The learning curve

Work on my latest doll has been progressing steadily, but has not been without its challenges. I successfully attached arms and legs to the armature, and was happy with the results. The next step was to wind the stuffing/batting around the body and limbs, prior to sewing on the fabric that acts as skin. That went well. However, at one point I set the head onto the batting-covered armature, to test the balance and thickness, and the breastplate split! I had noticed that I had not made the foil of the head and shoulder breastplate armature smooth enough to prevent some parts of the clay from being thin in spots. It had not presented any problems in the past, but it certainly did this time. Since I had spent so much effort and time on this head, I was not ready to abandon it, so I grabbed more clay and my bottle of TLS, slathered it on as glue and pressed more clay into the breach, adding much more thickness to the inside of the breastplate. It baked successfully without affecting the paint job on the face. Yay!
Skin material was sewn on, and it was time to sew down the head/breastplate. I discovered that the holes I had so carefully aligned didn't let the needle through, so I had to ream out the holes with my trusty little drill bit and sew as best I could from a different angle. I also went right out and bought two doll-sculpting needles at Fabricland, since it became apparent that I needed to have some super-long needles for occasions such as this.
Time to dress the doll. After a quick refresher on the design of a period smock, I made one out of a linen hankie. I needed to make the smock with a high neck and ruffles, to disguise the crack in the breastplate, so I made ruffles at the wrists too.

It's a bit too short to be period, but who will know?