October 2015
Craft Tutorial: Halloween Candy for 18" Dolls
Did you know that craftmeister "Lee" lives on one of those streets that's wall-to-wall trick or treaters all night long and she has to order the candy in bulk a month in advance? It's a good thing we both LOVE this holiday.
To help out, "Pearl" set out to learn how to make two of our favorite kinds of candy: FUN SIZE BARS and CANDY CORN. Of course, these are doll-sized candies made of poly clay and paper, so they won't be much use to "Lee" on Halloween. But the dolls are going to love them at their party!
We're proud of the techniques we developed for simplifying the poly clay candy corn and giving the "fun size" bars realistic 3-dimensionality — and even a little bit of tantalizing weight.
We created YouTube video tutorials for each type of candy, adding to our growing YouTube channel.
We had a blast making these videos and we're going to be making a lot more, so please SUBSCRIBE NOW and join the fun each time we launch a new video.
CLICK HERE FOR THE "FUN SIZE" CANDY BAR TUTORIAL
CLICK HERE FOR THE CANDY CORN TUTORIAL
Costume Breakdown: "As you wish..."
In Part Two of this newsletter, we're doing a detailed costume breakdown of the man behind the mask (behind the candy corn) ...
That's our very own custom boy model Jack wearing our first 18" cosplay, a Princess Bride-inspired version of our new Pattern #3052: Pirates, Patriots and Princes 18th Century Men's Basics for 18" Dolls.
For the genesis of this costume, we have to take you back a few months to our wonderful long weekend at Costume College in Woodland Hills, CA.
We love Costume College. Every year, we make new friends and learn so many new techniques, tips and research tidbits that we're still processing them by the time the next year's College rolls around.
The duo behind The Tudor Tailor taught a bonus track at this year's college — that's Jane Malcolm-Davies looking resplendent as a Tudor gentlewoman in our photo above. We took as many of their classes as we could. If you ever get a chance to sit in on one of their talks, or join a Tudor Tailor workshop, DO IT. It's not just an education, it's performance art.
Looking to branch out from sewing, "Pearl" took several classes in thermoplastic crafting and cosplay materials — including a hands-on workshop on one of the newest materials, KobraCast®.
KobraCast® is an ultra-lightweight, non-toxic thermoplastic with a low activation temperature. An open weave polyester with a thermoplastic backing, it resembles a lightweight, lacquered buckram.
As it was originally developed for veterinary bandages, KobraCast® is remarkably gentle on the surfaces against which it is molded. In our workshop, we molded masks directly on our own faces. Really!
That got the wheels turning, as we thought of ways to use KobraCast® for one-of-a-kind doll accessories like masks, breastplates or bracers. If the material didn't hurt my face, perhaps it wouldn't hurt a doll? So when a Lee & Pearl™ fan suggested that our new 18th Century men's pattern would make a great Dread Pirate Roberts costume, we got started.
Before slapping a strip of blow-drier softened KobraCast® directly on one of our favorite doll models, we tested it first on an eyeless, wigless Josefina-mold head we happened to have in the workroom. (Don't ask.)
We smoothed a little kitchen wrap on the head first, then slapped away. As you can see, the loosely-woven material stretches and molds perfectly to the face.
Once removed, we saw no evidence of damage to the doll head. We have to admit, we still haven't tried this on a doll with full wig and eyelashes, but we don't imagine it would be damaging — and we'll let you know when we do try it.
The cool KobraCast® holds its shape and is quite hard. From here, it was an easy task to sketch a shape we liked on the molded material, mark the eyeholes — making sure they were wide enough to clear our doll's eyelashes — and cut everything out with sturdy shears.
We weren't sure what process to use to finish the surface of the mask. According to our Costume College instructor, people have used other, more solid thermoplastics like Worbla®, or stretchy lycra fabric, to create a smooth surface on top of the molded form. We decided to go with our old favorite: ordinary white gesso.
Looks pretty good, right? It did take MANY coats of gesso on the porous KobraCast® to get the finish this solid. But gesso dries quickly. Still, even after sanding, using a Dremel on the edges, painting with black acrylic and finishing with a glossy urethane, the texture of the open weave material underneath still glimmers through.
Though we think the result is adorable, we will continue to experiment with different finishing processes, and let you know what we discover.
It should be easy to attach ribbons to the sides with low temperature hot glue, but as there are corsetry tools in our workroom from our costume designing days, we punched holes with an awl, attached grommets, and laced ribbon ties through the grommets.
Finally, we used Aleene's Tacky Glue to attach a piece of black felt to the inside of the mask to keep the hard surface from scratching our doll's face.
And that's it — the finished Dread Pirate Roberts-inspired mask!
Now on to the rest of the costume...
The black shirt and breeches were super easy as they ARE the shirt and breeches from our Pattern #3052: Pirates, Patriots and Princes 18th Century Men's Basics for 18" Dolls.
The shirt fabric is a well-worn black cotton up-cycled from a thrift store man's shirt. The breeches are made from soft black cotton velveteen from JoAnn. The velveteen drapes beautifully and looks amazing — but if you use such fabric, DO NOT skip the step in our pattern where we direct you to finish the raw edges, or the fabric will dribble tiny cotton blobs all over your workspace.
The breeches are unchanged from our pattern, but the shirt from the original movie costume has eyelets and laces at the base of the neck opening. We recreated that look with four black eyelets from the craft store scrapbooking aisle and a scrap of black beading cord.
We made a belt from a 5/8" wide strip of soft suede, laced through a 5/8" buckle that we turned into a slider by snipping off the center prong.
Our pirate's black riding boots came from eBay two years ago — but a quick search using the keywords "American Girl riding boots" shows several sellers still offering the identical boots for less than $10/pair.
For the pirate's head wrap, we got to use some of the historical information we learned in our Tudor Tailor classes. As far back as the Renaissance, a 36" x 36" piece of fabric — called a "yard square" — was a standard wardrobe accessory, useful for everything from aprons to head wraps to neckerchiefs. We made our Dread Pirate's "yard square" out of black lycra — though a black silky fabric or even lightweight black cotton would work as well. Since doll heads are about 50% the size of people heads, our version is 18" x 18" instead.
But wait — there's one more essential accessory. Ever since we started showing these pictures, people have been asking, "Where did you get that sword??"
It's a ballpoint pen. And we bought it at Disneyland, from a cup next to the cash register in the gift shop adjacent to the exit from Pirates of the Caribbean.
But don't despair if you can't drop everything and run to Disneyland. We have found that an eBay search of "vintage letter openers" typically reveals a few dozen perfectly scaled swords, knives and other horrific implements of dolly destruction. Here are a few favorites we have found:
Be aware that some letter openers — like the fearsome knife in the middle — are actually SHARP and should never be given to children.
So that's it — our Dread Pirate Roberts-inspired 18" doll cosplay costume. This looks so amazing on our Jack that I don't think we'll be able to get it off him anytime soon.
And look, we even found him a Princess and a Bride to escort to our Halloween party:
Of course, Lee & Pearl Pattern #3052: Pirates, Patriots and Princes 18th Century Men's Basics for 18" Dolls is great for stitching up a host of other, Halloween-appropriate pirates as well. Aarrrh, mateys!
Tweak the Pattern #3001a: Scottish Princess Gown
In Part Three of this newsletter, we're debuting a brand new Tweak the Pattern feature, based on our fabulous Pattern #3001: A Late Medieval Lady's Wardrobe for 18" Dolls, circa 1330-1450.
We love it when people take our patterns beyond the outfit on the cover. In fact, we often do that ourselves. Frequently in our newsletters, we offer a Tweak the Pattern downloadable document with instructions — and sometimes even new pattern pieces — for creating new items and outfits out of one of our existing patterns.
This month, we've created an outfit sure to be popular with the trick-or-treating set — a medieval dress inspired by a certain Scottish Princess of Disney movie fame.
(Boy, do I wish we could post a picture here... google the gown for a moment and then come on back.)
We'd like to applaud the designers behind Princess Merida's lovely dresses. Not only do they fulfill every last one of our striding-through-the-woods and sweeping-through-the-castle medieval fantasies, they are historically accurate.
Around the year 1330, a unique clothing innovation appeared in Europe: the set-in sleeve. This new arrangement of bell-curved sleeve cap and oddly matching armhole curve allowed tailors and home sewers to make clothes that actually fit for the very first time, cutting and seaming flat pieces of fabric into shapes that mimicked the torso, the arm, and most importantly, the shoulder joint in between.
This development launched an era of glorious, body-conscious fashion, with supportive silhouettes that allowed their wearers, both men and women, full freedom of movement.
Image: A Woman Protecting A Unicorn From A Hunter from Flowers of Virtue and Custom, 1425-50 | British Library, C13385-26 | no restrictions
The resulting woman's dress, known variously as a kirtle, gown, cotehardie, or in modern circles as a "Gothic fitted dress," was graceful and flattering, with a wide neckline, tight laced bodice, tight sleeves often buttoned from the wrist to above the elbow, and a very wide skirt flaring from the hips with side, front and back gores.
Image: detail of The Meeting of Alexander and the Amazons, from the Alexander Romance, 1400–50 | British Library, Royal 20 B. XX, f.47v | no restrictions
For over one hundred years, this garment remained the standard medieval dress. And in her movie, medieval Merida is wearing this exact dress. Bravo!
This is also the dress you will find in our Pattern #3001: A Late Medieval Lady's Wardrobe for 18" Dolls, circa 1330-1450.
That's too good a coincidence to pass up. So this Halloween, we created our own homage to the Scottish Princess' Great Hall and Archery Tournament dress, and we're releasing the new pattern pieces as this month's Tweak the Pattern feature. We hope you will want to make one as well!
We made our dress from a length of teal blue China silk that came from our mother's stash, so it's probably close to fifty years old. If you've ever wanted vindication for your fabric stash — there it is. A good stash is gold when you need it!
Of course you don't need to use vintage silk. Any light weight, softly draping woven fabric will do for the dress body.
When considering material for the trim bands seamed along the hem that give this tweak its distinctive look, "Lee" had a clever thought — why not cut them from an inexpensive "pashmina" shawl? Most metallic brocade fabrics are too heavy for doll dresses, but pashminas drape beautifully. We found the one we used at a reasonable price on Amazon, but we have seen them for even lower prices at thrift stores. If you decide to use a pashmina, make sure that the one you get is soft, but not too loosely woven that it can't be sewn. Finally, our dress is fully lined with a lightweight polyester silky.
We finished the back opening with small eyelets and a gold rattail cord, and on the Velcro-closed sleeve openings, 6/0 gold glass seed beads stand in for a row of tiny buttons.
As a final movie costume-inspired touch, we wrapped a yard of 5/8" metallic jacquard ribbon around our girl's waist, finished the ends with Fray Check, and let them hang gracefully to the floor.
We know our clever and talented fans could recreate this tweak themselves by measuring up a few inches from the hem, drawing new seam lines and adding seam allowances for separate dress and trim band pieces, but that sort of work is fiddly and tedious, especially on the many curved gore sections. But it's CRAZY EASY when the patterns exist as computer drafted files — as ours do.
So we made those new skirt, gore and matching trim band pieces for you, and included simple directions and created a special TWEAK THE PATTERN document, which is available for FREE download on our website!
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FREE SCOTTISH PRINCESS TWEAK-THE-PATTERN PDF DOCUMENT
NOTE: You will still need to purchase Pattern 3001 to use the new pieces in the FREE tweak document.
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE PATTERN #3001: A LATE MEDIEVAL LADY'S WARDROBE FOR 18" DOLLS
Now for the rest of the costume: just like our Dread Pirate Roberts needs his mask and sword, our Scottish Princess needs her bow.
At Lee & Pearl, we love scouring .99 cent stores for inexpensive plastic toys that can be repainted and refinished into dolly treasures.
We found a garish green-and-orange plastic bow that was perfect for our Scottish Princess — or at least would be after a nice paint job. We bought it, primered it, painted it, took photos of the whole process and uploaded them to our website Tutorials section to share with you.
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE SCOTTISH PRINCESS BOW TUTORIAL.
Pictorial: Let's go to the LEE & PEARL HALLOWEEN PARTY!
It's PARTY TIME in the Lee & Pearl workroom!
In her witchy new top, Grace checks out the treat table before the guests arrive. Everything looks perfectly ghoulish... and delicious.
We made Grace's party outfit using Lee & Pearl Pattern #1033: Bonjour, Paris Mini Wardrobe for 18" Dolls — our 2015 FREE gift to mailing list subscribers.
We used apple green Kona® cotton for Grace's shorts and a fun Halloween print from JoAnn for her top, with black Kona® cotton for the collar. The Bonjour, Paris pattern works wonderfully with novelty prints as the top doesn't have a lot of seams to mess up patterns and can be made out of quilting material and fat quarters.
We set off the pleats on the front of Grace's top with a jack-o-lantern button, also from JoAnn, and pinned a lime green bow to her braid.
Grace's table and wicker butterfly chair were lucky thrift shop finds. Her eerily realistic skull is a styrofoam ornament from Michaels. Her glass bottles, metal keys and "Boo" paper coaster are also from Michaels. Her bowls are condiment dishes. Her candlestick is from American Girl® Josefina's collection. Her owl and tuxedo cat are Christmas ornaments from JoAnn. And her candy was made using the video tutorials in Part I of this newsletter.
Grace has finished setting up just in time, because here's our first guest — doll model Jack in his new Dread Pirate Roberts cosplay outfit, featured in Part II of this newsletter.
And now Merida's here — our medieval model Joanna wearing her new "Scottish Princess" gown, as featured in Part III of this newsletter.
That color is STUNNING with your hair, Joanna.
"Ding-dong, ding-dong." More guests have arrived...
It's Molly and Caroline! Molly looks perfectly patriotic in her Amazon Princess outfit from Lee & Pearl #1054: Superheroes! Costumes and Accessories for 18" Dolls, while Caroline wears her favorite Ice Princess gown made using Lee & Pearl #1055: Skating Dresses for 18" Dolls and the Tweak-the-Pattern BONUS skirt pieces from our April 2014 Newsletter.
Hm, there are a lot of princesses in here now. Anyone else have a Halloween party like that?
But not for long! "Atten-shun! Drop and give me fifty, Elsa!"
It's Silas and Ana. They are two of our newest workroom models and they like to make an entrance!
Silas is wearing an outfit made from the pattern that got us started designing for 18" dolls — Pattern #1010: Army Combat Uniform for 18" Dolls. We've topped off his modern-army-accurate crew-neck T-shirt, drawstring hem cargo pants and zip-front jacket with the equally accurate hat from Pattern #1007: Bush Hat or "Boonie" for 18" Dolls. And we made both patterns using the 1:4 scale digital camo fabric we offer in our Spoonflower shop!
Avast there! Ana is ready to storm the candy table in a pirate outfit made using our latest pattern, Lee & Pearl #3052: Pirates, Patriots and Princes 18th Century Men's Basics for 18" Dolls. We finished Ana's fearsome look with a handmade novelty skull pendant necklace, a sash of silky red rayon, a knit cap cut and knotted from a sleeve, a miniature flintlock pistol off a keychain we found on eBay, and a Folkmanis finger puppet parrot.
And here are Ivy and Julie! They're both time traveling from their home decade in the 1970s. Ivy has dressed as a 1940s film femme fatale in Lee & Pearl Pattern #1943: Molly Waves Goodbye and Lee & Pearl Pattern #2021: Glengarry Hat for 18" Dolls. Her suit is made from a grey tweed shot with silver threads, upcycled from a skirt we found at Goodwill. Her hat is extra elegant in black cotton velveteen, adorned with a bundle of coq feathers pulled from an old scarf. She wears a black velvet ribbon around her neck, with a rhinestone slider buckle sparkling in front.
Julie looks forward to the 1980s in her punk costume made using the unitard from Lee & Pearl Pattern #1051: Ballet Basics for 18" Dolls and the asymmetrical front panel skirt from Lee & Pearl Pattern #1041: Slim Skirts for 18" Dolls. We made the skirt in a nubbly silk tweed — also an upcycled fabric, notice a trend here? — and set off the asymmetrical panel with tiny black safety pins. Black boots from eBay, a pretty pendant from the craft store jewelry aisle, and the final finishing touch — a tank top cut raggedly from a pair of dollar store fishnets — and our girl is ready to join Madonna and Rosanna Arquette in 1985's Desperately Seeking Susan.
But wait, there's another knock at the door...
It's Chrissa and Kit in a perfect pair of good girl / bad girl outfits.
Kit looks angelic in a white stretch lace wedding gown lined with oyster white lycra mystique, made using the same Lee & Pearl #1055: Skating Dresses for 18" Dolls and Tweak-the-Pattern BONUS skirt pieces from our April 2014 Newsletter combo as Caroline's Ice Princess costume. That is one adaptable pattern. If you don't own it yet, you really should.
We topped off Kit's pretty blonde bob with a veil of off-white tulle, gathered and stitched to a small plastic comb, with paper flowers from Michael's stitched to both the comb and Kit's lace skirt.
Chrissa, normally our model model, is taking a walk on the wild side in this black lycra catsuit and felt beanie cat ears from our Pattern #1054: Superheroes! Costumes and Accessories for 18" Dolls. Do not get between this fierce new Chrissa and the candy bowl.
And here's our last guest, making a grand solo entrance...
It's another Elsa! We understand from our friends with little girls that this happens a lot. Our lovely Sonali is dressed as a skating ice princess in Lee & Pearl #1055: Skating Dresses for 18" Dolls. We've adorned her ice blue stretch mesh skirt with square aurora borealis sequins to match the holographic "shattered glass" pattern of her dance fabric bodice. And look — she won a gold medal for her party performance, made using our Olympic Medal Tutorial.
NOTE: We have a garment district supplier for both of these fabrics. If this skating dress is a look you would like to recreate and you would like us to package these fabrics as one of our Fabric and Trim Kits, please drop us a note.
"Everyone's here now," says Grace. Let's eat!
Mmmmmm. You don't have to tell these dolls twice. They love the candy we made using the video tutorials in Part I of this newsletter.
Can't you just hear those wrappers crinkling and candy corn munching? I'm getting hungry just looking at this picture and I KNOW it's only paper, buttons, beads and poly clay.
Mmmm. Candy for everyone! So much candy... After this, things started to get a little out of hand.
"Let's play pin-the-arrow-on-a-pumpkin!" cries the Scottish Princess.
"I'm in!" says the Bride, "How do you use this thing?"
"This is not going to end well," Ivy murmurs to Silas.
"Hm... perhaps we should do something," Grace tells Jack.
"Okay — more candy everyone!!!" Well, at least that took their attention away from an archery tournament.
Hours later, Molly can't keep her eyes open, and Sonali is re-thinking wearing ice skates all evening. But it was a great party.
Now let's carve this pumpkin. Aarrh!
We got Ana's glorious pumpkin at Hobby Lobby. Here's a tip — if you think you might need any pumpkins (Cinderella!) or skulls (pirates!) in your next year of dolly costuming and dolly play, get them now. Halloween is already disappearing fast from the craft stores.
Grace and her friends would like to thank you for coming to their party!!
Get a head start on your HOLIDAY crafting by downloading our 2014 FREE gifts — the Holiday Stocking Pattern and Christmas Card Printable Set.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FREE HOLIDAY STOCKING PATTERN.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FREE 2014 CHRISTMAS CARD PRINTABLE SET.
And get your dolls ready for baking season with our Pattern #1022: Cookie Time Apron, Pinafore and Oven Mitt for 18" Dolls!
— back to the Newsletter Archive —
