Merry Christmas!

Sleeping Beauty Swap

Even though the theme for this swap was Sleeping Beauty, I was trying very hard to fit the seven dwarfs into the story. For most part of last month I was planning to make the dwarfs until I realized that it is Snow White's story that has the seven dwarfs and not Sleeping Beauty's. I had to then reread the story and decide on what to make. Here is what I came up with: a wall hanging with Sleeping Beauty on one side,( only she is awake!) and the wicked fairy (Maleficent) on the other. I used the old book illustration style to draw the characters. It was quite a challenge for me to use such subdued colors.

Why the Long Face/Head?

The total time up to now is 6 hours and 15 minutes which includes this head. It took me over an hour to apply three coats of gesso with light sanding in between coats. I had to then apply two layers of skin color over the gesso (with sanding in between coats again). Now that I have painted the face I know for sure that the head is too long for the body. It looks almost like a cone head. I will not give up on the doll though. I have already started my work on another torso. Thankfully this time the head is round and cute.

My questions are:

Should I add this extra time to the total?

Do messes like this get accounted into the end product?

Maggie Bessie Doll Contd...

My friends often ask me how long it takes me to make one of my dolls. I decided that this would be a great one to time myself. After 3 hours and 50 minutes, here is where I am. I am still not happy with the results and might have to change the torso again but for now this is where I am.

I made two left sides for the back of the torso and had to start making the torso again with a new fabric. I ran out of the original fabric and used muslin in stead. Since the stretch is different for this muslin, the head turned out too long. I plan to use it as a practice head. But if the face painting comes out good, I might even use it for this doll :-). Now I am off to gesso the head/face and then on to face painting. I can do it! I can!

Maggie Bessie Doll

Today we had our doll club meeting at my friend, Cindi's house. She showed me her Maggie Bessie dolls and I could not help but get re-inspired by her art. Cindi is a wonderful artist. She is talented and very generous about sharing her techniques.

I decided to not wait another day and start my MB doll today! I have Bradley Justice's pattern. I have gathered up a lot of courage (since the face painting will be a very challenging endeavor) and most of the supplies to make me this doll. Good Luck to me!

Evie

My grandma Rajeevi is the inspiration behind my Evie doll. My grandma made lots of grandma's flower garden table cloths all by hand. She crocheted, knitted and sewed a lot. She sewed well into her late 80s.

The idea for making a skirt out of the grandma's flower garden pattern was in my mind for more than a couple of years. Evie's skirt took me about a year(on and off) to finish. The skirt has 360 little 3/8" hexagons and it took more than 10,400 stitches to sew it together. And yes, just like my mamama (grandma), I made it all by hand. The doll pattern is Deanna Hogan's Avril. The mask is mine. This is the third and last one of the "quilt" series of dolls I made with Deanna's pattern.

There is a story behind the embroidery on the neckline of the jumper skirt. My mom sewed me a cozy jacket (on her sewing machine, a hand cranking kind- and I did all the handcranking :-) )with some beautiful light lilac colored flannel when I was 9. And she embroidered some lazy daisies on the bottom of it. The jacked was my favorite and so I used very similar stitches on the doll. My amma (mom) made it prettier with leaves between the flowers and they were of a different color.