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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Busy times

Image
  It has been a long time since I touched base with you. I get swept up in my enthusiasms and don't take the time to share what I am doing. Gosh, I don't even take the time to wash the kitchen floor! Many dolls have been made in the past few months. Here are some images of them: This little rag doll is made with my own pattern, and is stuffed with wool. These Santos Cage Dolls inspired me to learn a new skill, tinwork. There are some great videos on Youtube that show how it is done. I wanted to make something soft and cuddly, so this little needlefelted guy was next. He has been patiently waiting for his clothes for ages now. Soon!  This little articulated doll was inspired by me seeing the work of momo&cose on Pinterest. She is made of papier mache and wire joints. Papier mache is not my favourite medium because it takes so long to dry between coats, and I get impatient, but it has the charm of excusing rough modelling.  As you can see, she is sitting on the bare bones of
Read more

The making of a boy doll dress

Image
  My last post talked about the first step in designing clothing for a doll, that is, creating the under layers first and then draping a pattern over top. This post will show pictures I took while making the dress for my Izannah Walker John Thayer doll challenge. This challenge ends Feb.1 in the MAIDA dollmaking group. I have made a tutorial of the process that explains more and I will send it to anyone who is interested in having a copy. I have noticed that my instructions tend to assume some knowledge of sewing clothing, but I hope the photos make things clearer. Just contact me by clicking on the three parallel lines in the top left corner of this blog. I begin by using a shop towel to drape the shape of the bodice fronts and tracing around on the shoulder, side and mid-bodice on seamlines. Do the same for the back. Darken the outlines and cut out the shapes, leaving a rather generous seam allowance. It is easier to trim away excess than to add extra, although sticky tape is your fr
Read more

A little rag doll

Image
I am in the middle of making four Santos dolls at once and it feels overwhelming, so I turned to creating a sweet little cloth doll from my own pattern. I knew it wouldn't take too long and I needed to do something that took less mental and emotional effort.   So, here she is, looking very happy with the world!
Read more