Playing Abigail the Vampire Ballerina

One of the remarkable things about playing dolls is realizing that moment when a doll becomes a friend.  When you've spent so much time with her, she grows a personality and charm that you gravitate to on your best and worst days, because she is there to be special to you in every way.  This is Maisie.  And the funny thing is, she became my friend and muse the instant I pulled her from the box.  

Growing up, dolls were precious commodities and were handled by me as things of worth and exquisite beauty rather than toys to be played with.  Oh, I had my moments with Liddle Kiddles and my troll doll, but the other dolls were as elevated as books.  You cared for them and didn't mark them up.  A lost shoe was a calamity, and each item collected for that doll held its own special meaning and worth.  And, no, I never lost a shoe!

Maisie has grown me in some ways as a doll costumer and set me back just as much in how difficult she is to sew for.  I never used to blink when I set out to make an outfit, for say, a Lawton doll, or 

even the dreaded 16" fashion doll needing darts.  And I'm getting pretty good at making my own darts now, but that's another story.  I even heard confirmation recently from a respected, professional doll costumer, that the Connie Lowe dolls are indeed a challenge to sew for.  Not that this made me feel any better about taking on the latest challenge, but at least I no longer feel like an odd ball.  Well, I am one, but again, that's another story.

Once upon a time in the not-so-distant past, okay, last summer, Heather's doll, Eloise got to watch a movie on the plane on her way home from the UFDC convention.  Comfortably lounging on the tray table with a bag of her favorite candy, Sour Patch Kids, she got to choose the movie for the flight home.  And it was Abigail.  A horror movie that came out in April of 2024.  Abigail is the story of a vampire ballerina and Eloise has talked of little else since watching it.  So, like a good mom, Heather asked me to make Eloise an Abigail vampire ballerina costume. 

At first, I was dumbfounded.  A what?!  So, like the good little researcher I am, I Googled it up.  Sure enough.  There was a movie about a vampire ballerina.  Did I watch it?  Not yet, but I did enjoy the trailer.  Oh, and I did read the article written about it on Wikipedia.  

The story is about - do you care? yes - about a little girl, the daughter of a reclusive kingpin who presides over a vast criminal empire, and the five thugs who kidnap her for a ransom of $50 million.  Little do they know as the sun sets that night, that the pre-teen ballerina in their possession is an ancient vampire.  And yes, I will watch it because I like campy horror films.  It was actually a take-off from a 1936 film called Dracula's Daughter.  Now that is one I'd like to see!

And now you know that I like vampire movies and series (and books!), especially when the vampire is played by Matthew Goode.  

But these things really didn't prepare me for conjuring up a vampire ballerina costume.  Especially for a Connie Lowe doll.  I'm still not quite there when it comes to using cut up vintage clothing and sewing outside the box, but I'll get there in time.  I have made dance/ballet costumes, but never the kind with tulle and I'd have to seriously study Tonner's ballet tutus before trying to make a classic style, which is the short, stiff kind used in classical ballets.  What I chose to try was the "romantic" style, which is long and reaches the knee or lower.  This style is most often composed of 5 to 6 layers of tulle.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I wanted to make her a parasol.  The longer I contemplated "vampire" and "ballerina", my thoughts drifted to New Orleans where many vampire stories are set.  Visions of Southern elegance, magnolia trees and bayou swamps begged to find their way into this play set.

The parasol is a backdrop, a scenic setting.  How do you create a ballerina tutu that says "vampire"?  You give it some props.  Maybe I didn't need to go in this direction.  Maybe I could have just made a tutu and said, "You figure it out".  But that's not me.  Remember?  I'm an odd ball.  And I really wanted to make another parasol.  So that was the first thing I did while waiting for the tulle to arrive in the mail.

I used the images of bats and treetops from this vintage illustration depicting a certain kind of bat.  These illustrations were most often found in textbooks and nature study books.  I also used the full moon from the illustration which helped give the twilight hue of lavender an eerie feel.  

I like bats!  They eat mosquitos.  They're little night birds.

This was one of the more difficult parasols that've I've painted and decorated.  I'd actually considered including magnolias on it, but the bats alone, flying about at twilight felt elegant and serene.

Designing the artwork for these parasols takes an incredible amount of thought and effort.  It's something I love to do, and it beat learning Photoshop when it comes to backgrounds.  One is a prop and an accessory.  The other, a tool I wish I'd had under my belt for this project.

I knew before I even watched the trailer to the movie, that I wanted to make the romantic style tutu.  The idea of a child flitting and hopping through the woods in a flowing ballet dress, pretending to sneak up and bite her victims, required the look of clouds and mist.

I studied various tutu skirts at this length and chose to begin the tulle almost at a the hip.  The amount of gathering required to get this one look, would consume her tiny body if the tulle gathers were at the waist.  I have seen these skirts separate from the bodice tops and that worked for me.

The other noted detail was how to get the idea of vampire written on the tutu.  Blood.  Gotta have blood.  But Abigail was a ballerina and took her talent seriously.  A beautiful, clean tutu to perform in was required.  The blood and gore come later when she's pissed off.

To do this, I purchased tiny tear drop shaped red gems.  I think these might be used on fingernails but can be used on a variety of crafting project.  Five pointed inwards would make a nice flower for instance.  Anyway, I bought them in two sizes.  One was much too large and got tossed, but the tiny ones were perfect.

They also have a bit of sticky on the back and I pressed one to the corner of Maisie's mouth - and no, it will not hurt the resin - and followed the blood drop trail down her tutu.  Another set dusts the skirt when things get messy.

Again, what would a vampire ballerina costume look like?

Still classy, still beautiful, but with blood drop gems.

Maisie modeling a the costume in another ballet position with the parasol

And let's not forget that since vampires are sensitive to the sun, a large parasol is the perfect foil for keeping the sun away!

The back.  I actually made long darts in the bodice in the back to accommodate Maisie's behind.  The bodice is long enough to cover the panel that the tulle is sewn into.  

Normally they would be two separate pieces but when dressing the doll, they tending to separate.  This design was easily solved by tacking the top to the bottom.  Sometimes I forget that I'm dressing a doll, not a person.  It worked.

The cape.  Once again, How do you design a ballet costume to say "vampire"?  The vampire cape.  Oh!  This was fun!

Let it be said that I'm getting to the point that sewing black with black thread is coming to an end.  I simply cannot see what I'm doing any longer.  I wear glasses anyway, and no matter how bright the lights are, it's very difficult.  I'll grump about this, but I really do need to find an easier way to see what I'm doing.

This little cape has your typical vampire collar.  With the skinny neck this little doll has, and the width between her shoulder and chin being equally small, a smaller collar was necessary.  A long hair wig would cover it completely.  Couldn't be helped, but Maisie's little pigtails allow you to see what it looks like.

While sewing this, I decided to add finger loops so Eloise could flap around like a little bat flying through the twilight sky.

Don't tempt me!

The collar.

Loving the cape.

And then came the slippers.  About halfway through this process, I looked up a YouTube on how ballet pointe shoes are made.  We used to call them toe shoes, but now they are referred to as pointe shoes.  Thought you'd like to know that.

The intent was to make a pair of toe shoes as close to the real deal as possible.  Took me a week just to design and create them, but that's pretty typical.  I used to think the toe boxes were made of wood, and maybe at one time they were, but the toe boxes are now made from composite, like PaperClay and the paper mache is made in large vats like dough.  The YouTube never showed exactly how the composite was applied and formed, but believe it or not, I'd already made toe boxes from a new chunk of PaperClay.  

Once dried and sanded, I gessoed the boxes for smoothness and strength then got to work on the soles.  I won't go into the details from here, but it felt pretty good knowing I'd guessed the toe box material before even watching the YouTube.  

The bottoms of the pointe shoes.

I also looked up exactly where the ribbons should be sewn and it made sense.  I did not have silk satin ribbon in this size and color, so I used normal silk ribbon.  It actually lends a more Connie Lowe feel to the shoes.

One thing I've not mentioned is that I did make little pants to go underneath.  I do not use elastic in my sewing as elastic deteriorates over time.  And since the silk panties were lined, they are made in a way that I came up with, but not necessarily how they should have been made.  I really have not figured that out yet.  This is what the creative process is all about.  Figuring things out as you go along.  

And there are stockings.  A little bigger to get that Connie Lowe loose look.  But they still stay up for all that flitting about in the woods.

I stood Maisie up in the costume and frowned.  It was just too plain.  Ugh   Now what?  So, I started looking at ballet costumes once again and decided to sew on flowers in a random pattern.  Lastly, I added a bit of lavender silk ribbon to match the twilight color of the parasol.

Finally, a hair band of white flowers, a bit oversized for that special whimsical look.

Here, Maisie does a little barre work at the park bench.

Of course, now I want to make another ballet costume, but I'll be taking a little break for a while.  I may not make the pointe shoes with toe boxes this time, more slipper-like instead, but I do want to try a more costume box look in the next one.

This was a big project that took a lot of study, design and concentration to complete.  If it looks effortless, I did my job well.

Enjoy the sun and sunshiny days!  Eloise will be under the parasol until the sun sets!

From the film.

 

A New Sybil for the Virtual Doll Convention

A couple of weeks ago, Rachel Hoffman posted a challenge on the VDC to create homemade Sybils.  Sybil was introduced as Ellowyne's fiesty cat and came with a carrier.  She was quite popular and of course I bought both the cat and carrier.  Time and tide, and I sold both.  There must have been something else I really wanted because I can kick myself for selling the carrier.  It was so well made.  

I did end up buying another Sybil a few years back when I was collecting for my Halloween shelf.  Today she curls around a Halloween Ellowyne's legs.

It wasn't until I decided to give the challenge a try that I noticed some very odd things about the original Sybil.  For one, her legs were really short.  She was designed more like a Corgi or a Dachshund.  Odd.  But she was fun, and she was outrageous and I'm probably the only one who noticed.

What I wanted to do when designing my version of Sybil, was to keep to the size of the cat, but correct the length of the legs.  This of course, made her a taller cat.  Several times I tossed the armature and tried again for a smaller size, but the first model was still the best overall, so I finished her on it.

One thing about needle felting that is difficult to master, is predicting the size of your project.  Once you start adding wool, it can get rather large.  So, with that in mind, and not willing to start on a fourth, I'm calling her a Rag Doll Sybil.  Rag Doll cats are huge and gorgeous and wonderful.  

This posting is mainly for my archives, but I'm including lots of photos from different angles for both my future reference and just for fun.

When starting a new needle felt of an animal, I always look for a good skeleton to make my armature from.  What's armature?  It's a wire frame on which to build the wool.  I use pipe cleaners because they are already "furry", and wool adheres to them better.  Sometimes two twisted together is necessary for stability.

I was very uncertain as to how to create a feisty cat, and my friend Heather, was great in helping me.  Crooked tail, flattened ears and sharp eyes were the top suggestions.  As Heather cares for feral cats, as well as her own gorgeous pet, she was of tremendous support and help as I went along.

Cats are one of the most difficult animals to needle felt.  I wouldn't have suspected this, and it was confirmed by a professional needle felter whose YouTube tutorials and products are hailed by many, Sarafina.

I'm not crazy about all her techniques, but she helps give me an idea of where to start in certain areas.  There is no right or wrong way to needle felt.  As long as your project turns out the way you want it to, go for it.

I do believe this was the hardest animal I've ever made, and I've made some pretty intricate ones.  Perhaps in part it was not knowing how well she'd be received, and I grew very fond of this poor, upset kitty as time went along.

I wanted to make her feel secure and trusting again so her ears would right themselves and she'd purr.  Ah well.  

Lastly, both Heather I thought she needed a collar or something.  I slept on it and when I went into my studio the next morning, I put a big red silk ribbon bow around her neck.  That would make any cat's ears go back!  Ellowyne thought it would improve her disposition, and it had the opposite effect.

Goodbye, little Sybil!  I hope you enjoy your life in the doll shop!

 

An Alice Folk Doll

Its June!  The month of sunshine and strawberries.  The month of leisure and outdoor play.  June is the time to shake off the cobwebs of winter, open the doors and windows at night and listen to the sounds of summer.  I love summer.  Oh sure.  When its triple-digits from sunrise to sunset, I'm the first to stay indoors in the cool of an air-conditioned home.  I certainly have plenty to keep me busy, but when the sunshine is calling, and the day is mild, it's terribly difficult to sit still in my studio working on projects. 

Yet, I have several projects lined up for the summer months, but that won't stop me from launching my kayak on the lake every opportunity I get.  Being on the water, just me and my little craft, is one of the most pleasant things I do.  And where I kayak, on Lake Folsom, I see otter, and eagles, heron and egrets, geese and ducks who've been leading their little ones through the beginnings of lake life.  I love it.  It's my Zen. 

Being out in nature is one of best ways to let my creative thoughts flow.  Even so, some projects take a concentrated effort that leave me feeling like I'm starting fresh in the world of creating for dolls.  The little folk doll Alice was one of them.  It doesn't help that I never do something twice.  Each project is for the first time.  It's only in the things I've learned from other projects that propel me forward with any sense of practical application.  And this was the first time I sewed for a folk doll.

Some of you might recognize this little doll, but others will only know the name Gail Wilson from her Americana and Hitty dolls.

Back in 1974, Gail launched herself into making Early American dolls in an 8" size.  They were made from porcelain clay pressed into molds.  These little dolls and their kits were a hit everywhere Gail set up a table and always sold out.  These dolls are very difficult to find, but my friend Betsy, has been collecting Gail's dolls since the start.  

About a week after the Connie Lowe Little Stella came to live with me, three of the little 8" Early American dolls showed up in the mail.  Betsy told me that two were for me, and the third she'd like me to dress for her.  While not the typical doll I would collect, when presented with a challenge, and especially one as intriguing as this, I spend some time considering what I'm going to do.  

I looked on the Gail Wilson Designs website in her Garage Sale section where a few of these old dollies and their accessories were being sold, and still couldn't come up with an idea.  I understood the concept, but as to what I would actually do, that she hadn't done, was a mystery.  As I played with the little doll with golden rag doll hair cut in bangs, I thought, "Alice".  Why not?  I asked Betsy if this interested her, and it did.

So what does an Alice folk doll look like.  I am no stranger to dressing dolls as Alice, but this would take some real imagination.  I do not just sit down and get to work.  Most of my work is done in my noodle, and once I see it in there, then I make it.  

I actually started out from the bottom up with this one.  I loved the gold and white striped stockings I'd made for Eloise and just made a pair for this little girl as a test sample in sizing.  Well, I loved them.  And they would later turn out to balance the colors on the doll as the gold happens to be the same as her hair.

Next I made her a pair of knickers.  Every little folk doll needs knickers.  Betsy and I both hate elastic.  Elastic does not pass the test of time, so these knickers have a full waistband and hook in back.  I edged them in a Swiss cotton lace.

Blue dress.  Short sleeves or long?  Long was not going to cut it.  Maybe on some other Alice doll where classic Alice details would be considered, but not on the little folk doll.  I've never minded a doll's anatomy.  I was sewing short, puffed sleeves on the wood body Lawton dolls before tackling a little cloth stuffed body. 

What shade or hue of blue?  What kind of fabric?  Bright blue 100% cotton.  It was not my first choice as I have trouble with bold colors, but the bright blue looked right.  It made her pop!  I had to seriously think outside the box on this one.

What kind of pinafore would little folk Alice wear?  I went through two other renditions until I decided to try a rounded pinner.

This was it.  Anything else would have overwhelmed her stuffed body and petite size.

But it was plain.  It sat there tied around little Alice like a canvas awaiting paint.

Here's a photo of her pretty rag doll hair.  Which I added the classic black headband to.

I knew the pinner needed a pocket.  I was going to put a Drink Me bottle in the pocket, but couldn't find a flattish, rectangular bottle for the job.  A flask.  Still, what would the pocket be like for a folk Alice?  A heart shape!  With red embroidery stitching attaching it to the skirt.  Yes.  What else?  It still looked plain.

Then it dawned on me that a Queen of Hearts card might look fun poking out of the pocket.  I had to hand make the card since the size needed to be just right.

Check, check.  It still looked too plain.  

All this time I'd been considering classic Alice trim on the dress.  To me, this just wouldn't look right.  It had to be different!  Then it popped into my mind a couple of days ago that red rickrack might do the trick.  So, I hand-sewed the rickrack on both the top and bottom of the pinafore and inserted the ends into the waistband.  That seemed to do the trick.

Oh yes, I also made a pair of lambskin leather shoes for her.  Those were nuts to make, but she needed shoes and not the soft boots Gail dressed her Early American dolls in.  This was Alice.

While I was in the last stages of finishing her costume, I started thinking about the accessory.  A White Rabbit.  Again.  No, no, no!  This was a folk doll Alice.  What would Gail do?  Well?  Gail often had her dolls accessorized with little red wagons, teddy bears, little wood toys and especially ones on wheels. 

A rabbit on wheels!  That's what she needed.  I will not reveal my source, but I did not make this rabbit.  And he's just perfect.  To me, this is what Gail Wilson would have done with an Alice doll.  Maybe.  Well, I did, in the spirit of Gail Wilson designs.  

I added a little pocket watch on a chain around his neck and gave him a longer pull string with a loop on the end in the case Betsy wanted to display Alice pulling the White Rabbit.  

I love doing Alice.  She's my favorite theme.  And hey! The outfit is an original design.  I have two more little dolls to dress.  The ones shown in the photo above.  I know exactly what I'm going to do with them now.

Below is another example of Gail's work with the 8" Early American dolls.  Don't you just love those apple cheeks?!   Will Gail ever see the Alice?  Doubt it.  But I would hope she'd enjoy it.

And as summer moves along at its long and leisurely pace, make sure to spend some time in the sun.  Even if it's under an umbrella on a lounge chair reading a great book.  That's where I'm headed now.

Enjoy!

Melissa

 

Gwendolyn's 1960's Sun Hat

I was born in 1957, so by the time the fun fashions of the 1960's came about, I was in elementary school.  Even as a little girl, I astutely aware of everything around me.  I questioned everything.  Asked questions, and generally got stupid answers.  My favorite was asking my mother what was for dinner, to which she'd reply, "What Patty shot at and missed."  I may have been a pain in the rump for asking so many questions, but logic was primarily what I was after.

One sunny Saturday, I asked my mother if we could go on a picnic. "Why?", she asked.  Well, I told her, it was logical.  It was a sunny day, and people went on picnics on sunny days.  Right?  We did not go on a picnic, but I continued to watch Spock on Star Trek say the same thing to Captain Kirk in every episode.

Was there anything logical about fashion in the 1960's?  Sure!  It was a fun time to break free of tradition, and that included the fashion of hats.  The peak of hat fashion was in 1964, the same year Audrey Hepburn premiered in My Fair Lady, where she wore 

some incredible hats to the races.

At the same time, kitsch and whimsy seems to abound with Sunshade Hats.  Why?  Because it was fun.  And that's logical.  And because they sold!  Women bought them to simply have fun and attract attention.  And some were a riot!

After my last project, I spent a bit of time going to ground.  It happens.  I never intend to let it last so long, but at this time of year, it becomes very difficult for me to sit inside and work on tedious things when the sun is warm and shining.  

There's a kayak to paddle, a patio lounge that begs me to recline and do nothing but read in the shade of the umbrella.  Life isn't like that though, and I find myself in times like this, doing all those things I was putting off while being creative.  Like anything I do, once I get started, its hard to stop.

But there I was, browsing on Facebook, when a lady named Debra Cooper, a member of the VDC, posted this ridiculous looking sun hat and said she thought Gwen would look good in it.  Of course, Gwen would!  Gwendolyn, if you recall, was one of Robert Tonner's new additions to the Ellowyne Wilde family.  He probably jokingly called her Ellowyne's grandmother, and it stuck.  But the idea was that Gwendolyn was a 1960's fashion doll, and I loved that.  She's no granny in my book!  She is just who she is and I did make something for her early on and may have to make another fashion for her sometime down the line.  

But this HAT called out to me and I was smitten.  I wondered if Rachel would enjoy it to the point of asking her factory in China to make it, so I waited.  That was a couple of weeks ago.

No one ever accused me of being a patient person.  A patient artist, yes, but not when it comes to having things for my dolls that I want.  Gimme!  Now!

I was working on another project that wasn't going well, wrong fabric, wrong thread, wrong this and that, so I pushed that aside and made the hat.  Not another thing would get done until I made that silly hat!

Of course, I had to order the supplies to make the mold for the thing, and the plastic for the sunglass lenses and raffia for the flowers as well.  And when they all arrived, I got to work.

I had a blast making this one.  I really had a lot of fun creating it for Gwendolyn, and it was done on the first try.  I had to push forward even if I thought it might be too big or too small, because you won't know until you make it.  

Fortunately it worked the first time!  I was jazzed.  I laughed at times making it, especially when I was cutting out and assembling the silly oversized cat's eye lenses.

Let's put it this way, my mother didn't wear this kind of stuff and neither did anyone in my neighborhood, so this was new to me.

Sometimes something feels like a bit of magic, so I'm going to do something I seldom do, and that's keep the "how to" and what I used out of this journal posting.  

Will I make another?  Maybe.  There's a fun one in a photo below that would be a kick to make.

And as it turns out, Rachel did love it, so I suggested she send my photos to the factory.  Let's see what they have to say.  I'd really enjoy seeing what they can do with this.

I couldn't stop there though.  Gwendolyn needed a straw tote to go with it, so I made that one up today.  

The decision to add flowers to match was easy.  No.  Why, because the focus is on the hat.  Maybe with the next one, I'll make the tote to match the hat flower for flower.

Yes, this is a short little posting, but the hat needed to be archived as well as shared.  Its all a part of the creative process.

It's the Memorial Day Weekend, and the unofficial start of Summer!  Gwendolyn's ready.  Are you?!  Time to enjoy the beautiful early days of sun.  Go out there and have a picnic!  Its logical.