Under pressure

I have been pushing myself to create an angel doll for submission to publicity for the winter show at Kawartha Artists' Gallery here in Peterborough. After several tense days, I was able to photograph her and send off the image. It was fun to make the chair and wings, but it was a struggle to get the armature to sit right on the chair. If that isn't right, none of it goes properly. Even now, it isn't the way I want it, but that's as much as she is getting. The photos don't do her justice, as she is very pale. Her charm doesn't come through, although I may be looking at her with the fond eyes of a mother!

At the same time, I have been working on a doll inspired by Jane Eyre. She is made of ProSculpt Baby that baked full of moonies, so she has been painted all over and flesh tones added on top in washes.

 In order to get her dress to stand out in the bell shape that was desirable in the early Victorian period, I did a lot of research. First, I looked up petticoats and crinolines online. Amazing! Crinoline comes from the two French words for horsehair and linen. These petticoats were made from a very stiff fabric woven of these two materials, and they stuck out stiffly. They were the first layer after the chemise and corset went on. Then four to six more petticoats were added! A woman could be wearing up to 14 pounds of clothing. No wonder they fainted! Keeping warm in winter must not have been such a big issue. I always wondered how they seemed to be wearing such skimpy jackets or cloaks. There were also petticoats made of fabric that had cotton or hemp cords sewn or woven in, like the later hoops of the cage crinolines. Also a fascinating area of research! I decided to watch five of the six versions of Jane Eyre on disc that I own, and see whether I could figure out what they were wearing in each one, underneath. I couldn't make out what the first petticoat was in some of them, but they all wore several. In the Zelah Clark BBC version, I could see that she was wearing a corded petticoat as the last layer under her wedding dress. Right!

Next, what was I going to use? Buckram! So that is what she is wearing over her pantaloons, under her linen petticoat. 

Sewing on her skirt over these layers made her waist bigger than I planned for, but c'est la vie. Sewing on her bodice and sleeves has been tricky, since her arms don't move much. I'm in the home stretch now.