Xmass Makie Snuggle...

My two Makie girls Beatrix and Parsley found my coffee this morning.

"Mmmmm warm..."

I think they want some of their own, it's a bit chilly outside. Excuse the bad lighting, again, as I said chilly. Strictly indoor pics today. 

Of course cold days mean warm snuggles...

Happy Holidays!

For Christmas... mini Blythes!

Decided to fool around with some Click Chicks (those little puzzle dolls you get from gumball machines for about 50 cents) and created some mini Blythes for my girls, I tried to give them that Junie Moon flair, I think they are rather cute. They were pretty time consuming to make (so... so tiny...) but well worth it. I think they are awfully cute, and my gals seem to enjoy them too :D If anyone is wanting to make there own...

A single piece of scrap booking paper (about 79 cents at Joann's) Made about 4 little Blythe like boxes and backer paper for the little dolls. The pattern is from Dr Blythenstien and can be found HERE I did a bit of adjusting so that they would be a good fit for the Click Chicks, use your own best judgement there.

I baked them in the oven with new hair (I got rid of the hair back plate on one, and covered it over with polymer on the other two) and baked a bit of hair and clothing on them. When done, I did a bit of sanding, a little more embellishment, sealed the little girls, and viola!

And yes, the eyes are intentionally a bit Junie Moon (love those little release drawings). Just remember to bake them at low temp (you don't want a melted doll) and have fun.

Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time - Ugly X-mas Sweater!!!

I've heard many stories of people making doll clothes from Christmas socks... this sounded like fun and I of course wanted to experiment making ugly Christmas sweaters :D

So I went and picked up some Christmas socks that looked suitably obnoxious. I tried to freehand the pattern based on some youtube videos I'd seen... the results? We shall not speak of them... very disappointing, all I can say is those guys in the videos are better at freehand cutting than I am. Anyway, I got smart and used a long sleeved shirt pattern for knits and a bit of single fold bias tape and here are the results...

The bias tape made it quite easy to finish the edges neatly. And for anyone who is hesitant in working with knits, I had little problems with stretching while doing the underarms, but if it does become an issue, adjusting the tension on your machine -or- (if you hate changing the settings on your machine when you have them just the way you like) using the paper trick seems to help keep things from warping out of shape.

The paper trick (for those unfamiliar) consists of running a strip of paper along your seam as you sew the knit fabric sections, it acts as a stabilizer and after you've finished you simply tear the paper away from the inside and outside of the garment like perforated paper (because after you've sewn it that's pretty much what it is). It comes away easily enough and you have a nice unwarped seam. Of course you don't need to do this where the bias tape is used because it has pretty much the same effect.

For anyone wanting to use the pattern I found this on on the internet long ago and can't seem to find a proper link to it anywhere so here's a pic with a ruler for size...

I've long since lost the instructions to go with it but I pretty much just put bias tape on the ends of the sleeves and then folded the fabric along the dotted lines, matching up A to A and C to C. Then you just sew the underarm and the sides of the torso together (you can finish with a bit of a zig zag to prevent raveling if you're worried about that). Then you can finish the remaining edges: neck, back, and the bottom of the torso, with bias tape as you choose. You can have the back overlap and close with snaps (as I did) or perhaps sew the bottom half way up and leave the top of the back open, finishing it with some surging or zig zag to keep it from unraveling.

This has been a fun little project and it went pretty fast. I may make some more for my other Blythes.

Edit: Ha! Found it! The pattern is HERE. It's the one for the boat neck T shirt.

Finished Faceup

Parsley now has her face up finished and sealed. I may make changes to it later but for now I think she's looking pretty good :)

A Whole New Bod...

I got a wonderful surprise in the mail! The fantastic Lisa Sheppard (who I know from the official Makies fan group on Facebook) offered to send me the dress I'd picked for my Parsley if I'd been able to make her, and in the package was another body and wig so that she can have a "sister" I was just so flabbergasted, she's just been so wonderfully sweet and generous I don't know how to put it into words! Thank you so much Lisa, now I need to think of what this new girl should look like. Very excited!

More Makie Maxis

Parsley, still as yet unfinished, modeling a new Maxi dress. I'm finally satisfied with the pattern...

And here's a few pics of Beatrix in a little yellow number...

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and... no, just Parsley

This is Parsley...

She is the Makie doll I intended to make after Beatrix, someday, when I could afford it. But of course life has a way of interfering with one's plans and now that the company has vanished I had given up on making her. However a very nice person on the Official Makies Fangroup on Facebook was able to sell me both the body and the wig she would have had :D With these two things in hand I decided to make the head. *GASP* Yeah, I'm not sure it's such a good idea either, but the idea wouldn't leave me so of course I had to see it through till the end. I did used to sculpt doll heads out of polymers back in the day, though those were smaller, and I figured I could at least give it a shot. So here is my first ever attempt at a Makie head, based on what I wanted Parsley to look like, to the best of my ability. It's not finished by any means, she still needs some micro sanding and this is my first time working with watercolor pencils (she is not yet sealed) but it's been fun so far and I wanted to share what I'd done up till now...

Here she is partially through the sculpt...

And again, a little further along...

After I had a start to the face, to kind of see where her character was going and get attached to the idea, I began to fill in the back of the head with the idea of going back to finish the face after...

Building up the hollow of the head. I was surprised at just how few pictures of a bald Makie profile I could find on the internet (I wanted to get the shape a close as I could) though I did manage to find one....

Filling the head with thick coils to aide in the curing and cooling (this thing is was obviously going to be thick)....

And I'm more or less finished with the face. I intended her to have a bit of a wide face and this is even a bit wider than intended but since the polymer will shrink a bit and sanding will be needed I'm pretty pleased to call this good for the sculpt. Ah, almost forgot, the eyes are glass and heat safe, I ordered them from China....

Placement of the hole for connecting the head to body, I was so pleased the bod came with the ball joint for the neck, I wasn't sure if it would....

Baked and first sanding. With the piece being so large I knew there might be some browning if I wasn't careful. I set the temp lower than recommended and let it go for longer. Luckily the head cured and I got away with only a light bit of brown on the nose and one eyebrow, which was easily sanded off....

More sanding needed, and no face up yet, but I decided to set the head on the body to see how things were going, I made her a little green dress as close as I could do to the one she would have come with (she's currently borrowing Beatrix's shoes)....

And now her face with a bit of color, still unsealed yet....

And that's as far as I've gotten. hoping to make more improvements in the future.