Project Post: Custom forest faerie with birds in her hair.

greetings all,
as promised i'm bringing you a post with pics this week!  this was a custom piece i did for a little girl for her ninth birthday. after seeing my dolls at a festival, her mother contacted me for a custom piece. 
apparently she had quite a conversation with her mom about what kind of doll she would make if she made one herself. (this custom piece was a surprise) here is the list her mom sent via email (posted with permission, of course):

The creature would rescue creatures who had been bullied

She would have the power to change the seasons and the weather so that if someone was being mean to another, she would cause it to snow on the bad person so they couldn't move.

The creature would be a girl with brown skin, dark brown eyes, black curly hair down to her hips and the hair would be able to be used as a nest for injured birds

She would wear leggings in the summer and then over them she would wear a furry skirt in the winter

She would have different colors of shirts (red, green, brown)

She would have soft faerie shoes and her feet might be hooved

She would have wings to fly throughout the forest where she would live


this was so much fun to make!  i tried to incorporate as many of her ideas as possible, but i did have to compromise a little for simplicity's sake (she has shoes, but no hooves, and only one shirt- although it's removable so she could add her own if she wanted to)

here is a pic of her back, with wings attached and you can see the back of her simple shirt.

here is her wristlet before it was sewn on.  i embroidered little symbols that i thought would be good to represent her powers to control the weather: lightning bolt, raindrop, sun, snowflake, and tornado

and in these three photos you see the final placement of the symbols

here you can see her shoes and leggings.  both of which were completely sewn on.  sorry for the funky depth of field in this shot. i know it makes the shoes harder to see :/

i made some tiny birds out of felt and attached bobby pins to them so they could roost in her hair.

as well as in a pocket in her wrap around skirt.

it's a little hard to see in these photos (black hair and fur is really hard to photograph well!)  but she has little nest shaped buns on top of her head to help those injured birds.

so here she is with her leggings

and now with her skirt.




i can't tell you how much fun it was to help a little girl's idea come to life. the rich imagination kids have is so astonishing.  i'll be back next week with tales of cooking for nine and holiday craziness, in the meantime i wish my american readers a happy thanksgiving.  safe travels, good company, and good eats to all,


thanks so much for taking your time to read today! 

-sarah

it can't be mid november already?!?!

greetings all!
well, i'm back.  had a blast pulling out an old costume for halloween, yet somehow managed to miss taking pictures! d'oh!  i'll have to don the outfit here soon and force my hubby to photograph me.... oh, what he does for me :D
let's see here, i'm in the middle of a bunch of projects now (what else is new?) but it also just occurred to me just how little time i have until the winter holiday season!  eep!  this really snuck up on me this year, i mean next week is thanksgiving!  i usually try to do a mostly handmade holiday, but we will see how far i get this year. 
i've started yet another jack skellington hat for myself this year.  this will be jack number three in twice as many years.  i somehow lost my first one.  it just disappeared.  i have no idea where i left it.  none at all.  the second one somehow got mixed up in all the stuff we sent off to goodwill this summer during some minor purging. *sob* well, i hope he went to a good home.  i wore the heck out of those hats!  the previous two i crocheted.  this one is no exception, but i'm going to try and line it in fleece.  winters get cold up here in minnesota!
i'm also starting a fourth doctor scarf,  and i'm knitting it!  this is quite the feat for me (14 feet to be exact ;) i'm not a very accomplished knitter.  i can knit, and purl, and increase and decrease on the sides, but that's about it.  i'm also very s-l-o-w so we shall see how long this project takes.  i'm doing the season 15 version, all in vanna's choice, the pattern and colors can be found here for those interested.
also, i wanted to say that i'm truly amazed at all the positive response to my weeping angel barbie tutorial, and would like to welcome all of the new readers.

well, that may be all i have for now.  i promise to get a post with some pics in here soon!
happy crafting!
-sarah