Adi Blaas

(also I can’t photoshop)

anyway my point is, I practice doll hair curling on a Liv wig every so often, and I have yet to really make it work (witness Beatrice’s lopsided results) but once again, the need was too dire, I had to act

this time I went with this video... roughly... like we don’t have a flat iron or papers (or hair spray) and I just went ahead anyway because fuck it, which really would not be my normal agonized eternal procrastination stance on a good doll with rooted hair, but like... a) a mess and b) she’ll probs need a wig at some point anyway, because I’ll probs take her ears off

the result actually looks totally fine dead-on, but obvs since I literally did it wrong it ah... didn’t work if you have a less carefully selected view

Anyway I just went ahead and did something, somehow, through the haze of panic. 

It started out a heinous shade of blue (still visible where I have already chipped the yellow at the bottom!), and I meant to paint it a paler yellow than this ended up being, but fuck it. 

They’re basically from this MyFroggyStuff video, except obviously I a) didn’t do any of the embellishments that make them look like proper overalls, and b) I did several things very wrong. Like hemming one leg the wrong way around. Like not marking where the “pockets” would have gone, which led to sewing the straps onto the front instead of the back. Like making the straps so much too long that they double as a handy sash. Also, c) there are large roosters on the fabric. 

As previously mentioned, ease of storage is of top importance, so the skulls (leftovers from my monster project) and the butterflies are stuck to the tissue paper backdrops with Velcro, theoretically allowing them to be removed so I can fold the boards up flat. Theoretically. Tissue paper is not actually a great place to glue a patch of Velcro. The foresight that goes into my projects is astounding. 

Things I Had on Hand: wrapping paper in what might be construed as a masculine pattern, faux-woven liner for drawers, the box from a bulletin board, the box from my brother’s hockey stick. 

Other things I had on hand: disassembled pieces of a plywood cabinet, disassembled pieces of a picnic table that rotted through on us, a saw, zero experience sawing anything ever. 

Sadly the combination of blue dress and background make her look like she’s been hospitalized, but hey. 

And this one closes in the back! Small victories. 

Science doesn’t know why I persist in believing I can eyeball things. 

I mean I did measure her chest and the tunic still didn’t close in the back. Like I do that even measuring. So why not make things worse by eyeballing everything else? 

Anyway so I took it for a Lala Mini test drive and basically no bugs were worked out, I just established that it’s going to be tough because getting shit to balance in midair is hell. This was a valuable lesson for me. It sounds obvious but to me, it was not.  

So between RodianAngel's tutorials and my grandmother's lessons I was forced to make waistbands for skirts. This goes against every lazy bone in my body but gum I did the thing. Sort of. More or less. 

I found a way to be super lazy about this one. Stuck a ribbon through the waistband, didn't sew it closed, boom. Instant half-assed closure. (Since then I've found some wee snaps lying around so I will add one to prevent Beatrice hanging out in back.) Also I sewed the band on too high and it doesn't cover the stitches from drawing the waist in, even though the tutorial explicitly said to sew below those stitches to hide them. This is due to the fact that I am trash. Plus the actual waistline is too small for her waist but the ribbon covers for that, so fuck it. 

So then I made the next skirt with the waist too big, because that's... me. 

So RodianAngel has some v. nice little tutorials on doll clothes, aimed down at a me-level audience, and I used one to start a shirt for Beatrice. 

I made literally the exact same mistake I made last time I sewed sleeves on, because listen, that was three whole months ago. 

That is a sleeve sewn on all wrong. Again. I even had the phrase "good side to good side" in my head but figured nah, that doesn't make sense. Whatever, Adi. I put the other sleeve on the correct way even though I could have at least had them match because shhhhhh. 

The shirt overall worked out pretty well, all things considered. I inevitably stretch things out when I try to hem them, and Beatrice's bust is too ridiculous for these basic patterns really, but hey, throw a little lace on there as distraction and what's it matter. 

This month I resolved to Apply Myself to drawing, and I do in fact have drawings to show for it, but I also wanted to work on coloring. 

SO HERE IS ONE OF SOBDASHA'S DELIGHTFUL ZELDA COLORING PAGES

LINK IS BLACK AND IT IS AUTUMN BECAUSE SHHHH

Let me talk a second about the extent and specificity of my laziness: 

I wrote this phrase out with a ruler on lined paper, cut out each word with scissors, hollowed out each letter with a razor, traced through each letter, and finally went over the letters with a Sharpie paint pen. 

I um

mistakes were made

Finished a day too late.

It took this long because I took like a two-week break while waiting around for my dad to use the iron so I could piggyback on his ironing. 

During said break I lost all knowledge I had so painfully acquired. Every bit of it.

Ergo: Spent about an hour sitting at the sewing machine, motionless, staring at the pieces of the dress and sleeves. Finally decided how sleeves probably get attached. 

Decided wrong.

Forgot even to sew the shoulders first, then sewed one of them wrong in exactly the overlapping way I learned not to do. This turned out fine since that seam ripped right the fuck out when I put the dress on the doll, so I got to resew it anyway lol. 

Forgot to make a slit in the back so that the dress would fit over her head. 

Made slit, said "fuck it, I'm not making a goddamn closure."

This turned out to be fine because lol it wouldn't close anyway due to her immense chest/my inability to think in three dimensions and accommodate said chest. 

Don't even talk to me about the sleeves, which I made too big on purpose figuring it'd give me wiggle room. It mostly meant I sewed weird wrinkles into them. 

Tried to make the hood to fit her wig under it. Said "fuck it." Weird lump of extra fabric in the back now. 

Made the black cross-stitch bits by changing half of the sewing machine thread. Underachiever Award.