Halloween

The Blythe dolls are having a great Halloween with lots of dressing up.  

I organised a Halloween / Back-to-School (USA)) swap with fellow Blythe doll people on Ravelry - love doing swaps of clothing for Blythes, it is really inspirational seeing what everyone creates.

Goodness Gwacious!

My swap partner was extremely generous 

- sending a box full of spooky lollies and fun stuff.  

The Dolls were quite overwhelmed.

Audrey 'claimed' this cute Sheep outfit (love those textured stitches)

Lillian always looks rather elegant in black - a lovely dress and hat and 




YEA!   bat-wings!

I made my partner only 1 costume and that does make me feel a bit mean but it was elaborate and took quite a bit of making.

This outfit is based on a couple of costumes from the Emerald City scene of the musical Wicked.  I missed out on sewing costumes for Wicked and took this swap as an opportunity to make something (in small scale) that otherwise I might never get the to sew. 

 

Bought the glasses and shoes - made the dress, hat, tights & gloves.  Lots of ribbons & loads of fun.  Audrey is doing the modelling here but the doll who is now wearing the outfit is a CanCan Cat and she has bright blue hair - which looks perfect with this costume.

I did make the doll's person a mini lion ... just because.  

From a Mochimochi pattern.
 
 

I think I caught some sort of must-make-dolly-costumes virus. The WPWD's people had a photo competition, and the theme was Orange.  

So I got busy ...

And made a pumpkin costume - mostly felt fabric with some green ribbon left over from the other costume.

Audrey got a little worried when I asked her to pose in front of the cook-book open at ...


Pumpkin Soup !!!

You can see all the fantastic entries for this competition here.

Meanwhile I'd been busy knitting a Morticia Adams style dress for Lillian.  The girdle and under-flounce are actually purple (my camera doesn't like purple) and the dress is adapted from my "recipe" (available for free at the top of the page).

Lillian asked for a nice dramatic cape to go with her dress.  Full circle with purple lining and a nice big hood ... so she can be romantic & mysterious.








Little Bird wanted an costume too ... just like Lillian's

Bird likes her long black dress - it makes her feel quite Grown'd Up.

"It has a long bus out the back"  {I think she means the train!}

Wait for Us Lillian

Well the dolls got to show off their outfits at the WPWDs Halloween meet.  This was just wonderful fun - I got to meet some people who are just as crazy about their dolls as I am!  And there were so many gorgeous dolls!!

 Some of the wonderfully costumed dollies ....   I loved the I Dream of Genie outfit

Isn't she gorgeous!

Audrey met another Simply Chocolate - Evie was wearing a lovely witch costume and she had brought her cat.  Audrey and Evie had a lovely time.

 

The meeting was on the Central Coast, past the Hawkesbury River - I took the train there and took some photos out of the window on the way.  The train-line goes really close to the river.

The Hawkesbury is quite shallow in many places and there are oyster leases.

Bird enjoyed looking out the window!

The colours of the Australian bush  -  those olive greens.  The very green tree in the bottom RH corner is a non-native, such a contrast!

Happy Halloween Everyone

Dog Costume ... The making of a Head

If you've a really good memory you might remember that I've been making a mascot costume of a dog - it has been an on-going project that really did take far longer than I had planned ...

It is now finished :-)  and I thought you might like to see some progress pictures of the most difficult part of this costume - the head.   Back at the end of last year I posted about the cardboard mock-up.  This (sort of) became the pattern.

But as with all engineering projects - you have to start with some foundations !   In this case a hard-hat - the harness inside fits the wearer's head, the brim will support the dog's nose, it is firm and you can glue things to it.  Things like supporting foam structures and wires for the ears.  Reminded me of "My Favourite Martian" - Ooops that's aged me !

I'm always forgetting to take progress photos :  the intervening processes were ... messy - bits of PE foam everywhere!

But here the head is taking shape - head, nose, lower half of the ears - all done.  Here I was checking that the end of the snout would work. 

That wire nose / muzzle is the only place the wearer will be able to see through.  It is important to give the wearer as much 'sight' (and ventilation) as possible without making it too obvious that there is a person inside the animal.

And yes, I was using my kitchen bench as the work area - managed not to poison anyone!

The next step was the lower jaw, and I'm starting to work with the covering fabrics.   This is a jaw - hardly any of that pretty pink satin will show - but it needs to be there.

 

And here is the jaw glued and stitched in place - and some fleecy on the nose as well ... pins keeping everything in place while the glue dries.

 

OK - now for the rest of the nose - a bit of artistic drapery here as this hound dog has jowls.  That's the original drawing of the Doggy - he is quite a cartoon type character.

Nose done - next the ears.  Tried to make them floppy and there is a little movement to the upper halves of the ears when the wearer moves.

Skipping a bit now - here most of the fur is on and I'm checking that the 'cape' will work.  The cape is to cover the neck, it will go under the shirt.

 Intervening processes :

• Some padding to refine and soften the shape of the head
• Lots of pattern-making (the fur patterns are not the same as the ones for the foam)
• Lots of confusion about the direction/s of the fur - it grows 'up' on the front & back but sideways and around on the sides.  Sounds odd but it works
• Then cutting and sewing fur - a little gluing in place with lots of hand stitching.

But you have probably noticed - dog still has cardboard eyes.  I left them to the end because they really had to be 'right'.  "The eyes are the windows to the soul" they say and definitely for an over-sized animal costume the eyes could make the difference between a nice friendly doggy and a really scary wolf-creature.

Eye parts -

Eyes finished - felt and satin, machine and hand applique / embroidery.  He has a bit of a "twinkle" in his eyes.


Another little touch ... doggy needed something between his ears :-)   a bit of a "hair do".    In the photo in the mirror above, there is a mess of fur fabric where the front meets the back - a problem that needed a nice solution.

Once again I had trouble sourcing suitable fur fabric - I just couldn't find that "hair of the dog" [sorry!]  Eventually I bought a shaggy fur cushion and chopped it up!

I think the result is cute -

Is there a Dr Zhivago in the house?

I don't like to boast about the commissioned knitting I do for theatrical productions until they've 'hit the stage' but Dr Zhivago's opening night was over a week now so I guess it's ok to show-off now :-) Especially as I'm actually listed in the back of the programme - in the credits - as 'Knitter' hilarious!

The Costume Design by Tess Negroponte got very good reviews - there are some really pretty evening gowns in the 1st act :-) all my knitting was for the 2nd act, after the revolution. First I knitted a coat for 'Lara' ... unfortunately they didn't use this coat but I love the 19teens styling - fitted, long-line with shaped hem-line.




Tess wanted a Tweed yarn and we couldn't find one in the right colour so we bought (from Bendigo Woollen Mills) some blue 8 ply (DK in the US) and white lace weight, I dyed the white a light grey and then plyed the yarns together on my spinning wheel. Tess also wanted a striped look with some "lobster claw" cables - I chose to use a rib with a slipped stitch for the other stripes (that slipped stitch made the 'stripes' stand out a bit better). Here is some detail Moss / Seed Stitch borders, shaping increases / decreases placed between the 'stripes' ....

and Short Rows to shape the hem ...


When I knit for the stage I can't use an existing pattern (is there a pattern for a coat like this ??) I'm usually given a toile or paper pattern which has been fitted to the performer (the wonderful costume maker Tony Phillips did the toiles for the knits; he and his company made most of the women's costumes for Dr Zhivago). Careful swatching, gauge measurements and lots of maths follow ...



Next I made a beret for 'Tonia' - also not used. Although I made it quite large, I guess it wasn't big enough to go over all Tonia's hair & wig. This was based on an existing pattern - Woolly Wormhead's 'Meret' . Modeled by Linda the Plaster Person who has no eyes!
Next off the needles was an old-fashioned vest for 'Alex' (Dr Z's father-in-law, played quite marvelously by Peter Cousins) And this vest gets some really good 'stage-time' :-) Front with a cable stitch texture and 3 working pockets - again Moss Stitch borders this time with crochet contrast on the edges - all Bendigo Woollen Mills yarns.


The back is plain stocking stitch. I'm showing the knits with pins - they did get buttons but someone else put them on.



Then, right at the last minute they asked me to knit a shawl ... 1.5m square in less than a week EEP!
The reference was a photo of a classic baby shawl with stocking stitch centre and wide lace border with geometric, diamond pattern. There was no way I could hand-knit it in the classic lace-weight yarn given the time frame - I used 8ply but was still knitting 14hrs a day ... and we had a heat-wave (talcum powder helped to stop the sticky factor!)

I did it - knitted in 4.5 days with lace border and edging that I charted out myself For the border I borrowed elements from the Faux Russian Stole in “A Gathering of Lace” the Faux Russian seemed appropriate :-) and the edging was loosely based on the edging in Wendy Engstrom’s ”Orenburg Style Shawl” {a Ravelry link} The Edging seemed to take forever and used up so much yarn. Edgings are deceptive - they look small but they go on and on and on ...

As soon as it was knitted it went into the dye pot - for a slightly darker grey (though it still looks quite light in the photos). Luckily the drying after the dying could be combined with blocking - though when I delivered the shawl the next day it was still slightly damp!


The shawl is used but is not on stage for long - 'Lara' wears it when she & the good Doctor come downstairs during the song Love Finds You - I think that was the song. I saw a Preview and when she ran back upstairs the lace flounced quite nicely - It's all about the flounce but a good flounce counts for a lot in the heart of a costume maker :-)

And here is another photo - that lace did seem to go on for ever.