Hopefully this parcel has arrived at its destination by now – I don’t want to spoil a surprise!
These little dolls are for Paul’s cousin and her husband, who are now the proud parents of identical twin girls. Catherine and Elizabeth are thankfully known as Katy and Beth for short – otherwise I’d have had a lot more embroidery to do!
A friend of mine collects clowns. He found this one in a charity shop, sadly trouserless. A fat quarter of sparkly gold jersey later, and the clown is much better dressed!
This little lady’s been on hold since April. I’ve been looking at some amazing dolls on the Art Dolls Only blog, and thought it was about time that I put a little bit of effort into this one.
I did have a plan for who she was going to be, but I’m thinking now that I might treat her more as a prototype. That way I don’t have to feel obliged to make her look like any one particular character – I can just make her up as I go along and see who comes out at the other end.
The “flesh” tone is very flat and orangey, and I’m not sure that I like the texture of the acrylic paint on the polycotton fabric. I have some peach coloured fabric that I want to use next time, so then I’ll only have to do shading rather than a complete body paint.
Next time you see this doll, hopefully she’ll have a face!
Here I am, in the Science Museum, with my Stitched Self!
Which, in fact, looks nothing like me. But a few months ago the resemblance would have been uncanny, I promise.
Just in case you can’t spot my Mini-Me, here’s a close-up:
I’m not sure what’s happened to my hair, or why my scarf’s all over my face like that, but never mind. Something I made has been exhibited in a museum in London! Even if it was for just one night.
If you want to see more pictures of all the Stitched Selves, Stitch London have written a great long blog about it. You can even see me in it a couple of times!
The last time I went to the Science Museum was in 2003 for a Lord of the Rings exhibition that turned out not to be very much fun. (Too many people, not enough space, very hot, lots of shoving. Yuk.) I didn’t really recall the rest of the museum, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The Who Am I exhibition was really interesting, and also great fun. There are lots of buttons to press and games to play, as well as some very thought-provoking exhibits.
I was rather excited to spot a Wheatstone concertina in the Making the Modern World exhibition, which I particularly enjoyed. The next time I’m in London I’d like to go back and see Glimpses of Medical History and The Science and Art of Medicine. I also need to find out what the steel wedding dress is all about, as I didn’t have time to go and look at the Challenge of Materials gallery. The only thing that worries me about that is the glass bridge across the main hall, which I don’t much like the sound of! I’m definitely making plans to go back though.
Here’s my completed submission to the Stitched Self project. It’s a collaboration between Stitch London and the Science Museum, where an exhibition of all the Stitched Selves will take place for the re-opening of their Who Am I? gallery in June.
This little doll has had more changes of clothes than I like to admit. I just couldn’t seem to get anything right! I found it terribly difficult sewing on such a small scale (the mini-me is just 6″ tall), and wasn’t happy with any of the garments I made to begin with. I tried making little dresses and petticoats and jackets, but everything seemed much too fiddly and didn’t come out to my satisfaction. In the end I decided to go with leggings and a black and grey t-shirt, which is what I wear most of the time.
I must confess that I’m still not happy with the raw edges, but I am rather fond of the little scarf, and the yellow stitching on the silver boots.
Mini-Claire is now in the post, winging her way to Stitch London. Next month I hope to go along to the Science Museum’s Who Am I? gallery, and see whether I can spot her.
Please excuse the nudity – this is a 6″ felt doll that I’m making for my submission to the Stitched Self project. It’s a collaboration between Stitch London and the Science Museum, where an exhibition of all the Stitched Selves will take place for the re-opening of their Who Am I? gallery in June.
I wasn’t very keen on the pattern that was provided, so I made my own. The doll is exactly 6″ tall, and is made from two pieces of felt, blanket stitched together. The hair is a little piece of wool roving, and the face is simply embroidered on.
Given that I’ve just come out of hospital, my surgical scars are very much at the top of my mind at the moment. Because of that, I decided that my Mini-Me should have them too. So, the apparently random embroidery you can see on her body is the result of one mistaken appendectomy, one laparoscopy (which found and removed the real cause of the pain), one operation to remove an osteochondroma from my left hip, and the most recent one which was an arthroscopy on my right hip.
I haven’t included any scars that I ended up with as a result of accidents, clumsiness or stupidity. So I haven’t embroidered the scar on my right shin, where Matthew Bricknell was riding his new bike straight at me, and I jumped up the garden wall to escape (age 11). I haven’t embroidered the scar on my right forearm, which I burnt on the lid of a bun toaster whilst making a batch of McChicken Sandwiches (age 22). Nor the one on my right knee, which was the result of an incident where I learned that I can’t drink beer and walk and send text messages all at once (old enough to know better).
Obviously my Mini-Me now needs some clothes. She’ll definitely be wearing a pink spotty coat, a black t-shirt and some silver Doc Martens. Then I just need to decide whether she needs a skull print skirt, or a little pair of cropped jeans. I’m quite intimidated by the prospect of sewing clothes on such a little scale, but I think I’ve worked out a pattern for the tiny boots, so I might just start with those.
A while ago I decided I’d like to make some dolls.
Shortly after that, a friend sent me a book about making dolls
For what is possibly the first time in my life, I decided to try and make something exactly according to the pattern, so this is Doll #1. (Okay, I couldn’t do it. She’s also got the face stitching from Doll #3.)
She’s made from plain white poly-cotton, and I’d call this passable, for a first attempt.
(More pictures over at Flickr)
She’s poseable at the hips and shoulders, and sits up quite happily by herself. From bum to head she’s about 9″ tall. If she could stand up straight she’d measure about 22″ to the tips of her very pointy toes. The next pattern is jointed at the knees and elbows too, and although I love the beautiful shape of the legs on this doll, I’d definitely like to make one that moves a bit more.
I haven’t stitched in her fingers yet, mostly because I don’t seem to have a foot on my sewing machine that allows me to actually see what I’m doing on such fiddly work. (This is also why she’s got a bit of a bump on the top of her head, and one on her right calf.) Maybe I need some kind of quilting foot. Or just to be a bit more careful!
The actual cutting out and sewing part took less than an hour. It then took about FOUR HOURS just to get the stuffing in (next time I’m leaving a bigger opening in the neck!) and maybe another hour to assemble all the bits. I had two goes at stitching the face. The first attempt was a bit small, leaving her with the most enormous chin. I like this one better. She looks smiley.
I’m not quite sure what to do with her now! She definitely needs stripey tights, although I’m not certain whether they’re going to be sewn or painted. I’ll paint her face, and I think I have a bit of roving lying about that I’d like to try and use for her hair. As for clothes… no idea. Perhaps I should give her something that I’d love to wear myself, but wouldn’t want to make in an actual human size. So many choices…
