Entrant Category: Newbie
Please don't vote until all of the entries are available and
we have announced the voting start on The Doll Wardrobe Blog. :-)
Voting for the 2014 Summer FDC...
Starts On Sept 1st, 2014.
Voting Ends on Sept 20th.
Please vote for this entry by commenting below or
emailing us at nora.demington@gmail.com.
Vote for Entry #35, by writing -- "I vote for Entry #35."
We recommend voting for one newbie entry,
one intermediate, and one pro, at least.
______________
To see more of my work, check out my site Paper Doll World
(
http://paper-doll-world.blogspot.com).
Isla is, among other things, a science geek and proud of it.
One of her favorite things to do, aside from playing around in XCode and Java,
is to explore the plants and creatures in her neighborhood and catalog her
finds in her journal. She hopes to someday travel the world and discover new
species, but for now the local flora and fauna provide plenty of interest.
For
the “school/learning” FDC challenge, I decided to make Isla an outfit to wear
while out exploring. This was my first time ever sewing for American Girl sized
dolls and my third time ever sewing doll clothes, so this project was an
exploration for me too.
For my design I wanted to create something simple and sturdy
that would also be easily adaptable and aesthetically attractive. Since the
weather around here changes frequently, one of my primary design considerations
was layering. I settled on a shirt and skirt as the outfit base, and added a
vest and scarf to accommodate for weather shifts.
I also planned for a pair of
TOMS-style shoes and a beaded bracelet to add some sparkle. A decorative block
that I received as a gift inspired the color palette; while the design of the
block is more loose and artistic than Isla’s style, the vivid colors and flower
motif suit her well.
I started with the vest. I used a Doll It Up pattern and
constructed it from cream swirl fur. Instead of lining it with a t-shirt scrap,
I used a piece of soft flannel in a shade darker than the fur. The combination
reminds me of the lambskin vests that used to be trendy a while back, though I
prefer the look of the fur facing outside.
Next I sewed the shirt. The fabric I picked for the shirt
was a colorful chevron striped knit left over from a previous project. I
originally wanted to sew a shirt with 3/4 length sleeves but I didn’t have
enough fabric so I adapted a Liberty Jane pattern to create a raglan shirt with
short sleeves. The neckline came out a little too wide, so I sewed a small
stitch at each shoulder. This not only fixed the neckline but also gathered
each sleeve, adding visual interest - metaphorical lemonade from lemons. I
played with the tension when hemming the shirt to create a slight outward flare
that accentuated the waist. I tend to forget to pause and take pictures in the
middle of projects, so the pictures of the shirt and skirt are from towards the
end of their construction process.
The skirt was made from another Liberty Jane pattern and
some lightweight denim. I sewed all the visible seams and topstitching with a
tiny spool of orange thread that I found at the bottom of my sewing kit;
luckily there was more than enough available for the skirt. I wanted to make
the skirt look like it had been through a few adventures, so I distressed it a
bit with sandpaper and a X-acto knife.
The scarf was the simplest sewing project in this ensemble. I
used a Pixie Faire tutorial to create an infinity scarf with a wonderfully soft
knit in gray and cream stripe, to tie in the cream vest and subtle gray chevron
stripe in the shirt.
In contrast, the TOMS-style shoes were pretty difficult to
put together. I used pattern pieces from Wren Feathers but had a very difficult
time understanding the instructions and relied heavily on pictures of human
TOMS and Liberty Jane “Janes” to ensure that the shoes were turning out
properly. I really went all out on the little details of the shoes, from
braiding strands of embroidery thread in four shades of brown to create the
trim for the shoes, to hand-stitching tiny pieces of white knit to the back of
the shoes and painting “PDW” (for Paper Doll World, my website) and the two
aqua stripes in acrylic paint. I used the point of a pin to apply the paint
because I didn’t have a brush small enough. I even covered the insoles with the
same flannel that I used to line the vest, and constructed the shoes from a
light blue polka-dotted cotton to complement the light blue chevrons in the
shirt. Some may think me OCD at this point, but I prefer to think of it as
being “detail-oriented.” :-)
I made the bracelet from an old human-sized one whose
elastic had snapped. I re-strung the beads on the elastic, but the elastic was
fragile and I didn’t have any replacement elastic, so I only took a few photos
with Isla modeling the bracelet. To add a little more sparkle, I made a gold
bow hairband by gluing a piece of gold metallic faux leather into a bow and
then gluing that to a hair elastic.
The backpack was another complicated project. I wanted to
create one of those trendy drawstring bags with outer pockets and a flap
closure, so I crossed two Doll It Up tutorials to make the pattern. The real
complication came from selecting the fabric; I wanted to use a gray floral knit
which complemented the shirt perfectly, but for some reason my sewing machine
kept jamming whenever I tried to sew it so I had to sew the backpack entirely
by hand. It looked cute but was incredibly labor intensive. I made the straps
from olive green grosgrain ribbon that complemented the green in the shirt, and
sewed on a decorative gold button on the flap. I attached a small piece of
Velcro to the flaps of the smaller pockets to hold them shut.
I stocked the backpack with everything Isla would need on an
exploration: a guidebook on the native plants and bugs, a pen, a specimen jar,
and a bag of trail mix. I made the guidebook and notebook with another Pixie
Faire tutorial, though for the notebook I switched things up by cutting the
pages separately and poking holes with a pushpin to create a spiral bound notebook.
I drew the cover of the guidebook with markers and pens, but the ink didn’t
work properly on the washi tape I used to create the notebook cover so I wrote
the words on the cover with black acrylic paint using a pin point.
I made the specimen jar by gluing a plastic tree branch to a
small piece of moss, and then glued two ladybugs that I sculpted from polymer
clay to the branch. I put the moss and branch in the small clear cap of a spray
bottle of screen cleaning fluid.
For the pen and trail mix I used more polymer clay. I used
black clay for the pen, dark brown clay for the raisins and M&Ms, and tan
clay for the peanuts, cashews, and almonds. When the clay had finished baking
and cooling I decorated them to add some realism. I wrapped the pen in washi
tape to match the notebook and added a little gold paint to make the pen cap.
For the trail mix, I brushed a tiny amount of brown acrylic paint on the
almonds and applied different colored acrylic paints to the M&Ms. When the
M&Ms dried, I used a pin point to paint a small white M on each one. I cut
up a plastic bag and glued two pieces together to create a little bag to hold
the trail mix.
With her outfit and supplies complete, Isla is ready to
explore!
Some detail shots:
Two bonus shots:
Thanks for reading!
______________
Please don't vote until all of the entries are available and
we have announced the voting start on The Doll Wardrobe Blog. :-)
Voting for the 2014 Summer FDC...
Starts On Sept 1st, 2014.
Voting Ends on Sept 20th.
Please vote for this entry by commenting below or
emailing us at nora.demington@gmail.com.
Vote for Entry #35, by writing -- "I vote for Entry #35."
We recommend voting for one newbie entry,
one intermediate, and one pro, at least.
Thank you!
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