Alice Inspired By Angel Dominguez - and a bit more...

Hello!  Boy, it sure does feel good to be writing in my journal again!  Thank you, thank you, for all the much welcome comments from the convention post.  I love taking you all on my journeys.  And, by sharing them, I get to relive them - but it sure is a lot more fun with friends along for the ride. 

The day after coming home from convention, actually a day and a half later, my husband had knee surgery (a torn meniscus), and it was hotter than you can imagine with temperatures in the triple digits, plus acridly smokey air, night and day, from the horrid wildfires throughout the west coast.  So staying indoors, taking care of David, and working on a new project was just the thing for another unpleasant California summer.  I should report that we've had a reprieve, and with blissfully cool mornings, the temps will stay in the mid 80's for a week.  Maybe that's why I feel so good this morning.  I can walk out the front door without seven buckets of sweat pouring off of me.

Alice.  I do love Alice.  This may be the last Alice doll I make, but that only means that should I find a new illustrator that I love, I'll simply add a new outfit and accessory to Illustrated Alice's wardrobe.

Earlier this year, I came upon this extraordinary book illustrated by Spain's leading illustrator, Angel Dominguez.  After spending hours in this book, I must admit that this one has to be a true favorite.  Angel Dominguez has the kind of imagination, and artistic talent that thrills me to the core.  Dominguez lives in Bilboa, Spain, and has illustrated many books around wildlife and children’s stories. He combined his love of Britain with his love of nature in his first children’s book, Diary of a Victorian Mouse. A professional artist since 1971, he is also a keen collector of rare children’s books, particularly those of Arthur Rackham.  His Alice intrigued me with both the style of her dress, which had a "curious" display of soutache,  and his characters were some of which I could never have imagined before.  He had FUN with this, and I had to bring his Alice to life in a doll.  

The dress was a beautiful shade of orchid, which would look bright and cheery on my shelf, and I found the perfect silk dupioni for this from Farmhouse Fabrics.  I'd also never done soutache in loops before, so this would be a challenge for me.  I'd asked several friends, competent seamstresses all, if they knew of any tutorials on how to sew soutache, and the only answers I was given were "Oh, its easy", or "Once you get going, it goes pretty smoothly", or my favorite "Oh, you just draw the design on and go".  There isn't one single Youtube on this, and zero tutorials.  There are descriptions in books about what soutache is (a trim), and that Victorians decorated their clothing with it (duh!), and that it was also used on French Fashion doll clothing (second duh).  So I had to start from scratch and teach myself how to do this.  At the end of this post is a little tutorial I put together just for you.  If it helps in even the slightest way, should you wish to try this yourself, I'd feel wonderful.

I began this Alice with a 14" rescue Lawton, Hanna the Milliner's Daughter.  I gave her new blue eyes, and a fabulous strawberry blonde wig with lots of curls.  The wig was restyled with my fingers, separating the larger curls into fluffy waves.  I actually did this twice.  With the first wig, I trimmed the bangs, and might have taken a bit too much off of them.  I'd also rinsed it to get some of the curl out, and that wasn't too successful, either.  Dominguez had drawn her with bangs, without bangs, and strands that flew away from her face, so I went for a compromise of all three.  

Knowing this doll would be an art doll, and never redressed, I put in the effort of creating a half slip and knickers for her, both trimmed in matching lace.  I used a fine cotton batiste for both pieces, trimmed with a French lace 1" wide.  I happened to have a lot of this lace on hand, and that was the deciding factor there.  Again, I hate doing undergarments as you never see them, but I do know they're required.  I also made her a new pair of stockings from white knit jersey.  

The bodice of her dress has a matching, notched collar, and three little matching buttons are sewn down the front.  Buttons are the odd thing sometimes, in that you often don't see them, but they're essential to the outfit.  In Angel's illustration, I could see a button now and then peeping up from the top edge of the pinafore, so I imagined they would go down the front.  I also made a tuck fold in the center of the bodice to represent a natural place for the buttons to go.  After studying the Ten Ping clothing of Ruby Red Galleria, I chose to use hooks and thread eyes to finish the dress in the back, with the inclusion of a sewn in placket.  

Her pinafore is the traditional "Alice" pinafore with the wide winged shoulders, closing with two buttons in the back.  Two generous patch pockets were sewn to the skirt with a hidden ladder stitch.  Large ties make for a pretty bow in the back.

 

Now a bit about the soutache.  First of all, its just a trim.  Its not a braid, which is flat, but a trim consisting of two cords covered in thread.  You hand stitch through the middle of these cords to attach the trim.  As I was desperately researching for tutorials, I saw many on how to use this trim to make corded jewelry.  Like some laces, you can pull one or both cords to cinch the threads up and curl them.  I fussed with this a bit to see if this was the way you'd made those loops, but it wasn't correct.

I looked on Pinterest for examples of soutache and found many on Victorian dresses, and of course, French Fashion doll clothing.  Beautiful as they were done, I could not find a photo of a close up showing "how the trim was looped".  As in "go to right, make a loop, bend over to the left, cross it in front"...rather like Boy Scout knot tying.  I finally saved off one file, cropped it, then enlarged it to see if I could find the course of action.  Its a puzzle at best and a dizzying to the mind and eyes.  My guess is that many who have done looped soutache trim, have done it in a French Fashion class where the pattern was imprinted on the fabric already.  That's where the "It goes pretty smoothly once you get the hang of it" comes from.  Terribly frustrating answer when you're starting from scratch.  It actually takes a lot of measuring and designing of the way it will loop, to get something to work with (see my tutorial at the end for tips).

What I ended up with, was my own version of Angel's design.  The way he had drawn the design was not one you could duplicate, but more of a ribbon edged in white and looped over itself.  The "idea" of soutache.  So by adding a row to the bottom of the looped soutache, I was able to create a facsimile of his design.  From start to finish, it took me a few days to complete.  And, by the way, you cannot pin the trim on then sew.  You have to manipulate the trim as you continue to loop it. 

Now to the fun part!  The characters!  The accessories.  Oh, did I have fun with these!  When I first purchased the book, I was mesmerized by the incredibly unusual characters Angel came up with to illustrate the story.  Yes, the tried and true are present, but there were so many others.  If you go back up to the book cover photo, you'll see this wonderful buzzing parade of what I'll call "hippo-bees".  Now how cute is that?!  A hippo-bee.  I had to make one.  I love bees.  But add the body of a hippo into the mix, and you have a fantasy critter to die for!  These huge, ponderous animals are at best quite adorable as babies, but highly aggressive as adults.  I wonder if this scenario was how Angel came up with them?  To what purpose are they in the story?  None, but they're a curious eye candy and flights of fancy.  The one I did not do, but may just because, is the airliner fish-bird.  Modern, not in the least bit Victorian, contemporary and just plain fun.  Maybe I'll make one for her to hold and place Bill standing on his own in front of her.  I don't know.  I just love it though, and apparently Angel did, too.   Here are some photos of the hippo-bee.  

 

 

  

 

 The second character I wanted to do was the dodo.  He was dressed in a fabulous British Navy Admiral's costume, and he made me smile.  However, as I contemplated the effort to create him in needle felt, I became obsessed with how large he should be, or how small he might be, and what would look best as an accessory for this doll.  I do not shy away from such a challenge, but to do him correctly, and with all the details, I'd have to make him rather large.  And, I just don't have the room to display such a piece.  So I looked around in the book some more, and decided on making Bill.


Poor Bill never seems to get much a mention besides shooting out of the chimney.  And, he was the right color.  He looks marvelous with the orchid pink of her dress with the silly soutache.  On an artist's color chart, its the perfect green opposite this red-purple.  And, he's a cutie.


To recap, Alice once again goes through a change of size when coming upon a bottle she shouldn't be touching.  She grows to enormous proportions in this little cottage, to the point where her arm is hanging out the window frightening all the wildlife around her.  So they send in Bill to the rescue.  He's a slim lizard who should fit down a chimney well.  He's to climb up his ladder, shuttle down the chimney to "do something", but ends up being booted back up, and out, by Alice's restless foot appropriating itself in the fireplace with a kick.


One of my favorite things about Angel's illustrations of some of these characters, is how they're dressed.  At first I thought Bill was dressed in nautical attire, like many of the Caucus Race characters, but as I began to dress him, I discovered this really wasn't the case.  I've never seen an outfit like this, so I must assume its some sort of "service" uniform.  Like the milkman, or delivery man, or electrician.  I have no idea, but if he were to provide a service, perhaps he is dressed in a uniform to provide one.


I also made his little ladder.  I tried to find a doll house one on Ebay, but they were scaled to 1:12, of course.  This little ladder is a little over 5" tall and has nine round rungs. 


 

And, last, of course, she needed shoes.  I do believe the soles are a little thick, but they're still a nice pair of button strap shoes.  I must remember to toss that piece of leather or save it for much larger dolls.


Below I've included a few of my favorite pages from Angel Dominguez's book.  One of them includes Bill in the juror's box.  Another is of the dodo that I almost did.  If you love these, you'll treasure owning a copy of this amazing book.


And, next?  The Alsace doll. She's been sitting on a pile of fabrics for a month now and would love to come out and play.


Love,
Melissa
 

And, now for a quick tutorial on how I did the loop soutache.

In this first photo, you'll see some sketches of the pattern I was trying to achieve.  Believe it or not, it actually helps drawing out the pattern so you can figure out how you wish to sew it on.  Its a little like cursive writing.  There is a basic direction the trim should be looped and crossed over to achieve a uniform look to the design.  The center sketch has arrows on it showing the direction of placement.  Even when tying a bow, there's a rhythm of movement that you must adopt. 

With this particular design, and you are welcome to use it, I started at the left, made a loop to the top-right, going under and looping this to the top curve, looping that down to the left, up and over to the right, then down over the band that began the first loop.  You'll see this in the arrows drawn in the middle sketch.  I didn't make this up.  In the next photo you'll see an up-close image of someone else's process.  I just did it a bit differently by ending the looping trim on top instead of the bottom of the left loop. (They did not use traditional soutache, but some kind of textured yarn-like trim.) 

In the third illustration, I made a pattern on tissue paper and poked holes in it to be able to mark where the design goes.  You could probably use pencil, or a marker (it will get covered up), or a colored chalk.  This didn't work for me, but you can try it.  Instead, I cut out the edges of this "shamrock" shape and lightly drew around it as a template, directly onto the silk.  Then I stitched the trim over the lines.  If you think you shouldn't draw on the fabric, I read that "Louise Hedrick" tells you to draw on the fabric ;))

Fourth photo.  This was just a sampler I did to get the hang of it.  A mock, up if you will.  Its also important to determine the size of the design, and how far you wish it to be from the hem of the dress.  Yes, you need to get out your ruler and do a little math and measuring.

Fifth photo, and this is the cool one.  Once you know how large you want the design to be, and how far from the hem, measure up from a pressed hemline, and do a large gathering stitch across the fabric.  Then measure up to the total height you want the design to be, mark it, and sew another gathering stitch across.  This gives you an accurately measured space to stitch your design between.

 

How wide would your like your design to be?  How long is the runner between the loop designs?  Say its a total of three inches.  Mark off three inch segments, then do a gathering stitch vertically every three inches.  Now you have perfect little equidistant boxes to sew your design into!  As you begin to hand stitch the trim on, you can manipulate the trim to bend and flatten it.  I kept my sampler pinned above my work to make sure I stayed on track as far as how wide the loops would be, and how far from the "stitched box" the ends of the loops were. 

If I could figure it out, you can do it.  Its not easy.  It doesn't go quickly, or smoothly, and its work.  Just a head's up on that one.  For fancier designs, I can't help you.  LOL  I think this was "it" for me, but I did do it once.  If you have a tutorial that you like, or know of a Youtube, please share a link with us!  This "tutorial" is how "I did it" only.  And, I hope this all made sense :))  missemouse

 

A Passport to Adventure: The UFDC 2018 Convention

Well, goodness me.  I guess I've been rather quiet lately, but in truth, I've been very busy with little goodies for the last couple of months.  I've just returned from the UFDC 2018 convention, A Passport to Adventure.  It was held in broiling hot Phoenix, and it looks like we all escaped just in time for their divine temperatures of 117 degrees.  You see, I'm an outdoors person - at least in the morning hours (to hike my dogs), but this past week I was stuck indoors, in a big Marriott hotel, with dolls and friends.  Which isn't a bad thing.


And, while I'd like to share some of the stuff I did at convention, which isn't quite "creative process" talk (or maybe it is), I did spent quite a bit of time on table favors for the events I attended, little pass-along gifts for special friends, and I did take some workshops to pass the time.

After writing the article on Ruby Ho for Spring Doll News, and creating and writing up instructions for Year of the Dog toys for Ten Ping dolls, I was still in felt mode and came up with the idea for Fripon hand puppets for the Bleuette collectors, whose table I sat at during the final banquet night.  This was probably back in April, but I couldn't share these with you since these, and the other favors, had to be a surprise.  I have no idea who reads my journal, but thank you all for sticking with me as I continue to toodle in my studio. 

I also wanted to introduce you to Belinda (see first photo), who was my play doll and mascot during convention.  She was the 8" companion doll to the 12" souvenir doll we received the final night.  I was tickled to pieces with Belinda, who has the Ten Ping body, but a little face of her own.  Ruby Ho made extra "adventure" outfits for both dolls, which I purchased ahead of time, and Belinda wore her green shorts outfit most of the time due to the incredibly hot weather.  Not having a lot of money to spend there, I collected little things just for her, to tuck into her travel case, and purchased one of Gail Wilson's LE 3" Hitty's at the luncheon she gave.

Moving along, I wasn't quite sure what to do for the Hitty luncheon Gail put on, as I don't really collect Hitty dolls and attended this for a friend.  People who collect Hitty generally have everything a 6" Hitty doll could want, so I made little boxes with the Mountain Ash flower fairy on them to tuck treasures into.  As the story goes, Hitty was carved of Mountain Ash, so it seemed fitting.  My friend, Jean, provided me with the die cut boxes that folded up beautifully, are sturdy, and I cut and glued the fairy pictures on.  Simple, yes, but pretty. 

Since I was attending Rosemarie Ionker's (Boneka) luncheon, An Indonesian Fantasy, I had to come up with something unique for favors for our table.  This was a toughie.  I started doing research on Indonesia and what might be symbolic to the islands, and discovered that the Komodo Dragon was a national symbol.  I went nuts!  I watched Youtubes of Komodo Dragons on Komodo Island and fell in love with this tropical paradise.  Ever typing away in Google searches, I found a paper Komodo Dragon,  miniaturized it and made ten of them.  I knew the ladies would probably pale at the sight of them - wonder if I'd lost my mind, so I tried to make the packaging as informative and cute as possible.  I thought they were cute, and felt very clever coming up with this.  Claudia, Rosemarie's daughter, loved them, so there you go.  I pleased one person. 

Being a big fan of Ten Ping, and since Ruby Red Galleria was the souvenir artist this year, I made a few China babies, or what I call "star" dolls, for friends who were as nuts about this line of dolls as myself.  Ruby had made tiny dolls with heads like these for one of her Ten Pings, so I followed her design concept and just made the heads and queues a little bigger.  The aprons are supposed to tie on, but I wanted to do something different, and decorated them with tiny buttons.  

Darlene Lane is one of the premiere doll artists of the UFDC, and always does fabulous reproduction mignonettes for her souvenir dolls.  This year she was doing one for the region of Alsace-Lorraine.  I attended this dinner for my friend as well.  The event was outstanding.  The best one of the week - and it wasn't just the exquisite meal we had, but the presentation, too, on the history of this region, and in particular, the illustrations of Hansi, of the children, villages, and war postcards.  And, this is why I'll interrupt this dialog for just a moment to say, Yes!, going to a convention can be part of the "creative process", because now I want to make a doll in this costuming. 

Anyway, after a bit of research, and not a lot of luck, the only thing I could come up with was little baskets of cabbage for a regional dish.  Basically, a kind of sauerkraut.  I was panicking because the pieces were coming from China, and still hadn't shown up two weeks prior to my departure.  So I asked Betsy, who I was attending the event for, if she had any ideas.  This is when I learned that the town of Selestat is known for the first to cut and trim Christmas trees.  They decorated them with red apples for the story of Adam and Eve, and unblessed hosts for their Catholic religion.  Well, I just had to jump on that one!  So I purchased 4" trees and miniature red apples and had a happy time with the glue gun. 

What's nice is that the presenter at the event, who was sitting at my table, told me she was grateful that I'd done this, since she'd run out of time to talk about Selestat.  By the way, the tradition of the Easter Bunny came from this region as well, dating back to the mid 17th c.

With a little time to kill before I left, I needle felted a little Becassine doll for a friend who was putting on the Bleuette Gathering.  Heather is a lovely person, and I just wanted to give her a little gift in friendship.  So I sat down and needle felted her a 4 1/2" Becassine doll for one of her Bleuette's to hold.  I used an image off of one of the antique G-L books I have.  Interesting that the illustrations of Hansi look quite similar to those in these books.  Same time frame, too.  Is a style of illustration indicative of a time and era?  Food for thought.  The Becassine does have red and white striped legs under that skirt.  She's on wire armature, so she can be posed.

While at convention, I took a few workshops to keep the days flying by, although I did spend a lot of time reading.  So much down time.  I don't have a cell phone or Ipad for emails, so these trips are non-electronic.  Normally I finish these workshop pieces at home, but I worked on them in my room when not reading, or pining for a hike outdoors.  Or watching Seinfeld reruns.

The first full day I was there, I took a workshop for a doll on a swing, or Bebe Balancoire.  I don't think anyone in that room expected 1/2 scale miniatures, but this is what we got.  (If anyone has been with me since I first began this journal, you might recall the Bebe Balancoire I did in red and cream, after the antique one in Etrennes.) It takes skill at this scale.  Normally I'd do this kind of work with tweezers and my mag lamp, but instead, it was arm's length eyeballing.  Its a beautiful little thing.  This photo was taken in my room at the desk I worked at.  Catherine Mather, the Australian artist, indicated we would glue these pieces to the boards we covered, but I'll sew mine on as the originals were done.  Tiny!  Catherine's a very creative woman.  I like her work.  The doll is about 2  to 2 1/2" tall. 

Following that class, I took Playtime at Claudia's Bali Retreat, which was for a set of outfits in Batik by Boneka.  We had to embroider the top, finish seams and hems, etc.  Cute little pieces and so colorful.  Quite a generous set, too.  Rosemarie also had batik carry bags made for the clothing and we finished those as well. 

The last workshop I took was for a French Fashion travel bag.  Took me 15 minutes to put this together (for a 2 1/2 hour scheduled class), so I did the bag for the lady who sat next to me since she was exhausted and a bit flustered from the last event she'd just strolled in from.  I chose the blue fabric.  Hers was the gold.  So yes, I got to create, do things creative while there.  I would have gone nuts otherwise since I'm always working on something.

I had a great time at convention, and Belinda kept me company throughout the six days I was there.  I may look for a few more things for her travel case, too (the green one sitting next to her in the top photo, that RRG made, not to be confused with the FF travel bag).

Below are a few more photos I took.  I was in awe of this 19th c. German doll house at one of the antique doll dealers' booths.  There is a photo of the Indonesian Fantasy souvenir doll we got (who can wear the Bali Retreat clothing), and a photo of the centerpiece doll that was dressed in dance costuming.  I wish we'd gotten those!  The seated Indonesian boy was the companion doll you could purchase. But, I did convince the luncheon folks to sell the orange netting and sequin umbrellas to those who wanted them - ME.  I love orange.  And, Claudia's husband made the aluminum baskets in miniature for us.  These regional items typically store flowers and fruits in the households.  Love it.  And, Belinda receiving her Hitty doll, checking out a large saguaro cactus, and testing the air after a brief sprinkling of rain.

Now its time to put all my treasures away and get busy on something new.  Alsace-Lorraine!  We're in a heat wave of our own right now, so staying indoors doing doll things is the way to go.  Any season!

Love,

Melissa 

  

Cassandra, the Gypsy Girl

Summer conjures up so many feelings in us.  The thrill of the last school bell (still!), the desire for sandy shores and beach chairs, the sound of the ice cream truck (do they even have those any longer?), and a restlessness for faraway places.  To travel unimpeded...perhaps in a glorious wooden caravan with a bell that tinkles suspended from an ornate hook by the door.  Perhaps to meet up with Dorothy's traveling salesman who just happens to have a crystal ball on board.  I'd grab my dog and my basket in a blink and go with him anywhere.


Truly, we all know (I hope) that the gypsy life of years gone by was not a picnic, and there was simply no such thing as feminism.  Girls were bought and sold, used, abused and beaten.  A girl dare not fall in love with any man her father did not pick for her.  Shall I go on?  No.  Because when we muse on "gypsy", we imagine the exotic, the untamed, the swirl of colorful skirts, and the teller of fortunes by palmistry, tarot cards, and that translucent orb, the crystal ball. 

In my research, I was reading a wonderful blog by a woman whose great-grandmother was a gypsy.  She included this stunning studio photograph of her great-grandmother, and had written "that all gypsy girls were dancers and fortune tellers".  Sadly before I had a chance to read the entire journal entry, my computer froze up and I had to reboot.  So be it.  Try as I might, I could not recover the article. So I continued looking for a photo that would inspire. 

  

I have made several gypsy costumes for dolls over the years, but a recent purchase of a "fortune teller" doll by a friend got me interested in making one from the knickers up.  I have a cabinet of sad little Lawton dolls who over time have lost an accessory, gotten dirty with age, or were simply no longer wanted.  These are the dolls I create "brand new" ones from.  And, so it was for the Lawton "Danielle" I had stashed away.  She's a 14" wood body and porcelain, which are the dolls I most prefer to create with.

After some continued browsing around the Internet and Pinterest, I found this fabulous studio portrait of two gypsy girls in costuming that caught my eye.  So unusual.  Pleated skirts!  The caption read "They appear to be wearing traditional ethnic clothing.  The photographer is Olga, and the studio is located in Oravicza, Romania."  Bingo.  That did the trick.  Had to do this one.  And, lucky me, I got to select the colors the skirts and scarves would be.  In other words, I had to "make this up".  Test my mettle, as a creative sort and all that. 

I pulled out all my silks and made several piles of coordinating patterns and colors.  I wanted this costume to be as authentic to what these girls actually wore in the sepia photograph as I could make it.  For all I know, they could have been wearing red and aqua.  But, I liked the earthiness of the burgundy, mauve and purple.  Sunset colors.  Summer sunset colors.  And so I began. 

I'm not a fan of making undergarments.  Never have been.  Why?  They do not show.  Seems a waste of effort.  But, after I found a suitable wig for the doll, I made a pair of knickers in a beautifully woven shirting cotton.  No photo.  Sorry.  Can anyone tell me what a girl child, a gypsy girl child would have worn under those skirts?  Maybe your guess is a good as mine.  Knickers seemed likely for the time period.  No one's going to see them anyway, and I wished to concentrate on the costume. 

A blouse was next.  I've seen many images of gypsy girls in short, puffed sleeves.  Peasant blouses.  And, women with alluring, eye catching décolletage.  Cassandra is a child, and she also has a wood body - not that this has ever bothered me - but long, billowing sleeves seemed right for her - in opposition to the costuming in the photograph.  My doll.  I can mix it up a bit if I like, but I did create the high ruffle collar for the blouse.  As she is a "cabinet doll" and will never be redressed (by me at least), I closed the blouse with little snaps in the back.

Not liking to work with velveteen very much, I did the vest next.  Oh how I forget how difficult it is to work with!  Especially lining it.  The velveteen has mind of its own.  I do pin the silk lining to it alternating the direction of the pins, but it never really wants to behave.  Third try, I got it.  I lined it with a beautiful black silk that has tiny gold embroidery on it.  Little diamonds of gold.  It was the only black silk I had on hand, and this felt right.  Use what you have on hand.  The belt naturally came next.  Do all the velveteen at once!

The belt is decorated with a heavy gold thread that I tacked on to create the design.  The paillettes I used throughout this costume were heavy jeweler's pieces.  I found these 3/8" pieces offered on Ebay and bought all five sets of them.  I had no idea how many I'd use, and its best to be safe than sorry.  They are hammered (indented), textured.  I would have had to make my own from the plastic ones with a hole punch, and fully intended to do so, but the almost "bronze" color of them looked wonderful with the warm colors of silk. 

I had plenty of this burgundy silk left over from Louise Godey's first holiday dress.  I spent a good deal of time pleating and pressing, and pleating a pressing to get this skirt made.  I always hem the fabric first when pleating, then measure the length its going to be.  In this case, 6 1/2".  So far so good.  I attached the waistband, and began on the unusual,. and separate apron skirt that falls to the back and front.  Pleated, once again, but with paillettes running up the sides of the two apron pieces.  Took some figuring out, but I attached a waistband that opens at one side and closes with a hook and thread loop.  I had to make this shorter by an inch, and also make the pleats slightly smaller.  Worn by a child, the volume created by these pleats would indeed provide a wonderful fullness as she spun around and banged her little tambourine. 

Her main head scarf is this horrid-to-work-with tissue weight silk jacquard.  I love this silk.  Its one of the prettiest pieces I have and folds and ties up like a dream, but it ravels like crazy thing the minute a needle touches it.  I did finish the edges with tiny twice folded over edges machine-sewn down.  My sewing machine has a rolled edge foot attachment, but I'll be darned if I've ever gotten it to work.  I know this can be done by hand, but I'm not sure I'd really have the patience to do this - especially for a doll's scarf that's all folded up and tucked in.  (Its just not that important to me, nor do I think it detracts in any way.  This is not an heirloom wedding veil.  My rationale.)

Saved for last was the sewing-on of the paillettes.  Each pleat point on the apron was given one and each paillette is sewn on with its own little knot.  Five go up each side of the apron pieces.  They are sewn to the edges of the vest going up to just below the shoulders.  I never thought I'd get them all sewn on, but all I kept thinking about was how some gypsy mother sewed all of them to these children's costumes - and probably faster and with more skill than imaginable.  What I was doing was nothing in comparison. 

Finally, it was time to make her a pair of slippers, sandals...something on her feet.  Dancing shoes that were also practical for everyday wear.  I created a pattern for a sort of espadrille, and used a dark wine-brown leather for them.  I wanted something that was summery.  A shoe that would be cool and comfortable, speak to the warm days and nights of the season.  I like this style and hope to use it again sometime. 

After I had her dressed, there was still something missing.  A necklace and a little "color spot", a little pizazz to the overall look.  I bought some chain, tiny jump rings and a lobster clasp and made her a "coin" necklace with some 3/8" pressed jeweler's coins.  The color spot was another scarf added as a hair band.  Both scarf styles are noted as proper gypsy wear, and look lovely together.  The fringe on both her hip sash and head wrap were done by pulling horizontal threads out from the fabric. 

I came up with the name Cassandra after listening to Al Stewart's song Helen and Cassandra.  It just happened to be on my playlist that day.  Cassandra was a Greek goddess who was given the gift of foretelling the future by Apollo.  As the story goes, she did not do his bidding, and he made no one believe her when she predicted the fall of Troy by the Trojan Horse army.  Her fate will not be my little gypsy's, but it is such a lovely name and rolls off the tongue like the swirl of silk skirts.  She can be fortune teller and dancer.

Below are some wonderful studio portraits of gypsy girls.  You might even recognize one of them.  Wishing you a pleasant summer!

Love,

Melissa