March, and the Creative Flow

Hello Spring!  Sunshine, leaves budding out on limbs, flowers blooming in garden beds, little animals being born, the bright yellow trumpets of daffodils!  Is there anyone who doesn't love Spring?

It's been a phenomenally gorgeous month here in California.  Can't complain.  Of course, we did not get winter this year, but since there is nothing to be done for that, we'll just enjoy the days and all they bring to us.

I've been indoors a lot, but I did get out on both my kayak and our two-person.  Early?  Yes, but the lake called to me.  I don't think the lake will fill this year, so it was important to put in before the level begins going down again.  And right now, the distance to haul these boats over steep and rocky terrain is difficult.  This saddens me, yet it means that there will be more time sewing, creating, walking Brighton, cooking great meals, writing in my journal, and reading D.D. Black's series of Thomas Austin, crime 

mystery books on the patio.  Not a bad line up.  I am never bored.

I was working on my next historical costume for Lacie from the Sports Fashion book when I got a tip that someone's birthday was coming up.  Sometimes I become so involved in what I'm doing, that important events slip my mind.  !gasp!  We do not forget birthdays.  

The VDC had just launched its March subscription box for Anne and it was pirate themed.  I'm really loving her dress up trunk subscription that artist, Mark Tinkey, designed.  Here's a little peek at how I'm displaying his designs with a couple of other costumes from past years.  It's so much fun.  I loved playing dress up as a child, and while some of this is contemporary child play and has little to do with the rag box in the garage I had as a kid, its colorul, imaginative and FUN.  Currently, Anne is still her in Not So Scary Monster (or Where the Wild Things Are)

costume, so the pirate is going to have to wait.  My doll, my play.  It might be fun for June.  I made a little green parrot hand puppet for it and this would inspire what I did for Eloise for my friend's birthday, not to mention, making her a pirate's costume.  When she told me she liked Anne's box this month, there was no question as to what I should do.

So, Eloise got a pirate's costume (modeled by my Maisie, of course). 

The pirate costume consists of a ragged sleeved shirt, a pair of striped pants with little gold cuff buttons, a beautifully tailored vest with gold buttons of its own and a silk sash that's been across the seas and back.  A dagger and a pirate hat, and the swabby mop and bucket for when she doesn't behave.  Hit the deck, Eloise!

I'd found two parrot finger puppet patterns to reduce in size and make for the dolls, and this one was the difficult one.  Of course.  But he was a pirate parrot with a bandana.  And the colors are so bright and pretty.  I even followed the instructions step by step instead of doing my own thing.  You do have to improvise when the size is much smaller, but I think he came out cute.

I was asked by a friend if I was going to make a needle felt parrot for this, but I'd already made one for my friend for another doll, Lia, for the UFDC souvenir doll from the Passport to Adventure convention.  Eloise can borrow it, if the puppet doesn't suffice.  This is costume play, and imagination is what it's all about!

Here's the little guy.  What a hoot!  

I found these mini chests and tiny gold doubloons to tuck under her arm.  Not all pirate's chests took several strong men to move and bury.  

I love a pirate theme and have several children's books on pirates.  When you consider high seas adventures, buried treasure and the beauty of the Caribbean, you can't go wrong.

The pirate hat is wool felt.  The skull and crossbones were cut from the same and have been appliqued on.

The vest came out really nice.  Its heavy cotton lined in gold silk.  This was not an easy costume to design.  There are so very many images of children's pirate costumes, and this was the inspiration from all of them.  Maisie is going to get one, but with a skirt, and a bit of feminine appeal.

Eloise is a character and loves to play hard, while Maisie is just a dainty little girl trying to keep up.

The two close friends I sew for are as different as night and day in their doll costuming tastes. And when it comes to Betsy, it's all big bows and ruffles and full skirts and sweetness.  At the end of arr-maty, it was time to take a breath and switch gears.  

Let me begin by introducing this gorgeous Maggie Iacono doll she gave me for my birthday last September.  I just about fainted.  I love these dolls and think very carefully before dressing them, creating a special character for them.  I've not yet decided for this one, but you

can be assured it will be storybook themed.  She has so much potential.  Whatever it is, it will be grand.

This was the first time I got to play with her while making Betsy's doll an Easter gift.  Its funny.  I was just talking with her the other day (she lives in Ohio), and she was saying how much she loved Easter because of bunnies.  Yay!  Hit the jackpot with ideas on this one.

I wanted to dress a bunny for her.  The cover of Gump's spring issue featured two wonderfully dressed rabbits.  Gump's is a San Francisco based novelty store for very rich people.  I'm laughing, but it is.  

I was looking for a rabbit (or two), to dress my own way, when I found this incredibly soft and fluffy little 7" seated bunrab.  Had to get it.  It's such a sweet and soft little thing, that I bought one for myself the other day.

I knew Betsy would enjoy a new spring/Easter outfit for her play doll, so it was just one bunny for this set.  In looking for the perfect soft and feminine spring fabric, I had to purchase this from China.  I got it in light blue flowers and lilac ones.  I chose the lilac for Easter.  When I think back on this now, I could have gone with bright colors, but then that's an opportunity for another day.  Right?

As with a lot of things I do, the ideas come along as I create.  I wanted something like a pinafore to go over the dress, and the idea of a gardening apron with pockets for carrots (Bonnie the bunny's favorite snack), came to me.

I already had this dark blue gingham for the project I'd set aside, but a lighter gingham was best for this Easter dress.  Back to Etsy and begging the seller to include a Priority Mail shipping option and a "please ship quickly" plea.  I've been pretty lucky working with some of these sellers. Get to know them!  Talk to them.  Tell them what you're working on.  Let them know they and their Etsy store matter.  It's fun.  I've met some really nice people this way.

I had to make some carrots and considered making them from chenille pipe cleaners.  This kind of stuff has been done for an eternity, and I found a couple of great YouTube ideas for making little carrots. One was for the chenille to be wound on a tapered cylinder, like a paint brush, and the other was done with the bump chenille, which is very vintage in design.  

Both were cute, but the wound carrots had more stability, and the color went better with the doll and Bonnie Bunny's outfits. 

As I working on this, I knew I'd be asked to make a sash to tie around the waist with a big bow and a matching hair bow.  Why wait to be asked?  Just do it.  So, a big bow was made from the gingham, and a sash and bow made from the fabric of the dress, for those quiet times when the garden has been left to grow more carrots.

I made Bonnie the Bunny a little carrot crossbody that ties in the back, so she has some place to store her carrots as she goes down the carefully tended rows.  

I tried several things.  Like a backpack, or a hote out of the gingham.  Neither looked right, and the crossbody shows the colorful gingham better in display.

Bonnie can be cuddled.

Betsy's doll has shoes and stockings she can wear with this.

Frankly, I'm a barefoot person.  I may love the look of shoes, but I go barefoot in the house.  Sew with a barefoot (I can feel the peddle better), so its okay for a dolly to go barefoot, too, sometimes.

For March, I dressed Lacie in the Emerald historical outfit from last year and have been enjoying her dressed thusly, this month. (See below.)

Grace is playing Not So Scary Monsters with Anne in the photo below.  I didn't think I was going to like this costume, and I'm still not sure about the rainbow fur coat and boots she got, but I love how this looks and paired it with a mini bull and mini book from Where the Wild Things Are.  This was not a book from my childhood, so while I knew it existed, it was a new thing for me.  (I just added another photo to this blog, and I hope it didn't mess up the formatting.  It's such a fun photo of Anne and the bull.)

Sybil, Ellowyne's cat got a St. Patrick's Day cape and charmed bow by me.  I wasn't sure the VDC would make one for her.  They did after all.  Sybil can were the VDC one next year.  I bought her a wooden wardrobe for all her cape costumes.  I made an Easter one for Heather's Sybil.  The Easter charms I bought were too big, but a big yellow bow around her neck would work just as well.  And since Heather loves unicorns, I made this one for her Sybil.

Just little bits of this and that, and a whole lot of work in the month of March.  I enjoy keeping this blog, my journal of all my creations.  It's a much more fun way of archiving and far more personal.  

After I start my scrapbooking for the month of April, I'll return to Lacie's 1840 Gardening outfit.  I took this photo early on for my blog.  So far, the hat and pattens have been made. The dark gingham you saw earlier with the carrots on it, is for this outfit's apron.  I have one gardening glove made and the other is 75% done.  Little by little an outfit gets made.  I'm enjoying bringing some of these museum pieces to life for a doll, so I'll stick with it. 

Happy Easter and enjoy this gorgeous time of year!

Project, Gardening 1840s Resumes