sadie

sadie, originally uploaded by Kristy and Eva.

sadie is the doll i made for eva, let's say "for christmas" (since she didn't get anything else from us, and i made this between christmas and new years, so it's sort of a yule/solstice time of year thing, i suppose). she's an 18" doll with moveable arms and legs (but no knee/elbow joints). straying from the pattern, i added embroidered ears (my mom said that dolls my grandma made had ears, and i tried to copy the idea as best i could understand it over the phone), and i added the all-important belly button and nipples, which eva spotted immediately. i also changed the hair dramatically from what it said in the pattern, but i'll save that for another time.

i used the eyes suggested in the pattern, but i'm not that happy with them. i made a doll for a friend's girl many years ago, and i made up a method for making multi-hued/flecked irises that i remember liking much more. i'll return to that in the future. these eyes give her a bit of a dopey expression, i think... i did the left one first then took 8 attempts at the right one to make it match exactly in size, angle, position, etc. i don't know why it was that difficult -- or why i was being such a perfectionist making eyes i didn't like in the first place!



the dress is some fun japanese fabric i found, i thought it struck that balance between classic and a bit fun/modern (and of course avoiding anything overtly floral or princessy). i used the dress pattern that came with the doll, but it's a bit too traditional, with the puffy sleeves and all. i'll make something up for the coordinating bit of japanese fabric i bought for a second dress. the thing about doll clothes is that for less effort you could make toddler clothes (easier because the bits aren't so tiny), so we'll just see how many outfits sadie really needs.

that said, the apron is eva's favorite part. after a lucky bit of suggestion from a friend's 3 1/2 year old (they know all the fun tricks!), she's been enjoying having the apron tied on her so she can dance, waving her hands turning in a circle jumping around, saying "dansh, dansh, dansh!". she sometimes insists "mama wear apron. mama dance!", but as it is about 5 inches wide, it takes more of a cod piece or fig leaf appearance on my size frame. to this end, i made her a dancing skirt, which she hates (as of its introduction today, we'll try again later). she runs away screaming "nooooo!" and when i tried tying it on her to show her in the mirror (usually a fun activity), she went into full on back arching rolling on the floor tantrum mode. yikes. so much for the dancing skirt.

i have no idea how much time i spent on this doll. several hours to sew and stuff the body (6ish?), a good 3 on the embroidery, maybe 3 on the clothes, a good hour on the first attemt at hair which i then had to cut off because the yarn frayed dramatically, at least an hour on the ears, 4 or so teaching myself to crochet and making the wig cap, and probably 5 evenings hand tying the hair one piece at a time, so maybe 10-12 hrs. of course, i forget to consider things like washing and pressing the fabric, cutting out the pattern, ... and, i tend to dramatically underestimate my time. so let's say something around 40 hrs in all? that's a total guess, but better than nothing.

so, such is sadie. i'm sure she'll be making return appearances in this blog...