Megan With Pumpkins and Katrina

It’s been a productive week when I look back at it. But at the time I thought I was getting nowhere very fast at all.

Isn’t that an odd feeling :S

I’ve spent much of this past week working on my second appliqué piece and I’m really pleased with how she’s turning out. My little Megan with her pumpkins just needs a few more touches before I can frame and add it to a padded background. And I really hope she’ll be well received when I list her.

 

My plan is to scan the finished Megan so that I’m able to order postcards and make it available in different formats. I also want to try printing onto fabric so that I can add embroidery details and make smaller versions at a more reasonable cost to give everyone a chance to own her if they’d like too. The original piece is quite large and I’ve spent a long time designing and then sewing her so I was thinking a more cost friendly version would be nice too. If you have any ideas of how you’d like to see my appliqué designs let me know. I’m always happy to hear what ideas other people have J

 

I’ve spent the last three days working on a custom order doll for the lovely Ashley at Mystic Magic Masquerade - http://www.mysticmagiconline.co.uk/

I’ve been working on Katrina’s underwear for a while now. Making her layers and layers of petticoats trimmed in lace so that she’ll have a full domed skirt without the stiffness of a crinoline so that she can be easily handled and carried. And I’ve had a long wait while I found, ordered and then waited for things to be delivered for her. If you’ve ever seen the film Sleepy Hollow you’ll be able to get an idea of the type of dress I’m making (and if you’ve not seen it I highly recommend it J). The wicked stepmother wears a white dress at the end of the film that has a black lace net overlay. And that’s just the look that Ashley has asked for.

 

I’ve changed the design so that our Katrina (Yes I know that that is the daughters name but she likes it) has sleeves more in a Marie Antoinette sort of style with floppy lace cuffs at the elbow. And her skirts are being made in two layers for a full look that can cope with the weight of beading and jewels that I’ll be adding. I’ve got her bodice and sleeves fitted and am working on her skirts now. Her gown is made from a slightly stiff cream colour silk taffeta underneath and this wonderful lace that I had to order from Hong Kong. Surprisingly the lace net doesn’t have too much stretch in it and behaved very well after I tacked it to the silk at intervals to keep it still.

 

To get the look that we want getting the lace attached to the skirt pieces before I sewed them up was very important and involved about 400 pins!!!

I had to lay the silk out onto a rug to give me something to stick pins into. Then lay the lace over it and use the pins to attach it to the lace at every thicker point in the lace (rows of 10 to 12 across the skirt length – narrower point – on the wider under strip).

After carefully lifting it, turning it over and pulling through every pin in the hopes that it would hold I carefully tacked the lace to the silk from the reverse side, removing the pins as I went. It was a long process but very worth it to get the lovely even finish to things. The lace has such a weight that when I moved Katrina around when I had the fabrics pinned to her for a trial and had left the lace loose the lace fell forward and bunched up. Now that it’s attached at different points it stays where it should and I’ve been able to fold the hem behind the silk and attach it to the back of the hem to make a neat finish.

 

I‘m really enjoying making this doll as I’ve learnt how to do things I would have avoided in the past, and have been able to solve problems I’ve not come across before. Katrina will be accompanied by a model wearing one of Ashley’s fantastic outfits on the catwalk of Norfolk Fashion week and I’m so excited J She’ll even be on the tele J!

I can’t wait to see how Ashley uses my work in his wonderfully creative fashion shoots too J I’m such a lucky girl xxx