Inspiration...I find inspiration in many places, for example, "The Slipper and the Rose" This movie is one of my favorites, I do not remember the 1st time I saw it, but I remember being fascinated by the costumes and the songs. It's a different telling of the Cinderella story, give it a watch and see what inspires you. 

Hi Everyone,
Yes I know it's been a very long time since I posted a blog, so much has happened in the last 5 years, I'm still creating and enjoying live. So I'd like to post a couple of photos to bring everyone up to date. 1st in 2016 I went to the Tonner Doll Company Doll Convention, it was their 25th Anniversary. I entered the Haynes Sisters Dressed in their "Sisters" number Dresses. As You can See I won 1st Place.

Last year I entered the Sister's of Perpetual Indulgence, "Project Runway" I did not win but I had a ton of fun and I won People's Choice. Below are some photos from the event, The Sisters of San Francisco do some amazing charitable work. I worked with an amazing Novice Sister who was very inspiring.

Here are some of my new Dresses, the first one is red with white polka dots. The 2nd one is yellow gingham.

Well here is just a taste of what I've doing. I plan to post more. I plan to have a few things for sale too.

"Can you make a bear wearing a kilt?"

A few months ago my sister called with a request, she asked "can you make a doll...no a bear" this was a commission for a dear friend of hers who needed a pick me up. Turns out this friend was a big fan of the books and TV series "Outlander" Sis thought that a bear in a kilt depicting the character Jamie Fraser would be just the thing so Jamie Frasbear was born. It had been a long time since I had made a teddy bear and I feared my skills were a bit rusty, I found the right fur at a local craft/sewing shop and the right plad to go with him. Some have said he looks a bit like Chewbaca from Starwars but I think he is cute and cuddly. I hear that he is enjoying his new home and that my friends is why I sew It feels good to see or hear about someone enjoying your work. 

It's been a while...

Hi wonderful followers,

It's been a while I know I am going to try to post more often now that I think I have my password fixed for this blog. I love posting and sharing with you all that I do here. Before we moved from New York I made a cute wooden doll for my friend Mel, she was based on the Japanese Kokishi doll. 

This past Christmas I entered a ornament swap, after seeing my pic of Mel's doll I was inspired to try it again. I was so inspired by the results I had to make one for my coworkers and my boss. 

This is Mel's doll in Process he had the 1st one and she is unique as I made the rest a bit different from his. 

These are the dolls I made for my coworkers I think they turned out so cute. 

This is the doll/Ornament I made for my swap partner, I love the paper I used for her "dress". 

A Visitor from the UK

I've been a bit behind in all my blogging activities, but I have a bit of a update, last summer I entered the Sindy Doll Makeover Contest, I was sent a very cute Sindy doll all the way from the UK, we had to give this young lady a makeover and send her back to England so she could walk the runway. I sadly didn't win...BUT they liked my styling and dress so much they added her to their 2014 LookBook, I'm including a link here:
 https://www.facebook.com/VintageSindy for the FaceBook page.
Any way they did a wonderful Illustration of my Makeover and I think she is so cute. This has been such a wonderful experience for me, I have gained such confidence in my doll designs from this that I want to do more. I do hope that I can get my hands on my own Sindy doll  as I'd love to have her come and stay, so that I can create some more wonderful outfits. Tonner Dolls has a liscence for Sindy and I can't wait to see what they do with her.

This is how She arrived I added the red simple dress. 

Quick pic of the top, I added a black bob wig

Full Length shot she is so cute and a bit flirty

This is one of the pics they sent, I love the use of pink as a accent color

The 2014 Desk Calendar so cute I beleive most of the illustrations came from the contest

The Illustration, she is so adorable, I now want to get my own Sindy and dress her like this. 

A commission...

So some time ago a fellow Tonner Doll enthusiast commissioned me to make a dress for her Gothic Antoinette doll, I was so excited for the chance to create something for her and I had the same doll at home to use as a fit model, well...life got in the way a bit but I finally finished the dress in time for the May Tonner Convention, I think that my friend was very excited and she loved the dress and I'm sure it looks just as lovely on her Antoinette as it does on mine. This all started with a sketch, I wanted to do a bit of a Gothic style but all black has been done, so I choose a beautiful wine color, for the corset I did a bit of quiting to give it texture and strength, for the skirt I did an experiment with fusible backing, this gave the skirt a textured look as well and was totally what I wanted. On the bottom I sewed 4 rows of this real cool wine and black tulle, it's kinda cool instead of the usual type it was kinda random and the effect of putting the two together was just what I wanted. I found a beautiful beaded ribbon at a place in NYC called M&J Trimmings, it's one of the good things about living here in NYC all the cool fabric and trim stores and always something interesting. I sewed a lot of the lining in by hand and I even did a bias strip to cover the top and bottom of the corset, I will say I did deconstruct the beaded ribbon to get the right look, something I learned at the costume shop, thanks guys! Any way it all came together beautifully and I'm so happy with the way it turned out. So enjoy the pics and I'll be posting the next project soon. 

This is the sketch

In progress (planning stage)

Corset in progress.

Finished dress

The back

A bit of steam and a bit of goth

Greetings All I know I've not posted in quite a while, I've been on a bit of a creative slump and I feel that the slump is over, one of the things that have gotten me going are some new additions to my collection, Meet Thea, Phin and Maudlyne, Thea and Phin are the from Wilde Imagination and were part of their SteamPunk Line "Imperium Park" I really enjoyed the line and for Christmas I received Phin after finding Thea at the Tonner WearHouse Sale, both are the basic dolls and I also got these wonderful fashions for them. Maudlyne is from Tonner Toys, she is a little girl who lives in a huge old house in upstate New York, her best friend is a ghost (who I'm told will be coming out sometime this year). Fingers are crossed cuz this one needs a friend. I've noticed that my collection has taken a decided dark turn with the steam punk and goth ladies I have gotten of late and to be honest I'm kind of fine with that. So here are some quick snaps. More to come as I learn to take better pics.