Another cloth doll

I made a cloth doll based on Joakim Broden of Sabaton. Here's the video about it:

Bee

The first Create a Monster set I bought only had one torso, so I decided to make one myself. I had already ordered a couple of the expansion sets, so I decided to make the torso for the bee and paint the upper arms and legs with the correct color. The grey head is here just for reference.

The armature is made of wood and the black and yellow torso is needle felted.

This photo shows the doll before painting and also in comparison to a normal Monster High doll.

I made the stand, in which the upper legs are attached, for painting doll shoes, but as the wooden posts are made of the same round strip as the part of the torso where the legs attach, the stand was perfect also for painting the upper legs.

I used FolkArt's acrylic paint "509 Sunny Yellow" and it was a bit too yellow compared to the lower leg. I painted several coats with it and then mixed the color for the final coat by mixing Sunny Yellow and "480 Titanium White." Finally, I applied a coat of matte sealer to prevent the paint from chipping.

This was just going to be a needle felted wig cap, but I liked how it looks, so I left it as it is and will make another wig using the original plan.

Here is Bee almost finished. I'm still thinking of giving her a stinger, but I'll need to figure out how to make one. I tried using wood, but the result wasn't satisfactory, so I'll continue experimenting.

Needle felted wig for a Monster High doll

I decided to try needle felting to make a wig for a Monster High Create A Monster doll. I started by making a wig cap that would be the basis for an updo. The photos below show it from different sides.

The wig cap kept slipping off or into wrong position, so a peg for keeping it in place was necessary. I used a strip from a 0.3 mm thick metal sheet.

As glue wouldn't have kept the metal strip in place, I cut a small piece of felt, made a hole in it and pushed the peg through.

Then I put the peg in place, spread glue to the felt, put the wig cap in place and pressed it down to the head to make the peg construction stick inside it.

Here is the inside of the finished wig cap.

Then I attached the actual hair inside the edges of the wig cap. I used coarser wool for the wig cap and mohair for the actual hair.

This looked funny and I can imagine all sorts of funny hairdos you could make this way.

However, this one was about to become a very formal updo. I collected the hair and attached it to the top of the head. Then I made the bun and attached its bottom to the top of the head as well. The hairline of this wig is maybe a bit too high, but it's good enough for a first try (and my second needle felting project ever).

Small custom doll

As I've got two basic Draculauras, I also had a duplicate of Count Fabulous. I decided to try some customizing on him.

The first thing to do was to cut off the head and wings and to find a suitable donor body. I don't remember what kind of a head that doll originally had, but it was some kind of a fairy.

The picture shows the parts and the tool used for making a hole for the neck post. Here the wings are glued together with super glue, but that didn't hold, so I had to find another solution.

Front view with head and wings in place.

Back view with head and wings in place. I used hot glue for the wings and that made a bump on the back, but at least it held the wings in place.

First coat of black paint applied. This was easy as black is black and the usual problem of finding the right shade could be avoided. The feet are not yet painted as I needed some place to hold the doll while painting.

After a couple of coats of black paint, pink on the clothes, and satin sealer to protect it all, the doll was finished. She's shown here with the first Count Fabulous. I only noticed at this point that their eyes are different for some reason.

Steampunk softies

On the crafts fair last weekend, I came across the book Steampunk Softies: Scientifically-Minded Dolls from a Past That Never Was.




Unfortunately, the price was too high for such a small book (because of 23% VAT, customs charges and everything else that gets added on top of the original price when books are imported here).

So, I just browsed through it. The projects looked interesting and simple enough for anyone with basic knowledge of sewing to make. If I was more interested in steampunk, instead of just finding in an amusing curiosity, I probably would get the book.

Easy wig for Miss Piggy

Miss Piggy's blonde wig, which has holes for ears and therefore stays in place very securely, gave me the idea of trying to make her a wig myself. This is just the first version and I'm sure I can improve it.

The basic structure is very simple, just a piece of fabric attached to a rubber band.


Measure the rubber band so that it goes around the ears snugly, sew it into a loop and sew the fabric strip to it. The fabric in this one was first sewn into a tube to prevent fraying and to make it a bit sturdier. If you use thick fabric, just one layer is probably better.


Finally, sew yarn into the fabric as shown in these pictures of the finished wig. You'll need quite a lot of it to get a wig that covers the entire head.

Max is finished

I finished the larger version of Max. The main part that was missing were the hands. I made them from Cernit modeling clay. The picture below shows the hands after baking, but before painting. I had to paint them as the white was wrong shade. I had painted the head with titanium white, so the hands had to be the same shade, not the slightly translucent cream color of the modeling clay.

The next photo shows how the head will stay in place. First I thought I wouldn't glue the head in place, although the metal pipe is glued to the body, but the head is fairly heavy and if it fell, it would probably break (or at least the ears would), so I decided that glue would be safer.

I'm using PVA glue for everything else, but for the hands, I used hot glue. The hands turned out to be a bit too big and I noticed that already before baking them, but they were so good that I didn't want to spoil everything by trying to make them smaller. This large version isn't exactly like small Max in any case, so some differences in proportions won't matter.

Finally, here is the finished figure with large Schizo and the mini figures for both.

Related earlier posts:
Maxi Max
Body for Max

Body for Max

I decided to make the body first, before finishing the head. There are a lot of small cracks as I didn't bother to finish the surface, because it's going to be covered in black felt.

The head is held in place with a small peg that goes into a hole in the neck and another hole in the head.

I'm going to use pipe cleaner for the arms, so I made a hole through the body. The legs are made of wood and as you can see, he can stand even without feet in place, so after I have made the feet, his balance should be fine.

Maxi Max

This is my take on the head of the figure who represents Max in the photo story. I decided to try to make a larger version of that figure and started with the head. The measurements aren't quite right and the expression is different, but it should be close enough. Now it needs to dry and then it's sanding and making the eyeballs.

Here is a time lapse video of making the head.