School Play Props and Things

What I have been working on this week are the school play props and things. Another tiara idea, wired beads on a plastic head band. Cardboard mock up of a treasure chest, a paper mock up of a gold bar and fairy wings in progress.
The wings are made of 2 coat hangers bent and covered with stockings, I will add ribbon streamers and fix the flowers onto the centre and decorate the wings with sparkle.
The Tiara is finished.
And I found a lovely wooden seat and back child's chair, I will fix the cushion onto it with elastic underneath.

Dormouse

Yesterday i realised i needed to take a miss matched cup and saucer to the Mad Hatters Tea Party and so i bought a small plate for my oversized cup and glued them together. I now thought the cup now needs something.
So here is a dormouse.
Hand stitched, and in the cup ready to go.

Dodo Finished

To do the Dodos eyes i chose to use buttons. So i tipped all my buttons out and started sorting. I decided to glue two different buttons together to make his eyes.
The Dodo is now finished. I hope you like him. He will not be staying with me, he is a gift for my nephew who is going back to Mauritius on Tuesday, and before that, enter the A.C.D.A. Challenge. on Saturday. On Friday my mum arrives from England for a holiday and for my daughters wedding. Happy Days!
My next project is my outfit for the A.C.D.A. Mad Hatters Tea Party on Saturday.

Doll Continued

The feathers are all cut out and pinned on.
All i have to do is replace the pins with stitches and add the eyes and define the beak a little more.

Dodo Continued

The body is all sewn now.
The left over fabric pieces are all going to be made into feather trims. this will be added to the body in various places to help with the illusion of feathers.
Tail is to be sewn on.
Along with the wiings and the feather trims. This is what i will be doing today.

Dodo Continued

The beak is done, Originally i wanted to do it in red vinyl but not enough of that, so now i have used a red velvet type fabric.
Wool coat i am using to do the body in. Bought from Savers in Greensborough when they had the half price sales, A long green blue in wool for $10. Lovely and soft with a short pile.
wrapped, pinned, cut.
Seams folded in and pinned ready to sew on.
All the rest of the coat is being cut into feathers. These will be sewn and further trimmed and added on the body for embellishments to help enhance the look and to help you see it as a bird.

Dodo Continued

Fabric i have chosen to do my Dodo's legs with. Needle and thread, glue stick and fake fur fabric, (op shop, inside of a jacket). This was cut into strips, glue stick on the wrong side of the fabric, then wrapped around the legs starting from the toe tips and up.
Glued into place. I will keep wrapping until i have the thickness that i am happy with.
Underside of beak. The beak is going to be in a red vinyl fabric. I will stretch, pin, draw where i want to cut, then using a fabric glue and needle and thread put it into place. I will be trying to make this as smooth as possible where it needs to be but at this point i can also start to add character, smile lines and facial creases and tucks, things that will bring it to life.
This is the right way view of the Dodo.

Dodo Continued

Dodo continued. The weights have been added to the inside back of the body, right near the base of the tail. This is the two tail pieces i have decided i want them to look like.
This is the tail and wings sewn and shown one piece of each stuffed. Do you notice how it gets more rounded once the pieces have been stuffed? Important to remember when drawing out your item that you are making. You need to visually flatten things out in order to get the finished shape you want. I am happy with this so far.
Wing and tail positioning. The Dodo is nicely balanced now and stands quite well even though the legs and feet are skinny.

The Dodo is balanced on his toes. The next thing i am going to do is cover the feet and legs, then i will be making the beak skin, followed by the body skin, then covering the wings, and the tail then assembling it. Keep watching, i hope you are not bored with it, it still has quite a way to go before it is finished.

Dodo Continued

Continuing the Dodo. This is the view from the underside, the leg tops pinned on ready to sew and stuff.
This is the wings, ready to turn out right sides. They will then be top stitched to create chanells to represent feathers.
This is the neck.
The neck and head pinned on.
The Dodo was top heavy but the problem will be solved by adding weights to the tail end. (shown here in just being held by a pen at the moment). All i have to do is undo the seam in the back and place the weights in between the layers of stuffing then sew the seam back up and it will be balanced enough to stand on it's own as shown. So far i have not had to buy anything for the Dodo yet, using just what i happen to have at home. The wing is pinned but not stuffed or top stitched yet, and i still have to make the tail feathers. That will be the next thing to do tomorrow, as well as sew the pinned head to the neck, and the neck to the body. I will do that after i have added the weights as they may need adjusting in the placement to keep it balanced.

Dodo

Back View. This is the start of the Dodo. The legs are coat hanger wire, taped together with my trusty duct tape, and the body is the cardboard templates that i will be using to make the actual pattern pieces out of fabric later.
This project is working from the inside out, the body will be made out of calico with the skin in the fabrics i am using draped and sewn on after. Basically this is the form of the piece.

Cardboard and taped all ready for taking apart and turned into fabric pattern pieces. The body looks a bit square because in cardboard there is no "give" this means that the final product will be much rounder because fabric is more pliable.

This is the head and beak pattern pieces.
All pinned and ready to sew.

This is the head and beak all sewn, ready for the next step of the skin. I will be doing the body and the wings tomorrow, and then the legs. finally they will be assembled and the outer and final skin covering added.

The Dodo

This is my image board. I have on it pinned pictures from the net on the subject i want to make next. The cloth doll club i belong to (A.C.D.A.) is having an Alice In Wonderland and Mad Hatters Tea Party Challenge next month, and i have decided i am going to dress up for this, as the Red Queen, (Pics on that outfit after this!) but first i have to make something for the challenge. It took me a couple of days to decide, first i was going to make Alice, then i thought i might do the Rabbit, then maybe the Cheshire Cat, (cos i love cats) but then i decided to do the Dodo. A couple of reasons for this, My husband and his family are from Mauritius and whilst they are over here i thought they might like it to take home with them after. They always like my things that i make.
The Dodo is an extinct bird that became extinct before the invention of the camera and was native to Mauritius.

This is the fabrics and things i will be making the Dodo with. wool coats, fake fur, coat hangers, and red vinyl as well as an assortment of buttons and brass fittings. As usual i will be using my trusty cardboard and duct tape for making the pattern pieces.

Olympic Mascots Finished

Here they all are, from left to right you have, Sumi, Miga and Quatchi.
Miga
Sumi
Quatchi.
They are all on their way to Renee's' house right now, ready to surprise the kids at school tomorrow.
I am so happy that i was able to pull it off and finish them on time. I hope they will like them.

Olympic Mascots continued

Sumi body cardboard template.
Made into 3 dimentional. I have added a body gusset base.
Dress, this will be pinned and sewn onto Sumi.
Feathered feet in progress.
Sumi, ready for the finishing hand stitching.
This is what i will be doing for the rest of the afternoon after lunch. All the mascots have hand stitching left to do on them.I am looking forward to seeing them all finished.

Olympic Mascots continued

This is the last of the Olympic Mascots i am making, This is called Sumi. I have just finished the head. It is now 4.30am and i need to go to sleep cos i have a doctors appointment at 8.30am.
I am happy with what i have done today, considering i started on this project yesterday at 9am so i have been on it constantly for about 18 hours. Thank goodness for Vitasoy Chocolate soy bean milk substitute, i have drunk a litre of it today and that has kept me going.
I will come back to this after some sleep.
I hope you have enjoyed what i have done so far.

Olympic Mascots continued

This is what i have been doing today, I started and finished Quatchi, and re sewn Miga in the correct colours. I will also need to add the belly button too.
I have to sewn on the limbs and head but being black i will have to do it tomorrow.
I will be starting Sumi tomorrow too. Looking forward to seeing how i am going to do that.

Olympic Mascots continued

Miga pattern is now ready to go, i am happy with the size 50cm tall. I only finished 1 ear, 1 leg and 1 arm. Only pinned the limbs too, but you see the point.
I have started designing Quatchi, the tallest of the three mascots,
I am still having fun.