Sunday, March 2, 2014

Belle gets a new dress - finally ! She should thank Crissy and 'Doll Designs', May 1990.

Current Notes: Crazy In Love, Conway Twitty.




Woke up to snow on the ground and in the air, had lunch with sleet, and cut fabric to thunder and lightning. Wow. My life’s a lotta things, but it’s not boring for long ! Even the weather’s exciting.


Yes, you read right. I cut fabric today. Found a simple dress pattern for a Crissy doll dress scanned from one of my old doll magazines, and decided to go for it. Evidently Crissy had much smaller, shorter hands and arms, because I could barely get the bodice on DP&M Belle even after I narrowed the seam allowance and ripped out the original stitches. Also the neckline gaps a bit, and doesn’t lie flat against her shoulders. But I can alter the pattern in the right places, no problem. For a first attempt, today’s dress isn’t that bad. And it used up nearly all the yellow thread, and the bulk of the remaining fabric. Only cutaway pieces and a single twenty by eight inch strip of that print remains. So you may still see it, but I don’t think there’s enough for another Belle dress, unless I make the bodice from a different piece, or alter it to be cap sleeved. That strip’s long enough for a skirt, though. And the pieces could make a matching pair of shoes, easy…


But I was thinking as I sewed – probably why I don’t sew when I most need to – that some of the same things I did with MH, I was now doing with DP&M. Haunting eBay. Planning what next to buy. Searching for patterns at least once a day. Daydreaming of what next to create. Justifying buying craft supplies for those potential creations. Thinking of buying a less expensive doll I didn’t really want to score clothes/ shoes/ accessories for a favored doll. Touring dollar stores for knockoff dolls for the same reason. May actually take Belle with me to my next Mal-Wart trip, to try on shoes and stand next to a $10. doll that may become a dress donor. I think the last doll I took shopping was years ago !


It made me miss the days when I was insane over Monster High. Just four years ago, since I’d been crazy since I first saw the preliminary photos the winter before they were officially released. Now I don’t even wheedle to go down that aisle when Beloved Hubby’s in a hurry at Mal-Wart, there’s nothing there to interest me, and I know it. I don’t even hold out the slim hope of finding Slo Mo anymore, although he’s been found in Switzerland this week. I still love what I have but… barring something amazing that’ll kick-start it, I can feel my interest moving on.  


Luckily for my perpetually-thin funds, most of the DP&M accessories have been sold out for some time, and are very expensive on eBay. While I may occasionally luck out on dolls, the clothes I most like are $35. or more with shipping, and I don’t spend that much on my own clothes. So I have excuse to make my own – and a running start with Crissy patterns (provided I make sure the arms will fit).



Wonder where my weirdness will take me to next. Oh, that’s right, I already know. Duct tape doll shoes !

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