The Doll Thread (As promised!)

[Lady Rosalind]

Wanted to resurrect this thread to show my partially completed noble doll that I made for an educational presentation that took place Saturday.

Please excuse her disheveled appearance, as it was windy, and she kept falling over, and the teenager tried to fix it. 



Yes, she has no hair, nor sleeves, nor is her bodice trimmed. But, she looked sweet. 

[gem]

She's wonderful! Although minus hair, etc, she does have something of Anne Boleyn's doomed aspect about her... 

[LadyStitch]

How much do the patterns run? I've started thinking of making some doll clothing to practice skills on.

[Becky10]

I cant tell which is cuter the little girls or the little dolls! 

[LordPaulet]

They have the CUTEST little princess in MN (I think she stands around 4' right now? and is about 12 or so? maybe younger...They did a beautiful job on her dress and in speaking with the dress maker its totally expandable and will fit her for at least another 3 to 5 years. :O  Thats amazing!!

[Lady Rosalind]

How much do the patterns run? I've started thinking of making some doll clothing to practice skills on.

Actually, the doll clothes are all my own modifications of Lynn McMaster's Highlander Doll Clothes patterns. Well, the bodice part of her pattern, anyway. I made lots of modifications, actually. The doll pattern is $5 and the clothes are $12. I think you get a price break if you order three patterns on one order.

http://www.lynnmcmasters.com/

This latest doll has a corset and everything, although she is super tightly laced in this one, as I made it too small. The bodice is also too small, and needs a stronger interlining, maybe of cotton drill, as it tends to wrinkle in the front. I used two layers of silk for the bodice, and two of linen for the corset. The corset bones are tiny cable ties!

The overskirt is one width of 45" wide silk, 18.5 inches long, with a 5/8" hem. I marked the pleats 1/2" apart, in two rows, 1/8" apart. The rim is 1/4" grosgrain ribbon. I will be adding a narrow silver braid trim later. It was dead simple to make, and if you understand cartridge pleats on a normal skirt, this is a lot easier.

The underskirt is knife-pleated, and owing to some mis-measuring, it overlaps a bit in back, and the waistband wasn't long enough. It's pinned right now. I was under a tight deadline to get this one ready, so there are some shortcuts.

The smock is a low-necked smock, I ended up taking a wide rectangle of white muslin, and then figured out how wide the shoulders needed to be. I cut out the neck opening, and knife-pleated the neck opening to the right size. Her cuffs are elastic, as I have yet to have enough patience to do normal cuffs at this size. Maybe this winter.

My niece Maddie LOVES her doll, and drags it (almost literally), everywhere. My sister has washed the dress several times already, and so far, the rest of the doll is actually holding up okay, too. Grace and Sophie like their dolls, too, but not quite to the extent that Maddie does.  

[ladylissame]

Yea, still want that pattern. On my wish list!

[Lady Kathleen of Olmsted]

I have the Lynn McMasters patterns as well for the Cloth Doll and Clothing.My plan is to make a Henry VIII and most of the wives over the years for comeptition. That is if I get "down time" to do that.

The pattern for the Henry VIII doll, I will draft myself.

[lady serena]

I got the patterns for the doll and clothing and Im slowly working on getting a doll done, but I do have a few questions. Lady Rosalind did you put the 1/4" boning in like the instructions ask for? Im wondering if the doll really needs the boning in the body or could you use cable ties instead of the corset boning it asks for? Thanks for your help.

[Adriana Rose]

Since this is a doll thread I have a question about dolls.

I am making a dolly for my niece and I am having trouble with the hair. I am making it out of yarn and the book that I have says to make a skein of yarn tie it in the middle and sitch the skein on the head, but I have problem the yarn yanks out of the skein when I tug on it. My neice is only 14 months old so I want it to be sturdy.

How can I make it stay and look good I think they look rather egg headed at the mo

[Lady Rosalind]

Lady serena, I used a duct tie, cut to length, and it seems to be working fine.

Adriana, here is a link to the instructions for doll hair that I used. It seems to be working fine!
http://www.lynnmcmasters.com/DollHair.html

[Lady Rosalind]

Oh, and if I can ever find the time in the next two weeks, the girls are getting Alice in Wonderland dresses for their dolls for Christmas.

[lady serena]

Thank you. Could you post pictures of the dresses would love to see them.

[Adriana Rose]

Thank you!
I have been cobbling the directions from 3 differnt crafting books togeather for the hair for this dolly

[Kate XXXXXX]

She walks on her head?