Grace and Dolly Flower Fairies in May

It's a warm, bright late afternoon in May.  Today, Saturday, I woke up to a cool morning that quickly rose in temperature over the Sierra Foothills.  I'd taken Brighton, my Labrador Retriever, to the lake for hike, as I do every other day unless my husband is busy with a project and needs the morning to work in the yard.  It's a beautiful time of year.  The land doesn't get any greener, but all too soon, the heat dries the soil, Californian turns to brown and only the watered lawns and leafy oaks provide its green.  It's a magical time of year to be witnessed and enjoyed.

When you step outside into the garden, it's hard not to feel a lightness in your step.  When you head into town, everyone is smiling as if the sun itself has sprinkled happy dust in the air.  That's Spring.  I wonder if this is where they came up with the phrase, "a spring in one's step".  It's no wonder, as the butterflies make their first appearances, that we turn our fanciful thoughts to fairies and woodlands.

As some of you may know, after February's Club Grace Dream Closet subscription ended, we had a brief hiatus.  The February outfit was a plain white dress you could accessorize, but I was far too in love with the Chinese New Year selection, that Grace and Dolly remained in their dresses until a week ago.  

Awaiting notification from Ruby Red Galleria in China, as to when the first shipment of new Dream Closet costumes will be arriving, Rachel treated us to a pre-Club Grace offering in May to whet our appetites.  I was so pleased with the beautiful box, its contents, the lovely outfit Diana Vining designed and the treasured extras that come inside the box.  From what I recollect, this costume was designed by Diana in 2021, and that gives us an idea of how long it takes to submit and idea, receive a sample and plan production.  I simply adore Diana Vining's paper dolls, and now she's designing doll clothing.  And I love that Ruby Red Galleria is continuing to work with Rachel, providing us exquisitely well-made doll costuming and accessories.

But I was even happier to see that Diana included Dolly Dingle in the mix, by way of a flower fairy.  No brainer.  Must do!  So, I carefully finished one part of the project I had started working on and took a break from it to create the flower fairy costume for my Dolly Dingle doll.

This is a sample of the cards we get in each box.  Paper toys to cut out and assemble.  Pure fun.  For May, and to go with Grace's garden frolic outfit, Diana gave us a scrapbook to play with and little stand ups for display.  

I did something this time around that I haven't in the past, and decorated Grace's stand with the lower band of meadow grasses and wildflowers.  I scanned the card so I could enlarge it, and of course, save the card (so beautiful!), then proceeded to cut out three of the bands and tape them to the base of the stand.

For those of you who've been following me awhile, I'd been making Maggie Iacono's tiny Esme, flower costumes from wool felt.  It was just last year at this time, that I made Esme's rose fairy costume for Mother's Day and Spring.  It wouldn't be a stretch to create something similar for the much larger Dolly.

One of details that make the petals of such a costume come to life, are the machine sewn veins in the petals and leaves.  What I discovered a year ago, was that by doing this, not only does this give the fabric some stay, but it allows you to be able to manipulate it, to stretch and curl it.

Careful study of Diana's drawing determined that the tiny leaves around Dolly's waist were not on a belt but attached to the edge of the petals at the waist.  When a watercolor artist makes a distinction between areas, they often paint a line.  This could have been construed as a belt, but it wasn't.  This card was a standard 4" x 6", so I had to study the wee drawing of the Dolly Flower Fairy under magnification.

The wings would be fun and would teach me a new way of making doll fairy wings.  I decided to look up a YouTube on what others had done and chose to go with the process of bending the wire and gluing the fabric directly on the wires.  This artist used a glue gun, but the glue dried before I could even get the fabric on it, so I used the standard "hat glue" or fringe glue.  I also used cotton covered wire rather than plain metal.  It was a messy, sticky process, but worked.  I drew blue veins in the wings to emulate Diana's drawing.  She included tiny pink dots on the edges of the wings.

It came to my attention that people glue tiny faux gems to these fairy wings, so this is what I did to handle the dots.  Using an alcohol marker wouldn't work on the thinly woven fabric I used, as it bled.  So, I painstakingly glued many tiny gems around the frame of the wings.

Detail of the back, which is plain.  The wings hook to the back of the dress with a hook and eye hook.

Dolly finds Remmie Lou in the garden.

Dolly's hat is made up of four large persimmon-colored petals.  They are overlapped and stitched together, meeting at the top.  A round of green with small, irregularly shaped stem leaves clipped from the edges is stretched over the tip of the flower hat and a colored fabric covered wire makes the tiny stem.

Lucky me, Dolly's feet are bare with little green silk ribbons tied around the ankles.

Another thing I loved in Diana's paper toy card, was the little mushroom house display.  I have long been enchanted with the notion of tiny gnomes and fairies residing in such stubby little homes.  

In 1960, when I was just 3 years old, my mother gave me this wooden puzzle, made in Germany, to play with.  Like all the toys I was given, there were so few, I took extremely good care of it.  This little round puzzle sits on a shelf in my studio surrounded by a couple more mushroom home pieces I collected over the years.  So naturally, I had to make a tiny one for Dolly to hold.

We can pretend it's a purse.  Or maybe she's a clever real estate agent finding a new grassy, shaded lot for the mushroom abode.

Here's a detail of the little mushroom.  Okay.  I didn't spend a lot of time on it.  Maybe two and half hours.  But I love accessories and dolls just come to life for me when they have something to hold.

Lastly, but not leastly, there is always the precious Remmie Lou to include in the month's display.  I thought about giving her fairy wings.  Man, that was a sticky gluey mess, and it would be messier and glueier in miniature, so it came to me to put a butterfly on her nose.  Dogs like to roll and run and chomp in tall grasses, so I gave Remmie Lou a break from a costume.  She's plenty busy studying this annoying little butterfly who has no manners.

Before I forget, I did give Grace a pair of flower earrings.  These are the same flowers that dangled from the hair sticks in Cissy's kimono outfit. They are like milk glass and come in several colors.

I can't wait for the Club Grace subscription to return and check daily for an announcement to sign up.  The pre-box for May was the perfect thing to get me motivated to redress Grace and Dolly.  Thank you, Rachel and Diana!

And now I'll return to my fussy little project.  The one that's been "in the works" since January.  

Attached, for your enjoyment, are few illustrations from some of the very best vintage illustrators of the early twentieth century.  These artists would be Margaret Tarrant, Rene Cloke and Cicely Mary Barker.  There is no limit to the number of "pink" flower fairy illustrations, so I just chose a few to pique your interest.  I love the work by Margaret Tarrant.  Every illustration I look at that she's done, is one to lose myself in.  They make your heart feel light as air.  One mile to Fairy Land.

Until next time, Melissa