Yuri Update!

Well, he is officially on his way home. I guess the poor guy has been owned at least twice so I'm sure he is looking forward to his permanent home. While waiting for him I have decided to sew him a few clothing items before he gets here. His establish style falls under bohemian/grunge with a retro flare. Similar things you might imagine Johnny Depp wearing, a sort of vest and button up shirt, fedora kind of guy.
Here is the first addition to his collection.

Vest has working pockets and vintage buttons.
He still needs a pair of his own pants though, fortunately the other boys have some he can borrow. I'm thinking he needs a pair of camel brown pants and a ratty pair of jeans in his wardrobe.
I really need to conquer making pants. I figure once I develop a basic pattern I can modify it to different styles. I'd like to make some capris for the girls, and some shorts too. 

Dolly Update!

I am buying a used doll!!!!!!!
Yes, it's true I met and fell in love with a Migidoll Yuri hybrid. He will be coming from Canada, so he shouldn't take long to get here. I'm thinking his style is going to be kind of bohemian, linen shirts, scarves, boots, vests...Gotta start brainstorming. Eyelashes! I need to buy eyelashes.
I'll be back. I'll take before and after picture when I get him.

Last night I tried making another "Miho" shirt with a modification to the sleeves to make the finished product more clean looking. It's not really noticeably to anyone but me but I like it. 
Here is a practice one,  Julia stole it for now although I may end up adding it to my "for sale" pile as it is up to snuff.

I'm thinking the black would look good on a blonde too.
This pattern is very versatile in the way that it is loose fitting but looks good doing it. I know a lot of SD girls are bustier than mine and I'm sure they could fill this blouse nicely. Julia is fairly small and she can pull it off too. I am definitely keeping that in mind when I sew to sell. There is nothing more disappointing than buying something that doesn't fit.

When I am working on a project and brainstorming I always have a Pile. This Pile consists of fabrics that work well together or something I have purchased recently. It is nice to have a Pile nearby to draw inspiration from. If you stare at a fabric long enough you can really start to visualize the possibilities of the fabric. Sometimes a new purchase can work really well with an old scrap that you have forgotten about too, so make sure you dig out the old Stash every once and a while.
Here is my current Pile:

Hmm, yes.

Well, here it is my blog.
I created this blog mostly to keep track of my crafts and hopefully build up some patterns to open up shop on Den of Angels again. I own six SD sized dolls (meaning they are between 52-63cm in height) and two MSD sized (40-43cm). I also have a small 26cm doll living in the same household that I will be designing things for from time to time.

Yesterday I went to the local library and picked up a book called Design-it-Yourself Clothes by Cal Patch. It is most useful for someone like me who likes to draft patterns but has never been officially taught how to do so. The book is for humans not dolls, but all the same techniques apply just in a smaller scale. My first project was the "Miho shirt", a simple peasant style shirt that has shirring with a drawstring on the collar.
Suri and I were quite satisfied with how it turned out.

And here is what the pattern looks like:

The sleeves can be lengthened/shortened according to the style you want. The back and front pieces are doubled over on that straight center line to create one piece for each. Total there is only five pieces to the whole shirt. The collar is made from a strip of fabric that measured about 18" by 1.5".
I made the string to tie it with braided embroidery floss, but you could use yarn or cord too.
I am definitely thinking about selling some of these and creating an MSD pattern too. Tayler would look cute in one and I know some other JID owners who might want one.