The materials were all scraps from my stash, old bedsheets I use for muslins, leftover from my 1892 cloak's lining and from the Caramel jacket's fabrics. The german boning I had in stock (had to split it in three lenghtwise to get a correct scale for the corset). The only thing I had to buy were the snaps.
I finished this projet in the car driving to th birthday party, so the pictures are a bit of a rush job I did in the backroom at work, without natural light.
The pattern for the doll was drawn by
me. I thought it'd be easy, given I had already made one before, yet I had to
alter quite a bit so that it could wear some more elaborate clothes.
The body of the doll is much clother to the human dolls I had made
before than to the cute, tiny and round Hello Kitty shape.
The face is embroidered on in thick
black thread. The head bow is attached with snaps - actually, there are
two alternative bows, one matching the gown, and the other one (which
you can see below) matching the corset, so that the doll can be
presented in underwear, too.
First, the undies. The first picture
shows an unfinished, rough view of the chemise. It is made with a yoke
with two buttons and buttonholes
and pin tucks at the hem. The drawers are long open-croth ones and
close with a small button and buttonhole. Both
chemise and drawers are embellished with the same lace.
The corset is two layers, the inside is made of the same pink cotton sheeting as the bustle below, the outside is polyester taffetas. It is handbound, and laces in the back over four metal grommets. It is boned with german boning split lenghtwise. I started with tracing a normal victorian corse tin miniature, but it proved to hard to adapt and so I ended up draping the garment on the doll, just like I did for the rest of the outfit. I flossed all the bones, too, but the thread I used blend in with the fabric too much so you can't really see it *sigh*.
The corset is two layers, the inside is made of the same pink cotton sheeting as the bustle below, the outside is polyester taffetas. It is handbound, and laces in the back over four metal grommets. It is boned with german boning split lenghtwise. I started with tracing a normal victorian corse tin miniature, but it proved to hard to adapt and so I ended up draping the garment on the doll, just like I did for the rest of the outfit. I flossed all the bones, too, but the thread I used blend in with the fabric too much so you can't really see it *sigh*.
Onto the bustle ! This one was
pretty straightforward (although it did take me two tries to get the
scale between kitty and bustle right), ties behind the legs, closes at
the waist with a button and loop.
A more labor-intensive part was the
corset cover, a mishap with my sewing machine destroyed the first
embroidered yoke I had made. The second version of the corset cover was
entirely handsewn to prevent this happening ever again ! It closes at
the shoulders with buttons and buttonholes and ties at the waist with a
drawstring Said string is a bit thinck to my taste, but that was the
best I had in stock at the moment and I did not intend to buy anything
new for this project.
The petticoat in comparison was quite simple and easy to drape and sew - mostly by hand, too.
Both garments are finished with either french or capped seams. No raw edges on the inside, no pictures either, sadly.
The petticoat in comparison was quite simple and easy to drape and sew - mostly by hand, too.
Both garments are finished with either french or capped seams. No raw edges on the inside, no pictures either, sadly.
