Lyra´s outfits

I haven´t yet introduced my Lyra properly on pictures mainly because she hasn´t had any clothing to fit her personality and style, and generally I don´t like to take pictures of a doll that´s unfinished. However, this has now changed.

As much as I love and live for crafting, miniature sewing is one of those things that makes me absolutely crazy! Learning new skills is wonderful, but honestly I have given up with that area. The numerous times I have tried to sew something for my dolls the results have always been cursing, broken needles, holes in the fabric and so on. To spear myself from despair, I have liberated myself and outsourced it to the people who can master it better than I ever could. I highly appreciate those who can sew such a tiny pieces of clothes as I know how effing hard it can be!

So I met a talented seamstress at our little Christmas meeting back in December. As I looked the incredibly small and detailed doll clothes she had made, I asked if she could make something for me too. I had planned a mori-style outfit for Lyra and her choices of fabrics and patterns were quite similar to my preferences.
The person I am talking about is Krista Salama, an Etsy seller with a shop named FaeryKiss. Krista sells both ready-made clothes as well as takes commissions. Soon after our meeting we started messaging about the details for the outfit. I found a spot-on picture of a mori girl with a beautiful outfit and asked Krista to use it as a guide for my commission. But differing from the reference picture, I wanted the loose undershirt to be natural white with long sleeves and wanted to leave the green vest off. It seems to be pretty simply constructed, so I may be able to sew it by myself and the belt is easy piece of cake. Also I already had the cute socks which I ordered earlier from the CaramelBJD -shop, so there was no need for new tights or socks.

The making of the clothes took quite a while because there was many little details I wanted to discuss about before making final decisions. Christmas and the holiday season was another reason for slowing the process generally, but I wasn´t in a hurry and didn´t mind that at all. I like to give the artist all the time she needs to make my piece as good as possible without having the feeling of being rushed.
Now when all the pieces are ready, I am very impressed with the result even though it wasn´t a surprise after seeing the other pieces she had made previously. The quality is impeccable with the small but so straight sewing lines and even smaller pleats and buttons. The materials have authentic feel and look.
According to this transaction with Krista I am recommending her creations to anyone who wants to have professionally made doll clothes. She is great to communicate with and because she has graduated as a seamstress and making clothes is her full time job, she really knows all the aspects of the art of tailoring. We are definitely not speaking of an amateur here that´s for sure!

Now let´s see how the outfit came out:

The socks are from CaramelBJD and the shoes from eBay

The main outfit includes four pieces: bloomers, petticoat, dress and a shirt.
To make the outfit more versatile, a separate T-shirt was made as well. This is just basic piece, but works nicely under the dress for warmer summer days:

And when the chilly autumn breeze is blowing, what would be more nicer than to add a hand knitted cardigan with matching legwarmers to the ensemble:

The knitted pieces are commissioned from another talented Finnish artist from Etsy called Junipa aka JuniDoll. The other craft I totally suck is - surprise, surprise - knitting. I have a soft spot for knits maybe just for that reason!
I contacted Junipa and she happily made the cardigan and the legwarmers according to my instructions. To the same batch I asked her to make a pair of cool Bumpy -leggings, of which I had seen a picture earlier while gazing her earlier creations in her shop. I have to figure out some nice outfit to go with the woolen leggings so I have no pictures of Lyra wearing them yet, but hopefully I´ll have something to show you sometime soon. When I got my order after a few weeks, I was happily surprised with a small gift of a chain with keys. So adorable! The yarn of the cardigan and leggings is mainly very soft alpaca and the leggings are thin sheep wool. The tiny stitches are just the right scale for dolls. Gotta love into bits!

I can warmly recommend Junipa´s knitted wonders to you all! The ones who are just as inept in knitting as I am, Junipa´s small wonders are pure joy to look and touch. Or even if you can knit, the scale is so small that even the most enthusiastic knitters might give up in front of the challenge, but not Junipa. I love how many super talented crafters we have within this doll hobby and it warms my heart that I can support them by purchasing things they have made or commissioning them.

Big thanks to both FaeryKiss and Junipa!

I could say that this was Lyra´s first proper debut as a complete character. I am very happy how she has bloomed to be just like I always imagined her to be right from the beginning. Now I have to get the diorama ready so that I can start taking proper photos of her in the environment she belongs.

See you next time!

March haul from eBay!

One eBay shop had amazing flash sale in the end of February. I couldn´t resist the opportunity and ordered a bunch of things:

From left: a pen/ paintbrush/ tool storing roll case, 1/6 sized couch (really a jewelry box!), set of paintbrushes, YoSD khaki-green skirt, YoSD polka dot capri leggings, 1/6 doll stand, Blythe eyeglasses (gold and black frames), Blythe sunglasses (Ray Ban style) and 1/6 sized carrying bag.

I purchased the clothes mainly for Lyra, but they look very small and will probably fit better on Pumpkin. Haven´t tried them on yet, though.

The sales pictures of this couch showed it only two-tone grey, but afterwards I discovered it to be actually glittery grey! Not a big deal but I´d preferred it without glitter. Luckily the sparkle doesn´t jump in to your eyes too much (even though it does exactly just that in this picture!):

Because I couldn´t decide which colour to choose for the eye glasses, I took both gold and black ones:

For the summer Pumpkin must have her own sunglasses. Ray Ban -style does the charm!

No more Miss No-Name

My Blythe had been Miss No-Name for a while, but one day she was ready to tell it to me. The nameless little doll became:

Pumpkin

Here you can see a little closer the blue eye chips I painted.
I wasn´t satisfied on her lips so I re-painted them.

A close-up of the green chips too!

The hair was crazy long and very difficult to keep untangled, so I gathered my courage and shorten it a bit for starters. I have actually talked to my local hairdresser to cut it to the final length and she was willing to help me. It turned out that she likes dolls very much too, and she has her own small collection of antique ones. What a coincidence! Naturally I´ll give you a full report about our trip to beauty salon when the time comes. ;)

New hair length

Oh, I totally forgot to show you the sleepy eyes charm that I added during the custom process. She got a blue string and a cloudberry!

The cloudberry is made of polymer clay

Project Diorama: the walls are up!

Today I finally got the diorama walls up! I have been waiting for this day for so long. Of course I could´ve got it done sooner but then again, what´s the rush anyway. I like to concentrate on small details and making things as pretty as possible.

Notice here the table on which it is placed. I have been doing some furniture changes in my flat and the oak cupboard was moved to the other side of the room. This little table is more suitable for the diorama because it is much lower than the cupboard and thus easier to display and above all - to see and more closely to look the set.

Here is Lyra and her desk to give you the idea of the proportions and scale:

...and some details:

The corner supporters will be painted to blend in the outside wall and all the raw edges will be getting moldings to finish the look, but boy I am happy. That´s it for now. I have plenty of things to show you guys, so stay tuned for updates.