Houndstooth 50s Dress for the Doll Family

Recently I've been feeling really bored without some sewing to do, so I nipped across the road to the local fabric store for a look at the remnants, with the view of making a dress for my Pullip family. I found a perfect blue houndstooth fabric that is the perfect scale for making a doll dress, and not only that, but it only cost me 2 pounds for just less than a metre!
For Christmas I'm gaining two additional dolls to the family - two Dals; a make-it-own kit Dal and Dal Clair - and I thought I'd make the make-it-own doll as dress, seeing as she will be arriving naked!

I used a Barbie pattern from Herbie's Doll Sewing, Knitting and Crochet Pattern Collection and printed it out. It was very simple and I shall be using this website again, as there are some fantastic patterns there for free, most of them out of print! I really recommend it, as there are patterns for all sorts of dolls, including BJD, Dal, and Barbie.

Making the dress was rather hard, as I'm not very familiar with working with such a small scale. The sleeves were murder, as was the collar! In the end I rather like the results though, so I'm pleased I stuck with it. I've come a long way since making my first doll dress, as you can see here.

The lovely Celeste (Pullip Nella) was my model for the making and photographs, as Pullips, Dals and Barbies are relatively similar in size. I had the idea that if the dress didn't fit either the Pullips or the new Dal, then I'd buy myself a nice Barbie to fit it instead. ;) I have my eye on the Lady Tremaine Barbie from the latest Cinderella film, as her looks are rather vintage and I love the dress!

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

My Art: Sororicide

This post is well overdue seeing as I finished this piece in May! It is actually my final GCSE Art piece and got me an A*, for which I am very pleased.
 

Featured are Johan and poor Celeste, my two dolls that I played around with in order to get a setting I liked. They are Isul Johan and Pullip Nella, the set that Mitsukazu Mihara illustrated and designed. Instead of drawing them as people, I rather liked the idea of drawing the dolls themselves, massive eyes and all - and now we have a scene of a doll poisoning another doll! After all, the theme was "Fantastic and Strange", so you can't blame me for going all out, haha.

The story behind this drawing is that Johan, the younger brother, poisons his sister out of jealousy of her looks and beautiful dresses that their parents buy for her, earning her more attention. In my head he was a very lonely boy (or doll) and relied on the attention from his parents for everything, and when he realised that Celeste was fairer than him, he snapped and murdered her. It was inspired by a shoot in the Gothic Lolita Bible and my drawings of it, as I have done them in the same styles.

Pullip Doll Nella

For my 16th birthday I received Pullip Nella from my parents! She's so beautiful, and seeing as she has a slightly darker colour scheme in her clothes, I'm calling her Celeste, like stars in the night sky.

 Pullip Nella has golden blonde hair in an intricate braided style. Her hair is long, soft and beautiful, but due to the style there's no chance it will become tangled. She has dark hazel-green eyes, similar to Johan's in style, but a completely different colour. She is my first doll with pale pink lips, and they're just adorable! Nella's outfit is made by Alice and the Pirates, a gothic lolita brand, and comes with a matching headdress. My favourite part of her outfit is her harlequin-styled tights and tiny shoes!

I've decided long ago that she'll be Johan's older sister, aged 15, and lives in Cologne with him in the 1930s. She goes to an all-girls school, but really wishes she could be with her brother instead, as she's not a big fan of her school. Her hobbies are singing, playing the piano - especially practicing études - dancing, and watching the stars.

The collection so far.

My collection is getting rather big so I recently got a glass display cabinet from IKEA to put them all in. So far it hasn't been assembled yet, but I'm really looking forward to it.