It's been nothing but a marathon, I tell you. Designing a doll takes serious amounts of decisiveness, a strong heart and a steady hand. At some point this week, while my husband sipped his tea and browsed netflix to amuse himself, I came into the room, almost crying, ready to give up. "These flippin' dolls just don't want to be made", "I can't be bothered making an eleventh head for goodness' sakes", "Who do they think they are?"...he sipped his tea, looking at me over the rim of his cup, not a word out of his mouth. The monologue continued. "I can't believe I can't make the doll I want", "What is wrong with me?", "It's just that working with woven is so much different than knits"...the sipping continued. The monologue strayed. "And I don't want to make them feel hard, they are supposed to be squishy, but I have trained myself to stuff so hard...", "Perhaps if I go to bed...", "Forget it, I am not giving up, these dolls will be made even if it's the last thing I do on this Earth". Back to the sewing machine, and the torture tools of choice: pins, needles, thimble-less but with a mad eye.
As you can see from the picture above, I conquered. By letting go. Letting go of exactly what I wanted the fabric to do, and just trusting that if things didn't work out, I would get back to the drafting board, the notebooks and the sketches. Trusting that these hands do know what they are doing, and that most importantly, I am nobody, but a tool. Dolls and toys use me to come into this realm, to be played with and entertain people. I should know better by now.
Cloth Figs was supposed to be all about sourcing vintage and local fabrics, about one of a kind items. Recent toy legislation has again fumbled my intent, and instead I have decided to stop focusing on using vintage fabrics, and just go with the flow. This new batch of dolls will all be wearing beautiful french vintage linen for their dresses, soft as butter, that I purposely bought a long time ago for them. They will all have draped fabric hair like her (different colours and style), and crochet cheeks. We are brainstorming wether to give them sloppy socks, fancy boots or the boring mary janes (can you tell I am sick of making maryjanes...). They are made with cotton muslin and stuffed with wool. They are soft and squishy, extremely floppy, and their construction has a bit of crunchyness to contribute to the rag doll feel. I wanted them to be completely different, but just so, than my other dolls. Some will have eyebrows, some will be sad. But each one will be their own little self.
I have three more in the works, and it won't be long before these four sisters can come out to play. Making their eyes, and doing their hair has been oodles of fun, so maybe I will add them to my regular toy repertoire. Maybe I can start trying them with linen, oh! the possibilities of stepping out of the box! They measure 16" tall and they embody all kinds of fun. So I should better stop yapping and get to work. Just couldn't contain it any longer, had to come here to show. Hope you are enjoying this funky Friday.