More Stress Than Seam in Seamstress?

Sailor Dress in the Works

The Illustrated Paper Doll Dress

The Embroidered Anchor

Its been raining night and day, day and night for a week now.  Four feet of fresh powder fell in the Sierra and this little mouse has been keeping warm and dry in her mouse hole.

Since I began sewing last September, its been interesting that I've not continued to stress the theme of the Creative Process.  Oh, I talk about it, but only when the dress is finished.  That is unlike me to skip the good stuff.  And, so while I await the mini soutache braid to complete the sailor dress, it might be fun to see where we're at on this.

As I've mentioned, I've been designing my own patterns now - more out of necessity than desire.  One of the things I made in the process is a sloper pattern.  This is the basic piece from which all other designs can be made.  My sloper pattern is a simple bodice that fits.  Depending on what I want to create, I redraw the neckline, add a collar drawn from the inside dimensions of the neckline, and so on.  This little sailor school dress is one of the most unusual garments I've ever seen illustrated, so naturally I had to tackle it next.  After conferring with an expert seamstress in Philadelphia, she noted that the front piece resembled a shawl.  This made alot of sense to me and when I went to draw it out from the sloper, I named it a floating vest.  The pleated empire skirt of the dress is actually sewn directly onto the bodice and the floating vest is attached at the shoulders and armholes leave it floating over the pleats, and will be closed with a hook and eye. (You can always click on these photos to enlarge them for detail.)

A high neck shell, closing in the back will go under this dress and the sailor collar will be hand sewn on with slip stitches directly to the finished collar edge so when you flip it over, it will fold over the shoulders.  I couldn't think of any other way to do this.  I initially intended the sailor collar to be a separate piece you just slip over the doll's head (see the mock up), but then it wouldn't resemble the illustration.  And, we all know how important that is for me!

The Mock Up in "Stash Fabric"

A couple of days ago I embroidered, free-hand, the anchor on the sleeve, and a smaller one on the shell's bodice front right under where the high collar will stand.  One of the most fun things I learned to do last weekend, was how to fully line this shell.  I watched a YouTube by Magalie Dawson, titled, Magalie's Technique to Lining a Doll Dress or Coat.  Look it up!  Its amazing.  The is absolutely no way someone describe this in writing with full comprehension on the other side.

The Grey Mauve Dress and Hat

The Paper Towel Patterning

So while I'm awaiting the mini soutache braid for the cuffs, and two collars, I began the paper towelling process of making a pattern for this lovely visiting dress.  I might add that I'm also awaiting yards and yards of special lace from The Netherlands for future dresses (www.cottonlace.com), which is why I chose a dress with no lace.  This does have a little hat, and I so enjoy making little hats with buckram bases!  I also have the striped fabric for the underskirt coming and hope it compliments the Kaufman silk cotton of the mauve grey I've chosen.

So while the rain continues to fall, I'll begin a mock up of the visiting dress and tweek the pattern until it works.  You can see from the mock-up of the sailor dress that the floating vest needed work.  I simply redrew it smaller and made another.

 You might notice that Daisy is acting model while Lettie enjoys her rose dress.  Back to pins and needles!

Love,
Miss E. Moue

Stop and Smell the Roses

Spring is here in middlin' California.  The Flowering Plum trees are past peek and daffodils have bloomed evenly with narcissus.  Early?  Perhaps.  But, how lovely!  And, to celebrate, Lettie Lane received a pretty party dress for the season.



Lettie Lane Paper Doll Illustration



Lettie Lane's Party Dress



After the tears this mouse shed over the yellow coat dress, it was time to try, try again.  I'd had my eye on this particular rose print party dress illustration for some time, and had purchased a lovely Lecien fabric to make it up with.  Learning about designing patterns has been a steep curve, but I felt I could tackle just about anything after the last project.  One of the little blessings about being a doll collector and knowing many talented seamstresses is that help is typically at hand.  However, one thing I discovered on my own was that the original Bleuette patterns enlarged to 145% fit the Daisy Elmira body (which my Daisy and Lettie are on) to a T!

The cotton-silk rosette sash.

I looked on the Bleu Door Portal and found a basic sheath and once enlarged, I could alter the neckline and hem at will.  This was how the square neckline was achieved for this dress.  I had to then tackle the Bertha collar.  This collar is not separate - floating from the dress - but, sewn directly under the last edge layer of lace around the collar.  I cut the collar on the bias so that it would stretch nicely with the corners of the squared lace. 

One of the most fun and proud moments of this outfit, so similar to the Dolly Varden dress, was in making the sleeves.  I'd studied and studied the illustration until my eyes blinked, and discovered two rows of tiny ruffles on the sleeve band.  I used a wide short sleeve and lengthened it about a half inch to accommodate the cuff.     This is not a true cuff, but a band that I stitched the two rows of ruffle to, topped with the lace overlay, and then sewn to the gathered edge of the puffed sleeve.  When the first sleeve was done I photographed it just incase the second one didn't come out the same...but, it did!

The first sleeve is in and perfect!

Three small ruffles followed on the hemline topped with insertion lace.  The sash is made from this glorious Kaufman Radiance.  Its pure cotton-silk and is so wonderful and lusterous to work with.  I simply twisted the ends and rolled and tucked to make the rosette at her waist.  Lastly pink stockings and matching slippers topped with bows. 

One of the most difficult things about putting together an ensemble like this is finding good color matches to compliment all the pieces.  The leather I used for the slippers came all the way from Italy, while the stocking fabric was plucked off of ebay.  I suspect that as I continue to learn how to sew or rather learn how to design and assemble these costumes, the searches for perfect notions will take me all over the world.

Don't forget to stop and smell the roses!  Spring is in the air!

Love,

Miss E. Mouse

 

Being an Artist

What's it like being an artist?  Am I really an artist or just a mouse pretending to be one?  What does it take to be an artist?  These questions I often ask myself when presented with a task, a challenge, I'm not sure I can meet.  Its defeating, depressing - it causes one to have their confidence shaken.  And, shaken I was several times when trying to paint this second beach pail.  It has come to mind that when I show samples from books to customers, I should only show samples of what I know I can reproduce in miniature.  However finding this darling little pail in Life's a Beach caused me somehow to scan and send it thinking it might be fun to add to the millieu of samples.  Of course my friend, and customer chose this one.

Page from Life's a Beach

My first thought was to find some other examples of 1920's style beach scenes with similarly dressed children.  After all, the first pail was painted from a flat postcard!  And, if you look at the photo of the original pail, the image was lithographed on the side of the pail, not the front.  Due to this, the image receeds off to the right around the pail in a diminishing effect.  It was a much wider scene than what could be painted on the front of a pail.  There is also no way to know what is actually painted in the rest of the scene.  Add to this, the ridge bump in these tiny pails I have, and you have yourself in a quandry.  There were no postcards or images I could find that even came close to this, and my customer wanted this one.  I don't blame her.  It's darling!

After the initial masking and enamel spraying of the base, I had to free hand the Art Nouveau border within the confines of the front of the pail and under the ridge bump.  If the image had to be painted over the bump, it had to include only the border and sky as you wouldn't want a bump in the child's bonnet!  Yes, I often do a quick transfer to get the sizing right in these tiny scenes, however due to the nature of the original photograph, I had to free hand the child in blue.  I just about tossed the pail at this point.  I kept telling myself, "Be an artist.  You can do it."  Still my confidence was shaken, as I couldn't really get all three children in that small space.  They would have been crammed in together.  This scene was never meant to be a frontal piece.  I conferred once again with my customer, and she told me that as long as I got the two girls in there, she'd be happy.  Phew!  Well, there was still the task of the borders.

Here's another condundrum.  A metal pail is a smooth finish and it is near impossible to paint without visible brush strokes.  This does not occur on the wood surfaces I paint since they're porous, and generally flat.  Dealing with the bump, the roundness of pail and the smooth finish of metal all added to the difficulty of painting the borders with this one.  If I followed the blocking of color as done with the book pail, I would have had to design something suitable to fit in that front space, and deal with acrylic brush strokes.  I finally decided on following the color scheme, and accepting the scroll work as the border.  All the black lines were hand painted as well.  Why?  Well, some might use a Micron .05 pen, but I've tried this, and the lines come out nicer by brush.  Trust me.  They do.

We needed a picnic basket and beach ball.

After all that rigamarole, I still had to spray it with the clear, high gloss coat.  For some reason, I oversprayed and the gloss began to drip.  Ack!  I tapped the bottom on the overspray paper and shook it gently.  Drip, drip, drip.  Had I ruined it after all that work?  No.  It did dry.  It dried hard and glossy and I love this product.  Krylon Triple-Thick Clear Glaze.  Try it. (Did you know you can click on any of these photos and they enlarge?  Try it.  I know they're hard to see.)  

I haven't shown a work in progress in some time, so I've added a photo of my painting table with the pail at Stage 3.

Next?  I'm going to finish reading A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin (third book in the Game of Thrones series), and begin a dress for poor Lettie, finally. 

Speaking of losing one's confidence, that tiny Lettie Lane doll house is mocking me.  I truly have to decide at some point weather I'm going to continue painting.

Love,

Miss E. Mouse

Miss E. Mouse's painting table - pail in the works.

Fait Accompli

It has come to my attention fully, that I've much to learn when it comes to drafting patterns, or redrafting them as it may be.  The original pattern for this coat dress was way, way, way too large for this doll.  I thought that after several successes with sewing for Daisy, that this dress would have been a snap, but no way.  It took me several tries and alot of pulling at my tail to push myself to actually finish it.

The first problem was with hand-sewing scallops for the collar and cuffs.  When I'd finally decided on the best method for making the scallops, the collar was either too big or too long (crossing in the front).  When you do this intricate hand-stitching and the final product doesn't fit, you have to do the entire thing over again.  No amount of pattern drafting seemed to dimish the collar in size, so I just kept redoing the original.

A friend of mine sent me a redrafted pattern to try, but when I cut a paper towel version of it, the collar was too small and the the dress too tight.  What information she did offer, which was excellent and worked beautifully, was to make buttonhole stitches in the dress to loop the belt through.  There again, I had to practice on my new machine with these as I couldn't get the attachment foot to work, so these had to be done manually.  It scared the pie out of me when sewing them, for if they didn't come out well, the entire dress would be ruined.  Rather akin to gluing and nailing latches on a hand-painted wooden trunk.  

Lastly, the hat would be made to complete this ensemble and since I'd made two of these in the past, it went rather quickly.  The dress is made of a tea-dyed yellow linen and the collar and cuffs from a cotton twill.  The belt, shank buttons and bow are black velveteen, as is the straw hat's band.  It was necessary for me to pursue this to the end as Lettie Lane seems to have many outfits with scalloped collars!  Mercy!

I will call this Daisy's Birthday Dress since March 15 marks her 101th birthday.

Love,

Miss E. Mouse 



The mess of patterns and failed efforts!



This Bud's For You

The rain came back this afternoon quite unexpected, and now it is simply grey, drizzly and cold.  Is there a better way, then, to spend the afternoon than on reflection of a project finally realized? 

 Last summer I acquired a reproduction of the Lettie Lane Doll House doll.  It was ever the intention to work on a kit to dress the doll with a respected doll artist.  She'd develop the dress pieces, and I would make the hats to go into the kit.  This, of course, did not come to fruition, so I was left with a hat mold I was not truly happy with, although the hat it made was lovely.  So when I was asked to make the dress and hat for a customer and friend a few months ago, I agree to do it.  But, finding a good match to the blue on white print from 100 years ago was impossible.  Many have said they would make it on the computer, but I have tried such a thing long ago when dressing doll house dolls and the ink is never a deep enough color.  So almost having given up, my friend gave me the green light to make it in a fabric of my choosing.  I chose a tiny yellow rose bud Lawn. 

The design of the dress is true to the original as well as the size of the straw hat.  The little skirt piece was pleated, pressed with a craft iron, and hand sewn onto the one piece bodice.  The dress on this 3" doll is completely hand stitched, and the lace was hand sewn on as well.  While the original dress was sewn onto the doll, I couldn't follow suit since I did not have my friend's doll.  I added two tiny shank buttons and made equally tiny thread loops.  The result is a dress that can be removed, and a dolly that just might get more clothing in the future. 

The new mold for the hat was made with a button and a round box.  It actually worked quite well, and this one I'll keep for future hats should there be any requests.  I'm pleased with the outcome and so is my customer.  My Lettie was proud to show off the little dressed doll, even though she has yet to receive a new dress herself.  One thing at a time.

I just discovered something about the blogsite.  You can click on the photos and they will enlarge for you!  Also, you'll notice that the last three posts are more evenly layed out.  I think I have an old computer and some upgrade must have occurred to correct the problems I was having earlier.  The wide spaces, etc., were never an intention. 

Here's to yellow rose buds!  This one is for you.

Love,

Miss E. Mouse

Pail Memories of Summer

"Wherever it is likely that you grew up in America between 1880 and 1950 and played along a shoreline during balmy summer days, you owned a beach pail."  (Theriaults)  And, today these beautifully lithographed beach pails from long ago, the ones that managed to survive, sun, sand and rust, are highly prized by collectors. They were often thematic with nursery scenes, anthropomorphic animals, and naturally, children playing by the shore. 

Back last summer a customer commissioned me to paint her a little beach pail for the 1911 Daisy doll.  As with all my projects I carefully reseach and dream until the vision is clear between my little mouse ears as to how I wish to approach the piece.  Finding a suitable little pail the correct size, and not some cheaply made wedding favor, was quite a task.  What I eventually found was a set of Hallmark votive candles melted into three little vintage-type pails.  I was delighted, and of course bought them.  Preparing them for the hand-painted scene I wished to do was another matter.  Getting the wax out was the first matter to solve.  What I discovered was that hitting the metal with a hair dyrer would loosen the wax until you could pop out the candle.  Thinking this was the end of the story, I tried to enamel spray paint the pail thinking it would cover the existing paint such as you see on the green pail.  This was not to be the case as the enamel ran into a sticky mess.  The problem?  Wax had dispersed somehow on the exterior as well as thinly coating the interior.  To solve this problem I took a bottle of Pure Acetone and scrubbed away at the little pail for hours removing any existing wax and paint, such as you see in the black pail.

Next was to mask off the interior, the edges and the handle at separate times to enamel spray the pail red and the handle gold, leaving the edges the original black of the pail.  I had a very good idea of how I wished to pail to look as I was trying to emulate a pail from around the same time Daisy was "born", which had been lithographed with Art Nouveau borders around a serene Victorian display of children playing in the sand.   This pail was shown in the Theriault's book Life's a Beach.  The wonderous pails and tin beach toys within those pages were enchanting and highly inspiring.  Yet after several days of base paint preparations, time and tide saw me working on a variety of other projects appropriate to the seasons before I could once again pick up the pail and begin the task of painting the beach scene and border.

By the time the first of January rolled around, I'd been mocked for several months by this little pail, and I seriously doubted whether or not I could actually paint it.  Out of practice painting in miniature, I began very slowly once again selecting an appropriate scene that would be size appropriate for the pail.  I chose one of a little girl and her brother startled by a little crab racing along the shore that I found on the Internet.  The little girl takes her shovel and tries to shoo the pinching shell creature back into the water...or perchance into her own little beach pail.  The color scheme I chose closely resembles the original, although altered to blend with a shiny red pepper pail.  The Nouveau gold enamel work, purple pansies and scroll corners at the top were inspired by the pail in Life's a Beach.

The last and nerve wracking thing to do, once the painting was complete, was to spray it with a high gloss finish to protect the artwork and enamel.  I knew the gloss would adhere nicely to acrylic paint, enamel and to metal, but would this work on the combination?  I took a deep breath and gently sprayed the gloss back and forth wetting it thoroughly.  It took two coats and the result is what you see. 

As you can see there are two more pails to do something with.  Perhaps I'll do another.  One for my own Daisy.  Perhaps two, and sell the other.   When the winter winds whip hard and snow blankets the ground, it is the memories of summer that keep us warm.

Love,

Miss E. Mouse 

Surely we love sewing beautiful dresses and coats for our dollies, but how often do we remember that they, too, need a little more than panties? So with Lettie, I decided to start from the bottom, up, dressing her. I used the original pattern set from 1911 for her underwaist, half slip and drawers. Working with a fine batiste and a pretty lace, I managed to stitch her up some underclothing.

I noticed when cutting out the drawers that they would have been mighty tight, making sitting comfortably, impossible. So I widened the pattern piece giving her enough room that when wearing the drawers they wouldn't pull around her waist or thighs. I also had a second opportunity to perfect stitching lace on with a sewing machine. By using a tiny zig-zag and placing the edge of the fabric next to the edge of the lace, it attaches like a whip-stitch, only tighter and more permanently. Any areas missed by the machine can be easily hand stitched into place. Lettie also needed socks and slip-ons, so I made those up as well. She'll need brown boots, pink slip-ons and white beach shoes as well, but those will come in time.

Along with making her undergarments, I decided it was high time to learn the proper way of making thread loops for button closures. People kept telling me to use a button hole stitch and it was confounding! "Two threads and a buttonhole stitch", they kept insisting. It came to mind as I was researching such stitches that the term buttonhole stitch was being used most likely because we were attempting to use the loop as a button closure. In actuality, its a blanket stitch over two strands of thread. If you begin your loop from the right by inserting your needle into the cloth, come up a 1/4" to the left (or however large you need the loop to be), and come back over to the right to make a little loop, you can begin the process of making blanket stitches over the thread. I felt like I was earning a mousy merit badge in knot tying doing this, but the results were great. Here are some photos to help you make one.

Nowhere on the Internet could I find examples of how to make one, so I honestly hope these help. My gift to you! They make the outfit so much nicer as an heirloom piece.

Currently I'm working on a dress for Daisy, now that Lettie is "decent". I'm attempting a scalloped collar and cuffs for the yellow coat dress. After much frustration with this and three collars later, I discovered that the original pattern had to be redrawn as a Peter Pan collar, then scalloped. I'm doing this by hand and not machine, and will share with you how I did it in my next post.

Back to the task!

Love,
Miss E. Mouse