Dionne’s Draught Excluder 2019 - Part 15

Dionne’s Draught Excluder 2019 - Part 15

I am continuing with making the Paws.

Paw Slip Original

After turning the Slip the correct way around. I place it on to the Leg.

Paw Slip Curved

Using a Blanket Stitch I Curve the Top Edges of the Paw Slip.

Slip on Paw

The above photograph shows the Curved Paw Slip on the Leg. As you can see there is still a bit of loose material. The Curved Edges look very pinched from this angle.

Small Stuffing

Since there is not much room for filling between the Slip and the Leg I have had to cut the Stuffing into very small pieces. Otherwise when filling there will be unsightly bulges.

Blanket Stitch Paw

I have Stuffed the Paw Slip and need to do more manipulation of the End. Since I do not want the Slip to move around whilst I am working on it I have to secure it.

Important

I Sew the Slip to the Leg using a Blanket Stitch. However prior to this I had to make sure that the Slip was in the right position on the leg. This was done by placing the Leg how it would be attached to the body. That would show the correct angle of the Paw. DO Not use the Seam of the Leg as a guide as I found it can twist quite badly whilst being stuffed.

Double Curve

 

Once the Slip is secured I could go back to the Curved End. Using the same Technique I Sewed the Curve again. I pulled the material tight and some of the Stitching was far nearer to the Centre of the Slip.

This was actually easier than I thought it would be. Now the Paw was Stuffed I had more to get hold of and the needle went through quite easily.

Dionne’s Draught Excluder 2019 - Part 11

Dionne’s Draught Excluder 2019 - Part 11

I am continuing with making the Ears.

Hemmed Inner Ear

Having got my Rough White Inner Ear I place it on the Outer Ear. I can now see how much I need to Trim before Hemming so it will fit Inside the Outer Ear Pipe Cleaners.

I then double check the Rabbit Ear Shape before Pinning and Sewing to the Outer Ear. I then repeated this process with the other Ear.

Sewing Rabbit Ears

Next I have to Sew the two halves of the Rabbit Ears together. Normally I would turn them Inside-Out before Blanket Stitching. However since I need to Stuff the Ears I am doing this face on.

I Blanket Stitch all the way down one Side of the Rabbit Ear. I then Sew the other Side but I leave about an Inch Gap So that I can Stuff it.

Stuffing Rabbit Ear

Regarding the Stuffing of the Ears I have made a change. Instead of using Offcuts I am using proper Stuffing. This is because I want the Stuffing to be Softer so I can manipulate the Pipe Cleaners if necessary.

Stuffed Ear

After I have filled down to the Gap I only add a little more. This is so once Sewn it will be flimsier than the rest of the Ear. This is to make Sewing and Attaching the Ear easier.

If you look at the above photograph you can see the finished Ear has a slight Curvature.  I repeat the process with the other Ear except in that case the Curvature is in the Opposite direction.

Mademoiselle Marionette 2018 Part 12

Mademoiselle Marionette 2018 Part 12

This is going to be an extremely difficult blog to write. The reason for this is I have lost my mobile phone. This means I unfortunately do not have many of the photographs that I took.

I will try my best to get it in some sort of logical order. One of the reasons I take so many photographs is that I often have more than one project on the go so it helps me remember what I did.

Material Hemmed for Arms

Although I had already covered the Arms mummy style I thought the effect was too untidy. Therefore I cut and hemmed some material and sewed over the Arms.

Waist Front

 

This is going to be tricky. It concerns making the Waist. If you remember I said do not completely fill the Marionette with stuffing. This is because I needed room to manoeuvre where the stuffing was going to be.

Carefully begin to separate the stuffing inside the Marionette by squeezing and pushing in the middle of the Body. Gently move the stuffing inside towards the Top and Bottom of the torso.

Waist Side

 

There is now less stuffing in the centre of the Body. I took some thread and began to sew about a fingers width either side of the Body. This brought the Front and Back Pieces closer together. I did this several times to make sure it would hold.

Waist Back

After doing the pinching of the material I then needed to help make the Body into a more hourglass figure. This was accomplished by folding over the newly sewn pinched area towards the back.

I then sewed the folded area in place. I had to do this several times to prevent the stuffing making the Body spring back into its previous shape.

Hemmed Rectangle and Circles

Now the Waist is finished I am moving on to the Chest. I have cut out and hemmed a Rectangle and pair of Circles.

Pin Between Circles

Here I lost a lot of pictures. I marked the middle of the Rectangle with a pin. Then I sewed the Circles either Side of the pin. I then part sewed around the Circles clockwise on the right and anticlockwise on the left.

Bra Stuffed

This left me a gap at the Bottom in which to fill the Circles with stuffing. I then finished sewing the rest of the Circles so the stuffing wouldn’t come out.

Rather than just sew it straight to the Body (which would have been much easier) I decided I was going to make it into a Bra so it could be detached depending on what the outfit was.

Thanks Laura for the idea of how to do this and for supplying me with the Hook and Eyes.

Bra Front

Here once again the loss of photographs makes this awkward to explain. The 1^st thing I did was fold the corners of the Rectangle a third of the way across and underneath. This gave the end of the Rectangle three sides and made it less bulky and more Bra-shaped.

I then took two more Rectangles and repeated this on one end of both of them. This would be the part that would be sewn to the stuffed Rectangle. The other ends I folded into a point.

Bra Back

I now sewed all three pieces together. The next step was to sew on the Hook and Eye. I sewed them on the points. The Bra could now be fastened.

However until I had sewn them on and saw how they fitted together I couldn’t properly judge the length of the Rectangles needed. Once placed on the Body and fastened I could see that the Bra was quite loose.

In order to decrease the length without having to cut anything off and resew I came up with a simple but effective trick. On both sides I made a simple fold and tacked across. I then tried the Bra on the Body again.

I felt that it was still too loose so I again added a fold on each side. Now it not only fitted properly but gave the back an attractive pattern.

N.B.
Bra Front Construction Idea by Laura Whaley
https://www.facebook.com/Alyssa.Rose.designs

Mademoiselle Marionette 2018 Part 11

Mademoiselle Marionette 2018 Part 11

I am finally moving on to the Front of the Marionette.

Checking Width

I have now found my mislaid material and having selected a piece I checked the width.

Hem Front Piece

I then hemmed the Front piece on three sides.

Neck Sewn Shoulder Pinned

After hemming I centred the material and sewed at the Neck of the Marionette. I then pinned one of the Shoulders ready for sewing.

Sewn Across Shoulders

 

I sewed across both of the Shoulders. This would stop the material shifting when I move on to the Sides

Checking Width Stuffed

I pinned the Sides and stuffed the Marionette. That way I could check if I need to attach Side Pieces. I naturally took the stuffing out again before sewing.

Pinned at Waist

After I had sewn the Sides I re-stuffed the Body. As I had run out of stuffing I decided rather than take it out again I would pin the Marionette at the waist. That way the stuffing would not fall out.

Marionette Almost Stuffed

I have now got some more stuffing and therefore can continue. I carry on stuffing the Marionette until it is ALMOST FULL! Under no circumstances fill it completely as this will hinder a future point. Oh and yes I do realise that this photograph looks somewhat indelicate J

Marionette Completely Stuffed

After ALMOST filling the Marionette I then pull the rest of the Front Piece material and sew underneath. That completes this section.

Mademoiselle Marionette 2018 Part 7

Mademoiselle Marionette 2018 Part 7

The Back still needs work but I cannot really complete it until I have started the Front.

Circle Pinned Front

I take the other White Circle and pin to the Top at the Front.

Preliminary Stuffing

I then add further pins to secure the sides. Next I add some stuffing inside and then pin at the Bottom. This now roughly mimics the contours of a stuffed Head.

Face Roughly Drawn

Once all the pins are in place I can then begin to draw a rough picture of a Face in pencil on the Circle. If I had drawn the Face whilst it was flat the positioning of it could be askew or proportions wrong when stuffed.

Please remember that I am in no way or shape an artist. I therefore have very poor depth perception when it comes to anything of a 3D nature.

Embroidered Face

I have tweaked the Face slightly whilst embroidering. I had trouble with just about everything but in particularly the Eyes. For some reason when I added the white towards the Nose it just looked wrong. Therefore I unpicked and left the Eyes as they were.

After the Face part was finished I began to add more Loops to make a Fringe and also alongside the Face. Once I was satisfied that I had enough Hair at this point I needed to sew together at the top. I pinned them into position and began to sew.

In Between Circles

Disaster has struck. Whilst endeavouring to sew the pieces together the needle snapped. This is due to the amount of material it was trying to get through. I am not just trying to get through the 2 White and 2 Rough pieces but also the hems. That makes 8 Pieces in total.

I did not want to be impaled by flying needle parts again (which incidentally took ages to find and put in the bin). I had to rethink. Instead of trying to get through all that material I pulled the Face up a little and sewed just the two White Circles.

Blanket Stitched Scalp

I decided that I would use the same Yellow thread to Blanket stitch the Circles together as I could then use the same thread to add more Hair.

I only Blanket Stitched down until it was level with the Cheeks. This is so I can still get my fingers and therefore the needle under the White material in order to continue the Hairline.