Greta, a natural fiber art doll and her cloth friend Calabaza
This custom set of natural cloth dolls is ready to head home. I am so pleased with their stay here and wish them the best as they begin their journey home.
As I mentioned in my previous post, Greta is a custom order and I have been working on her for a couple of months now, so she is finally ready to head home. Her journey points south, to an area I had the priviledge to live close by. I know it well and I have been telling Greta all about it so she has a good mental picture of what to expect.
I also mentioned there were two other little dolls as the inspiration behind Greta’s creation. As you must already know, I do not reproduce dolls, especially custom dolls. My little wool children are all born with personalities of their own, at a set point in time in my creative life, so I dislike very much the idea of trying to make a “copy” of somebody else who already graced me with their presence.
So when I use other dolls as inspiration behind them, personally I only use other dolls as inspiration IF I have created them, I do not use the work of other dollmakers to inspire my own custom work or otherwise.
Whenever I do this I am always marvelled at how distinct they come out. Maybe it’s because I try to create a new wool child though they may share the same fabric or hair fibres as a predecessor. The result is always magic to me.
The inspiration behind Miss Greta was found in Ermengarde and Blythe. Ermengarde was the original rascal who spurred the imagination of my dear customer, and Blythe was the size we went after.
I have made many, many figlettes as custom orders since I created this doll style, but since recently down-sizing the pattern in both age and height, I have never made one as a custom order before in Greta’s size and I must confess: utterly in love.
There is just something quite magical in this size and style of doll. I still can’t put my finger on it and maybe this is just my completely biased opinion. But I find large dolls in the skinny proportions of the Petite Figs and tiny dolls in the chubby proportions of Greta, to be just the ticket. I know, I am speaking goobledeegook so I will get on to the actual dolls.
Other sweet wins or accomplishments in the creation of this set of dolls was that after making Blythe, working with Teeswater locks (the fibre I used for her hair) has now become very easy (not simple) for me to the point I enjoy immensely working with these fibre locks.
In all honesty, I can enumerate so many happy moments in their creation. Working with ultra long Teeswater locks for her hair (purchased by my dear friend Young and gifted to me. The shepherdess taking care of these gorgeous animals lives in the UK and you can connect with her and her fibre journey here) was one of the many joyrful moments encountered whilst making them.
Another of those cherished moments was sewing again with pinwhale corduroy. I love black, I truly do. But I kind of have a hate relationship using it for my dolls because I have such a hard time photographing it.
In any case, Greta looks amazing in her corduroy dress with peter pan collar and her witchy hat.
I also made her a full-on jumpsuit/onesie made with floral corduroy that I over-dyed with tea. It has a sweet bib with an embroidered acorn and a wooly pink hat. More pics of these once the dolls arrive home.
I like to leave last minute surprises for my doll mothers as they open their doll box. But you can see a sneak peek in the bottom left corner of this photo.
We were definitely feeling hard the corduroys, the thick plaids and the muted colours. Greta was so enjoyable to sew and make for.
Back in September when we started her creation we had this idea of “farm girl, prairie life” which somehow completely morphed into her adorableness. She asked for a Halloween costume and I never deny my wool children their costume wishes so here you had me concocting this outfit that brought many giggles to the sewing room.
Greta wanted to look like a scary witch and I think I failed her. She looks too adorable to me. Her pumpkin doll also turned out heart-melting so I must be missing a dollmaking gene involved in making spooky things. My hands always go for big soulful eyes and gentle smiles.
Now let me tell you how much fun I am having creating this accompanying cloth dolls to my sculpted fiber art dolls. It is so immensely liberating to explore other kinds of dollmaking, while still making the dolls I love and have been creating for years.
I made Miss Flossy for Ealhswith and now I tried sort of the same body pattern, but without sewn-up feet and real arms for Miss Calabaza. I made her a pumpkin-ish head and used watercolours to dye it. The cotton muslin I am using for these cloth dolls I already pre-dyed with tea. I used black thread to make the stitching lines more visible, with more of a primitive look to them, and for Miss Calabaza I used rope for arms so she can dangle from a door knob or just sit pretty holding a bouquet of wheat or fall leaves in her new home. Who knows what sort of doll play she will nurture.
Greta is 14,5” tall so you can see the size of Miss Calabaza here with her. Perfect little friend, don’t you agree?
When Greta is wearing her Black Witch outfit they look like the perfect pair. But when she wears her Autumnal ensemble they also look like two peas in a pod. I am so happy to have made Greta a new friend, as they can now travel together, holding hands (and rope!) if it gets scary or too long during their journey. Knowing they will be together gives me a lot of peace.
Greta has one more outfit that I am leaving completely as a surprise for her mother to unveil. Let’s just say she will be ready to hear spooky stories, drink hot chocolate in the afternoons or watch cartoons on Saturday morning wearing this ensemble. I hope you love it Lisa!
I almost forgot to mention. While deep in the creation of Greta I took a few videos, as I am trying to document a little bit more my dollmaking days in video form. One of those videos actually turned into a sewing tutorial of sorts and you can watch it on my YouTube channel, which this year has grown so much and I am so grateful for each and every one of you!
Very sneakily I did trace the pattern pieces and turned them into a simple PDF for my Patrons, hoping they too get up to no good sewing witchy hats for their dolls. This year we introduced the addition of the PDF pattern pieces to the Dressmaking tutorials I am creating on a monthly basis for Patreon, and while some days I want to pull my hair out, most months this is a very enjoyable adventure. If you would like to check out the ginormeous list of content I have created for this learning channel, you can check it out here>>>.
So it is with immense joy that I am packing these two dolls this week, giving them lots of kisses and hugs, thanking them for allowing me to be their maker, imbuing them with mischief and love, so they bring the same to where they are headed.
Thank you Lisa, from the bottom of my heart, for allowing me once more the chance to create from the depths of my heart and for your continued support of the beautiful tradition of handmade natural dolls.
I hope they bring you a smile and that you remember how much you are loved and what a beautiful legacy of doll love, kindness and friendship you are leaving behind you.
From my hands to yours!
