From My Little Hole in the Wall: May 2021

How many grown up little girls remember diving to the bottom of the pool and keeping their legs tightly together pretending to be mermaids? Or hosting pretend mermaid tea parties under the water? We'd pour the invisible tea from the invisible pot and hold our invisible cups and saucers and sip before we ran out of breath, rising to the surface glorious mermaids all!

The fascination and enchantment with mermaids, these sirens of the sea, goes back hundreds of years. Mermaids are one of the oldest mythological creatures. The first known story of a mermaid dates back to 1000 B.C. when Assyrian goddess Atargatis, ashamed at having killed a mortal man that she loved, tried to conceal herself in a lake. When waters failed to hide her, she turned herself into a creature, half woman, half fish.

Mermaids have made appearances in fiction and fairytales, and are especially popular in areas surrounded by water, such as

Ireland and the islands of the Caribbean Sea. Mermaids waver between being trapped, and being dangerous. But, the most consistent portrayal of mermaids is certain superiority to mortals. In love, they are vulnerable, so often falling for gruff sailors or fisherman. Or they are bewitching, enchanting said men to their watery demise.

Poets such as Alfred Lord Tennyson and Shakespeare have written poetry about mermaids. J. M. Barrie has Peter Pan introduce Wendy to mermaids. "Oh," cried Wendy, "to see a mermaid!" (1904)

Statues have been erected to these mythological sirens. Most famous is The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen, Denmark. From Bonita Springs, Florida to San Francisco, from Greece to Rome to Hawaii, mermaids grace fountains, gardens and beaches.

Every summer I get on my mermaid kick. This year it began

much earlier, but in truth, if you're a mermaid lover, you are always looking for the next gracious image of a mermaid. I've lost myself for hours on Pinterest saving off vintage and contemporary images-artworks, and with the advent of my new printer, I've been making stickers of them to decorate my daily journal. The more I look, the more I find, and just recently purchased two more books off Amazon of mermaid lore and history. While I don't, yet, have a favorite volume, my first was Varla Ventura's Among the Mermaids (2013), and this I purchased years ago. Its the perfect beach read. And, if a beach is not near, the pool, the patio, right before bed for dreams of under the sea enchantment.

Last month my husband gifted me a trip to Baltimore in July, to attend the UFDC's Dolly and Me By the Sea convention. I had to go. As I love everything nautical, this will be such a treat. While not necessary, its a joy to bring along a pocket doll, and I chose Belinda, my Ruby Red Galleria 8" dolly.

Surely I could have packed her a little bag with some nautically themed RRG outfits (she's the same size as Ten Ping), but the idea of bringing her as a mermaid with a couple changes of tails seemed more fun an idea.

Both Belinda and Ten Ping have been accessorized by RRG with these darling little soft cloth dollies, and I would make one based off the "thinnest" one in the collection, as a mermaid dolly for Belinda.

I've been working on these three costumes for a long time. Just researching the right fabrics took effort, and then to decorate the costumes was even more effort. I heavily invested in no less than eight different metallic lycra fabrics for this project. With most sellers, you cannot purchase less than one yard of 60" fabric, so you can just imagine what I have left over. There are also fabrics that were simply unsuitable. And sewing on these fabrics was a pretty miserable experience. I used a jersey needle,

however, I'm not sure that was the best choice. Maybe I should have looked up what needle would be best to use, but there you go. I didn't. Some fabric was just too thick, like pleather.

Finding little seashells and charms was another matter. Its not that there aren't a billion possibilities and selections, its just that I didn't know what I was doing or wanted to do. So I often just sat dumbfounded, and would return to Pinterest to look at more mermaids - which is currently, my favorite pastime. Mermaids and beach scenes.

Like a true collector, I had to buy a couple of mermaid dolls as well. They're out there. Whether they're vintage bathtub toys like Sea Wees and TNT's vinyl offerings, or the highly articulated Eledoll, they're great. Its nice to have a proper selection. There's a lady on Etsy that makes OOAK Barbie mermaids, and I had to have one of those, too. She makes incredible resin stands for them that allow the doll to appear as if she's swimming.

So its not like I didn't have lots of references, but I still found creating my own a distinct challenge.

The first outfit I made for Belinda was with this "mini" scale metallic mermaid fabric. Most scale fabrics are designed for human costumes, and the green was the only one I could find with a small enough scale.

Mermaids love jewelry. Pearl strands and gemstones. For Belinda's first "tail", her little top is fastened with pearl straps that come together with a barrel clasp. Her hair comb is decorated with sparkle frou-frou from the edges of the metallic fabric. The fins are of the same edging.

I found a seller that had nicely drilled tiny shells and added a few to both her hair comb and her costume. I also used decorative fish net to drape her tail with, which allowed me to hang little charms and drilled shells off of.

Another investment was in sea spray. Sea vegetation works beautifully to enhance the costume further. I will attribute both the fish net and sea spray to a lovely Etsy seller who made hair jewelry with these items. She was generously instrumental in helping me find these add-ons as well. Some people like to remain anonymous on Etsy, but I thanked her profusely.

The second costume I made was supposed to represent a Koi or goldfish. Finding orange was not meant to be. This fabric was actually called "copper", but its more of an orange-red. Both this and the final costume's fabric is considered sequin dot fabric. So not individually sewn on sequins, but stamped on mirrored dots. All these have two or four way stretch, which is essential for a good tail fit.

I didn't take as many photos of the green tail, and too many of the others, but I like how her dolly came out in the goldfish photos.

Let's talk about Belinda's mermaid dolly.

In one of the dressed doll Belinda's, she came with a little rag doll in a lace dress. Ruby Red Galleria actually made this lace dress with a snap, so I undressed her and sketched a rough outline of the doll on paper. This was my pattern. I had three similar dolly rag dolls by RRG and this one was the thinnest, although I feel that all of the tiny rag dolls are slightly different in dimension depending on how the seamstress sewed them up and stuffed them. That's my opinion anyway, so this little one is on target as unique. I also used their basic embroidered face format for her features. I intended to have the DCM thread hair bundled up like Belinda's, but that's not really "rag doll" style.

So I twisted the sides and sewed them down for a more dramatic look, then decorated her thread tresses with shells, jewels and a connecting chain. These are permanent adornments. Perhaps I should have made the dolly's hair a bit longer, but the length is okay.

Dolly would get a matching tail for each of Belinda's. The first two are from the same pattern, and the third is simpler, but unique.

For Belinda's hair piece, I used the style of mini clip I chose for all the bows while dressing Peggy Sue. I have a lifetime's worth of them. You can't purchase them here. Only in China, and I haven't seen a seller on Etsy selling quantities of 10, 20 etc. Yet.

Making this tiny hair jewelry without damaging Belinda's mohair wig was near impossible. Her wig is actually brushed up, ponytailed, then the ends curled. I would never in a million years try to undo it and smooth it up again. Mohair is terribly unforgiving.

That said, each hair ornament had to be made in such a way as to do as little damage to her "do" when putting it in and taking it off.

I took a close up of this one to share a bit how I made it. The natural seashells were colored with alcohol markers. I let them dry an entire day, although alcohol markers dry instantly - typically. There was some reaction on the shell's surface that made the color just a little sticky. Almost used the word "tacky", but I don't want you to think my work is "tacky". LOL I also colored white paper roses, and sewed those on as well. There's a brass seahorse included in the dangling charms.

Belinda's necklace is one long strand of chain with glass leaf beads and other jewels at the ends. When wrapped around her neck several times, the necklace stays on, I don't have to fiddle with clasps. The ends can hang down her back, front or one on each side.

Both the green scales and the Koi (let's call it that), tails are for daytime wear. But, for the evening, and when, and if, I attend any dinner events at convention, Belinda will need to dress up, so the last tail I made her would be for this purpose. I'm calling it Breakfast at Belinda's after Breakfast at Tiffany's.

You have to admit that its a rather "Audrey Hepburn" look.

Once again, I used a sequin dot metallic stretch fabric, but this one in silver with what they call "holo" dots. Hologram dots that sparkle like a rainbow. Very fishy. What ocean fish has silver scales? I don't know. Salmon have silver scales with pink flesh, but that would make this a mermaid of the lake costume. Overthinking things here.

I used the same format in the pattern by making the fins the edge fabric. It is also run through with sparkle threads. You could call this the selvage, but there's so much of it, maybe six inches, that I just consider it fabric. However, instead of a bra top on young Belinda's child chest, I brought the length up high for a strapless gown look.

Just having a little photo fun with sea spray and fish netting. Belinda is upheld by a vintage Barbie stand. They work so perfectly for a swimming look!

The main difference with the evening tails is that I added little back fins to both Belinda's costume and her dolly's. This was made from a see-through metallic stretch fabric. One of the mistakes I'd purchased not realizing how see-through it was. Or perhaps thinking I'd use it for fins, but alas, her feet would show through!

I folded a piece, then cut a wavy shape on the edge and hand sewed it to the back. If you look at real fish, their fins are translucent. But, mermaid costumes must hide little pink feet.

I was surprised this came out so well, and the tiny costume was made in the exact same way.

I played a bit more in decorating this evening tail as well. I had to invest in some silver chain, and had some fun looking for silver sea shell-nautical themed charms. Natural shells would not do for glam. They also needed to be light enough, that once sewn on, they would not pull the costume down off her body.

I did find a seller with a mixed selection of shells and sea critters and used these to dangle from her draped chain the runs from under her arm and across to the beginning of her fins. There's a silver conch shell, a seahorse, a star fish and a turtle. And, this is where it got fun. I added a little silver tea cup and saucer with a pearl inside the cup, to the end of the chain. Mermaids like to collect treasures from sunken ships, and why not have Belinda find a charming tea service? A mermaid would think this an unusual item, but pretty!

For her head piece, I used the stingray charm from this set and made a little crown with pearls and long silver beads with tapered ends. I purchased some silver jewelry wire to assemble it. I chose the stingray because he has a jewelry loop on one end, and his tail acted as the other loop for the wire. A close up of the crown can be seen in the portrait photo at the start of this journal post.

While I'm finished with Belinda's mermaid wardrobe, I'll continue to enjoy the quiet time of looking for artwork images I've never seen before, and will continue enjoying the old and new books on mermaid lore and history. Back in the early 80's, I collected greeting cards with beautiful mermaid images, and scrapbooked them in an album along with other themed cards. Mermaids have been a lifetime enchantment and curiosity to me. The stories, poems and historical anecdotes only enhance my enjoyment of mermaid pursuit.

I'll leave you now with a close up of Belinda's dolly, and her wrap chain necklace with a little fish bead on one end, capped pearl on the other.

I've included several of my favorite mermaid images below for you to enjoy. Of note, are the works by Claire Fletcher from Hastings in the U.K. I just discovered her work recently, and have saved off everything I could find that she painted mermaid related. I'm also overly tickled by the vintage ads for Fairy Soap. One has a poem and I hope you'll enjoy it as well. Remember that you can click on any photo to see it close up. Helps when reading a poem!

The unofficial first day of summer is here, and I hope you've been enjoying beautiful weather and maybe a barbeque or two. For us in California, it is already too hot to be out past noon. Wherever you are, I hope you'll enjoy being outdoors in nature, and perhaps near water during these soft and balmy days. Let me know if you spot a mermaid!

Love, Melissa

Michael Parks

Claire Fletcher

Image used on cover of Among the Mermaids

Where's the Alice? Well, she's coming. She's in the hopper. When I finished Paloma the Puppeteer, I took a few days to monkey around with trying to make mermaid costumes for dolls. One in particular, my Belinda, an 8" Ruby Red Galleria doll. The second costume I made came out well, but the first I wasn't happy with. I'd really like to have three for her.

I purchased almost $200 worth of metallic fabrics off Etsy, as I kept trying to find the right scale and texture, and most of it I can't use. Then the May Club Grace box arrived and I put all that aside as Dolly Dingle needed a matching dress for the Hot Air Balloon ride, which was the month of May's theme.

Its funny, but one of my "before I die" wishes has always been to take a hot air balloon ride. My husband says they're too expensive and he has no desire to go up in one, and that's where the dream sits to date. How important is this to me? Its a dream.

We need our dreams, and Grace seems to be fulfilling many of them to date. And, I just adored the multi-colored dot dress we received for her wardrobe. It came with these darling multi-colored strappy sandals that Rachel Hoffman had special made just for the dress. Between her and Diana Vining, the creativity has no bounds.

I'd been "hot air balloon" dreaming since the last Club Grace. The image of the Wizard of Oz as he takes off in his balloon without Dorothy, has stayed with me since childhood. What a wonderful way to travel! I'd even considered making Grace a purse of that very balloon with the words "Omaha State Fair" stitched on it, but didn't. It was beyond the effort what I was willing to put into it.

So, yes. This months' Club Grace box was a delight to receive. I immediately started looking for fabric with tiny multi-colored dots, and received a half yard of dot fabric

that just wouldn't do. Way too big, A quarter inch dot didn't sound too big, but it was. So I tried again and found a vintage cotton - you know, that lovely thinly woven cotton that was never intended for quilting - on Etsy, and hit the BIN on it. When it arrived I was thrilled. Its so delicate and was the perfect size dot for Dolly Dingle. The best thing about this vintage cotton is that there is plenty of it left to make something for another doll some time. Rare is the time I come across a fabric I'm in love with, and this was it.

I made her a little summer dress with shoulder straps and flounces. I still haven't quite figured out the length each flounce should be, so I simply gather and pin and cut off the length if its too long. The rule of thumb was three times the width of the bodice edge, but you can't do that with the second flounce. I don't even enjoy making ruffles and flounces, but I do enjoy seeing them on my dolls.

I was tickled to find a box of Dots candies in the Club Grace box as well. Rachel always includes candy. Chocolate most of the time, but the warm weather is here and chocolate melts. However, it was brilliant to think of Dots candies. I haven't had those since I was a child. Gummy Bears are much better tasting, but the novelty is rich.

Diana Vining had created and included a printable page of paper toys where you could make Grace a Dots purse. Included was a cut out of a tiny Dots candy box to make for the dolls. Now why didn't I think of that?! I'm so glad she did because I had so much fun with them, and the idea.

Since her files are pdf files and I've not been real successful turning them into jpegs, I searched online for Dots and found an image of a 17oz. box that would be the right format for a back pack for Dolly. Have to have some originality!

Like with Grace's first Summer Fling tote, I printed the image on printer fabric and made it from that. Its not the greatest fabric, but is perfect for totes and back packs.

Thinking as I write, I might have created Dots candy earrings for Grace, but then I would have had to look for beads that looked like little high-crowned domes. Now that I've had the idea, I may just make her pair and pretend they're Dots.

The real challenge was making these sandals for Dolly to match Grace's heels. I'd just made red sandals for her so it wasn't a great stretch, but I wanted the multi-colored straps on hers like Grace's. The process is a bit like braiding or weaving, took a little effort, but they came out cute. As I'm getting better with shoeing those tiny feet, I may remake her original black Maryjanes. I was never happy with the way they came out. The height of the back heel form needed to be longer. Shoes take a long time to make.

Then of course, Grace finally got her hot air balloon purse. The basket hangs from little chains. I used the same technique for this that I used for the baubles hanging from Paloma's cornette.

I pursued the Dots paper toy page a little further. The candy boxes were the last things I made. Grace needed one for her purse and Dolly needed one to hold in her hand. It was such a darling little box and looked adorable tucked under her fingers, but I went a step further and made it into a wristlet so it would display better.

I now have a festive and spring-timey display for May's Club Grace. I've added lots of fun and beautiful images below for you to enjoy, some with notations. I've decided to tackle one more mermaid costume for Belinda and if that goes well, I'll make the third, then share them with you.

One of the reasons I've been hesitating with the new Alice is that my doll shelves are so crowded, I won't have a place to display her. I can't stop creating though, so I must start letting go of some of my dolls or putting them away for a rainy day.

Before I sign off, I have to let you know that Blogspot is messing with me again. They want me to export all the subscriptions to something called CSV. I read their instructions and looked for two hours for this "analyze" thing they wanted me to start with and couldn't find it. Even my husband, Mr. Tech, tried and couldn't find it. There is no online support help for this blog either. I'm going to keep trying as YOU are as important to me as my keeping this journal. Their changes start in July. From what I've read, if I don't figure out how to export the subscriptions, you'll no long get an email when I write a new post. This bothers me a great deal, but if I can't find out how to do this, I hope you'll find me again and re-subscribe. Taking you with me on this creative journey has been my inspiration. The blog is not going away. I'll keep writing and sharing. Its just the current subscriptions that will go away if I can't export them. I hope you'll continue to follow me for years to come. If you don't get an email from me in July, please look for missemouse.blogspot in an engine search.

If any one of you can give me a clue about this export thing, please write in and help me out. I am so technically challenged. And, I'm just learning how to use my first smartphone, too.

Wishing you all the best and most out of this glorious time of year! Up, up and away!

Love, Melissa