photo intensive post....

My special doll that I've been working on for several months is finished and finally I sent her to the Hoffman Challenge. It was painful. I almost couldn't do it. But, several fellow doll makers and Mr. BV.. (my biggest fan and cheerleader) reminded me that I did make it for the challenge and I should send her. Now..I'm just keeping fingers crossed that she comes home in close to the same condition I saw her last.














There were lots of new-to-me techniques that I tried for this little lady. Here are some of the steps in making her wig. I used a tutorial I found online for those hardbody, store-bought fashion dolls... but, I figured what the heck...it's still a head. Gluing the completed wig on was a bit tricky...and I did get a bit of the wispy hair caught in the glue...so... there was a bit of tension...okay, there was a lot of swearing and frustration and there were almost tears.... but.... it finally did work out.

Her head is made of a slightly stretchy fabric...then needle sculpted around the nose, lips and eyes..











then a tea dyed piece of spandex glued and smoothed and smoothed...and smoothed some more... It's a great way to hide a center seam on a doll.











Just remember to leave plenty of extra fabric to arrange and tuck well back on the head. And...good luck on having no wrinkles!! It can take quite a bit of time to get it right. I made several heads.... 5 or 6 ... and didn't have much luck with any of them..... some of you heard those stories. Still and all, on the final head... (because I would have refused to do another )..... I had to do a bit of surgery beneath her chin to do away with one stupid stubborn wrinkle...but, it isn't visible .... Think I'll hang out my plastic surgery shingle.
Her little ear I just made from a tiny bit of the spandex material...and it isn't anatomically correct, nor is it wonderful...but, it is my first ear...and besides...as you will see in the final pics....most of it is not visible...and I pierced the lobes with a set of the most perfect tiny earrings that used to belong to my Mom. How I wish she could have seen this doll.....
























...plastic over her face to make sure no glue ruins her make-up...











oooohhhh....what a wispy, fine mess it all was !!!











There was lots of hand stitching, even some "semi ruching" as I call it, because it is not the real deal, but it allowed me to use a fair bit of the required material and make it look nicer than if it was just a flat panel tucked into the front of her dress.

I did all of the stitching and sewing before making it into a skirt for her gown... and it was a bit tricky for somebody who is still a novice at sewing ... I agonized over how to make sure it would all come together in the end.... but, finally it did. And..I even managed to line it...last.... to hide all the stitching on the inside of the gown and make it look tidy.
























The soft green material is also a Hoffman print, and it was not required, but I love the look of it next to the large paisley print. It is a bit difficult to tell in the picture...but the lace and organza trim on the bottom are also of the palest greens... the gold braid all stitched on by hand is a greenish gold.











The celery coloured fabric is satin one side and crepe on the other... a great two metre bargain chunk I found at a local Indian shop. Oh, what fun looking at the goodies in that shop... I managed to use it for the bows on the crepe-y side and trim on the satin side. I made tubes of it and ruffled and twisted and stitched it and voila...trims and bows.... I stitched the centers of the bows with gold thread.














Her chest began as pretty flat... and then with several suggestions ... again from fellow dollmakers, and of course, my in-house advisor... yep..the mister knows as much about the darn dolls as I do.... how could he not? I yak about them all the time and obviously he listens...gee how unlike a man eh? ...and then, he reminds me about things I have done in the past that I forgot already...hahahha.....hope he hangs around for a long time....











I added some conical shapes and stuffed them well ...I will stuff them even more firmly next time. As you can see...there would have been a noticeable transition between chest wall and the cones...so I carefully added some bits of stuffing after I pulled on her "sweater" of very lightly tea dyed spandex. I glued and stitched it tightly to her torso along the bottom of the spandex...











Lovely smooth breasts just like I wanted so that her very low neckline would be beautiful. Gathered the pullover tightly at the top of the neck and screwed on the head...then stitched her head firmly into position.




























There is too much to show in one post ! ... I should have done a week in the making or something... perhaps I'll do a few more pics on special areas......














If you go to their site you can click on "past challenges" to see some of the dolls from other years...