What a Doll!

I know . . . what a corny title!  Sorry, but my mind is in idle today, so that's probably as good as it will get.  At least for the time being.  It's been a busy week and today I decided to veg out. 

But enough of that.  This post is about my newly completed doll.  I am calling her Jan - at least until a better name comes along.

Jan is made by wrapping batting and fabric around a wire armature.  I followed the general instructions in Ray Slater's book "Cloth Dolls for Textile Artists".  I used a head and hands that were in my "spare parts" box and used ribbons and yarns to embellish her, so she was a quick and easy project.  I will be leading my doll club in making more of this type of doll at our January meeting.  So . . . that is why her name is Jan.  I did tell you my brain was not at work today, didn't I?

  I find it interesting that I made this head in a class several years ago - 2003 I think.  It was one of my first doll classes and probably the first on painting faces.  Christine Shively was the teacher and if you are familiar with Christine's work you can see her influence.  But after five plus years, my own style doesn't look much like this anymore.  And I wasn't really happy with the way Jan looked.  I mean, she's pretty - but she has Christine's face - not my own.  So . . . I did a little needle sculpting, and just a few tiny touchups.  She still doesn't look completely like a face I have drawn, but she no longer looks like Christine! 

Follow up on last post:

I've had some supportive comments about my messed up sewing bobbin and I thank you all.  I knew you'd understand. 

But the really cool thing is that today I got a comment from a Bernina tech!  How cool is that?  He said this can happen when there is a problem with your upper thread not spinning freely.  I was using a finer decorative thread in the needle and it was starting to fray and break at about that same time.   I applied sewer's aid, but it was probably drying out by then.  I'm not surprised since that thread was already a suspect, but I'm glad to hear that it is probably not a major machine problem.  Thanks, Steve!