get your doll pattern from Gail by phone or ipad when you jump in.  Once you have paid for your pattern, you are ok to participate in the class.  All you need for the first class besides your own pattern is your sewing machine with an open toe foot (or clear) and your basic sewing items.  The doll body fabric is available at the store. You will get a supplies list the first class for next time.  Here's a list of the classes:

GW New York Doll -  May 19 & 26 and June 3 & 16, 2011 at 10 am.   This is Gail Wilson's version of the antique doll that graces the front of Wendy Lavitt's book "American Folk Dolls" .
 She is a 16" all cloth doll with an embroidered face and has a folk art cloth cat to hold.

At the June, July, and August bees (second Thursday of each month) we will reuse our kits and patterns for the "very smalls" - a collection of small table dolls including a snowman, angel, and Santa. 

Our adventure into making the 6 & 1/2"  GW Hitty begins June 23 and continues June 30, July 21, and 28.   The original Hitty lives at the Sturbridge Village Library in Massachusetts and has a world wide following.  There are links to various Hitty sites at the bottom of my blog. One of my favs is Esther Robertson's Hitty.     

 If you are looking for a wonderful series gift for a special little girl, this would certain be a good choice as she has many kitted (or finished) items for you to gift over a series of years.  She also has a book written about her that won a Newberry Medal back in 1929 called "Hitty - Her First One Hundred Years".  Rachel Field wrote the story imagining what Hitty's life would have been considering she believed the doll to be over 100 years old when she found her in an antique shop.  For the Hitty items, visit Gail's website by clicking on the post title above, or go to www.GailWilsonDesigns.com ,  and then click on Hitty on the side bar. Be prepared to ohh and ahh.

Starting August 4th, we will try our hand at Gail Wilson's Columbian doll. The original Columbian doll resides at the Wenham Museum in Boston.  She traveled the world raising money for Children's charities in the early part of the 1900's. You can follow her travels via her journal at the museum's website:    http://www.wenhammuseum.org/misscol.html

At the September bee, I will demonstrate how to carve an apple head doll.  The following Thursdays in October, we will carve an apple head, make an armature, and make clothing for the apple heads.  By December or so, the heads should be dried enough to put them together at the December bee. 
Whew!  So many dolls, so little time. I am glad for the rainy days to work on the class sample dolls.  oh -  First, I have to clean up my work table, it's so messy I can't find the table just yet.  And there is the pincushion doll in pink waiting for final items before she gets listed on Etsy. She is haggling with me over the bodice and the peplum. She says they don't match and she wants another matching set. Oh dear, and all those doll faces waiting for eye white.  Gee - I better get to work on all that! 

Thanks for visiting and have some doll fun today! - Julie

Lottie

Hi Doll makers, it's time to get ready for the next doll class - Gail Wilson's Lottie. Lottie was featured in the Austrailian magazine Homespun, and the pattern or kit is available on Gail's website. Just click on the title of the post and it will take you to Gail's website. Look in the new items for Lottie.  The class starts on Oct 7th at Attic Window Quilt Shop on Alpine at 6 Mile if you are interested.  See the last post for more details.

OK - I looked high and low for the camera cord, so that I could take pictures of Lottie, but the husband put it away....and who knows where. He's in an airplane right now, so I'll have to update the Lottie pictures later and for now, I will use pictures from another class. So sorry about this, I know you like to see the real doll in process so you know what it will look like in class.  Most of these pictures are from the Kate Greenaway class we had earlier in the year.

  First up  in making the class sample doll is to laminate the patterns and sew the body. Remember to use the tiny 18-22 stitches per inch. The reason this is important is so that the stitches won't pop when you stuff the doll.  Lots and lots of wool roving will go into the head. The first time I made a Gail doll, I remember thinking "no way is this much wool going into this little head". But yes, it is doable. You're going for a really hard head (like raw potato hard).  The body is not quite as hard (think baked potato hard). Tiny stitches will help keep the seams intact.

After sewing the body and limbs, use a stuffing fork to stuff the doll. Be careful not to push the fork thru the fabric, but if that happens, all is not lost. There are ways to mend boo-boos. And in the doll world, we just call those boo-boo's "instant antiquing".  Sometimes it's the things like mistakes that make a hand made doll so charming.

Roving is by far the best stuffing as it is resiliant and wants to expand outward.  Also, any doll fashioned after the dolls of years ago wants to be hefty. Wool roving adds that heavy feeling, and won't squish around like the synthetic stuffings.

Fingers are lightly stuffed and needle sculpted with YLI hand quilting thread. Elbows are added with seams centered.  Knees can also be added if you want your doll to sit.  If your dolls says she wants to stand, leave off the knee stitching.

This is a picture of the completed body from another doll similar to Lottie, except that Lottie doesn't have ears and neck darts.

 

Most dolls get a coat of gesso and skin paint. The parts pictured are from the Kate Greenaway series, hanging to dry after gesso. After the parts are all sewn and stuffed, Lottie's limbs will get an overdye wash  but not painted like these are. 

Overdye is a technique to make a new doll look like she has been hanging around for a hundred years.

Most of Lottie is stuffed, and hopefully on Friday morning, she will get her coat of overdye and will be hanging to dry.  She'll look weird until she gets her face, sort of like a faceless corpse.....

Miniature Show Festival

Hi everyone - just a quick post to let you know there is a miniature show this Saturday, June 19th, 2010 at 10am to 3:30 pm. It's at the Holiday Inn Express in Holland, MI 49424 located at the corner of US 31 & Felch St.

There is to be a contest - for more details, stop into The Wee Dollhouse Shoppe on 140 S River Ave in Holland, MI or call 616-392-4321. Click on the post title to go to their website.

What are you up to this summer? Just chillin inside with the Air conditioning making dolls? I'd love to hear all about it. The Izannah Walker group has a new challange - making a Queen Anne doll. So here is an inspiration photo:

Have some doll fun this week! Julie

Needlework Doll

Today I started making the sample doll for the next class: Gail Wilson's Needlework doll. She is a 10" cloth doll with a mohair wig and netting or crochet snood. Her face is easily accomplished with colored pencils. The pattern for this doll is $18.00 and you can get your clothing materials at Attic Window the day of the class. You can view more information about this doll on Gail's Website in the New Items section. Click on the title above and it will take you to Gail's site and then page down to the needlework doll.

If you are interested in the class, please sign up by Jan 10th and let me know on the sign up sheet if you need me to get you a pattern and mohair or the full kit that is available for $42.

The dates of the classes are Jan 21 & 28 and Feb 4 & 18.

Emma and Charlotte will be offered Feb 25th, March 4, 18 & 25. Emma is an oil painted doll and Charlotte is her black companion, also painted with oils. We use Alkyd oils, which dry overnight. Please visit the link below for more information about Emma and Charlotte.


http://www.gailwilsondesigns.com/all_page_content/historic_primitive2_ins.html