Tag: art-dolls

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Santa would be proud

Thanks to Jennifer for including my “Lovely Lucy” in her “Santa would be proud” Etsy treasury today.

Linda and Lucy, sitting above, are both on the new web page on our Ruffing’s site that I made up for my soft dolls and toys. I’m always amazed to see how many of everything we seem to have once I make up the web pages for each category on our site. I’m still on my quest to organize and correct our website. I’m making progress a little at a time.

Today, I cut out five kitty cat doll bodies like “Bluebell and Bridget” the Siamese mom and kitten and “Daphne” the tabby cat folk art cat dolls below, for my upcoming collaborations with Max Bailey. I was aiming for two, but somehow I just kept going. I think it will be fun to work with someone else. I find it difficult to keep up my momentum when I am working alone. It’s easier when someone else is counting on you to do your part. Plus it’s fun to see what someone else adds to what you are doing. We are both pretty excited about it.

We had a couple of flurries here today and it was quite cold. My mom was ready to run out to look at the snow, but it was over before she even got to the door.
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Eerie lighting and doll bodices

It’s been pouring and dark most of the day, and it’s seemed more like night than day. I’ve been making a muslin bodice for our original folk art kitty cat dolls, carefully hand basting it and then pulling it apart, making new markings, and then basting it together again. Whenever you make a clothing pattern for a doll, or anyone really, a muslin is a good idea. A muslin is a version of your garment made in an inexpensive fabric, sewn together with a basting stitch, which is a straight stitch with a long stitch length that can be pulled out easily.

The bodice is the most difficult part of a dress to fit, next to the sleeves. I used some cotton fabric for my muslin, marked a rough draft of my pattern pieces directly on the fabric with a permanent marker, and then I sewed it at the shoulders and the sides. Next I tried it on the doll, and marked the arm and neck holes again using a pencil, so as not to mark the doll by accident, again directly on the fabric. Using a seam ripper, I pulled the stitching out, and sewed new shoulder and side seams, over and over until the bodice fit right. The fit will still change once the sleeves and skirt are attached, and the lining will add some bulk too. I tried to compensate for that by adding some ease, an extra amount at the sides and shoulders to accommodate the extra bulk of the gathered fabric that will be added once those are attached. It is a process of trial and error.

Once I had my muslin about the way I wanted it, I traced my front and back pieces, using a light box, onto tracing paper with a permanent marker. I will add seam allowances later. I think I will scan my pattern and print it so I can cut it without destroying my originals. The eerie light of the photo is from my light box glowing in the dark of this gloomy day.

I got a call today from a sweet older lady at the library. They did, in fact, find a copy of Picnic at Hanging Rock for me. So, my surreal conversation with the librarian actually worked out. I am happy because now I know I can use Interlibrary Loan, hopefully without causing too much trouble.

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Our art doll gallery, revised

I revised our main art doll gallery page today, and added four subcategory pages, jointed dolls, doll figurines, soft dolls and toys, and already adopted dolls. I think it is more manageable than it was yesterday. The page was getting so huge, it took forever just to open it in my html editor. I’m going to make up web pages for the soft dolls and toys on our web site too. Right now, they’re linked to my Etsy shop.

I don’t know what is going on with Blogger lately. My blog photos are uploading either too big or too small. I keep hoping that will be fixed soon. I liked it when everything fit on the page automatically. I’m uploading them large, and then changing their sizes in the html for now.

Okay, enough computer talk…I think I will be working on some doll patterns shortly, for our art dolls, at least part of the time while I am still fixing the Ruffing’s site.

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Some frost and a whole lot of work later

When I opened my curtains this morning, and saw the soft, white light coming in, I was reminded of winter up north, when it has just snowed. It made me feel so happy. It wasn’t snow though, just frost, but it was so pretty that I went outside in my pajamas to take a picture.

This doesn’t really convey how the grassy lawns all faded to white in the distance, but you can imagine it 🙂
And…we FINALLY finished updating our online doll gallery! All of the currently available dolls now have web pages, and some of the adopted dolls do too. At least every doll on the page has a link now, and what a big page! I will, at some point, have to separate the dolls into categories rather than have a page that scrolls into infinity, but, for now, we are so relieved to have it up to date.


Of course, I still have to fix all the print pages up. It seems to be a never-ending job. Just looking at the sheer size of the doll gallery, I am reminded that I need to focus on what I have already started and not take on more than I can handle. My current plan is to focus on making original, one-of-a-kind folk art dolls and paintings, and consolidate what we have available for sale on the Ruffing’s site, instead of all the EBaying and Etsying, not to mention the MySpacing and whatever mulitude of other sites I have been trying to cover. I will try to finish the play dolls/toys I have started, but I think I will be doing those for more fun in the future. I’ll see what I have time for without making myself crazy with too many projects.