Baby got back....

Hello Babydoll from Suckerpunch how are you today?

Fine thanks, how are you?

Well I finished the secret commission the other day so now it's your turn! A friend wants a plushie version of you cos you're one of her cosplays.

The main reference shots I used were


Plus this image of just the costume for Babydoll

I planned out the basic layers. The base doll just has a blue top a very small midriff and blue shorts to go under the skirt. The sailor collar went over the top sewn on separately, and the pigtails were also sewn on separately as was the skirt. Last touch was the harness.

I don't know why I like these inside out shots but I guess for me what I like about them is how it doesn't look like anything and then it's turned out the other way and it really has some shape.

I had thought I had a shot with no skirt and no sailor collar thing but I didn't apparently. I also didn't take a shot at the point on turning the doll right side out I discovered her legs were just too long and I had to shrink them a bit.

Anyway, after I'd done the basic doll I then sewed the skirt. I did debate actually ironing box pleats but decided in the end that the better part of valour was faking it with embroidering. So here you go, for some reason I don't fancy right siding it up.

Once the skirt was on I made the pigtails and sewed them on, and then made the sailor collar. I used the blue stripes to sew down the hems out of laziness.

Just at an unfortunate moment towards the end I ran out of blue embroidery thread with a mere inch or so to go. It was killing, but I survived until I could retrieve some more from Mum's house.

I then made the holster/harness and the plaited rope strap. I only sewed down the sailor collar after the holster was sewn onto the doll. It is not removable.

When I finally go the last bit of blue embroidery thread I went a bit mad and wrapped it up and posted it off without taking a final complete picture. I hope the owner will do that for me!

All in all I'm pleased how she came out. She's very cute and I like how well the details turned out.

I've just remembered someone asked me for a Delorean plushie...dunno if I'll get to that.

Wishlist

So sometimes rather than paypal payments I ask people to buy things off my "I would buy them but I'm trying to be good about money" list.

I thought I would start a list of things like that....

Either of the following for craft purposes

• air erasable pens - no idea what they are but would be great for crafting
• water erasable pen? Like this hobbycraft water erasable?
• Chalk tailors pencil eg ebay tailors pencil

Bookses

• Cauldron of Ghosts by David Weber
• Saga vol 4 (not yet published)
• Lazarus vol 2 by Greg Rucka et al
• Morning Glories vols 5-7 Nick Spenser et al 
• Sensation comics featuring Wonder Woman...dunno if this will ever happen but I wants it....so bad. 
• Ms. Marvel Volume 1: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson et al
• Supergirl ISBN 978-1852869601 (link is to Amazon, doesn't have to be from there)
• Battling Boy the Rise of Aurora West by Paul Pope

Individual comic issues

• Edge of the Spider-verse issue 2 (Gwen Stacey issue)
• Wonder Woman: Futures End #1 (One Shot - WW as God of war)

Stuff

• Funko Pop Storm 
• Lasers and feelings by the Doubleclicks CD
• Dimetrodon by the Doubleclicks CD
• Chainmail and Cello by the Doubleclicks CD 
• Cheap webcam

Tshirtses

• Xmen cute group shirt - in women's white large
• Chibi heroines DC/Marvel - in women's white large
• Ladies of the atom - in white women's large
•  We are the heroes in navy women's large
• United X t shirt womens large
• xavier institute  womens large

Future projects

So while I'm blogging, this is my current list.

1. The things wot I am crafting right now. It's a surprise, so I can't talk about what it is yet till it is gifted so I can tell you after Christmas.

2. Babydoll (Sucker Punch film)

3. Book for my new niece. I'm planning on basing it on a German nursery rhyme my Omi taught me.

These are the words


Die Eltern:
Die Schnecke hat ihr Haus,
das Fellchen hat die Maus,
der Sperling hat die Federn fein,
der Falter seine Flügelein.
Nun sage mir, was hast denn du?

Das Kind:
Ich habe Kleider und auch Schuh,
Vater, Mutter, Lust und Leben,
das hat mir der liebe Gott gegeben.
Amen

I don't speak German but this is relatively easy ish

It means something like

Old person:
The snail has her house
A fur coat has the mouse
The sparrow has fine feathers
The butterfly beautiful wings
So then my child what have you?

Child:
I have clothes and shoes
Father, mother, love and life
That is what the good God has given me
Amen.

It will be an 8 page book with front cover and the idea sketches and micro test have all been done.

I'll try and share the proper sketches when I get that far but I want to do the plushies first.

Belatedly things get a bit stormy....

From one deity (Loki) to his brother, Thor, God of Thunder.

I prefer reference material that goes back to the source the person wants - in this case the films, but sometimes it's hard to get all the details. And to get them all in one image.

I found this image which seemed from other pictures to have a lot of useful details visible.

The first thing I realised was that there were a lot of details that I couldn't possibly hope to replicate in a plushie both due to scale and the style of the object. In addition I didn't have much actual silvery colour but I did want some metallic elements, so I had to decide how to use it to best effect.

What I aimed for was a general impression of the costume rather than a replica.

In some ways the costume was simpler than Loki's as there was not an extra coat. In essence you have Thor's suit and boots, and you have a cloak, as opposed to Loki's suit with tunic, coat and cloak.

In addition I had wanted to make some proper flowing hair as I had with Loki but I never got round to sourcing yellow wool so I just stuck with cloth. I liked this goldy cloth though so it came out alright even if it was a toughie to hem for the beard.  I didn't have any bits large enough to do it in one piece but I kind of liked that effect as it sort of felt like different swathes of hair.

The first stage of Thor was putting together all the different bits for the body without cloak.

Thor's actual sleeve has a sort of mail bit and a cuff that is smooth. A plushie's arm is too short for that so I just gave him a silver sleeve.The next bit I added on was the belt and the front details of the armour.

Once I completed the basic Thor front and back I hemmed up the cloak and created two small silvery bits to attach the cloak to Thor. The cloak is not detatchable and can't be removed.

I had always planned to do a helmet but I didn't have enough silver for the whole thing. or to cover it entirely in silver.

So I decided to do it in grey felt. However while I wasn't sure at first about using the left over pieces to add silver details, I decided I had enough, so I made the wings on the side completely silver and used silver pieces at the front and over the back and top to give some extra feeling of silver without having to cover the entire thing. I also added some paper between the felt and silver to the wings to give them some stiffness.

So there you have him. The new owner thinks he his ace! I would have liked to have made a hammer but I didn't have any feelings about how I wanted to do it, and the owner has a little hammer keyring which fits! Plus he seems to look like a blond bearded friend of mine! No not Chris Hemsworth, I'm not connected to famous people. He's an English teacher.

Making things is magical

I can hear the HP theme already....

So I made a Dumbledore. In the end, that person, who had already ordered a Snape (I finished that a while back), I gave her the Harry Potter I made aaaaaaages ago as the person who ordered that  was an ex colleague, and wasn't paying for the privilege and was never going to visit again to collect him so I figured he was mine to pass on to a loving home. That makes a nice trio to have.

Dumbledore has had 2 incarnations in the movie, who dress very differently depending on the actor playing him.

I gotta say the second guy Michael Gambon may have been fun to watch but his outfit was not all that thrilling and he somehow came off to me as more of a Gandalf type with all the greys.

I did debate making him but with the customer's permission I went ahead with a more Richard Harris influenced creation.

A lovely reds and brocade look.

I didn't quite have brocade but I had some reddish, if not maroon coloured fabric.
The first stage involved the basic body of the plushie and the under fabric for the hair, which I planned to add to with wool. I decided his legs should be grey for want of any other better choice.

 Next stage was adding on some proper hair and I decided to go all out and give him lots and lots. It's a thin white wool if you're interested.

At this point I needed to sew on the bottom of his robes so he had to have his hair tied out of the way. I'm sure NORMAL people would have done this before the hair, but no-one ever called me normal!!

 Next stage was his robes. This is a sort of rich red velvet.

 I added a little bit of detailing by backing some lace ribbon with some yellow ribbon and adding it to the edge.

 I did a similar process to make the edge of the hat.

 I did debate cutting down his hair and then decided I liked it long. Fortunately, so did the customer!

A Harry Potter diversion

So I got a commission from a friend at work. It started with one and quickly crept up to 2 but as far as I'm concerned if you're paying you get to say how many you want.

Her requests were :

1. Severus Snape
2. Albus Dumbledore

This is not my first Harry Potter plushie as I did the boy himself Harry Potter a good while back.

I did warn her early on that Snape was not likely to be super complex or very very obvious. His colour scheme is so simple it's hard to make it distinctive. I did have some fun looking up details as I always do.

I noticed for example, that there is obviously some kind of white undershirt going on under his tunic just faintly obvious at cuff and neck.

His tunic is also a dark navy blue, and has button detailing down the middle and along the arms.

I also noted that his robes don't seem to have separate sleeves


And his legs are black trousers or leggings with black boots.

I was going to make him very pale but I got distracted by being efficient and ended up cutting his face colour from the same pinky colour as Dumbledore which I did at the same time.

Apologies, no making of photos.

At the end I suddenly had a couple of small thoughts of cute accessories. I made him a wand out of a twisty metal covered in black plastic thingy and ...

 A little book saying property of the half blood prince - which is him after all!

The new owner seems happy so yay! On to Dumbledore.

I also now appear to have a waiting list again

After Dumbledore there is :

1. Thor
2. Babydoll (Sucker Punch)
3. Mystery plushie to be revealed at a later date!
4. Hermione Granger

Back to the Future II - ish

So I'm afraid I didn't do many making of photographs of this, just this blurry one:

The biggest different technique I used here was interfacing. I added it to some fabric which was the perfect colour for the denim but was the wrong weight and also very stretchy which is a pain to work with. I also added it to the stretchy face fabric to make my life easier. I'd done a little bit of this for Doc but this time I used it in a big way on the face. It was so great. Only slight problem was forgetting the stretchy fabric might need a cooler iron and ruining some bits by slightly melting them. Oops.

So the main pics I have are some reference pics.

His period outfits are sometimes a bit varied but the most familiar costume is the jeans and blue check shirt with a red bodywarmer/windcheater.



I have to warn you I am not feeling patient so although I made sure I did the right shoes - this photo was so useful for that:



I'm afraid I just couldn't be bothered to do braces this time as in this screen shot



I did give him the red under t shirt though.

I'm taking a rest before Clara although technically I don't have a choice, the nearest I have to a pale peach colour is just not similar enough to Caucasian flesh-tones being more of a bluey pink.

I'll be posting it off soon!