Custom Kitty reroot

This was originally Toffee, the yellow kitty with yellow hair. I painted her all white and then painted the siamese cat markings. The body isn't quite finished yet, so here is just the head, which I finished today. It's my first reroot, so I used yarn to make things a bit easier. As there was not enough yarn of the same color, I used three different shades of white.

The top of the head got a bit torn when I removed the original hair as the holes were so close to each other. I fixed that problem by applying several coats of paint on the holes and applying a generous amount of sealer on top of it. The sealer helps to keep the paint from cracking too badly during rerooting, although there was one small crack. It would probably be even better to put sealer first in the holes, then paint and then more sealer.

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.

Fitting shirt for a less articulated doll

The problem with dolls that have straight arms that go slightly outwards from the body is getting certain items of clothing on the doll. For example, if the hands are far from each other, you need a very wide shirt or one made of very stretchy material. I solved the problem by making the shirt in two parts.

In the picture, you can see that, instead of having front and back pieces, this one has left and right. There will be opening in both front and back.


This is the finished shirt. I used velcro for fastening and attached some trimming in front, because I didn't feel like sewing in fake buttons.



Here is the shirt on a Living Dead Doll.

Tips for creating a diner

Diner-interior-exposed
Originally uploaded by Michael Paul Smith

Just found Michael Paul Smith's photos in Flickr and this one explains what he used for creating a diner. Be sure to check his other photos as well. They are amazing. You'd think the scenes are real, if you didn't know you're watching a miniature.

Outfit for the Lipstik doll

This one is a Lipstik doll by Charisma (Marie Osmond's company). I think these were made only for a year or two, which is really a shame as this doll is well made and much more suitable for little girls than, for example, Bratz dolls. I know my niece was thrilled when I gave her one (plus some outfits) for a birthday present a couple of years ago.

My doll's hair is not original. It's a wig by Monique, which I got for my American Model doll, but turned out to be a bit too big. Fortunately, the size works well for this doll and for Bratz dolls.

The skirt is made of a sock. All it needed was turning the hem, which I sewed by hand. Pictures of making the boots can be found in my other blog. Below are some photos of the outfit details.

The bodice is made of stretchy jeans fabric. I treated the edges with Fray Stop, because the fabric was so thick that it was the only practical solution. I used Fray Stop also for attaching the gold trimming. The eyelets are heart shaped, although after hammering them into place, the shape isn't as clear as before. The choker is a piece of see-through decorative band with a glass ornament glued into it and secured with sealer. The beads are made of plastic and attached to each other using gold plated wire.

One bracelet is made of silver-colored leather. It was a leftover piece from making shoes for Sybarite. There's another piece of glass here, glued and secured with sealer.



The mechanism for attaching the bracelet is the same as in the shoes. It is really the simplest way and guarantees that the bracelet won't fall off.



The other bracelet is made of plastic beads in elastic thread. The ring is a smaller copy of the bracelet above, only without a lock. I couldn't get a metal ring to stay in place, so I decided to use leather instead. Now that I've thought about it for some time, I think a metal ring would be possible, if you glue something inside it to cause enough friction for the ring to not fall off. I'll have to try and figure out what would be suitable material for that.

Shirt from Zazzle

This is not actually made by me, I just designed the text, which is a quote from a man who made a deep impression on me when I saw his lecture on YouTube. Here is the lecture, which I hope you will find as fascinating as I did. The part where I took the quote from is around the 17 minute mark.



Here is the text on a shirt. I'm ordering the one shown here, but you can get the text on many different types of shirts. And to be honest, yes, I do get a small royalty, if someone orders a shirt I designed. However, my main purpose was to get the shirt for myself, but I made it public in case someone else likes the quote as much as I do.

We are all stardust by tsimpanen
See other Atom T-Shirts