Esme Pumpkin Sprite

October!  Its Halloween month!  And it feels just wonderful to be in the season of autumn.  When the lighting in each day is softer.  When the early evenings give a golden glow to everything you see and feel.  It's simply my favorite season of the year.  And Halloween is my favorite celebration of the year.  Oh, I know.  Christmas is the big finale, but there is nothing to compare to joy Halloween brings to me!  

Fall is a time for the color orange.  It's my favorite color, and pumpkins on porches, pumpkins in patches, pumpkins in bins at the grocery store, pumpkins everywhere! - and pumpkin spice (not in my coffee, thank you very much!) brighten every day in every way.  

Pumpkins have long been a source of fairytale material from Cinderella's coach, to where Peter the Pumpkin

Eater kept his wife.  There's something magical and just plain fun and inspirational to that jolly gourd.  There used to be a pumpkin festival in Half Moon Bay, California every year.  Still might be, but I no longer live in the Bay Area.  In some areas of the country, I'm sure families can still go out to a real pumpkin patch and select one or two, then go for a horse drawn hayride.

Carving pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns is a Halloween tradition that originated in Celtic cultures where turnips and beets were carved to make human faces.  The name jack-o-lantern comes from an Irish tale about a man named Stingy Jack who tricked the devil. and was cursed to wander the earth with a lantern.  Irish immigrants brought the tradition to America and found that pumpkins were ideal for carving.  Hooray for the Irish!

I am just beginning to feel a little lighter these days after a very disappointing trip in September.  It just took the life, energy and creative spirit out of me.  Life.  Its happens sometimes.

But October arrived and with it, Halloween.  As many of you know, I've worked tirelessly some years to make super fun costumes for my dolls this time of year.  I'm taking it easy this season.  Sometimes we have to step back and just let the days flow and enjoy what we have, what we've done in the past, then buy lots of new Halloween dolls!  That's what I'm doing.

However, to not work on something, to not have something to pick up and poke around on in my studio, is simply not going to fly.  I read.  Voraciously and all the time.  I just finished The Light of the World by James Lee Burke, and it was fabulous.  Three more books left in his Dave Robicheaux series, and I'll be crying buckets that my heroes won't be having anymore adventures.  I just picked up Louisa Morgan's new book, The Great Witch of Brittany, and its superb.  I love her witch tales.  And I'm watching Halloween movies, and the first season of House of the Dragon.  I'm good to go.  Sometimes we just need 

to rest our minds and reboot.  

Still, the desire to do something for Halloween was nagging at me.  Esme is always the perfect little sprite to get me back into the swing of things.  So I made her a pumpkin costume.

I pulled out a sheet of orange felted wool and one of green, and started a little pattern for a puffy pumpkin costume.  Not everything we do has to be a masterpiece.  Not everything we do has to be a challenge.  It just has to be fun and inspiring.

Esme Pumpkin Sprite.

I used the existing little boots I made her for the mushroom costume and added a bit of bling to the bodice neckline with some orange beading.  It just looked too plain.  It needed something.

She has a pair of orange felt panties sewn inside the pumpkin bottom, which was tricky to design.  

Two green pumpkin leaves come off a three sided stem, which I did a little embroidery work on.  

Her costume is just for fun and will take her through the end of November.  She's a fun doll to dress when sewing with felted wool.  She's always a bright little spot on the shelf she shares with other dolls.

I've also been focusing my thoughts on Wednesday Addams and Nadja and her look-alike doll from What We Do in the Shadows.  Who knows?  Maybe there will be a special costumed doll in one of these themes.  They're everywhere right now and just looking at what others have done has been inspiring.

It's getting dark outside, and I've turned on all my electric lighted Halloween pumpkins and the little haunted house display I have in the living room.  I'm a kid again.  I'm an adult with the heart of a child that will never die.  The magic of the holidays, this special time of year, will always be treasured and celebrated!

Let's enjoy some pumpkins together!  I've selected some fun pumpkin imagery from long past and more current artists.  The super fun recent find, was that of the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz celebrating Halloween.  On Pinterest, you seldom get to learn where these images came from, but this one's a winner!  Scarecrow is scooping out green Oz-cream for the party.  I hope you'll enjoy the selections.

Oh!  I almost forgot to tell you.  I was poking around the settings in this blog site to get the HTML language off the page, and found a place to check a box that just might bring the email notifications back.  I hope you're able to leave comments again, too, if you like.  

Until the next time, Happy Autumn!  Happy Halloween!, Melissa

 

Suhani in Sunrise Celebration

Welcome September, one of my favorite months of the year.  The beginning of the 'bers.  Birthday month for me (18th).  That precious time of year when the cool mornings heat up to Indian Summer afternoons, that cool right down at night and allow for open windows to sleep comfortably by.  September. 

This will be my only journal for the month as we are finally taking a road trip, after six long years, to one of our favorite destinations - Southern Utah.  The land of red rock canyons and in the higher elevations, the turning of the aspen trees.  Perhaps when I return, I'll post and share some photos of the journey.

While I was deep into gathering fabrics and trims to design a lehenga for Cissy, it occurred to me that I'd yet to sew something for one of the Ruby Red Fashion Friends dolls by Ruby Red Galleria.  I knew they'd created a doll named Kayla with darker, warmed toned skin, and I thought she'd make a perfect little Indian child.  I found this lovely version of Kayla, after my 

friend, Julie, had directed me to a nude one with green eyes.  I liked the dark eyes better, at the time, so purchased this one.  She's roughly the same size as the Little Darling, Peggy Sue, who I've sewed for in the past, and I find this size wonderful to create for.  

I named this child Suhani, which means pleasant.  There were other Indian girl names with more exotic meanings, but I loved the way "Suhani" sounded when spoken.  

It's been a little crazy around here lately, especially with planning this trip which we leave for soon, and I'd started Suhani's lehenga shortly after completing Cissy's.  I have some gorgeous Indian silks in yellows and greens, and well, just about every color now, but this salmon pink made me feel good to work with after the cooling aqua tones of the first costume.

When designing these lehenga, I lay out many fabrics with trims on them, and sort and swap until some combination hits me just 

right.  With Suhani's silk, I had barely a half yard and this fabric is so delicate and beautiful that I couldn't afford to make any mistakes.  I was cautious every step of the way in creating this one.  It's the same basic pattern as Cissy's only smaller in all dimensions and is made without darts in the bodice.  Every doll's body is slightly different and making a fresh pattern each time is time consuming.  Because they are all different, I seldom feel like I'm ever going to get the hang of pattern making.

However, the point I wish to make is that I design as I go along.  What trim I may have chosen originally, may not get used.  Especially if a new shipment comes in and something better shows up. This was clearly the case here, and how to embellish the costume came to me as the days went by.

This salmon silk is simply heaven.  Its light and thin for a brocade and the nicest thing about the metallic brocade pattern, is that it has little diamond shapes.  Given that, I was able to turn patterns this 

way and that to get the most out of the fabric I had to work with.

I wanted to do more with this costume.  Push myself into adding more sparkle and bling.  I can be so safe and boring when it comes to things like this.  Myself, I dress very blandly and non-descript, so glamorizing a doll does not come easily to me.

It was my intention to dress Suhani and simply display her.  Other costumes would not be on the horizon, but now that I've completed the first one, I just may have to make her two or three more.  

I also wanted to focus on her jewelry, and I'll get to that in a bit.

Suhani's choli (blouse) is a cropped top with a lower scoop in back than Cissy's was.  Because of her long, thick wavy hair, it wouldn't do any good to make this a feature, so I'll save that for another costume.  I did trim the edge with an "old gold" with sequins trim from India.  Choosing this trim set the tone for the rest of the 

costume.  

I'll mention Julie again, as she had shown me a drawing someone drew for a costume like this that was entered into a contest for Ruby Red Galleria to select new doll costuming from.  What Julie loved was the little bag with the elephant on it.  I love elephants!  And I wanted to do something with elephants for this costume.

A beloved icon of Hindu and Buddhist faiths, the Asian elephant has been intertwined with human history for centuries.  Hindus believe the Buddha was reincarnated from a white elephant and they worship the elephant head deity, Ganesha.  Many Hindu temples in southern India include elephants in annual festivals.  

There is an elephant festival that takes place during Holi.  Holi marks the beginning of spring, and the festival is held each March. The Elephant Festival is celebrated in the city of Jaipur in Rajasthan.

I'd come across these gorgeous little old gold and sequin elephant appliques as part of some lehenga tassels I'd purchased from India.  The tassels themselves were far too large for a doll, but trimming out the embroidered elephants would work perfectly to parade around the hem of Suhani's skirt.

The tassel Suhani wears from a clip on her skirt is also very traditional.  From another tassel length I cut appart, I cut down the clip that had diamond shapes hammered into it, just the right size for Suhani's skirt.  The beaded and sequin tassels were trimmed of their ruffle to make them a smaller size.  I adore these elephants and intend to make sure Cissy gets a costume with them on her lehenga, too.

As for the jewelry, I put some effort into this and made it myself from parts of purchased Indian jewelry for women.  One of the most charming earring sets that women wear are called Jhumka.

Jhumka is a type of earring worn by women in the Indian subcontinent.  It is bell shaped and typically made of metal.  It can be jeweled or enameled and is highly decorative.  Jhumka translates to the word bell and the earrings got their name as there is typically a jewel or metal beading that jingles inside the bell when the head is turned.  

Suhani is wearing Jhumka with pearl dangles.  Her maang tika (teeka, tikka - it seems to be spelled many ways), is a strand of chain and pearls with a centered jewel embellishment on the forehead.

I made her necklace from chain and brass ball drops.  I have yet to discover the name of this traditional style of necklace and its significance, outside of its simple elegance and charm.  

Suhani wears gold sandals made by an artist on Etsy known as Lorelie.  LorelieCreations did a fine job with them and while I do enjoy making shoes, there was simply no need to do so.  I don't mess with perfection.

Suhani's dupatta was made from a sari cloth which was one of my first purchases in looking for fabrics.  I have no idea what I'm going to do with the rest of this fabric but was happy to at least be able to use it for this purpose.  I added beaded and jeweled embellishments.

I've included some lovely images of Asian elephants below.  There is even one with Queen Elizabeth (gosh I miss her!), on a visit to India.  What I came across in looking for Asian Elephants was the BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha.  This is a spiritual and humanitarian organization with temples in several areas of the U.S.  How exciting!  I could visit a real Indian temple within the U.S.!  Dream on.  But, if I'm ever in Chicago, I'm going to try.  The two photos below with the temple entrance and the white elephants are from the center near Chicago.

I thoroughly enjoyed making Suhani this costume and do in fact think there will be another for her in the future.

I spent some time this morning sorting trims and jewelry and tassel bits into four Sterlite storage tubs.  My studio is still a disaster with folded silk fabric stacks all over the floor.  When I'm working on a new costume, my work surface gets completely covered with everything and in time there is hardly a place to work.  I just keep adding and shoving stuff out of the way.  The madness of creativity!

The next time I write a journal post will be in October.  It will be time to think about Halloween.  There'll be a new Club Grace box in the vacation hold mail.  In the meantime, I hope you'll enjoy every precious day that September brings.  Mark the 23rd as the Autumn Equinox and give a nod to China's Mid-Autumn Festival on the 29th.  How I wish I'd be home to make costumes for Ten Ping and Gigi.  

Love, Melissa

 

Cissy in India

Here we are on the last day in August.  It's been an amazing month for me.  Like every month, it just flew by, and yet it was so full of new things to learn with maybe just a little bit of nostalgia tossed in.  As I was writing my "month in review" page in my journal, I was struck by just how much I can still pack into a month of thirty-one days. Convention seems a lifetime ago, but that was how August began.

So, what I've been doing since sometime in July, is research on how to design and make traditional Indian clothing.  And spending a small fortune, seriously, on fabrics and appliques and trims.  All of it comes direct from India, but I was lucky to find two or three Etsy stores in the U.S. that carried some of what I needed after about three weeks.  Just enough time to realize that the first hauls from India were too large in scale for dolls.  It happens.  Why India all of a sudden?  What about my love of Chinese dolls and costuming?

As long as I can remember, I've had a fascination with India.  Perhaps it started when the Beatles went to India and began producing new sounds in their music.  Did you know that Donovan accompanied the Fab Four to India?  I'm sure it was even before then, but that is about the same time I played the guru's daughter, Indira, in the play The Groovy Guru, that Mr. Smith produced for our middle school class.  I was in the seventh grade.  I was chosen, not for my thespian talent, or lack of it, but because I had long brown hair.  I remember that my classmate, Karen Racanelli's mother, had traveled to India and knew how to wrap a sari.  My mother bought a few yards of a light blue silky fabric and Mrs. Racanelli dressed me in the girls' restroom.  I carried my sister's brass incense burner, and promptly lost it when I set it down after my performance.  It was a sore topic for the rest of the year.

Around 1970, Mountain View opened a large mall, one of the first of its kind, and Cost Plus Imports was one of the anchor

stores.  They had a huge Indian section where you could buy anything Indian, and we used to make skirts and dresses from these thin, printed muslin Indian bedcovers.  The shopping mall was called The Mayfield Mall.  I even held a baby lion or tiger there for a photo shoot once.

Today, my love of India has much to do with what PBS has brought us in the way of movies and television series, as well as the food.  I've enjoyed series like Indian Summers, The Indian Doctor (darling show), and movies like The Best Marigold Hotel and Eat, Pray, Love.  Netflix had a series called Delhi Crime that told the story of the girl that had gotten raped on the bus - her boyfriend beaten up.  That and Indian Summers, though in different time periods, showcased the poverty and corruption of the poorer areas of India.  Then of course, there was Slumdog Millionaire.  And let's not forget Disney's fabulous The Jungle Book with Jason Scott Lee.  Still one of my favorite movies of all time.  

Then there's the food.  While I love a good thali, Indian buffets are the best.  Masalas, Kormas, Vindaloos, all served with delicious naan bread.  Pakoras and samosas!  Vibrant sauces to go with them.  The dishes are so rich, that a bite or two fills you up quickly.  This is one of the concepts behind thalis.  Thalis means plate.  But its a high rimmed plate that is filled with small bowls called katoris, and each has a serving of a different dish. 

Indian music?  Can't get into it, so Bollywood should be watched with the sound off.  

Then there's the dressed dolls.  Gene Marshall's leading man, Trent Osborn, wore a fabulous costume in After the Rains.  Robert Tonner made a dark skinned Ellowyne Wilde called Marigold and Cinnamon, and I dressed one of his Deja Vu dolls in the outfit.  Some fabulous artist took one of the Deja Vu dolls and turned her into an Indian woman with beautifully painted mehndi.  She also jeweled her with a nose ring, earrings and a bindi, the forehead

jewel.  I have the complete collection of American Girl's Girls of Many Lands, and Neela was from India.  

This summer I acquired American Girl, Kavi, their girl of the year.  I didn't care for what she was wearing, but she could wear the one Bollywood costume they made her and the Diwali costume that came out earlier.  Then I found Rhea Singh on Etsy and I was a goner.  Rhea's been making traditional Indian costuming for American Girl dolls for ten years.  The costumes run between $125-135 and $300, usually.  All the fabrics and trims and appliques are from India.  Her work is phenomenal.  Exemplary!  And she inspired me to give it a go.  I don't like sewing for that big, chunky doll, but I love sewing for Cissy, so Cissy goes to India for a while while I learn everything I can about traditional Indian costuming and daywear.  

One of the nice things about Rhea is that her listings educate you to the names of the types of clothing.  She's a little shy in 

answering questions, but most of what I've learned from her listings, I can look further into on the Internet.  We don't stop there though.  There's jewelry and accessories that are used for celebrations, and so on.  It's overwhelming, but it's a wonderful journey.

Let's talk a little bit about the clothing.  Blouse - Choli.  Skirt - Lehenga.  Scarf - Dupatta.  Dress or long coat - Kurta.  Pants - Salwar.  And the cute little beaded drawstring bags?  Potlis!  That's about all I know so far when it comes to clothing.

After I finally found a local, meaning U.S., seller of Indian fabrics and trims, I bought this beautiful aqua blue silk brocade, along with some other gorgeous silk brocades.  I have always stayed as far away from brocade as possible, because sewing through the fraying threads, especially metallic, that create the design, is brutal to work with.  Here's the thing.  Silk brocade is much nicer to work with than synthetic brocades which are often used in Chinese costuming.  I had to just forge ahead and dismiss my misgivings about brocade.

The lehenga was designed based on how Rhea creates hers.  This is a full length, gored skirt, and with Cissy's tiny waist, it was a challenge to draft the pattern.  Typically, gored skirts have eight panels, but with Cissy, to make this look right, I went down to five with the back pieces a little wide to make a nice seam in the back.  

The skirt is fully lined and, in this way, it eliminated a waistband and sits nicely on her hips.  

The choli was shortened to a midriff but has a full back this time.  I've seen some lovely cholis that have low scooped backs, and some are even embellished with ties and tassels.  That's coming later.  The choli is lined as well for a nice finish.

I had set aside a hem trim that had jewels in the same colors when a package from India arrived and settled the matter of trim immediately.  This exceptional sequin trim is so lovely and delicate and one yard, which is all I purchased, was just enough for the hem,

along with a piece left over to decorate the front of the choli.  

One of the features of these beautiful skirts, are these tasseled belts.  Some are very elaborate, and Rhea had sent me this set of tassels that worked beautifully with the chosen fabric, and I had to use them for this purpose.  What she does is run a cord through the waists and they tie the skirt on - the tassels fall from the ends of the cords.  As this lehenga did not have a waistband, I made a chain belt for the decorative effect.

As I was making this costume, I was very aware of the need for jewelry and was on the hunt for findings to make my own.  Impossible.  People purchase ready-made jewelry and take it down to doll size and create their own doll jewelry.  You cannot ask someone who sells doll jewelry how they create it.  Its considered rude.  Not to me.  I'll share away to take the research and frustration away from anyone who wants to make it themselves.  Still and all, you must find the right pieces and make sure they're small

enough.  Cissy's maang tika and earrings were purchased.  Ah!  A new word.  Maang tika is hair jewelry and is created in simple form or elaborately for celebrations and weddings.  The maang tika consists of a chain or jeweled chain with a medallion on one end, a hook on the other.  The hook, hooks into your hair, and the jeweled charm sits on the forehead, the place where the sixth chakra is found, or third eye.  Its purpose is for preservation (of the soul?).  I haven't read deeply into the history and purposes of Indian jewelry, but each piece has significance beyond beauty.  We'll explore that later in other costumes.

I had enough of the lining silk to make a dupatta for Cissy.  These scarves can be see through or opaque, but one thing is certain.  They are decorative.  

One of the trims that came direct from India, had these tiny little mirrors on it.  When we shopped at Cost Plus years ago, all the mirrors were glass.  Now most of the mirrored fabrics and trims are made with a synthetic fiber.  Perhaps to sew through?  Less 

expensive?  Easier to make?  Who knows?  But I was delighted with the real mirrors and used this trim to decorate the edges of this dupatta.  Still, there wasn't quite enough sparkle to the scarf, so I added flat sequins.  

Cissy is wearing gold metallic sandals on her feet, which would also be traditional.

Here's a close up of the handmade tassels.  I'm going to try to make my own at some point and that means buying more stuff.  The correct beads.  And truth be known, I'm tired of shopping at this point.  Every piece of anything I buy has to be the perfect scale for whatever doll I'm dressing.  It takes hours and hours and hours to find the right "stuff".

I did make Cissy some bangles though.  The bangles are called Kada and Kangan.  Kangan is a wider bracelet from what I've read.  One of Cissy's kada's has a little gold elephant on it.  This is not traditional, but I like elephants!  

Cissy's choli is also edged with large sequin trim, which you can see here.

Traditional Indian earrings have this bell shape and from there, the ways in which they use this bell shape is endless.  Some are jeweled.  Some are enamel.  Some have jewels or pearls hanging inside of them.  I actually purchased some gold and blue jewelry from the same seller of these earrings and maang tika, but the ruby color looked more dramatic.

Cissy's armband is two key rings.  I have some ideas on how I might do better for this purpose, but the rings work.  This was just my first attempt at a costume, which I'll call lehenga.  I wanted mostly to get the process down.  Understand what I'm doing, so designing more elaborate costuming can come later.

This costuming is typical for the Diwali celebration.  The celebration of light.  I was intrigued while watching, recently, the first season of, And Just Like That, the follow up from Sex and the City, where Carrie goes to a Diwali celebration and wears this way over-the-top costume. 

Speaking of celebrations, one of the items they use for them are Diyas.  Diyas in Urli.  Diya translates to lamp.  The urli is a bowl or vessel in which you can float candles (diyas) or flowers in water.  They are traditionally brass and very beautiful.  There is one shown at the beginning of this post.  

While I was looking for accessories for Cissy and Kavi, I found these cloth-covered elephants that are used as diyas.  The little gold basket on their backs holds a candle.  These are used as gifts or table favors at celebrations.  I thought they were delightful.  

And I purchased, at great expense, and direct from India, two miniature solid brass thali sets.  Is it any wonder that I've grown tired of shopping?  

For me, writing this blog tonight is the perfect way to end August and begin September tomorrow.  I finished my first Indian costume just in time to start a new month.  September is my birthday month, and I might just give it an Indian theme this year.  Last year was Little Red Riding Hood.  Here's the thing though, we'll be going on our first vacation-road trip in six years, early mid-month.  While we're both yearning for a change of scenery, I will miss being able to create more costuming in my studio.  Or maybe not.  I'm thinking of doing some bead embroidery on the costumes and that I can do in our room at night or on the days my husband takes off on his bicycle.

I hope you'll enjoy the small selection of images and artwork I included in this post.  I almost forgot to mention my love of peacocks and peacocks are birds of India and Southeast Asia.  The peacock, the blue peacock of India, became its national bird symbol in 1963.  I've loved peacocks all my life for their exotic beauty.  This is what India means to me.  Exotic beauty.

Wishing you a fabulous September!. Melissa

  

Diyas and Thali

Potli

Mini thali from listing.

The other mini thali with little fillings.

Kavi in Rhea's Kurta and Salwar

Neela - Girl of Many Lands

The Beatles in India

With Donovan in saffron yellow.  Mellow Yellow!

Adorable series!

Cute dress design for a child doll.

I'm hungry!