Northern Mermaid

I am not getting very far very quickly with my mermaid from Judi's pattern....but here is what I have so far. Her hands are pretty small...so I began with them just to make sure I was able to stitch and turn them. I used some fairly lightweight black fabric... it was easy enough. Chenille stems actually still fit into each finger even if they are tiny... just crimped them pretty firmly with my needle nose pliers and slid them in gently with the help of hemostats.










Usually I begin with a head.... I figure if I can get a head and face I am happy with, I can always manage a body to follow. But, this time I just had to try the hands first.










Here are the basics of her face... beside Judi's "covergirl"... lovely lady of the cold northern waters. She includes needle sculpting instructions with the pattern. So far in my doll making I haven't done much with needle sculpting; preferring a flat face and the painting to give it the 3 dimensional look. Or sculpting a face of clay and overlaying fabric to paint the face on. But... this is perfect to give her some nice definition.. .. I wish I had managed to get her eyes a bit closer together....not with the sculpting, but in the drawing stage. I think in my mind's eye that was the problem...I was thinking that when I did the needle sculpting the eyes would move closer to each other .... but, in reality, with it only being enough to slightly indent the corners... they did not. Live and learn...that is what this doll and bear making is all about. I still love her little face. Perhaps I will try a second mermaid another time just to see if I can manage to make myself draw them closer together..... .










Because I have given her green eyes, I'm going to use lighter hair ....this is cushion fringe..... .... so far so good..... onward! Parka material.....










... and in the same breath..... get my own parka and get out there to shovel some snow. Yep... had about 2 inches overnight.... must be winter.