Journal 2022

Empty Page, so we meet again.

I promised some folks I’d share how I was setting up craft/life related pages in my bullet journal, so here we are.

There are many places to get info on what BuJo/Bullet Journals are or fins super cute monthly/weekly planner layouts. This is not that.

I will say that this style of journal has helped me a great deal. And even when I’ve created pages and trackers that I have swiftly ignored it has taught me what DOES NOT work for me.

I’ll also stress that the arty-ness of my journal depends on my time and whimsey. I started planning and laying out these pages toward the end of the year when I had a lot of downtime at work. When I’m busy my journal becomes very minimalist.

We start out with my simple future log. This is where I write any info for upcoming events. I lay out each month in my journal right before it starts. This is that page I flip to to see if I have upcoming events or tasks to include on my monthly page. The journal I’m using (Rhodia Goalbook) has a space for future logs (in two styles) but no dotted paper on these pages. My mind finds mini calendar layouts helpful so I added them.

My contents page. I found that just listing contents in the order that they appear in my journal didn’t work for me, so I’ve tried making broader category sections. As you can see the ink I used to stamp made a mess. oh well.

Tracking my monthly expenses. This is a return to the first expense log I made two years ago. Last year’s log was more arty, less rigid, tracked more variables and I did not tend to it as well as I did this format.

Not shown are the next two pages, they are omitted for privacy reasons. The first one being my Medication page, listing all medications by English and Japanese name and what they are for (also in English and Japanese). Health issue stresses or even the stress of a new doctor tends to dent my Japanese skills so it’s great having this all in one place. The second page is outlining the yearly info about filing taxes in both America and Japan, the process and what I need.

Doll Ideas and Doll Work in Progress.

The Idea page will be repeated for knitting, sewing, dance and no doubt other themes. It’s a place to catch flitting thoughts about what I >Might< make. Towards the end of 2020 I asked friends on FB what dolls they might like to see in the future. This popped up in my memories towards the end of 2021 and I noted that I’d made a few of the suggestions. I copied those suggestions here and asked if anyone had other suggestions for my idea/inspiration file.

Oh, the WIP (work in progress) or UFO (Unfinished Object Page) how you haunt me. This will ALSO reoccur in knitting/sewing/dance… This is where I had to take stock on what I have started and not yet finished. It’s also a page I’ve added to each time I clean/organize my workspace and long forgotten WIP float into my vision.

I also have a page tracking which dolls I have for sale on Japan Mercari, when I listed them, and prices.

It is humbling to write down what dolls you have in stock to work on. Oh my. And as I sat down to start typing this I reminded myself to cross off two dolls, who I have since transformed…and add two dolls. That I’ve survived Craftsmas with only adding two used dolls to this stock is testiment of how this list keeps me from making too many impulse buys. I have enough dolls. In the past I’ve taken photos for stock dolls but I find this is more flexible for keeping track of things. This also forced me to know the names for many Monster High characters, but now that I do the names bring the specifics of each doll to mind quickly.

Same thing for knitting…I assure you these pages are no longer blank. I don’t have a stash yarn/stock page yet but it makes sense to make one soon.

This has already saved me so much time! It’s a page to keep track of what knitting needles I already have. Previous to this I would simply dig through a large box and search my apartment for wanderers. No more “Oh, I love this pattern, do I have the right needles to knit my gauge? I assume I do….” I know!

Yarn Yarn Info was where I planned to put info on yarn I’m currently using (a sample, label, notes) but I think I’ll also use it to put common knitting terms in English and Japanese…like yarn weights…because finding yarn substitutes in a second language in a country with different yarn makers is FUN. I started that list in last year’s journal as my winter knitting habit kicked in.

You know the drill by now. Just know that the WIP has grown…because I cleaned and semi-organized the sewing room yesterday and was diligent in writing what I found.

Part of what the WIP pages allow me to do is to set goals each month about what I want to focus on finishing. In my January monthly layout I have an area for “focus” to put 2-3 unfinished projects into. Then I can expand in the following weeks the steps needed to finish them.

A chart for my never ending crazy quilt. This project is at least 10 years in the making. This layout is fanciful but a reminder that I am more than halfway done.

The Holey Shit I Finished It!

A place to celebrate how many of my projects I do finish! I don’t do this enough. You probably don’t either.

Keeping track of all the bag patterns I already have. I’m never going to keep track of my fabric stash, that’s impossible, but I’m finding ways to keep track of my patterns. I make use photographs to show what clothing patterns I own/ have used.

To keep track of what I am teaching, when, and to how many students. I do keep a monthly list as of who attends each lesson. I’m only tracking four months at a time and them I’ll re-evaluate if this format is helpful. The 45 minute classes don’t do choroes but I have intro-level combos and moves that change each month and I have those spelled out on subsequent pages.

Since I set up this journal I’ve also added Dance Costume Alterations pages for better keeping track of time, expenses (taped reciepts) and steps when I take on alteration jobs. This month I have a pile of 5 costumes and this helps me stay on track and prioritize what I do each night.

And that’s the start of this year’s Journal!

craft, Doll, pullip, Uncategorized

My hands and Edna

It’s much easier for me to be inspired to write about what I’m currently working on than to write about what I have finished.

“I never look back, it distracts from the NOW”– Edna Mode.

But there is so much I have made while not writing that I’d like to figure out a way to harness the excitement of the now to that which has passed.

So, let’s try this. We’ll got on the journey of my day or my current endeavors and then endcap it all with at least one finished project. Perhaps the two things will relate…perhaps they won’t.

Today

It’s summer vacation but I had some school-related work today.

This week I go to Jr High schools in the mornings to assist students with English speech contest practice. Today turned out to be a light work-load. We worked with one student in the morning until 9:20 and then had to wait for a second student at 11AM. Between these time slots the English teacher I worked with and I made sample recordings of me reading various speeches for students to use for practicing.

Recording didn’t take long. The English teacher I was working with and I sat and talked until 11AM.

We ended up talking a bit about ADHD. I disclosed I had it and she, having read up on it a lot, had asked questions to try to understand why some of her students with ADHD DO the things they do…one example was a student who tries to cut their nails with craft scissors while class is in session. Which made PERFECT sense to my mind.

Like people on the autism spectrum, folks with ADHD often stim. Stimming is any repetitive actions that help a person self-stimulate their senses: auditory, visual, tactile, and even olfactory. Stimming behaviors relieve boredom/anxiety or distract from pain / discomfort while also burning off excess energy.

The urge to stim is NOT going to go away with a teacher or parent telling a child to stop the behavior. The underlying anxiety, boredom pain or discomfort that is triggering the need to stim hasn’t gone away. Stopping the coping mechanism may actually elevate the anxiety. Even if it doesn’t, the absence of the stimming will make the underlying discomfort hit even harder.

I’ve always fidgeted with my hands. It wasn’t strange for me, from elementary school through high school, to have art projects WITH me at my desk. Finger knitting. Origami. Drawing. Filing hard wax rings for lost wax casting. Building wax figures. Using needle nose pliers to manipulate wire into 3-d objects.

Really.

Because of the specific public schools I went to this the reaction to this varied. I was occasionally seen as a problem in elementary school (depending on the teacher), it helped mark me as a bad student all through middle school, and was tolerated in high school because I could quickly demonstrate my understanding of the class topic when challenged…and my high school cared about art. It wasn’t an issue in college because I went to an art school where I was either making things or taking liberal arts classes I had a genuine interest in.

My schools were NOT Japanese schools

I know how strict Japanese schools are about students not having objects unrelated to class out on desks or in hands. I’ve seen how quickly stimming that bothers others (humming, tapping the desk, clicking pens) gets shut down (although that’s the same in America). Often students only have the option of stimming with hands, bodies (quietly) or staring at a particular object or thing in motion.

So what’s with the cutting nails in class?

Take my hands. I didn’t need to be told to frequently massage my surgery scar to help break up the scar tissue and aid in mobility. That scar is on my hand and I can feel it

To stim I tend mindlessly rub the pad of my thumbs over the fingertips and nails of the same hand. If my hands and fingernails are smooth, no hangnails or scabs or jagged nails or chipping nail polish, it’s possible to focus on something else while my fingers and hands do what they need to do. When that smooth surface is compromised OH BOY.

The interruption of my hand movements by an unfamiliar or unpleasant sensation can quickly change my stimming to an intense fixation. That jagged nail is now the center of my world.

ADHD people are not deficient in attention. We’ve got SO MUCH energy to pour at things. We have a deficit in the ability to regulate where and how our attention is focused.

A jagged nail interrupts the motion that was alleviating my anxiety/boredom ( and allowing me to focus on the task I needed to tend to). As that stim is removed, and the underlying mental noise pours in, that jagged nail presents as the thing to intensely fixate on. If I didn’t have ADHD I could simply note that I’ll have to clip my nails later….but I have ADHD. I can’t quickly and quietly regulate my focus back onto the task at hand.

Now that I’m on Strattera (a selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor that helps me with my dopamine levels) I can better recognize that I an fixating on something and work at how to redirect that focus.

Even on Straterra I sometimes will not be able to refocus without first removing/dealing with the new fixation issue. I might automatically surreptitiously try and rip that jagged edge with a fingernail. During a dull meeting I WILL have to fight the urge to dip my hand into my desk and grab some scissors even though I know how socially unacceptable it is and how ineffective a tool craft scissors are for the task.

I’m an adult on medication. The average neurotypical child is going to have a worse time fighting impulses. The average child with ADHD? Even one on medication (which is hard being dosages and medication have to be adjusted as they grow) that is helping with the larger issues will have a very VERY difficult time refocusing until the fixation is eliminated.

And that’s why the craft scissors are out, in class, going for that nail. That child knows that until the issue is dealt with they will be emotionally and physically unable to do anything else. They might also know they’ll be in trouble but that won’t stop them, it’ll simply make them try and hide it…and they’ll feel like a failure if they are caught and chastized. Knowing the consequences isn’t enough to stop all impulses.

That’s why.

That’s my dance everyday. The tango of temptations with an ever changing irregular rhythm of regulation thrumming under it all.

Finished Project:

Little Pullip to Edna Mode.

If you can’t link Edna Mode to the speaking habits, intense focus, delight in a new challenge and ever gesticulating personality of someone with Impulsive/Hyperactive type of ADHD…that is on YOU.

The basics

removed wig and makeup
replaced stock Little Pullip body with a more posable 11cm Obitsu body.
scultpted onto face with apoxie scupt.
repainted face
Doll wig from Parabox.
Shrinky-dink glasses
sewed outfit with black cloth, black ribbon, and pink ribbon.
bought tiny tights and shoes from Azone.
enjoyed.

Simple, elegant, yet BOLD

Doll, pullip, Uncategorized

This doll has EVERYTHING

After a long delay I finished taking a used TaeYang and remaking it into Bill Hader’s SNL character Stefon.

Why? Because it brings me joy.

Here’s the before and after on the face.

I wrote about and photographed the process in more details here, February of 2020.

What you’re seeing above is:

removal of paint and wig
carving into and sanding the face to change the features/shapes
opening up the head and inserting new eye chips.
painting the face (actually drawing chalk pastels and watercolor pencils…I still differentiate dry and wet media work from when I was a drawing, not painting, major)
creating a custom wig cap and then making a wig out of brushed acrylic yarn
Sculpting some rings with apoxie sculpt.

Over winter break I was trying to rest my left hand, hoping that buddy-taping and resting my injured finger could heal every thing and I wouldn’t need surgery. Spoiler: it didn’t.

My plan was no knitting, limited sewing, no small dolls (that I’d have to hold in my left hand, only large enough dolls I could rest on a surface while working on….and I made Stefon his iconic shirt because most of that was painting with my dominant hand.

I already had stretch white fabric from making Powerpuff Girl tights. I found the right shade of green fabric in the form of a kid’s tank top at a used clothing shop for 100¥.

After sewing the shirt I used a combination of acrylic paints and ink to make a simplified version of the Ed Hardy shirt Stefon wears. I used a photo of the original shirt for reference. The SLN version has removed the Ed Hardy logo, so I didn’t include it either.

I dressed him in a pair of fake snakeskin pants I already had from another used doll. I may make costume acurate black cargo pants in the future. As the character is behind a desk you only get to see his legs in the wedding finale. I figure the difference between the sort of black pants Stefon WOULD wear and the actual pants he DID wear are inconsequential because most of us are filling in that information in our minds.

The final touch being getting him a pair of boots. I am not ready to start making tiny shoes and boots. I just am not.

And now I have the doll who has everything.

Doll, monster high, Uncategorized

Bubble Bath

Yesterday I plugged away. I’ve trying to finish ongoing doll products but am quickly figuring out what small supplies I need…and don’t have.

Beast Boy needs some EVA craft foam to make his belt. I don’t have it.

17″ Starfire needs more “Grapeberry Saran…just a tiny bit..Don’t have it.

I started to thing about the next steps for a lot of my unfinished dolls and many of them require a fabric store trip.

And that’s how “I won’t start new projects” became “This is a pandemic…does trying to plan my dolls really matter? If I’m working on my Japanese study and content for online dance lessons while stuck at home…does not starting new dolls matter? Because I have a CRATE and more of raw dolls and that’s stuff I can do without more supplies.”

And THAT is when I took a hacksaw to two dolls.

Hormone Monstress from Big Mouth it is.

She’s not doll shaped. Her face is probably going to be “interpreted” a good deal She’s REALLY not monster high shaped…but I have a container of Monster High dolls.

It took me some trial and error to find a leg length I liked. The hot glue is just there to bulk her up before adding Apoxie Sculpt.

Why did I add hot glue before I was REALLY finished? Because, remember me NOT planning this and winging it? This is what winging it with wire/tools/glue looks like.

Damn, I feel like those…calves? need to be shorter still. just a smidge.

Well. I can wait for this Apoxie layer to dry and then saw those calves down a bit.

And…yes..I did say I hacksawed two dolls…but then I realized I was out of the tinfoil I’d need to create an armature for three tails…so that’s on pause.

Hope you’re finding moments of joy!

craft, Doll, monster high, sewing, Uncategorized

Sally and the bumpy ride.

Oh. Oh. It’s just so hard to know where to start.

As an elementary school English teacher employed by a dispatch company in Japan, March always involves a dip in work and pay for me.

This year has been a whole ‘nother experience.

My contract year and the days I had to show up to school ended March 10th, although my actual classes ended in February 28 due to Covid19. A few days before the contract ended I learned that the company I work for had lost the contract for the city I worked in..and didn’t have any cities near me they could shift me into.

Next school year starts April 1st. Japan is still planning on it starting…but then again in Japan people are still going to cherry blossom parties and Prime Minister Abe is JUUUST starting to admit that maaaaaaaybe the Olympics won’t happen this year…but the Gov. of Tokyo wants to declare a lock down. It’s all complicated. I think Japan is in denial.

I’ve had the insanity of being an asthmatic social distancing myself when it feels like so few other in this country are people are… while also making sure I’m employed the next coming school year…even though I think that the school year maybe shouldn’t start.

All while trying to get more organized through the filter of knowing I have ADHD and need new skills, at a time my days and nights all blend together in mostly emptiness.

My family back home is taking precautions. I would often travel to see them this time of year but..well..I can’t do that during a job hunt and the end of the world. I worry about them. I really do.

In the last 48 hours I’ve turned down a job, thought I had another job, lost that job, applied for different jobs, and accepted a job offer from my previous company now that they’ve had an opening that’s…not near me but not worse than last year?

And there have been tears.

My friend Ebony works in a preschool. Her school isn’t public so she’s been at work this whole time. Things have been rough on her. We have texted dailyl

One thing I’ve been able to feel great about is that I finished a surprise gift for Ebony and sent it to her home..and she got it and cried.

This is what we do now, we cry. We all cry a lot because there’s just so much to be overwhelmed by.

This is what she opened:

I didn’t take enough in progress photos, sorry.

That’s a Frankie Stien Monster High doll as Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas…but I think you knew that.

The process started before I had an airbrush so I had to sand and build up the color of the doll (Frankie is more light greenish blue than blue) with chalk pastels and layers of fixative. And then I had to pencil in her seams.

You can see the color difference clearing in this shot of the finished body and the head (uncolored) after I’d rooted it with brushed acrylic yarn.

But this time I had an airbrush to get the base color down for the face before painting.

With the dress, this was my first time using acrylic paints, thinned with a textile medium, to create the whole dress pattern.

I made a base dress from white cotton. Then I painted in the color patches. Once dried I used a permanent fine-line marker for details. Finally I over-stitched sections with black thread and added a stitched on patch for depth.

For all the turmoil…and stillness…the last few weeks have contained…I have brought some joy to someone.

I have also been making progress in organizing my projects, tasks, life and daily needs in a bullet journal….figuring that a system developed by a designer with ADHD might be a good fit for me, and so far it is.

Tonight, I get to rest. Knowing that I do have a job come April…I really do..so long as school is a thing. If school isn’t a thing for a while, I have a safety net.

There is much to worry about…but I’m getting out of bed everyday and doing…somethings. I hope you are too.

costuming, craft, dance, Doll

Parameters

I know I will need to create some structure for a year of art…because making (or writing about) creating/changing physical art objects everyday isn’t do-able. I’ll burn out.

I do consistently create (dolls, clothing, useful objects, decorative objects) every week…it’s just somewhat haphazard. The mood and inspiration strikes often but how much am I feeding it so it can thrive? How can both streamline my process and widen my scope of possibilities?

And then there’s the fact that my other art is physically demanding.

I wrote yesterday’s post on the train to my second job….the OTHER other art I do. On Thursdays after a 8-4 Mon-Fri full energy job with about an hour commute each way, I go home for a nap and food, and then go to the studio to teach three dances classes (7-10)….and wake up the next morning at 6am.

Consistently feeding my dance self is a battle I feel I’ve been loosing. I currently teach 7 lessons a week. The studio I work at is about to celebrate their 10 year anniversary…with a student and teacher show.

So, my student attendance is up…but most everyone is focused on practicing the choreographies I’ve already taught so there is more running through whole songs and drilling tricky moves and less slower explanations…and this is true for my beginner students as well as myself and some peers. I’m drilling three choreographies and teaching a fourth one.

This is what I do when I’m not sharing my DIY. This is also a large part of my extra time this month.

My duet partner (and studio owner) H and I are reviving this choreography (with finger cymbals) I made and we performed 2015.

My Turkish Roma class had a student who wanted to perform a choreography I made two-three years ago. I’ll be dancing with her AND another student who learned it then but is now a fellow teacher. I like my choreography but it’s one I created to mirror “How I’d dance” instead of translating my choices to a more teachable/student oriented choreography. It’s VERY heavy on the heel bounces. This style is why massage places ask me if I wear heels a lot. I don’t, those are just the calves I get from this.

My beginners are doing a 3 minute choreography which has three distinct sections…veil work, slow moves, and FAST ALL THE SHIMMY. This is the veil work. Looking at this clip I realize that I’ve also lost weight since a few months ago because busy. Not intentional it’s just how my body ebs and flows. Enjoy my “lesson wear”

And last there’s the choreography my intermediate students are starting (not for the show) by a dancer I love learning from, Serkan Tutar. I have permission to teach it and alter it as needed. His choreographies always work well for me AND when it’s student appropriate and I DO teach what I’ve learned in his workshops it gives me some time off from creating new work…

And it’s finding ways to feed this, my other art, and myself, that can be hard.

craft, Doll

Maybe we go deeper.

Setbacks and stashes.

What kind of person am I?

After getting some disappointing but not unexpected results in my life, I take stock of what I have,l and then take two Ambien (the full dose) so I won’t stay awake with worry I can do nothing with.

And the following day, as I head home from work, I’ll get a flash of the night before and check my emails.

Yes. Indeed. Ambien me did order “Thr Artist’s Way” on Amazon. Because, my friends, is the kind of person I am.

The kind who thinks, things aren’t as I’d hoped….maybe I just need to be more of an artist.

It is time to stop searching for more projects and use what I have…

Because last night I did take stock… and these are only the dolls I haven’t started working on…my used doll stash. This doesn’t include my in progress pile.

19 Disney animators dolls
One giant monster high doll
One 17 inch monster high

One tall Rapunzel (plays music)
Two My Scene dolls
Seventeen monster high dolls
Two EAdolls

One TaeYang
One Namu
Two factory Blythes
One Dal

March, 2020, the year of the dolls begins.
I’ll still dance, and teach dance, and work my day job. …and need Ambien from time to time.

But we’re going on a doll adventure, folks.

craft, Doll, pullip, Uncategorized

Flower Girl.

In late 2018 I picked up a damaged Pullip …as I do.

Her eye-mech was destroyed, she had no wink bars, and she had half of her original face paint. I detailed the damage and fixing up here.

Then she sat in a box until last December.

Inspired by Instagram makeup, I decided to go for both over-the-top make-up and to try an asymetrical design. Here I am including her in some after-gig glamour shots after I’d returned home from my last restaurant gigs of the season.

Here’s her final closeup before I rebodied her.

I knit her a top ( Pullip Off-the-shoulder free knitting Sweater pattern by Megan Nordyke) and sewed her a skirt (no pattern used for the skirt) and repainted some Barbie shoes (not shown).

This is why I went to Dollyteria for the wig lucky-bags…and scored!

I love her. Just love her.

A friend asked me if she”s supposed to be me. Not intentionally and my mom’s the one with green eyes.

barbie, blythe, craft, Doll, pullip, sewing, Uncategorized

Work the book: First Coordinates

Here I am working my way through a doll-clothing book from cover to cover.

The book is はじめてのドール•コーディネイト•レシピ (First doll coordinates how-to) by Dolly Dolly books. ISBN978-4-7661-1982-4 (1,500¥ new)

The projects are: a dress, medium length shorts, pleated skirt,blouse, tank top (for knits), bloomers, socks (for knits), tote bag, and tailored jacket.

Included with the book are all the patterns in five different sizes and which model doll they were specifically designed for:

11cm doll (Poochi Blythe)
20cm doll (Odeko and Nikki ), 22cm (Blythe)
27cm (momoko doll)
42cm (Unoa Quluts Doll)

there are also specific charts for various dolls indicating which size of the pattern works best for them.

The one below is for Dal (Groove). It shows that she’ll wear the the dress in size 20cm but will need a 2cm adjustment. The waist for the 22cm skirt will be a bit to large and so on…

The other dolls with specific charts like this: Licca, JENNY, Unoa Quluts Light, Tiny Betsy McCall, DAL, nano Haruka, and MISAKI.

The books are full of step by step guides like this. This one is for tracing patterns to fabric. This book takes the odd step of tracing the outline of a photocopyof the pattern and then cutting away the seam-allowance from that photocopy and trace again.

I do not have the time or the desire to waste paper like that. I’m tracing the patterns onto clear plastic, like that used for folders, to make a reusable pattern. I’m sketching in the seam allowance lines in thin chalk after tracing the pattern onto the fabric.

Here is another example of how detailed the instructions are. This shows the type of closure used on the dress (there are how-to on making the loops) and then covers how to assemble a variation of the dress top that includes darting.

Projects finished so far:

The dress:

In my first version I added a twice folded hem to give the skirt more volume. The stitching isn’t perfect so if I have a doll for this I’ll add trim at the waste to hide that stitch line.

My second version, with the spooky bats, is much cleaner and better assembled.

Shorts:

These I felt I nailed on my first try. The Preppy shorts were made first. Then I shortened the length, made in denim, and added yellow-stitched details.

Skirt:

The detail notes were correct, the waist is a bit large for a DAL or Picconeemo. If I do this regularly for DAL I’ll draft my own waistband.

Shirt:

For the love of GOD is this difficult. It’s also a project I made before. I went straight to this pattern when I first bought the book for my Agretsuko Blythe could have a shirt two summers ago.

This time I’ve made it twice so far, each version getting cleaner.

With this I’ve achieved a looser collar. I know how to remedy this (where to fold so the collar “button” flaps overlap correctly) but I rather like it as-is on the tiny-print fabric version.

Tank top with trim:

I gotta be me. So far I have NOT yet made the tiny socks and bloomers. I might just make them from the same fabric for a comfy rocker pj outfit. I did most of this by hand instead of machine sew.

pssssstt. Making tiny socks scares me.

Tote Bag:

I didn’t have matching thread but I made it anyways. When I have matching thread I’ll finish the handles but it looks CUTE.

So what do I have left? Socks….Bloomers and the dreaded:

craft, Doll, pullip, sewing, Uncategorized

Lucky Bag Inspiration: Classical Style

With the New Year came my first trip into Tokyo for Fukubukuro!

LUCKY BAGS!

The concept is simple: With the New Year stores put together items from the store into bags you can’t see into. The idea is that the contents of the bag are “worth” (priced individually) more than what you’ll pay for the bag. Generally you’ll have an idea of what sort of items will be in the bag but not exactly WHICH items.

I’m not a huge fan BUT Dollyterria had USED DOLL WIG BAGS. So for 4,000 yen I knew I’d be getting 6 wigs of X size. I love the random game of “what do I have and how will that inform what I make next…”

That’s 5 wigs, you say.

There’s another, but she’s already on a doll.

There’s more than just wigs, you say.

Of course I bought a naked doll in a baggie. I’m me.

There’s a body! You say.

Of course. sometimes you need another body for the naked dolls at home. They demand sacrifices.

I love the wigs… but now I also had this lovely doll who I decided NOT to rewig or change her face on. I figured out who she was. Zuora, a Pullip from 2006.

She looks like she knows how to have a great time. Alas, her outfit was missing in action.

I fixed up a damaged dress I had in my used stash. I repaired split seams and added black lace and ribbon accents.

I also took a cape I’d made previously (using a pattern from a book about sewing for dolls with felt but rendered in a suede.

Those buttons actually button and unbutton through tiny button holes. INSANE.

And I made it.

INSANE. So tiny.

I ordered a book with patterns I thought might suit her better. “Classical Style” by Dolly Dolly. I have many Dolly Dolly books about doll patterns. The felt book was a used find at a book-off. I scour used book stores for their Doll magazines (which include patterns) and the doll-specific sewing books. Not rare to find, which shows you how doll-focused some percentage of Japan is.

I often just jump to whatever pattern I want to make and just do that. It can be frustrating because my sewing skill set is more HUMAN SIZED, interior decor, and hand detailing. Sewing doll clothing is a skill that takes practice. The seam allowance (space between the needle/sewing line and the edge of the fabric) is often 5mm or less. That means very little room for error and ….your sewing machine bobin hole wants to eat your fabric.

The more fabric you join together the bulkier an outfit is. This matters very little when you’re 164cm tall but very much when you are 22cm.

There are ways you construct doll clothing that you’d never use in human clothing .

I have a friend I’ve been sending some of the latest tiny outfit photos to. He replies with emojis indicating that this is something the would NOT want to try and make. He’s a third generation bespoke suit tailor in Ginza.

I decided to use these books the way many of them are intended…working my way through the order of projects as written so that I’m doing the easier skill-building ones first with step by step photos before I tackle the harder ones. It would also allow me to blog.

And…this was the wrong book to start that idea with. Everything is lined. That means that every garment has any raw seams hidden between the outer fabric and lining fabric. This increases the bulk but makes for a more stable end product.

That wouldn’t be bad in and of itself but these are FRILLY FROCKS with lots of gathers.
Patterns have SO much gathering of fabric going on that sometimes I found that I’d make it once and then alter the pattern slightly to reduce bulk (but still finishing seams properly)

Like this insane all-in-one bloomer set. I’m using scraps so I am making some outfits I’m not sure I’ll ever have a use for. This is my second, altered, version.

This is the book version:

Below you can see how much bulk is created when you have lined and gathered bloomers attached to heavily gathered skirt (with two layers of fabric) and an extra gathered waist ruffle) …and that’s before you sandwich it between the layers of the top.

going in order as written I have completed the following, including the above.

From left to right:

Undarted lined dress. Two tops (one with making ribbon bows for extra frill). Dress lined dress with darts. Ribbon bustle and hip ruffles for apron or hip bustles.

And it inspired me to take a break from this SO RUFFLED book, as it’s not my general aesthetic, and work my way through a simpler Dolly Dolly book I’ve used before but haven’t done everything from (show below)

This is going much smoother with less swearing. I’ll be writing it about it, and showing more of what gems these books are, next time.

Do It Yourself: WFU

The dolls and art of a woman in Japan trying to be better.

Tag Archives: dolls