Another 18th century doll

I have been looking at MANY images of women in 18th century dresses and am still captivated. As are a lot of other people in the world, apparently! What a wealth of inspiration there is on the internet! I was inspired to make a jointed shoulder in my next boudoir type doll by looking at the work of art_doll_com, a Russian dollmaker whose work is on Instagram. That necessitated more research and I was delighted to see some tutorials from other Russian dollmakers telling me how to do it.

This image shows the ball joint for the arm of the doll. It rests in the socket created in the breastplate. This doll is strung with elastic so that the head moves, as well as the shoulders. The arms are jointed at the elbow as well. This doll's hips also have disc joints, and the lower legs are jointed at the knees. For this doll I made the elastic much stronger. My first doll has a rather wobbly head.

Even though they will not show, I like to make the shift and stays as true to period as I can. I just use buckram for the stays, though, since making proper stays would be a huge undertaking. If this doll were able to be dressed and undressed, it would be worth the time. I have seen an American dollmaker's interpretation of the old 18th century fashion dolls, and she made real stays!

The inspiration for her outfit came from a beautiful piece of an embroidered pillowcase edge that suggested the quilted petticoats of the time. I needed to cover the upper part, so a long caraco jacket was what I settled on. The pattern for the jacket was an amalgamation of patterns from Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion and Costume Close Up. She has pearl bracelets and necklace. Her hairstyle is the hedgehog look. I am pondering a hat.

Here she is having a pattern for her caraco jacket fitted on her.