New Fashions for 2012

If you have the chance, please visit my Etsy shop. There have been a few updates, such as my new shop name. I am now called Dixie's Doll Emporium. I am hoping to bring a more array of doll items besides just doll clothes.
And speaking of doll clothes, I have listed some new outfits with more to come. One of my newest pieces is a sailor suit dress. Available in blue, pink and other colors. I also have a sailor dress in a cutesy form as well. Although this pattern I may tweek a bit.
Another item is a new style 1860s dress that is made with attention to detail. And I also have a Lil Bo Peep ensemble now available. I am also making "sets" in which one can buy a dress, hooped petticoat and/or other items in a set. My new 1860s style dress comes with a hooped petticoat.
One other item that will be coming to the shop is a turn of the century style bathing suit with bloomers.

Make sure to check out my new dolls on Etsy too. I should be listing my first repro Izzanah Walker doll soon as well.

Musings for August.....

I really do need to update more. Ive been completely swamped with sewing historical clothing,doll clothes and finally finished my reproduction Izzanah Walker doll. At some point I'll try to post a pic of her here.
I am in the process of designing a sailor suit for the American Girl doll as well making up some sleeping bags. As for dolls, Im going to create some new dolls with hand sculpted heads. So each one will be different.

One of my latest projects that I just finished was a doll dress that I upcycled from one of my daughter's dresses she outgrew. It was a lovely pink with white polka dots and the bottom of the skirt was of pink eyelet.
I acquired a nice Danbury Mint Shirley Temple "The Little Princess" doll off of ebay. Unfortunatly she came with no clothing, but the price was right!! And she is now wearing the upcycled dress. In time I am sure I will make some more for her.

Easy Peasy Medal and Award Ribbon Display....

A little off beat here today. Since I have not been here in such a long time,I wanted to bring you something a little different.
First off, sewing dolls, doll clothes and historical clothing has been very BUSY for me lately!! Every time I seem to complete one order, another one comes in!
So, today I am going to tell you how you can make a simple and low cost display rack for your child's medals and award ribbons. Or perhaps even yours!!
We are a competative family, sort of. Comes from my days showing horses! Anyway, I no longer show or ride. But I do enter alot of my sewing goods into our local fair and its rather fun doing so.
My daughter is also a Special Olympian and over the last few years since she started competeing in Special Olympics she has been acquiring a good amount of medals. And since her mama and papa are proud parents, we like displaying them.

What you need:
wooden thread rack (or you can buy one new at Walmart for like $10)
hand saw
Phillips screwdriver
six small screw eyes
paint
paintbrush
sandpaper
various ribbon
spray gloss

1. Get yourself a thread rack. Either you may already have one or you can purchase one cheaply. I had one that I never use. I prefer keeping all my threads in a box.
Get the wooden kind, which has six rows of spindles that are about an inch long and 1/8 inch in diameter. It also had two legs that pull out, so the thread rack can sit nicely on a table top and hold up to 60 spools of thread.
2. With the screwdriver, unscrew the screws that hold the legs on and remove them.
3. Next with the handsaw, you'll make a cut on the uprights that the rows are attached to. Make one cut just above the top or first row on either side, and another cut just below the second row on either side.
4. Repeat step 3 with row 3 and 4, and then again with row 5 and 6. What you should have is three seperate racks with two rows each. See picture.
5. With sandpaper, sand down the top and bottom of the uprights where you cut them apart.
6. Paint your racks in your choice of color. You can also decorate as you choose too.
7. Once all the painting is done and dried, you can take them outside and give them a coat of spray gloss to shine them up.
8. Screw in a screw eye at the top of each upright.
9. Next measure out about two feet of ribbon and run one end through the screw eye and tie. then run the other end of the ribbon through the other end of the screw eye and tie.
10. Your display rack is now ready to hang and display medals and ribbons!!

A Little Here and A Little There

Oh I have been so bad about writing lately!! I've told myself I will do it more. But I've been so busy lately with sewing and such. Which I guess is a good thing!
So today I'm going to bring you a little here and a little there of what has been going on.
My current crunch project is my daughter's ballgown. I say crunch project because it needs to be done by this saturday. Yes! This saturday!! We'll be attending the Lee Jackson Dinner to celebrate the birthdays of General Robert E. Lee and General Stonewall Jackson. Always a good time, good food, and most importantly good friends!
Upon getting the bodice almost done, I discovered that after trying it on my daughter, it did not fit. UGH! Nothing more frustrating. I should have known better to do a muslin bodice first to test for sizing. I have found that Period Impressions are not always right on target when it comes to sizing. So if you acquire one of these patterns, please make your garmet first out of muslin. It will save you a tremendous amount of time, and fabric. When I made my husband's frock coat, I had to make it about two sizes bigger than what he actually wears. The strange thing is that I just finished making a girls paletote, also Period Impressions, and made that in her size and yet if fits beautifully!
I am now almost done with the bodice and then will have to construct the skirt which is fairly easy to do.
I've also been working on drafting a couple of new doll patterns for resale on my Etsy shop. One being a colonial riding habit. I still have to finish up my prototype which Im making out of a lovely fushcia wool. I've also came up with some cute little hats to compliment the riding hat. I hope to have some of these listed as well soon.
I hope to post some pictures of my daughter's bodice, as well as the riding habit in time for all to see.
Well, that is about it. Hope ya'll have a blessed day!! Back to the sewing machine.

Art Dolls Only......

Well, I am officially a member of ADO (Art Dolls Only). This is pretty exciting for me. What is ADO? Art Dolls Only is an Etsy Team of much talented doll artists!
I have been gearing myself up to making more art dolls. After a whole year of researching different methods on making my repro china dolls, it has caused me to really take an interest in doll making as an art form. Most know me for always painting. I have not given up on painting. Just taken a different path. But doll making has allowed me to combine two loves, art and sewing!! And it can't get any better than that. So what have I been working on?
Currently I am still working on my second Catatonic Chloe. This one will be titled "Mice Krispies." In fact, I can't wait to get her finished to show her off!!
I've been working with sculpey clay and in trying to sculpt more realistic faces. This however, is not my expertise, and I still need plenty of practice there. But I plan on making some unusual doll creations with the sculpey. :)
For my first "event" at ADO, I am going to try the Jack Frost monthly challenge which starts in less than a week. I have already started my doll for this challenge. A snow fairy baby.

Meet Sara Jane......

Sara Jane has arrived!! I seriously need to finish projects before starting a new one. But that is beside the point. The point is, Sara Jane is finished!!
Just like my Lizzie doll, Sara Jane sports the same model head just painted differently. She has lovely jet black hair and beautiful blue eyes. So naturally I wanted to give her a dress with a little blue in it to bring out her eyes!! She is such a lovely girl!
Her dress is made from a sunny yellow print with little blue flowers on it. When I saw this fabric I knew it was destined for a dress for one of the china dolls. Although it would make a cute apron dress for American Girl dolls too.
I wanted to try to do something on the lines with pagoda sleeves. But since the doll is much smaller that people, obviously. Doing pagoda sleeves with undersleeves was going to be a bit of a challenge.
So I drafted up a new sleeve pattern for my china doll dress bodice. The pagoda sleeves as well as the "undersleeve" are actually one sleeve sewn into the armsyce of the bodice. Her pagoda's are also lined with a dark blue fabric with gold flowers on it, as well the same fabric lines the bottom of the skirt hem.
I also have refashioned the bodice with darts in the back so that it fits the doll a little better. On Lizzie her bodice sticks out more from the waistband, and I knew I had to adjust the patttern to make it fit better.
Recently I had a lady request a custom bonnet for her china doll. Also about the same size as my Lizzie model. So I constructed one up and my prototype is the one that Sara Jane is now wearing.
That was done in a off white/cream colored poly/satin fabric. Lined with a cotton fabric and then I added a lovely lace gathered up inside of the bonnet. I trimmed it off with extra purple ribbons leftover from my own period repro bonnet I made. Then trimmed the bonnet in sweet little purple flowers.
Sara Jane is currently listed on my Etsy shop for sale.

A Thing About Sculpey Clay....

Lately I have been wanting to do more at hand sculpting doll heads. Which is good. I need to extend my ability in that area.
Now that I have used my sculpey oven a few times, I'm really starting to like to use that thing. As well, I'm starting to get a feel for the sculpey clay. I think that is the thing about using or doing something new. You got to find your niche with it and harmonize with it. If you don't, its going to result in something not so good.
So I went and sculpted a realistic head. It took about three days of sculpting, smooshing, and re-sculpting, and re-smooshing until I came up with a head that was halfway decent. I need to work on noses.
I got a book last year on sculpting realistic figures from polymer clay and it is a very helpful source.
So today, since I'm kind of, sort of, caught up in doll couture for the moment, I figured I would spend some time on my crafting of dolls.
I did managed to sculpt a small doll head that will be in my creepy line. Her name will be Zelda. My next step is to formulate her cloth body, putting her together and clothing her.
I also need to finish up my un-named cloth fairy doll that I started about a month ago. She just needs another arm and her legs attached, her wings and her outfit as well. She's the one I used the Nuno doll pattern I got offline. And is the more realistic of cloth dolls. My goal there is to tone up my skills for making these type of cloth dolls.
Yesterday chatting with my cousin pinky, she is a artist too making lampwork beads, jewelry and works with PMC. We tend to go off and joke and laugh. In the process coming up with new ideas for dolls and other things. Somehow we got discussing our cat and his desire to catch and eat mice. Well, the front end of mice anyway. My next creepy cloth cat doll is going to be Chloe in pj's. I'm thinking since Halloween is near perhaps I could find a nice themed flannel with skulls on it maybe. But she'll be holding a box of Mice Krispies.
Now, back to sculpey clay. I've been working with it, and really starting to like the feel of it and how well it comes out in making dolls. My thing right now is spending more time sculpting and perfecting my skills at sculpting stuff out of it.
The flesh tones are nice. Especially since once a doll head is baked, you don't need to paint it and it also looks a little more realistic.
Once you get into the sculpey you find that you want to sculpt more and more with it. And that is the thing about sculpey clay, it can be addictive!!