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Tag: Dolls

Trou in Ten

A lot of sewers are afraid of bifurcated nether-garments. They look more complicated than skirts. I remember wearing bike shorts under costumes for years because I was afraid to attempt a bloomer. And that is an odd conundrum, because I had been making corsets for years. That’s just the power of the pant. But sister, don’t fear the bloomer… There’s a Really Easy Way(tm).

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Hooray for Progress!

So, it’s been, like, forever since I’ve gotten to work on anything for my dollies, right? Oy then! Not cool… But I did get a few minutes the other day to work on Maid Marion’s little overdress that I started months ago. I dyed it months ago, too, and then crazy show-float-show-crap-I’ve-got-clients-too! season get the better of me… But, finally, progress! Here’s a general method for sewing a lined princess seam dress, regardless of size.

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Redefining “Overkill”

I decided that I needed more practice with the industrial machine at work. I can use it, I can do well with it, but it still occasionally gets away from me. I like to get to a point with a machine that I can raise the needle with the foot pedal if I need to. (Hey, sometimes you run out of hands!) So I brought Maid Marion’s overdress pieces into the shop the other day. Sewing doll clothes on an industrial machine is probably overkill, I’ll admit, but…. I figure that if I can set in a dolly-sleevehead with the machine, I am its master. If you doubt my theory, you clearly do not sew many doll clothes… Seriously, I know how to sew, but this is a whole new level of precision. Yipes!

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Where’s my (non-Almond) Joy?

I love what I do. Normally, I bop around my little workshop like Hammy – with about the same attention span. But sometimes things get me down, like working on serious things (websites) and that gosh-darned eleventh century shmata which continues to defy me, and I start to lose my Joy. And then I was get email from people, and they had they Joy. And it’s making me sad. Laura has the joy, Rebecca has the joy, Mo-geek has the joy…. I decided to take my Joy back, by force if necessary.

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A Milliner’s take on Tudor Corsets

We all know how to make a corset, right? Take a bodice pattern that’s too small, sew a lot of boning channels in it, a little jiggery-pokery to get the boning in, seal the edges, and presto change-o, corset. And that’s great, but it’s not the only way to make a corset. Well, ok, if you want to get all technical, then that is the only way to make a corset, but it’s not the only way to make a pair of stiffened bodies capable of supporting the body and forming it onto a conical shape. Here’s another method that relies on stiff sheets of interlining, rather than multiple thin bones.

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*yawn*

I got to spend last week working a preview show by Hubbard Street Dance at the college. It was fantastic! I was technically just there as wardrobe, but they let help with the load-in and setup, and I learned 62,458,371 new things, which is always super-great. Yesterday I slept. No, really, that’s most of what I did. But I also got a little dolly sewing done….

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Fabrics for Two Little Tudor Princesses

Crazy things resembling Honest Work(tm) have put me a million years behind on posting stuff from the last week. I don’t know about anyone else, but stress makes me totally ADD, and I decided that what I really need is a project to take my mind off work, websites, and that other project. I had an idea while making little chemises and corset mockups for Tyler and Piggy that it would be really adorable to do them up as the young Elizabeth I and Mary Tudor. So, I went digging through my fabric bins….

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