WITCH CRAFTS

WITCH CRAFTS

Sunday, February 20, 2022

DIVA! PATTERN

 Hi All,

I just completed a new cloth doll pattern, called "DIVA!". 


She stands about 18 inches tall and is a "stump" doll (no legs). This is a simple pattern, good for beginners, and can be made into a variety of characters and easy to embellish.


This pattern is available on my Etsy site for $15.

This doll is made with DEER SUEDE knit fabric for the body and "skin" of the doll. You can buy deer suede on-line from doll supply stores, (mine is from www.dollmakersjourney.com) The dress is made from micro sequins on red knit fabric. The fingerless gloves are red spandex.


This is another version of the pattern. 


This is how the basic pattern looks without the dress. The body is already posed for you. Notice the bottom of the body is glued to a wooden base, so she can stand upright.

Here are the finished arms. You can choose to use a straight arm and a bent arm, or any combination of arms. She has fingerless gloves made of purple spandex.


The head, colored with acrylic paint, pastel chalks, colored pencils, and gel marker pens. If you have trouble drawing eyes, you can choose to keep the eyes closed. (Later, I added eyelashes, after I attached the head.)



The dress is made of an iridescent taffeta ("iridescent" because it's woven with blue threads in the warp and pink threads in the weft.) You need to hand-stitch most of the back seam after it's on the doll's body.



The pattern comes with a dramatic shoulder drape. This was a popular look in the 1950s and 60s.  You can make it out of the dress fabric or choose another fabric. In my stash, I had a crinkle sheer fabric with the same weave as the dress, so I used it for the drape.  I also added a large ruffle to the bottom of the dress (this is called a "mermaid" style dress -- also popular in the 1960's)


This pattern comes with a turban -- so you don't have to make a wig. (I'm not very good at styling hair or making wigs.) But on this one, I felt she needed a wig (or, at least part of one). After I got the ruffle on the skirt, I was reminded of the characters from the movie "Dreamgirls". I cut the top off the turban so the wig would show. Here's the wig stitched to the head. This wig was bigger than the head, so I cut the hairline off the wig (since you would only see the top.)


This is Beonce in the lead role from "Dreamgirls".


Here's the finished look with a partial wig and cut-off turban (now a headwrap). Notice the eyelashes I added. A nice effect for closed eyes. I like to add lashes to all my dolls (so easy to do -- instructions included in pattern).




Here's another variation of the pattern. This doll is made of Kona Cotton (because Kona has the most stretch of all the quilting cottons). I don't like the look of the cotton face or hands because I get a lot of wrinkles -- but I rarely use it. She turned out a little taller and a little skinnier than the dolls made with Deer Suede.

 On this doll, I used a black jacquard satin for the skirt, black spandex for the gloves, and a black satin for the turban. This doll has 2 bent arms. I didn't use the shoulder drape. Instead, I made a chiffon knit stole to go over the shoulders. (Simple to do -- just drape a measuring tape over the arms to get the length and make it wide enough to stay on the arms. The knit fabric doesn't need to be hemmed.)


Of course, I added lots of jewelry, rhinestones, beads, and trim (instructions in the pattern) for all the dolls!

Have fun!  A.B.


2 comments:

Mary Ann Tate said...

Beautiful dolls. I love this new pattern :)

Arley said...

Thanks Mary Ann!