Playing Abigail the Vampire Ballerina

One of the remarkable things about playing dolls is realizing that moment when a doll becomes a friend.  When you've spent so much time with her, she grows a personality and charm that you gravitate to on your best and worst days, because she is there to be special to you in every way.  This is Maisie.  And the funny thing is, she became my friend and muse the instant I pulled her from the box.  

Growing up, dolls were precious commodities and were handled by me as things of worth and exquisite beauty rather than toys to be played with.  Oh, I had my moments with Liddle Kiddles and my troll doll, but the other dolls were as elevated as books.  You cared for them and didn't mark them up.  A lost shoe was a calamity, and each item collected for that doll held its own special meaning and worth.  And, no, I never lost a shoe!

Maisie has grown me in some ways as a doll costumer and set me back just as much in how difficult she is to sew for.  I never used to blink when I set out to make an outfit, for say, a Lawton doll, or 

even the dreaded 16" fashion doll needing darts.  And I'm getting pretty good at making my own darts now, but that's another story.  I even heard confirmation recently from a respected, professional doll costumer, that the Connie Lowe dolls are indeed a challenge to sew for.  Not that this made me feel any better about taking on the latest challenge, but at least I no longer feel like an odd ball.  Well, I am one, but again, that's another story.

Once upon a time in the not-so-distant past, okay, last summer, Heather's doll, Eloise got to watch a movie on the plane on her way home from the UFDC convention.  Comfortably lounging on the tray table with a bag of her favorite candy, Sour Patch Kids, she got to choose the movie for the flight home.  And it was Abigail.  A horror movie that came out in April of 2024.  Abigail is the story of a vampire ballerina and Eloise has talked of little else since watching it.  So, like a good mom, Heather asked me to make Eloise an Abigail vampire ballerina costume. 

At first, I was dumbfounded.  A what?!  So, like the good little researcher I am, I Googled it up.  Sure enough.  There was a movie about a vampire ballerina.  Did I watch it?  Not yet, but I did enjoy the trailer.  Oh, and I did read the article written about it on Wikipedia.  

The story is about - do you care? yes - about a little girl, the daughter of a reclusive kingpin who presides over a vast criminal empire, and the five thugs who kidnap her for a ransom of $50 million.  Little do they know as the sun sets that night, that the pre-teen ballerina in their possession is an ancient vampire.  And yes, I will watch it because I like campy horror films.  It was actually a take-off from a 1936 film called Dracula's Daughter.  Now that is one I'd like to see!

And now you know that I like vampire movies and series (and books!), especially when the vampire is played by Matthew Goode.  

But these things really didn't prepare me for conjuring up a vampire ballerina costume.  Especially for a Connie Lowe doll.  I'm still not quite there when it comes to using cut up vintage clothing and sewing outside the box, but I'll get there in time.  I have made dance/ballet costumes, but never the kind with tulle and I'd have to seriously study Tonner's ballet tutus before trying to make a classic style, which is the short, stiff kind used in classical ballets.  What I chose to try was the "romantic" style, which is long and reaches the knee or lower.  This style is most often composed of 5 to 6 layers of tulle.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I wanted to make her a parasol.  The longer I contemplated "vampire" and "ballerina", my thoughts drifted to New Orleans where many vampire stories are set.  Visions of Southern elegance, magnolia trees and bayou swamps begged to find their way into this play set.

The parasol is a backdrop, a scenic setting.  How do you create a ballerina tutu that says "vampire"?  You give it some props.  Maybe I didn't need to go in this direction.  Maybe I could have just made a tutu and said, "You figure it out".  But that's not me.  Remember?  I'm an odd ball.  And I really wanted to make another parasol.  So that was the first thing I did while waiting for the tulle to arrive in the mail.

I used the images of bats and treetops from this vintage illustration depicting a certain kind of bat.  These illustrations were most often found in textbooks and nature study books.  I also used the full moon from the illustration which helped give the twilight hue of lavender an eerie feel.  

I like bats!  They eat mosquitos.  They're little night birds.

This was one of the more difficult parasols that've I've painted and decorated.  I'd actually considered including magnolias on it, but the bats alone, flying about at twilight felt elegant and serene.

Designing the artwork for these parasols takes an incredible amount of thought and effort.  It's something I love to do, and it beat learning Photoshop when it comes to backgrounds.  One is a prop and an accessory.  The other, a tool I wish I'd had under my belt for this project.

I knew before I even watched the trailer to the movie, that I wanted to make the romantic style tutu.  The idea of a child flitting and hopping through the woods in a flowing ballet dress, pretending to sneak up and bite her victims, required the look of clouds and mist.

I studied various tutu skirts at this length and chose to begin the tulle almost at a the hip.  The amount of gathering required to get this one look, would consume her tiny body if the tulle gathers were at the waist.  I have seen these skirts separate from the bodice tops and that worked for me.

The other noted detail was how to get the idea of vampire written on the tutu.  Blood.  Gotta have blood.  But Abigail was a ballerina and took her talent seriously.  A beautiful, clean tutu to perform in was required.  The blood and gore come later when she's pissed off.

To do this, I purchased tiny tear drop shaped red gems.  I think these might be used on fingernails but can be used on a variety of crafting project.  Five pointed inwards would make a nice flower for instance.  Anyway, I bought them in two sizes.  One was much too large and got tossed, but the tiny ones were perfect.

They also have a bit of sticky on the back and I pressed one to the corner of Maisie's mouth - and no, it will not hurt the resin - and followed the blood drop trail down her tutu.  Another set dusts the skirt when things get messy.

Again, what would a vampire ballerina costume look like?

Still classy, still beautiful, but with blood drop gems.

Maisie modeling a the costume in another ballet position with the parasol

And let's not forget that since vampires are sensitive to the sun, a large parasol is the perfect foil for keeping the sun away!

The back.  I actually made long darts in the bodice in the back to accommodate Maisie's behind.  The bodice is long enough to cover the panel that the tulle is sewn into.  

Normally they would be two separate pieces but when dressing the doll, they tending to separate.  This design was easily solved by tacking the top to the bottom.  Sometimes I forget that I'm dressing a doll, not a person.  It worked.

The cape.  Once again, How do you design a ballet costume to say "vampire"?  The vampire cape.  Oh!  This was fun!

Let it be said that I'm getting to the point that sewing black with black thread is coming to an end.  I simply cannot see what I'm doing any longer.  I wear glasses anyway, and no matter how bright the lights are, it's very difficult.  I'll grump about this, but I really do need to find an easier way to see what I'm doing.

This little cape has your typical vampire collar.  With the skinny neck this little doll has, and the width between her shoulder and chin being equally small, a smaller collar was necessary.  A long hair wig would cover it completely.  Couldn't be helped, but Maisie's little pigtails allow you to see what it looks like.

While sewing this, I decided to add finger loops so Eloise could flap around like a little bat flying through the twilight sky.

Don't tempt me!

The collar.

Loving the cape.

And then came the slippers.  About halfway through this process, I looked up a YouTube on how ballet pointe shoes are made.  We used to call them toe shoes, but now they are referred to as pointe shoes.  Thought you'd like to know that.

The intent was to make a pair of toe shoes as close to the real deal as possible.  Took me a week just to design and create them, but that's pretty typical.  I used to think the toe boxes were made of wood, and maybe at one time they were, but the toe boxes are now made from composite, like PaperClay and the paper mache is made in large vats like dough.  The YouTube never showed exactly how the composite was applied and formed, but believe it or not, I'd already made toe boxes from a new chunk of PaperClay.  

Once dried and sanded, I gessoed the boxes for smoothness and strength then got to work on the soles.  I won't go into the details from here, but it felt pretty good knowing I'd guessed the toe box material before even watching the YouTube.  

The bottoms of the pointe shoes.

I also looked up exactly where the ribbons should be sewn and it made sense.  I did not have silk satin ribbon in this size and color, so I used normal silk ribbon.  It actually lends a more Connie Lowe feel to the shoes.

One thing I've not mentioned is that I did make little pants to go underneath.  I do not use elastic in my sewing as elastic deteriorates over time.  And since the silk panties were lined, they are made in a way that I came up with, but not necessarily how they should have been made.  I really have not figured that out yet.  This is what the creative process is all about.  Figuring things out as you go along.  

And there are stockings.  A little bigger to get that Connie Lowe loose look.  But they still stay up for all that flitting about in the woods.

I stood Maisie up in the costume and frowned.  It was just too plain.  Ugh   Now what?  So, I started looking at ballet costumes once again and decided to sew on flowers in a random pattern.  Lastly, I added a bit of lavender silk ribbon to match the twilight color of the parasol.

Finally, a hair band of white flowers, a bit oversized for that special whimsical look.

Here, Maisie does a little barre work at the park bench.

Of course, now I want to make another ballet costume, but I'll be taking a little break for a while.  I may not make the pointe shoes with toe boxes this time, more slipper-like instead, but I do want to try a more costume box look in the next one.

This was a big project that took a lot of study, design and concentration to complete.  If it looks effortless, I did my job well.

Enjoy the sun and sunshiny days!  Eloise will be under the parasol until the sun sets!

From the film.