Day 355 - 365/2014

Day Three Hundred Fifty-Five

Today has been a day of physical work around my house.  I moved my old over-sized recliner out to the curb and I also broke down an absolute mountain of cardboard boxes to take to the curb for recycling.  It is amazing how draining that is.  While I was working on it, it was kind of exhilarating.  Once I stopped and took a rest, my body caught up with me and I am paying for it now.  I still have one more load of laundry to do and a couple of loads of dishes/pots/pans...but I can spread those out over the rest of the evening.

I can't really work on anything because my hands are swollen and I don't want to push things.  But I did take a look at the new hand sewn guy's head and arms/hands tonight...sadly, the head is too small for the hands/arms -- at least I am not happy with the size difference.  I will use that head for another guy sometime.

But while I was in the basement working on the cardboard boxes I came across a small stash of stuff that my sister couldn't sell -- mostly stuff that needed to be tossed out -- but there were two rolls of fleece horse wraps and I think I might be able to fashion a whole head out of them (and still have some left over).  I am not crazy about purple, but it will be embellished a lot.  Also tonight while I was looking at my other fabrics I came across one of the first spikey things prototypes I made and I think I can take the spikes out of the fabric and use them on the new new hand sewn guy.  I think I might have another go at making paper pattern pieces to come up with a shape for the head. I have a few ideas and I will try them in paper first...but not tonight (probably).

Day 354 - 365/2014

Day Three Hundred Fifty-Four

Man.  It was still light outside when I started fooling around the the new hand sewn guy's arms and my fabric stash.  Too many choices plus I have not a got clue what this guy will look like yet.  

This is just a small sampling of the bazillion combinations I was looking at.

Wow -- I even had a small swatch of fabric from my studio chairs in my stash...nearly the same color just bigger.

After making myself totally nuts with all of the choices I decided I needed to know what his head was going to look like before I went any further.  A good thing about making stuff up as you go along is you can keep changing things.  A bad thing is that if you don't plan things out you have to go back and sort of retrofit stuff...which is where I am right now since I started with the hands/arms.  Sheesh.

I don't have any more whole gloves left.  I actually pretty much only have fingers and a few cuffs.  I don't know what I was thinking when I made those hands from blue glove material because I can't make a face to match.  I might need to make up his story to include that those are gloves he is wearing, not his hands...don't know...just don't know.

So I found one fingerless hand part.  It is close to the same blue but not the same so I will use the stripes as the muzzle area of his face...I think.

I needed to sew up the edges because I wanted to save the bulk of the stripey part.  I tried sewing up the finger parts a couple of different ways with just a running stitch sort of thread that I could pull out easily (and not have to deal with straight pins poking me).  I had no idea what direction to sew in and what that would do when turned rightside out...so I played around a bit.

Sewing up the finger openings in this direction...

...made this sort of a nose and mouth.  I kind of like it but not for this guy.

So I ended up just sewing straight across and then I had to use white thread in the white stripe just because it was too off.

Okay -- so what would be the rest of his head?  Gah!  I have had this toy bear sweater saved for "something" since my niece was a little kid and the stuffed cat that I purchased the sweater for was long gone. 

I stared at it a long time and thought about it for an even longer time and then I got over myself and decided for crying out loud, it is just a long-gone toy's sweater...my niece never wore it or anything...cripes.

I made a tube and I was going to use the inside part as the outside because I liked the texture, but it was easier to work with the loops and open them up by using my embroidery scissors to stretch one loop open (and not cut it) to put the spikes through.

I tacked some spikes in place to see how they might look and what shape his head might be with the stripey muzzle.

 And then the edges started to get really wonky and I needed to stitch up the loops a little and I just ended up making folded-over-and-quickly-stitched edge seams that would hold long enough for me to join the two pieces of knitted fabric. 

And then I used one of the buttons from the sweater for an eye and who knows if this is what he will end up like -- but for now I can almost start to see a guy emerging...but maybe not...too soon to say.  And now it is nearly nine at night and the cats are meowing for dinner -- where does the time go???

Day 352 - 365/2014

Day Three Hundred Fifty-Two

Tonight I put the sleeves and hands together for the new hand sewn guy I am working on.  I made and assembled the parts for the hands and sleeves a few days ago and tonight I stitched the cuff edge (well, it isn't really a cuff per se, but I don't know what else to call it) and then I stitched the hand assembly into it and stuffed it with fiberfill.

The assembled parts I made a few days ago...

...tonight were stitched together and stuffed with fiberfill.

Day 348 - 365/2014

Day Three Hundred Forty-Eight  (updated)

Tonight I have been working on a hand for the arm of the new hand sewn guy.  I am not going to keep track of how much time I put into this one...that last one was a fluke -- I don't normally care.

Earlier today and this evening I worked on filling in the background on Biteyou's painting/collage, as well as slightly outlining his eyes (using just straight-out-of-the-tube Phthalo Blue).  I mixed Paine's Gray with Phthalo Blue and came up with a very pleasing dark blue for the background.  It looks pretty good over the chalky black paper.  The inclusions in the paper aren't as readily seen and I think I like that...but they are there.  (Lots of holding of my breath on this one.)

I think I will make the other hand now...mostly so I remember how I did it.

UPDATE:  there -- I finished the other hand...but the hands are still separate from the sleeves...just posing them here.

365/2013 - Day 337

I'm not so sure about this new guy

It was another super Wednesday Morning but Joan and Leann met up with me at my house (instead of us going to Joan's) because I had to wait to hear from my furnace guy.  It has been a few weeks since we last got together for a Wednesday Morning and it was really really good to see them!

I worked on the new guy (I'm trying to make a second doll for PCCA's Holly Dolly Fundraiser) but I am not so sure I like him as-is yet.

I attached his fingers (that I made last night while watching television) and I tacked his body fabric on and then tacked on his arms and legs.  I really love his arms/fingers and I like his legs (so far) very much.  I can't quite put my finger on what it is I am not happy with. 

I like the checkered material.  I love his eyes.  Maybe it is the shape of his body.  Maybe it is his face overall.  Maybe it is that I (for me) need to have a distinctly separate (or more defined) head/body.  I love dolls by other artists who have a one-piece head/body but maybe it is not my style.  Maybe this guy needs a head.  Maybe his body is too solid (for me) vs my usually more squishy guys.  I am feeling a little bit that he looks (right now) like a checkered potato with arms and legs.

I will figure it out...but here are the photos from this morning and this afternoon.