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Victoria Victrix- i think i'm in love! it punches its own holes...*sigh*

 

I love the shirt , the colour is fantastic, it could be a bit 70s, my parents were married in the 70s and my dad wore a purple paisley tie that would work really well with that shirt
And when I look at it I think I could say Groovy or Funky... but it's still awesome nothing bad from the 70s in it anyway.... I was born in 75, so I don't think I count as knowing what the 70s were like, besides South Africa was also a few years behind trend wise anyway!

And can I get a pear of pants like that? they look they would be very comfy.

I agree if I were to talk about boobies... boobies would be the word I would use.
I may be wondering over to my local craft store now and might just look for one of those thingamajigs though bound to cost twice as much here in Aus... silly economics.

 

It'll punch holes in soda cans and CDs!!!

There's also the Crop-A-Dile II Big Bite
http://www.overstock.com/Crafts-Sewing/Crop-A-Dile-II-Big-Bite-Punch/3128184/product.html

They both also set snaps.

 

http://www.wildaboutscrap.com.au/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=587

http://www.weronthenet.com/big_bite_tutorial

 

oh! my father always said i could tear apart a steel anvil with my bare hands at the age of 3. snaps are on that list. when my kids were babies i was constantly breaking them. so glad when they got outta the onesie stage

 

Fushia Lace- The couple of hooves I've handled I didn't have any mechanical problems with, but the legs to have to be relatively straight.

There's a few mechanical things you can check before going to sueding:

1- How's the elastic tension? Too tight or too loose makes them kicky. You should have about 1 - 1.5 inches of give at the ankle what it's pulled all the way tight for restringing. If you hold about 2 inches of elastic between your thumb and forefinger, you should have to give it good pull to stretch it; if it stretches easily, like a rubber band, then the elastic might not have enough tension strength and needs to be replaced with 4.5mm elastic. (Someday I'll come up with a slingshot test involving a length of elastic held between two clamps and drawn back to specific point and then used like a slingshot to shoot a copper penny... the distance the penny travels will roughly gauge the tension in the elastic... it might work, and could be fun! )

2- Lay the doll on its back. With the joints at their extended/standing angle, slowly pull the hock straight away from the joint socket and look at the elastic. You want to look to see if the elastic is being pinched between the socket and ball joint. Same thing with the hip sockets. Sometimes the elastic opennings haven't been drilled far enough to allow the elastic to sit taught without being pinched by the resin. Pinching makes the elastic want to expand, and the only way to do that is for it to push away from the resin, forcing the joint to bend. Another and more acurate way (though it involves unstringing) is to look down the elastic openning at the joint and gauge the space to see if it's too narrow for the elastic.

3- Might just be getting the hang of where the hooves should be placed in relation to the body for proper balance. That just takes playing with.

4- If the hocks have a little ridge that the calf locks into, check to see that it's sitting properly against the resin. If there's gapping or if the calf is sliding over the lock, it'll have to be corrected. You can also contact the company since you just got it and tell them you're having a problem with the joint; they might send you replacement parts, they might not... you have to convince them that it's a problem with the doll and not just user error. (my LM boy had slipping knees that was due to the mould being worn down and a coupld of mm of the resin detail were lacking; they replaced the legs).

Hope that helps a little. One or more of these things are true of many poor posers and kicky/flailing dolls at least on a basic level, at least in my limited experience.

 

I love Rylin's pants, and their kind of his signature article of clothing... He had a similar pair for his older, larger body, and now these ones. They're slightly stretchy jean-looking material so they bend with him but are still stylishly fitted. The zipper on the outside of the calf really works; up like they are in the photo, they're a boot-cut flare, but zipped they're a straight-leg. There are grommets in the thighs because I was going to criss-cross lacing through them, but I couldn't get it to look right so now they're just decorative. :B And they look so cute with his converse! Kind of a pain to sew, but so worth it. I love his pants, and I wish I had a pair, but I have the feeling they wouldn't translate well into human size.

 

Thank you Cymorill! will check it out tomorrow. she came to me with a half broken knee lock. i glued it last night and left it to cure. and no, that doesn't have any effect on her hock slipping. you can actually watch the "good" side start to slip first when she is standing. i can feel the hock lock when i manually put it in. hehehe Soom replace things?

 

Aak

My Fairyland neck piece came today so I was excited to get my Shushu attached to her DollLeaves body. I got things apart only to find that the shook on the neck piece is barely big enough to hole two elastics...how do I get the arms and the body/legs both attached to it? Can I take just one of each of the elastics up to the head? I'd have to shorten the elastic right?

 

Usually the arms are connected to each other and do NOT go up to the head. The two body elastics go up in the head.

 

What dhawktx said. THe arm elastic goes straight through the torso from shoulder to shoulder without going up the neck, so you're golden! Be sure to spam a picture once you have her put together!

For anyone curious, here's my Shushu and Shiwoo, Elizabeth and Rylin, in their new fancy outfits. I'd started out trying for something steampunk, decided I wanted more color, added elements of Alice and Wonderland (not a big fan, personally, but the fancifulness) and random things I thought would look cute. With the exception of Rylin's shoes, I made everything they're wearing including the wigs and Lizzie's shoes and I'm feeling rather proud of myself! I love the tails on the back of Rylin's waistcoat, though the shoulders fit a little tighter than I'd like. The buttons on his shirt are a pain because they're so small -- even with a button hook -- but I think I'm getting the hang of making button holes.



Opinion? Do they need anything? I was thinking about hats, but I hate to cover up their hair. Lizzie has so much of it, though, that I might make her one anyway. It's 90% sewn by hand.

 

If you're Steampunkin' them, they need some chain on accessories. At the very least a tool belt and bag of holding!

 

Cymorill - beautiful! You have very lucky dolls!

dhawktx - I tried that but just couldn't pull both up on my own. I have her together though. The midbody joint is behaving strangely, but did I mention she is in one piece? At least her head isn't going anywhere and I can maybe get some help with the second strand at the meet this weekend.

As always, this thread is such a safe place to ask questions!

 

Get some LONG pipe cleaners and fold one in half. Remove her head and put the folded pipe cleaner on the elastic that's on her S hook, take off the hook and let the elastic go down into the doll's body, letting the pipe cleaner run through your hand slowly. Put the torso aside and slip the pipe cleaner under BOTH elastics. Tug down on both feet and wiggle things around to get the elastic evenly distributed. You might need a friend's help for this part.

Once things are 'even', thread the two ends of the pipe cleaner through the torso and out the neck. Pull the pipe cleaner up while holding the doll's torso twixt your knees (or let the friend help if they're still there). Let the weight of the doll help.

When the elastics are pulled up through the neck, thread the S hook back on both of them and remove the pipe cleaner from the elastic. I then use the pipe cleaner, this time to draw the hook up into the doll's head - easier than trying to use bare hands and won't accidentally damage the doll like a pair of pliers might. Just my 50 cents worth (inflation)...

 

It started out steampunkish early on, then took a more fanciful turn.... I'm not sure how or when that happened. I was toying with the idea of adding some pockets to Rylin's waistcoat and a watch chain, but wondered if it might look too busy? Lizzie would look cute with a fancy witches hat -- not a Halloween-only witches hat, but something she could wear all the time. I manage a metaphysical store and Wicca is a year-round religion, so she could wear it to work any time I took her with me.

Oh, and for anyone who has a Michael's crafts, they've been putting out their Halloween stuff and today I saw a whole bunch of doll-sized fancy withces hats! They're fabric, reasonably nice, but crudely attatched to headbands so that they can be worn by kids (why no adult sizes?!?) But the hats look like they'd come off easily with a little care and they are perfect MSD sized! $9.99 here, with feathers and lace and all kinds of neat stuff attatched! Some top hats, too, but those weren't as nice.

 

Cymorill: Look too Busy?! This is STEAMPUNK you're talking about! Victorian style Frillies and decoration and fanciness is part and parcel of the visual 'language'!

 

They look so cute Cymorill, love the outfits!
If you don't want to cover up hair but still want head gear (well at least for Lizzie) you could do the teeny top hat thing, that is more of a baby top hat on head band style - rather than a large one. Like a fascinator with a decorative top hat. And you can stick over the top stuff in a hat band without it really being over the top, it's a hat, it needs a decoration in the band....

if you goggle "decorative mini top hat" will get oodles of examples some of the less 'spammed' ones are really quite cool.

But... I think they look perfect just the way they are anyway

 

And goggles. Can't do Steampunk without goggles:


IMG_3332 by nezumichan, on Flickr

 

These steampunk dolls are cute. May I ask did you. Make the goggles or were they purchased?

 

dhawktx- too busy such that the check patterning would get lost; I really love the pattern. It's a fine line sometimes between intricate and interesting and just plain fussy.

Quanita- Oooo, tiny top hat! That might be very cute! Definitely have to work on accessories. I have a bunch of old Waltham and Elgin watch faces (never know when I might pick up a movement without a face), maybe I can do something with that on the hat band? I made a regular-sized tophat already, but I don't like it... too big. Wish I had a 7" bowler.

Great picture mousethatroars! I like the 3/4 sleeve blouse and the belt-pouch-thingie. What's inside it? And the little one is so cute. What are their names?

.... Goggles for certain, just need to get around to making them. I only have one pair right now (Lucien's, and he's a little possesive about them). I made them out of wrist watch cases; pretty easy little craft project!

Elizabeth always looks slightly freaked-out in most of her photographs. It's weird because in real life she doesn't look that way at all... rather unconcerned, actually. I think it's something about how her eyes relect the light back to the camera.