Merry Christmas, New Years and Such!

I've been gone for a while so I thought I would do an update.
Had a wonderful Christmas, I hope you did too.

Here is half of my dolls. XD The Reeves family on the left and the Cross family on the right.
Currently I will be working on a swap that I started on DenOfAngels.
These are the concept sketches for my partner's doll's style.

 

But first I think I am going to fashion some sort of stuffed mannequin to model for it because her doll is a little larger than my boys with longer limbs. Then I have to get some fabrics. It's not due until February so I have some time to work on it.

 On another note I reorganized my room yesterday and I love the way it looks now. I still have to work on the closet though so no pictures of that.

Yes, I have a lot of toys, and a lava lamp!  
 

Alex

Nerdy Birdy

This is Jensen's final look! He is my little book worm, mastermind, all around nerd and hipster.

A Little Sparrow Has Landed

She flew in from New York this last week and has decided to nest here with my other dolls.

This is a temp wig borrowed from Jordyn, eventually her hair will be a darker brown. But I am glad that the eyes I bought for Charlotte that didn't end up fitting her could be used for Sparrow. She has the cutest little elf ears and I tried not to cover them to much. They are slightly folded on the ends. So cute!

And her little feets.

I've got yet another wardrobe that needs working on! I'm thinking pointed boots and a hat are going to be a must for this little one.

 

Finished Swap Project

As always it seems I have waited until the last moment to finish my swap project, but the deadline was for the 31st  so I am still right on time.
Here is my finished outfit which includes two tops, one bottom, and a book bag with book:

And now for some modeling:

I will be sending this out tomorrow. I think I have gotten into the groove of sewing for these little ones though and I hope that will encourage me to sew my kids some more clothes. It's nice when you only have a small piece of fabric and a short time to sew with. Even simple designs look nice on them and you don't have to embellish much.

Jensen is Home (an earlier than expected reunion)

I was on DOA forums last week reading through the general forums in a thread about buying dolls and having second thoughts while waiting for them in the mail or after you received them, when I ran into someone talking about their Luts Terra that they just couldn't seem to get to work for them. I was like heeeeyyyy, I wonder if it's still up for sale and how much they want for it. It turns out he had been reduced to $330 and was purchased earlier this year from Luts. On Luts's website I was going to pay $513.75 to buy him new, that's $183.75 savings! So I bought him from the seller through ebay and here he is! I didn't expect to be able to buy him until this fall so it is an awesome turn of events.
He arrived in his original boxes (inner and outer shipping box), and so well packaged I didn't even feel like he was second hand at all! The seller was sweet and sent some extra items along with him too, which was nice. His wig is on it's way from Leekeworld, but until then he in wearing the color that he had when he was still a Luts Bory so it's fitting anyway.
Here is the default makeup he was sent with, which was in perfect condition but not to my personal taste.

So it went bye bye, and now he looks like this:

Friendly and flirty.
He has such a huge fat head that he looks ridiculous next too his brother Alex (who has a very small head). But that doesn't really bother me since they have never really looked like brothers to begin with.

He is also wearing the blue eyes here, but I decide I liked the darker green ones better. His character is supposed to have blue eyes but, meh he's mine so I can do what I want right?
Here he is with the other two resident "fat heads" as I call them. You can see the scale is a little better with these two. He is so short he doesn't have any pants that fit so I need to do some sewing. He is currently wearing a pair of shorts I made for Suri...luckily you can't tell that they are girls.

He is a 15 year old hipster/skateboarder so his clothes will be pretty casual, lots of hoodies/tees and jeans.
Before I do any sewing though I need to clean and organize...I've been pretty lazy lately so I need to get to it.

More Wigs Today

Okay so I got the rest of my wigs and I am very happy with three out of four. The one I bought for Alex is just weird...not sure how to explain but it DID NOT look good. But the company gave me a free wig that is beautiful! So I am very happy over all. The freebie is long and wavy and the prettiest shade of green, some thing very different but very cool. I'm  not sure...I might need an elf girl for it. It is a color that they don't sell anymore either so that is kind of neat.
Okay first off here is London in his proper wig size. It fits better all the way around and now he has a wig cap underneath to keep it from shifting.

And here is Charlotte's shorty summer do, and a hat I saved from a thrift store that fits her perfectly. It has a bit of a wave to it.

Julia's "only looks good on a Asian" wig. So cute on her!

I'll have to get a shot of the green one too. I'm not sure who to take pictures of it on though, but they should be wearing something to match.

Suri's new wig

I bought this one for Suri off of Ebay from "BlueBloodDolls".
It is very long, thick,and soft. It's a little deeper auburn than her previous wig and has bangs which she has never had before.

I like how she looks with wavy hair too.
If you haven't ordered from Blue Blood before I have to say that they have very nice quality items, and for those of us in the U.S. it is nice to be able to buy some doll stuff "locally" (California anyway). And hey I bought this on Wednesday and it got here on Saturday, that's pretty cool right? I am definitely buying some more items from them soon. They have a few other frilly shirts that I want for London, and possibly even some more wigs or shoes for the girls.
My Leekeworld wigs should be here Monday or Tuesday too, so I will take some more pictures of the kids then. I got a fiber wig for Alex, a bob cut for Julia, London's proper size wig, and a short style for Charlotte too. 

New Wig For Jordyn

She has short manageable hobbit hair now. It is also more brown and less red than her other hair, which is nice because she looks more like her daddy.
I will be buying more wigs this next payday for Julia, Charlotte, London (same one in a size smaller), and possibly Alex. I would like another wig for Suri too but it is difficult to find them in the right red color, so I might wait and buy one from Iplehouse.

Little Ones and Little Things

I am currently taking part in an outfit swap on Den of Angels. The doll I am sewing for is a YoSD size, similar to Jordyn so she gets to help me model.
These are the fabrics I have in mind for this project:

Initially I had planned to make a jumper out of the tree fabric and bloomers out of the brownish one under it...but I decided to go with something a little different because in the end I don't think it would work for the particular character I am sewing for. But I still wanted to make that outfit so I made it for Jordyn instead!

She is very pleased and more than willing to help me finish my project. So we have decided to make a pair of green capri pants and a couple of different tops. I was thinking button up...or some thing more summery. I also want to make a book bag and a book. The book is done. I made it using a mixture of sewing and gluing. A miniature version of "The Hobbit".

I'm thinking I will have to make another for my dolls and a few other titles for props. They are just too cute and fairly easy to make.


Also meet Pumpkin! The bear above is my first miniature mohair bear designed exclusively by me, pattern and all. From the side he has a wonderfully adorable little belly that sticks out, thus the name.

Alex and Julia

I have been writing down a list of ongoing doll projects and keeping it on my fuse box with magnets, and the first thing on that list was to redo Alex and Julia's makeup. I wasn't satisfied with either one so I decided since they are a couple why not do them together verse getting all of that stuff out twice? Since I already had it out for Charlotte and London it was an easy choice.
So here they are naked and ready for renewal.

In case you can't tell, Julia is on the left and Alex is on the right. You can see here that both of their genders are quite reversible (given the right body of course). I rather like Julia's sculpt as an Asian boy too.

 And there you have it! I added some more color to Julia's lips so they have more of a pink/red tone, and I added some blue over her eyes to give her an eyeshadow look. Mainly I wanted to fix Alex's eyebrow shape and the color of his lips was off too.
Here they are as a pair, and they look wonderful!

It's very important that the couples faces look well together to me, and these two have always matched so well. I am very pleased with them for now.
My next project will probably be sewing...I think I am done with faces for now. Plus I am running out of clear coat, and it's fairly hard to come by.
Charlotte's wardrobe needs to be worked on anyway. I will be back then!
 

More London

Just a couple of antique style pictures of London. He is just gorgeous, and so perfect for these types of outfits.
All that white is difficult to photograph, but if you get him in the shade or the evening it looks quite nice.

London Arthur Lansbury

My prize from the Souldoll 1+1 doll event!

He turned out absolutely wonderful! Unfortunately the eyes and wig I bought for him are too big. The wig works for now with a little velcro, but the eyes had to be replaced with some simple acrylics for now instead of the pretty glass ones.
His makeup was a real challenge because he had to be believably blond and pale. I love the shape of his brows though, and his princely expression. It's like he is totally full of himself. None of my other dolls have that attitude, and it is something that I find amusing.
There was only one minor problem upon arrival and that was that his hands didn't match. XD
His left hand is the old body hand and his right hand is from the new body. I informed Souldoll right away and they are sending more hands on Friday so hopefully I will have at least one matching set. I rather like the new ones, even though I asked for the old body. The new hands look nice on it, so I hope they will send me another one of those.
I'll take some more pictures soon.
Here is one with his sister:

They are like characters out of a fantasy story with their fair skin and snowy lashes.
I treasure them both so much already, and they are fitting in nicely with the other family members.
I can tell London is going to be a trouble maker though. But Charlotte is an angel.

Charlotte Robin Lansbury

She is home! I ordered her February 17th and she arrived yesterday.
She is perfect. Everything that I had envisioned for her was fulfilled. The only problem I encountered was I underestimated her bust size as in comparison to Julia, so I will have to sew her some more clothes with her more specific measurements.

Her and her honey.
Her brother will be here in a couple of days as well, so I will be back with possibly some more group pictures.

Roquefort and other bear news

I finished my bear for London.

I just love how that little face turned out and those tiny little legs!
I am hooked now and I bought two more small pieces of mohair. One is a longer curly pile in a rust color, and the other is a short thick pile in a taupe brown gray color (I'm curious to see it in person).
I'm thinking about ordering more colors of eyes too but that will have to wait. Their eyes can always be changed easily later if I decide to.
I am going to design my own patterns for these next ones too. I am thinking I like the wide head but I will change the eye position to be higher and more centered than Roquefort here. I would also like to try making a bear with a belly that sticks out, sort of like a bean shape. I also like the traditional bear hump on the back. I am going to give the paws a little more curve and lengthen the legs. Not sure if I will add paw pads or not though...maybe just on the feet.
Embroidering the nose is always a challenge too, and I think for the next one I will try the traditional "bear" type nose with nostrils.

Bear Stuff

I had this idea that all of my dolls need their own bear, and lets face it I don't mind having them around either. So I bought this pattern (which is something I have never done before) and I am going to try and make my own mohair bear. Glass eyes, joints, real mohair, the whole deal.

I will be making this bear for London so I have decided to make it in golden mohair with golden eyes. I just need to wait for my pattern so I know what sizes to buy, how much fabric, and joint info.
I really like this style of bear with the big wide head and the inlongated body and small legs.
This pattern can be found here on etsy
I will post progress pictures soon. I might make a trial bear before I get my materials just for practice using the materials I have on hand. Mohair is expensive so I want to make sure I don't mess it up.