Not been very active on the doll scene lately so was good to get to the monthly London meet this month ^^

Had a good chat with both old and new attendees and took a few photos.

Brought my new bunny Mamachapp that I am tempted to name Bunny, Sonja, Pino and Kanu.
Wanted to bring Chloe but just could not be bothered lugging her weight around in the heat.

Yesterday I finally got around to uploading my meet pics and some of them were of Lily’s last pose before Gabe was heading home with her.
Got her too but didn’t bring her.

Got the idea to let her play around with the White Album girls’ mic as her outfit made her look slightly 70′s punk chique in a kawaii way.

So, set her up in a dynamic “rocker” pose and started snapping away.

Added this pic to the Dollfie Dream group on Flickr and thought nothing more of it.
This morning noticed it had been faved a few times and had 26 views, not bad, pretty chuffed, nothing unusual for a meet pic that have been added to a group, normally gets a fair few views.

Then, this afternoon is checking my mail and there are literally loads of Flickr pings.
Bit puzzled heads of to Flickr to find out that this image have been viewed 500+ times and still counting and been added to 2nd page of Flickr Explore. Didn’t even know there was such a thing XD
(Edit: Well, it was on there but now it’s gone :/)
(Edit: Still there but have been bumped to #91 from #11 – oh well, fame is fickle ;D)

Not bad for a random pic of a random pose taken at a random doll meet in London by me with my new 50mm lens

Go me!

(Bugger – does this mean I will have to start taking this photography stuff serious now?)

Uploaded to Flickr and totally forgot to make a blog post ^^

Had a great February meet at the RFH despite some rude photo snapping folks and it being uber busy due to mid-term.

Mostly snapped the vinyl girls this time, brought five of my own: Moe, Natsuki, Yuki, Rina and Yoko.

And Pino!

Also, brought Vesuvia for Krowbar – strange to see her go but she will be much better of in her new home. Sniffle.

I am revising my collection as well, I have for a very long time been complaining about space issues and now is the right time to do something about it.

Going to concentrate on my Unoas and Dollfie Dreams which means my Soom and some Iplehouse will have to leave the house for good.

Prices will be digged out if anyone is interested for those with no price tag on them.
Please contact me via the contact form ^^

Got feedback on DoA and Ebay, please request account names if needed.

Prefer to get paid by cheque or bank transfer as I might otherwise break my paypal limit
If you are not comfortable with this payment method I am happy to do Paypal + 5% in packing and handling fees.
Shipping not included.
Will be using Interparcel.com for all shipping, UK included unless otherwise requested.

Up for sale are the following:

Soom Beryl Neverending Dream, fullset, original faceup and bodyblushing with some repairs made to the hoof area by me. 2nd owner.

Soom Cuprit, fullset, blank as I had a plan about doing a fantastic faceup but never got around to it as lost interest in her, shame really, 1st owner

Iplehouse Akando Pierrot, fullset, in the first 50 limited order out of 70, original faceup and hand blushing, $1500, 1st owner

Soom Glot (the girl), fullset + feather wings, original faceup and bodyblushing + sanding, $800, 1st owner

That is it for now, is still considering these so if you are interested, please let me know:

Iplehouse Asa Tokyo Story fullset, time limited edition, 1st owner
Iplehouse Luna Tamer fullset, time limited edition, 2nd owner
Iplehouse Tania Pierrot fullset, 50 limited, 1st owner
Iplehouse Tatiana Pierrot fullset, 50 limited, 1st owner
Volks Ami Ayase fullset, 1st owner

Finished this commission in November last year but just haven’t gotten around to getting a blog post put together before now.

This commission was requested by GabrielVH at the same time as the school uniform.

The style itself was pretty simple so the tricky part here was the print: Where do you buy fabric that matches the anime?

Answer is: You make it yourself!
Put Gabriel on the job and with a couple of pics back an forth got the scale right, the colour combo and the direction of the print.

Sourced a textile printing company to make the fabric for us. There were loads out there but some were just too expensive or they didn’t provide chiffon material as an option.

Production was around a couple of weeks and received a really good product.

Will definitely consider this option for own projects going forward if the print in your head is just not to be found in the stores.

Got the lilac trim from the local fabric shop.

To finish it of we decided on giving it a scalloped edge by using crochet to match the look of the anime.

Really proud of how it turned out. Was very close to keeping it for myself

Before shipping it out took a l o t of photos of it – 495. Sorted these down to 45 that does not look completely identical and is not totally out of focus.

During 2010 I started taking on a lot more commissions than ever before – mainly due to my new found interest in Dollfie Dreams and the current lack of people making clothing for this particular type of doll.

This meant that I actually didn’t really get around to doing my own projects as there was always a commission hanging over my head that I felt obliged to get finished before I started on my own stuff.

During a recent tidy of my dollie clothes drawer I realised that I don’t have any XD

So, I have decided that for 2011 I am going to concentrate on my own stuff again as this is what I went into this hobby to do.

However, I do love the challenge of commissions as often they make me do stuff that I would otherwise not enter into and it’s good practice as well as fun. Plus I love when people receive their stuff and post pictures and are happy with what I made for them.

Therefore, I’ve decided that I am only going to be taking in one commission per month with end of month delivery time going forward. This will make sure that there are hopefully no major delays to any orders and also, I will get time to do my own stuff as well.

No rules without exemption
If you got an idea for a project and I am already booked up there is no harm in asking – I might get time to fit you in.

I have set up an event widget for commissions in the right hand side column – still can’t figure out how to get it into the calendar so for now it will do as is.

8 March 2011 Commission Update
Due to personal circumstances I will no longer be accepting any commissions.
I sincerely apologise to those I have had to cancel on, trust me, I would not have done so if I had the choice to do otherwise.

If you are looking for a BJD commission you should head to DoA, plenty of talented people on there who I am sure would take on your project.

Unfortunately I don’t really know many dollie tailors out there who make good quality commissions for Dollfie Dream girls.
Only one I know of is Kuraikawaii of www.murasaki.me.

If I do hear of any, I will add them to the list ^^

Thank you to all my previous commission customers! It has truly been great fun to work with you all ^^

Silver dress, did not win anything but my own personal favourite

Gold dress won 3rd place in the costume competition ^^ Yay me! Thanks to all who voted for this one!

On a grey November Sunday morning I ventured out with my packed suitcases, camera bag and my ticket for the London doll event of the year: Midwinter Masked Ball.

Arrived at the pub before everyone else and started to be a bit worried that I had either gotten the address wrong or the dates mixed up…

Everyone finally started showing up about 15 minutes late and setting up could finally commence.

It was an epic day with lots of socialising, putting faces on user names, meeting up with new and old peeps, taking lots of photos, having a really good pub buffet, competitions and general sillyness.

A few of us ended up in Wong Kei for dinner which was equally epic although I am not a huge fan of their food, the company was brilliant!

Huge thanks to Madame Mau Mau of the Nacht Zircus for arranging this and hope that we can all help bring this back for next year if all goes well!

Not sure if we beat the Russians this time but we sure made a bloody good effort!!!

These are the finished results of a weeks hard work ^^

As any creative person will know: Doing things well in advance is what we all set out to do but in reality we mostly end up doing it the night before we have to hand in the project.

I had known about this event for months but had been pushing the outfits aside for other things like commissions and general life.

My initial idea was to make a double act in the form of two identical dresses, one black and one white worn by my Unon twins.

Only obstacle was the fact that I actually did not have my Unon twins yet as no2 was on her way with expected delivery September but with Hobby Japan’s notorious record of being late, the risk of her not turning up in time was pretty big. Therefore, did not want to start before I knew she was home safe and sound.

She arrived mid October but was busy finishing of the Misaka Mikoto commission so had no time to put her together when she finally arrived after months of waiting for her.

Then, a week before the event I finally started up the machinery to get the Unon twins dressed up.

Started up a moodboard on Pinterest.com to get some inspiration for the ball gowns.

As time all of a sudden was tight I decided on doing the dresses with fabrics I already had in stock as well as accessories and trims. Only had to go get some minor parts such as tulle and some silver fabric for one of the dresses as I didn’t have anything like that already.

So the black and white idea was scrapped in favour of a silver and gold theme and two different styles as the fabrics did not agree to being the same style.

Sasara had the honour of being my model for the mock ups – here, the first steps towards the silver dress.


…And the gold dress

Also had to make some masks as the event was a masked ball and you cannot really attend a masked ball without a mask

Decided on papier mache as wanted something slim and delicate and from forums had noticed that other fellow crafters had issues with Fimo being too heavy and not able to hold its shape when cooking.
So, wrapped up the extra faceplates in clingfilm and covered them in a layer of tin foil in order to get the face features to stand out.
Cut out small pieces of newspaper and got myself some wallpaper glue stuff and covered up the faceplates in several layers.

Left to dry for a couple of days and then drew the shapes on the full casts and cut them out. The eyeholes were a bit tricky and could possibly have used a bit of sanding but just cleaned them out with a scalpel.


Gave the masks a couple of layers of white paint to make sure that the newspaper wasn’t shining through.
Then, gilded them with fake gold and silver leaf, never tried that before so result was a bit wrinkled in places but all in all, personally happy with the finished result.

This project have been a very long journey for me and really happy that GabrielVH have been so patient about it. Thank you!

As GabrielVH posted pics from MCM Expo last weekend with the first photos of this outfit I think it is about time I get my blog post on this up before it is totally old news ^^

Started out back in June by figuring out what fabrics to use and if the sweater vest was to be knitted or sewn. Went for knitted and OMG!!! It shall be a long time until I do that again >.<

Working full time with overtime and having a full social calendar it was not much knitting I actually did manage to finish at a time. Did a little bit every now and then but did not move very fast. Also, had to make the pattern from scratch as I went along so there was a lot of unravelling and starting over going on throughout the hole process.

Finished the sweater vest but thought, this looks absolutely crap but hey, I will send a picture through to double check if I am just being too anal or does it actually look like something the cat just dragged in. It did.

Undid the entire collar rib area and armhole ribs again and after a 3rd try finally got the right look to match the actual illustrations of the character.

Then got started on the school emblem embroidery.
Went shopping for embroidery thread and bought red and white as I had seen a cosplayer with an emblem in this colour. Wrong. Should have been red and yellow.

Note to self going forward: Bring a photo of the project you are working on instead of relying on memory alone!!!

After finally finishing my nemesis “The Sweater Vest with Embroidery”, I started making patterns for the shirt, skirt, pants and shorts.

Shirt had four or was it five samples before I got the collar and armholes to match the reference photos online and seems I still managed to get the collar slightly wrong :/

Skirt only had one sample as the pleats were not deep enough so it was just a minor adjustment to the paper pattern. Took picures along the way for my pleated skirt tutorial which I will finish writing one of these days when I have some time and find out how to be a teacher XD

Pants was one sample as well and the same with the socks. Pretty straight forward.

Considering how long it took me to finish the sweater vest, doing the normal sewn clothes were done within three days including sampling. Says something about where I need to work on levelling up

And this is the finished outcome of this epic marathon.

I must say, I am well chuffed with the result even though I might need to redo the shirt collar at some point ^^

A Twitter conversation this morning have spurred me to write a small blog post on how to get started making your own doll clothes.

How did I get started?

I have been sewing and crafting since I was four, took a technical degree in garment construction/ dressmaking after I finished high school and have been working in the garment industry for over a decade so venturing back into doll clothes has been a fairly easy transition for me although I often tend to make it more complicated than it has to be.

Doll clothes often work better when they are simplified from what you would do for yourself as bulk is reduced and gives it a cleaner finish on a small scale garment.

However, I still sometimes forget that dolls do NOT have bendable hands or feet and that their heads often are proportionally bigger than on a real human. All things that needs to be taken into consideration if you want to make your own patterns.

Because I have been doing it for so long my approach to sewing is similar to how most people would think about brushing their teeth: They don’t.
So, if I have left things out please remind me as it’s not because I don’t want to share; I just never think about how to do it, I just do.

Start easy!

First, basic sewing is not hard, what takes practice is to make it look good.
Start easy, get success under your collar and then move on to more complicated projects.
Do not start out with the most complicated Victorian replica outfit unless you know what you are doing. You will only disappoint yourself and that is not the point.

The point is to have fun while sewing and feel good about the end result!

My best suggestion to any sewing noobs out there is to get help from someone who know what they are doing already. Observe and then try it yourself. Learn by doing.
If you don’t know anyone who can IRL then get online and find some who can there.
Personally, find it better to watch someone doing the sewing action instead of reading about how to do it as often, it gets too technical and if you do not know the terms, nothing makes any or little sense.

What fabrics to use?

Choose easy fabrics like woven cotton/polyester mixes.
Do not go too lightweight as thin fabrics are harder to control.
Also, satin fabrics are hard as their slippery surfaces makes them harder to control as well.
I personally would not recommend jersey as a starter fabric but as I know a lot of you out there would like to make underwear and thigh highs, go for an interlock jersey quality that is easier to control than a standard jersey knit.
Saying that, jersey is a lot more forgiving than woven fabrics and mistakes are easier hidden. Just make sure you don’t pull too much while sewing and that your needle is not blunt or better, use a jersey machine needle. This is to prevent the needle from making holes in your knit fabric by cutting over the threads.

Get your equipment right:

Basic materials needed:

• Standard sewing machine. You need only your basic stitches to make faboulous doll garments. Don’t pay for a lot of fancy bells and whistles that you have no need for. Remember, you can always upgrade in the future should the need arise. As for most mechanical things: The heavier the better. Do not go for a light machine, the motor will be of a lesser quality and it will move around on your desk while sewing. Buying used is a very good idea for your first machine. You will get a lot more for your money. My machine is an old Pfaff 1199 which my parents got for me as a kid for I think around £100 back in the day and it still works! Have had it serviced one time but that is it. (Now it will probably break down XD)
• Good pair of fabric scissors. Do NOT cut anything but fabric with these.
• Thin dressmaker pins. Get the ones meant for bridal wear or similar. Avoid any pins with big round heads as they are more than not in the way when sewing. They might look pretty in your pin cushion but they are not very user friendly.
• Thin sewing needles. Again, do not go for the thick ones, it just makes it harder to sew small details.
• Thimble. Get one that fits!
• Unpicker. Your best friend when sewing, ever! Just be careful you do not make holes in your garment when using it. And you will be using it. A lot Anyone who says they never unpicked anything is lying!!!
• Tape measure in CM. Inches is not precise enough for something as small as doll clothes IMO.
• Pattern paper for copying your bought patterns onto. Bought patterns can also work as a base for making your own designs with few amendments.
• Machine needles standard 80 and a jersey needles with a rounded tip for stretch fabrics. The rounded tip means the risk of cutting the fabric threads is lessened.
• Polyester sewing thread. Don’t have to get branded, just test that whatever you buy does not break by a gentle pull before you buy it.

Advanced Materials:
As with most things: It is not the equipment that will make you good. It will just make your work flow easier and your wallet lighter.

• Getting an overlock/ serger is not a necessity for making doll garments. Yes, it is fantastic to have once you do decide to get it and learn how to use it properly but unless you are going to use it a lot, then it is really not very cost effective. Not even in hobby terms.
• Same goes for the fancy bells and whistles sewing machine that have a million and one computer programmes build into it and can make you ‘toast’. It is fantastic and you can make great stuff with it but just consider before you get it how often you actually need to make ‘toast’.
• Scissors also do not have to be the most expensive pair in the whole haberdashery department. A simple pair will work just as well as long as you never ever use them for anything else than fabrics.
• Getting a scissor sharpener can be useful but again, if you never use your fabric scissors for anything else than fabric and make nothing more than a few doll garments for yourself, then there really is no need to spend the extra cash on something like this.

Just remember that the most amazing outfits were created long before the industrial revolution gave us the sewing machine and 50 different shapes of scissors with ergonomic grips!

Making your own patterns

If you are just making garments for yourself/ your own doll with no intention of making exactly the same garment again, then you really don’t need a pattern.

When I first started out I used to basically just cut and sew and it worked really well although, did not always have a perfect fit and there was a lot of trial and error but I always ended up with wearable garments for either myself or my dolls.

I still do this every now and then if I am in a hurry and just need to make a quick outfit for a meet.

However, making a pattern gives you the opportunity to make the garment fit a lot better as you can make fit samples to see how it looks and make adjustments to the pattern based on that.

You can either google around for tutorials or you can invest in a basic pattern making book for standard human clothing. The principles will be the same but of course, dolls do not move in the same way as humans and certain measurements needs to be either bigger or smaller than what you would do for a human who funnily enough is fully poseable

Often patterns for dolls look really weird and completely out of proportion for the very same reason.

There are some doll pattern making books out there but think most of them are only available on the second hand market as they have gone out of production by now.

Tips!

Observe your own garments or shop bought doll clothes. These will give you an idea of how to do it the easy way. Everything that is mass produced will have a simple finish that often works really well for doll clothes due to less bulk.

If you are anal like me and want a nicer finish to things, then these are not good examples to follow.
Observe really expensive tailored branded garments and you will notice how often you could wear the garments inside out as there are no visible seams, even on the inside of them.

How you do it is totally up to you! There is no right or wrong way of doing this.

The less finish, the faster and often sits better as lining takes up space.
The more finish, takes a lot longer and sometimes can look bulkier but, the satisfaction of a well made garment is unbeatable IMO!