Happy Dollie Count: One

[sigune]

*sigh of relief*

Gawain has clothes. He doesn't have to go to the doll meeting naked. That leaves Morgana (still nothing) and Gwalchmei (who turns out to be a spoilt little boy, because he already *has* clothes, and this isn't a cold winter so his outfit can serve perfectly well). They have to wait, because I have an exam website to build presto...

Comments

[ysilme]

Doesn't he look dashing right now? :o)

Are there any felted items for your dolls you have a use of? I'm currently trying out or imrpoving my skills with several new-to-me crafts, like dry-felting and knit-felting. (Liquid/water felting is out of the quesion due to my neurdermatitis, unfortunately, though I will try again with a new kind of gloves when it's warm enough again to do it outside). Particularly the needle-felting works well enough, and I now have a relatively wide range of colours at home. If you can think of something, I would gladly give it a go, since I need practice. Complete clothes won't work, I'm afraid, since the texture won't be stable/dense enough with needle felting, but perhaps there is something else?
What I also wanted to finally learn this year is Nalbinding. I have the tools for it, but so far didn't get the hang of it, but will ask the first craftswoman I met on a fair this year for remedial lessons.

[sigune]

Oooo! What kind of things can you make with these felting techniques? (I really don't know anything about felting. I've bought some thick felt thinking I'd use it to make boots and accessories like arm covers from it... But I haven't tried yet.) Felt is lovely; it would be great to have some things for the dolls :).

I had to look up Nalbinding - it's a kind of ancient knitting technique, right? It looks great, and it is interesting to see that it is/used to be (?) done with small bits of yarn. While I was looking up information about tunics, I read that looms were fairly small in the past, so the ancients had to stitch several cloths together if they wanted a large one. That is all really logical, but I'd never given it any thought before. For Gawain's clothes, I have cut the sleeves separately for that reason. In fact, I should have cut up his cloak and stitched it back together for authenticity's sake, too...

[ysilme]

I have some experience by now, or rather ideas what you can make and what not, since I'm paying attention to clothes-and-accessories-making since I'm visiting medieval and Viking fairs and since I want to make a Viking outfit for myself. I'm finally at the stage of tackling the knitted Viking doll I already mentioned sometime, and then will be making clothes for her (if I find the time *ahem* - I usually put anything what is close to sewing the farthes back on my to-do-list).
Nalbinding is indeed a kind of very early form of knitting, though it's really a series of knots forming fabric. Contrary to knitting, it's not elastic, though, and not the most comfortable to year afaik (socks, for example). But it was known and used long before knitting was invented. It's nowadays often used for bags, pouches, caps and socks, particularly for Viking dresses, or for even earlier clothing. We've been visiting a Iron age rescue castle in Sweden during our Sweden trip, where an exhibition for children also demonstrated Nalbinding. When I can do it I'll gladly make you caps for your boys and a pouch/bag for Morgana, if you like.

As for the felting... I'm not too creative right now, not really knowing what items could be made of felt. So far, I have only done two-dimensional pieces, like Christmas ornaments, and small balls (filled with cat mint for the furries). I can make flat objects, three-dimensional objects, though I don't think I can do hollow ones in one go. I will have to look into examples.
Do you happen to have some images of clothing ensembles or pieces suiting to your time and style? Perhaps I can get some inspiration there.

[sigune]

Eeh. Installed Office on my father's computer last night, then went to apply for a job this morning - didn't get my reply in anymore... D:

I'm getting to know my sewing machine better, so I'm gradually finding sewing rather more relaxing than I used to :). Some things I can do really quickly now, though doll-sized clothes will probably always demand quite a bit of finishing by hand. The seams of the sleeves and the ribbons are all stitched by hand, but the cloak, for example, probably only takes me a quarter of an hour :D.

This is my primary (because most comprehensive) Gaelic Dress resource: Gaelic dress. There are images at the end of the document. But I also use my imagination or steal things from Roman/Byzantine and Germanic dress/accessories if I think it looks good ;). Caps or pouches would be wonderful though. They'd make the dolls more lively :D!

[ysilme]

Thank you for the link! I don't know if I will find inspiration for my current felting idea, but it's very handy for me otherwise in any case ;o). And it gives me many ideas where else I can look. I have studied Byzantine Art and Achritecture as a minor subject after all, and some volumes with possible inspirations are doubtlessly around.
I'm thinking about trying out a pouch first. For which of your dears would you like it best? And what would be the most fitting size? And colour?

I don't have a proper sewing machine yet; just a very cheap one that I never got to work properly - a mispurchase of some years back. I'm thinking about getting myself a good, second-hand one when I find the time to find out what I wand. Which is not right now *sigh*. But I can always use my mother's. It's the one I have sewed on in my teenage and twen days, when I did some clothing for myself, but it has very limited use and never has been very good, just serviceable. But I'm still able doing at least the basic seams, as I found out when doing some doll bedding and a nightshirt two years back, for my niece.

(And I need now a creativity icon or something, I suppose *g* ).

[branquignole.livejournal.com]

Oh wow! This looks absolutely great, and I'm glad Gawain doesn't have to parade around half-naked anymore. :D He looks very... distinguished.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Well, he's a prince! :D I think it's the longer tunic that does it, and I like how the fur makes him look a bit more impressive. I mean, there's nothing wrong with his body, but I do like him to be dressed (and not looking neglected ;P).

There was a teensy bit of sunlight today, so I took some photos with natural light, to be posted sometime later.

[bettyboop-comic.livejournal.com]

It's cool that you got him to pose next to Hadrian's wall.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

I only wish I had a horse for him.

He's standing on his own, by the way. Walls (Hadrian's or Astrid's) just come in handy as neutral backdrops...

[cabepfir.livejournal.com]

A cloak trimmed with fur! Wonderful.

Good luck with the website.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm afraid I still have an enormous heap of work with it D: ...

Fur, I just had to have it. It's fake though :p. Better photos soon(ish).