Down the Garden Path



Lettie Lane's Gardening Frock

Light Pink Roses

Pinning the dotted lace on.  Look closely to see the pulled thread.

Pinned and Tucked

Is it just me, or has May seemed like the longest month of the year so far?  And, even on the 25th, we still have six days left!  While the days fly past, the month lingers on.  How can that be?  How do we mark our time?  I think for me its been from project to project - from start to completion.  And, with the 18" Lettie Lane's Gardening Outfit, completion has come. 



Close-up of Floral Lace Sleeve

Hand-painted Roses, Square-knotted Sash

You may recall that the first dress like this was made for the 10.5" Bleuette-sized Lettie with the blonde curls.  Using the existing pattern I had, I increased the size to 145%, and took it from there.  Having made one for the smaller doll almost now, felt like the sampler.  I know that there is a huge number of seamstresses who insist that Bleuette is the greatest doll to sew for, but I truly love sewing for the 18" reproduction antique.  There is just so much more detail I can accomplish.

Several things occurred while making these two outfits for the 18" doll.  One was that I learned a little trick from a friend on the east coast who told me about finding a little thread to pull in the edge lace that would help form it around a neckline.  It was so brilliant that I wanted to share this with you.  I was concerned that it would appear gathered, but once on the neckline, it acheived the look I was after.  Much better than cutting up and piecing the lace together as I did with Little Lettie's dress.

The other was that I perfected the ladder stitch, and discovered a hidden stitch for dresses that I was using on the hats.  Instead of doing a standard slip-stitch, I did it in reverse, hiding the threads under the edges, between the layers. 

Two bodices had been originally constructed using the dotted French cotton lace since I had two sizes of it.  I wasn't sure my customer would enjoy this as much as I, although it was a thicker, softer lace.  So in the midst of being almost done, I purchased the two sizes of floral lace and made a third bodice.  At this stage I was getting axious.  This particular project seemed to be lasting longer than I intended, so I mixed things up a little and used lighter roses on the hat and in the basket for the dotted lace dress, which I kept.  I also sashed the dotted lace dress with a shorter tie, fastening it in a square-knot.  The other outfit is most like the original Little Lettie outfit with a huge bow, and darker roses.

Part of the struggle, once again, in making this outfit was finding the right fabric.  Although I'd convinced myself that some of the fabric I'd purchased early would work, I found this vintage fabric by accident on ebay one night, and two fulls yards of it at that!  Every blue floral print I'd found previously had been on a cream or ivory background, and I really wanted white.  Pure white.  Why be so picky?  Lace.  The lace needed to match the white shade of the dress and no amount of test dying would produce the shade I needed of cream or ivory.  Lace is as different as the clouds in the sky.  The range of whites is astonishing!

Once again I was able to experiment with painting the roses on the hat's streamer.  After four more pallettes of roses, I'm still not convinced that there was a better way to do this.  Painting this kind of detail on silk would not be my first choice, but the effect is always the main consideration.  Fabric is not the easiest medium to apply wet paint to!

The Fancy Slip

Next?  I've been asked to make a fancy slip, and I'll only be making one this time.  I have a great need to create with color, and have a yellow floral dress project in the works for Little Lettie, which I had to put aside to make these Gardening Frocks.

I'm also going to take a couple of days to put my studio/workroom back in order, and also take an inventory of what I have to work with.  One of the nicest compliments to come out of all this work was when a friend on one of the yahoogroups asked me when I'll be making patterns.  Imagine!  I don't know if this is something I wish to look into, but its certainly something to think about down the garden path.

Love,
Miss E. Mouse 

One Last Look

A Picnic in May

Let's go on a picnic!

The Hat

May is the perfect time for a picnic on the lake.  "Let's pack a wholesome and delicious lunch, and take the canoe out across the lake - right over to that shady spot where the grass is nice and soft!"


A Little Close-Up

Finally, the hat straw arrived and I was, then, able to make one of the hats.  I used the Dusty Rose and Black Swiss straw to build the hat, and decorated it with double-faced silk ribbon in a brown to match the smocking and lace-ups on the blouse, topping it with vintage millinery flowers.


The Illustration One More Time

Its often interesting to see how something you've envisioned from an illustration, turn out in 3-D.  An illustrator can do so many things a seamstress cannot.  And, for me, the fun is in the challenge to bring something like this to life.  When I've completed a project like this, I feel like an era has gone by!  So much effort, thought and energy goes into the process, and then its done.  The best way to counter the finale is to be working on something else even before its photographed.


Detail of the Collar From Behind

Right now I have two Little Lettie outfits on the table, and of course, I'm making two of the blue floral outfits for Big Lettie.  For Little Lettie, there's a shepperdess costume and a yellow floral dress with four overlapping, lace ruffle layers on each sleeve.

Its a beautiful morning here.  Yesterday I spotted a very large bumble bee in the azaleas.  The other day, late blossoms on one of the apple trees.  Is there truly any season more enchanting than spring?

Love,
Miss E. Mouse 



One Final Look

Flowers For Mother's Day

Two days ago the world experienced an incredible phenomenon.  This was the perigee moon, that the media referred to as Super Moon.  The term, gently translated, addresses an unusual orbit of the moon in close proximity to the earth; brighter, larger in appearance.  I'm a star gazer and the phases of the moon are always a special feature to me in the night's sky.  Large or small, beauty transcends.

The Paper Doll Illustration

This weekend, another small miracle happened.  I finished my very first outfit for the Bleuette doll body.  In my last post, I introduced Little Lettie, and now she has her first paper doll dress.

This particular illustration comes from Lettie Lane Comes Home for Christmas, but it is just perfect for the first days of summer.  I was preparing to make this particular outfit for my 18" Lettie Lane when I came upon a small remnant of cloth that begged me to make up this outfit for the 10 1/2" doll.  I knew I'd have to be very careful, and not make any serious mistakes, since there simply was no extra fabric.  Of course I started with a mock up, and derived this from an original Bleuette pattern redrawing the neckline and shortening the length for the top portion of the drop waist dress. 



The Quick Mock Up

One of the most tedious and difficult areas of constructing the dress was making a true lace collar.  Collars will continue to haunt me, and every single dress I wish to make has one.  Each is different!  Since lace is made on a ribbon line, even if its scalloped, there is no scallop that actually matches the curves of a collar.  Then you have the size of the pattern to deal with.  What I ended up doing after ruining a foot of expensive English cotton lace, was cut four of the scallops off and piece them together around the neckline, finally hand-stitching the edges together.  The long bodice of this dress is fully lined the Magalie Dawson method with interior tuck stitching to the actual three-tiered skirted bottom.



Half Done

Added Belt, Working on Hat

The second trial was in making the belt.  Since we cannot see what is actually going on behind the illustration, I decided upon making a bow attached to the belt to compliment the tiny row of blue bows marching down the front of the bodice.  After fiddling with a detachable bow, and many attempts to make it lay flat in the back, I slipped the belt through the back loop of the bow and that seemed to do the trick.  This is something I'm certain to repeat in the future.

Of course, then, we needed a hat.  I had one Bleuette sized hat mold and I formed the sticky, wet buckram over the mold, then hit it with a hair dryer.  The over fabric is that lovely silk and the hat is lined in an heirloom muslin.  The tails or ribbon of the hat gave me another chance to scratch my little head in wonder.  My first attempt was to embroider these flowers, but even with one thread, it was not a clean look.  Hand-painted silk has long been a lovely accessory for women, so I took the opportunity and did just that using Jacquard's fabric paint.  While I'd painted the bands of the indian dress for Daisy last fall, painting on fabric is whole new ball game.  All those tiny fibers sit up when dabbed with wet paint, so extra precaution must be paid to get the detail.  I don't know if there'll be another opportunity to do this, but I have a full pallette of colors to work with now. 



Hand Painted Flowers

Finally we add a pair of socks and shoes.  Shoes are not my specialty, if I have a specialty at all.  But, I did have to design a little pattern for these Mary Janes so they could be cut in one piece.  I first tried top-stitching one shoe and the stitching overwhelmed the look, so I cut out another one and made them up with tiny white shank buttons. 

Adding lastly, a basket of roses to complete the costuming, the outfit was finally done.  Now I won't say I'll do this every time, but designing a new pattern on a small doll is alot quicker since there is less to work with.  Now I have both a pattern and practice behind me to create two for the 18" Lettie Lane.

Each day I take the time to find a little sunny corner and enjoy what nature is blooming forth.  A little time to read or reflect nourishes and inspires.  Enjoy this re-energizing time of year!

Love,
Miss E. Mouse



A Final Look

Oar Else

The First Cut

I just tucked a nice nuts and berries casserole into the oven, and while I wait for it to bake, I thought I might journal some notes on Lettie Lane's Canoe Paddles.

I do love working with wood!  I'd forgotten how much so.  This was the first time I'd had to carve something on this scale, and naturally, I had to order a thicker basswood.  With these paddles, I used 1/2" basswood pieces.  Quite a departure from thicknesses of 1/16" to 1/8". 



Vintage Wooden Oar

I sketched the design and dimensions of the paddle directly from the paper doll illustration where she is holding the paddle from behind.  Due to the fact that half of this was hidden, I did a quick Internet search and found a photo of a vintage oar or canoe paddle.   This one was indeed much larger in scale and had a much longer paddle to neck proportion.  Yet it still gave me the full picture and from this I drew the rest.

The first cut was done on a miniature jigsaw and after I broke the first fine toothed blade, I spent half an hour trying to get a blade with larger teeth assembled into the tool.  It went only slightly easier due to the fact that this old blade was a bit rusty.  If I'm going to work in this scale, I'll have to invest in new blades.  The funny thing is, I typically do something like this once, then never again!



There I am staining the paddles.

I use an X-Acto knife to carve with.  I do have carving tools, but they are not nearly as effective.  It came to mind as I was carving these down, that I might have just purchased two big wooden spoons!  Same shape!  But, then they would not have been true paddles. I did alot of sanding to get the rounded shape of the handles and the high, mid middle of the paddles.  A nice Golden Pecan stain was applied, and the last step will be the satin sealer.  The result of all this is a dainty, and utterly feminine little paddle to go with what will now be called the Canoeing Outfit.

Casserole is done!  Time to put my back paws up for the evening.

Love,
Miss E. Mouse
 

Skirting the Issue or Fan-tasy

A Fan of Skirts

Sunday takes me to a little hole cleaning.  My poor little hole in the wall has been getting neglected and the sunshine calls for spring cleaning.  Still a mouse does get to sit on her tail for a short time and while I'm here, the creative process continues.

Someone recently shook their finger at me and told me that I was doing it all wrong, and alluded to my poor customer.  I was quite taken aback since no one has ever challenged my etrennes or doll accessories.  One of the distinctive traits of my work is the exacting copy of an illustration.  And rather than sewing as they taught you in Home Economics, the fashion school of Miss E. Mouse tosses out the traditional and scampers outside the box.  To some this can simply not be done, but what comes to mind is the figuring of algebra.  I recall so clearly learning the formula to reach the answer of some problem, when a tutor showed me clearly that the same solution could be reached another way.  And, I promise you, I take no short cuts.  Instead I labor from scratch to finish finding the best way to achieve my goal. 

Pleated Skirt Front

I prefer not to read manuals and guide books for they are often confusing and poorly written.  Recently a friend asked me to purchase the book The Dolls Dressmaker, A Complete Pattern Book.  The title alone should have tipped me off, but she claimed that everything I ever needed to know about sewing was between the covers.  Without giving the book an unsolicited review, I can atest  to it being a pattern book, and not a technical manual on how to piece together and sew, which was what I'd hoped for.  I will also add that most doll bodies vary greatly, so while the book claims "actual size patterns", there will still be adjusting, so I think I'll stick to my slopers and hand drafting the patterns in paper towel.

Nice Fit to the Waist

The white pleated skirt was interesting to create.  I learned something on the fly that I'd not considered before.  Since the illustration depicts a pleated, but equally full skirt, I chose to pleat the fabric, then gather it at the waist, thereby achieving the fullness required.  I thought it might ruin the looks of the pleats, but this was not the case.  A pleated and waistbanded skirt would have been too narrow and more applicable for suiting.  I'm almost positive if I shared this with another, they'd tell me I did it all wrong.  There are so very many things we have to do in this life by the book, that I enjoy the artist freedom of creating on my own.  And, one of them is hemming a pleated skirt last. 

In order to keep the pleats nice, I keep pins in the center of the skirt once I sew a stay stitch to the waistband.  To begin, the hemline was folded up a quarter inch, then an inch and a half and ironed, while a gathering stitch held it in place as I pleated the fabric.  It was no trouble at all doing a simple slip stitch to the hem when I was finished.  When it came time to removing the gather stitch, I removed the thread stitch by stitch so as not to crumple the fabric by pulling it out.  Worth every minute of my time.

One of the very nice things about gathers, is that if the sleeve or waistband is a little too large, you can put in a gentle gather to shorten it.  I don't think there is truly any way to rush through creating a garment for a doll.  I would never be so bold as to be slightest bid confident in what I'm doing.  Tiny step by tiny step is how I work and I'm not about to change.

The only thing I've come to dread in the process of garment making, is sewing on snaps and hook and eyes.  If there was an easy way to do this (we'll add buttons to this task as well), I'd be overjoyed!

My Little Lettie Lane on the 10.5" Bleuette Body

I'm already planning the next garment, but in between, I need to begin sewing for the 10 1/2" Bleuette body since I have a little blonde Lettie Lane doll now.

Love,
Miss E. Mouse

Surrey With the Fringe On Top!

An A to Z Story of a French Fashion Doll

Inspiration for the Buggy

In between the yardage and stitches, a dear friend of mine asked me to make for her, the buggy for her A is For Annabelle doll.  In truth we discussed this about a year ago when we met up at the Rose Percy charity event held by the boys from the Carmel Doll Shop.

Marie Terese is a young French Fashion doll created by Alice Leverette, and was given as a souvenir gift at a UFDC conference three years back.  She's 10.5" tall and was modeled after a Huret (if this mouse is not mistaken).  Many collectors displayed her for the young mademoiselle she is, and others, like my friend, made her into another doll. 

The story by Tasha Tudor is for young children and alphabet by item, Tasha illustrates all the glorious items Annabelle possesses.  A very charming book that inspired many a seamstress and doll accessorist to create her loot. 

Shown with a Marie Terese doll 10.5"

The basic buggy was a kit I'd found on ebay that was created for a doll club in 1979.  It was a good start for me since I'd no idea how I was going to get the parts, much less make the chasis.  Still and all the bonnet was a bugger to make.  No lie. 


All by Itself

The main problems were in the assembly and attachment, and while it is a fragile piece primarily for display, it is as well built as a mouse could make it.  The color of the posts and ornate oval came to me after I deduced that black bars would make the buggy look like a jail, and the lighter tan opens the piece up and allows the doll to shine.

In a sense it was good for me to take this departure from sewing for a bit so I could keep my skills fresh...and I do have those paddles to carve!  A box of lovely basswood arrived today.

I also wish to thank my readers for leaving such lovely comments.  I appreciate it more than you could imagine!

Love,
Miss E. Mouse

The X Factor



The X Factor

Its Monday night and I've been designing and sewing for three weeks now.  I'm tired, but I'm also feeling some progress on this boating ensemble for Lettie Lane.  Of course, Lettie is still in her grey dress, so dear Daisy must remain in her knickers and be a little mannequin.

This particular little smock has some interesting features.  For one, the length of the shoulder is longer, which required some on the spot designing.  I used the all in one pattern I'd made with the front fold, and lengthened the sleeve a bit.  Then I simply cut the sleeves off "off the shoulder", gently gathered the new sleeve edges and reattached them for the look.  It worked.



Smock Without the Belt

This top also introduced me to smocking.  I must have read three books and watched countless Youtubes only to discover that what was illustrated by Sheila was not true smocking, but a combination of smocking gathers and cross stitching.  I call this Xmocking.  In order to have done real smocking, the top would have needed 20-25 folds in a one inch section and it would not have resembled this illustration whatsoever.  Of course, when you're developing a new technique like the Xmock, you have to perfect it to make it work.  I can't tell you how many times I had to rip embroidery thread out!  What I required was three diamond patterns within five folds or pleats.  I chose to make seven folded pleats in order to have the anchor fold on each end.  Then I measured and pinned and embroidered the decoration within the boundaries of the seven pleats. 

The pockets have a little zig-zag embroidered stitch on them, and the sleeves boast the diamond pattern all the way around.

The collar is squared on the back flaps for a rather nautical look, which was by request - a good one.  One of the most difficult things to do was desiging the v that would become laced up.  I honestly had no idea what to do, but realized it had to be lined.  What I ended up doing was cutting a lining, a shorter version of the top, and once sewn on, I cut a one and half inch slit right through the lining and top.  I stitched down the sides of this cut starting at the neckline, then turned this inside out.  It worked!  I was scared to pieces doing this, but I was at my wits end not knowing how else to achieve this.  I got lucky!



Squared Collar and V to Be Laced Up

The poufy pursey pockets were yet another piece to design.  The pocket ended up being a half moon shape, lined, then gathered all the way around the edge, save for the top ends that would get gathered across left to right, and embroidered.  I stitched them on from the underside of the top, catching the pocket gather just under the pouf so the stitching wouldn't show.  There are many Lettie Lane outfits with these pockets and I intend to further develop these until I'm more comfortable with the look. (Do I dare say, "Have a better look"?)  These will work and they do look sweet, but I think perhaps only the bottom edge might have been gathered.  Next time.

I'd recently gotten an order for several Lettie Lane dresses, so I decided it would be best to make two at a time as my Lettie would wish the same ensemble.  I learned with both the indian costume and the pumpkin costume, that after I'd made one to the finish, it was a very long process to start afresh and make another one.  Also, when you're sewing two, and the pattern is for the first time, sometimes you work something out better on the second, and can go back and redo the first.



Pink Smock Times Two

I just finished the belt today and was able to use these little buttons I'd purchased just for finishing touches like this.  Coral pink hat straw is on order, as well as a golden-brown silk-satin ribbon for the band, and some peach colored mulberry flowers and leaves for the decoration.  I also have a nice piece of basswood to carve the two paddles from.  One for my doll, one for my customer's.  And, then there's the skirt, which I'll begin tomorrow.  But, we all know that I'm the Pleat Queen by now! LOL



Now to Make This Pink Straw Hat and Paddle

Do I spend too much time on these outfits?  Do I agonize over the details?  Is it worth it?  Yes.  It always will be, for what I've done with my etrennes and accessories, I find natural to do with these ensembles.  The result (I hope!) is an heirloom quality costume for our dolls.

I have come to the conclusion though this, that I love working with and around bright color.  I love designing clothing that tells a story and I hope my creations do just that.

The days have turned sunny and nature is dressed head to toe in shades of green. Spring! I do take breaks to sun my little nose and enjoy one of the prettiest times of the year.

Love,
Miss E. Mouse