Before and After

As requested by Gene, a before and after of Flame's faceplate.

And for anyone else that is not familiar with the faceplate system of Fairyland ball jointed dolls, the faceplate clicks into place on the head back, which looks like this (minus the eyes which I had temporarily stored there while I waited for the faceplate to arrive).

Ball jointed dolls are fully customizable. Individual owners' choices for eyes, wigs, face painting, and wardrobes can make a huge difference in the perceived character of the dolls.

Here are some examples of other customized Realfee Sosos.

And here is one with a "default faceup", which means the faceup the Fairyland studio does on the doll if you request it and pay an additional fee.

Say Hello to Flame

After some rather lengthy and concerning delays, my little Soso faceplate has arrived home, safe, from the faceup artist's studio.

The postal tracking never did update after clearing Canada Customs. He arrived at my door today unannounced!

I was quick to let him in of course, and he's been entertaining me and making me smile ever since.

His name is FLAME.

He's quite the character.

I just know we're going to have a lot of fun!

He's well balanced and a wonderful poser.

At 19cm he's a wonderful size to knit and sew for. He's not so big that knitting becomes tedious and not so small that sewing is overly fiddly. Perfect!

Say hello to Flame in the comments. I'm pretty sure he'd like the attention!

Perfecting the Fit

Before going all out and sewing an entire dress for my Realfee girl (still with no faceplate!) only to find that it doesn't fit, this time I made a mock up of the pattern in paper toweling first.

This is MyOwnLittleWorld's pattern, "The Little Dress". I first made it up in the Littlefee size printed out at 86%.

I wasn't crazy about the fit. It was too long, too wide in the shoulders, and could have used some more wiggle room in the hip area. 

Next I tried the same pattern but in the Lati Yellow SP size.

The fit was much better in this version, but it was too short and the armholes could be roomier. 

With my new found experience I set to work to alter the Lati Yellow SP size to be a perfect fit for Realfee. I added 1/8" of length to the shoulder area which had the double effect of lowering the neckline slightly while at the same time giving more room to the armholes. Next I added 1/4" to the lower edge of the bodice, and another 1/4" in length to the ruffle piece.

Perfect length!

If she manages to arrive before Christmas she'll be all set with a little Christmas dress. I plan to knit a tiny, cropped cardigan in either red or green to go with it, but that will have to wait on a shipment of laceweight cashmere yarn I have ordered. 

PJ Bottoms

Overalls and traditionally styled jeans are a lot of work. I wanted something simpler to sew up to expand the wardrobe for the Realfees.

Simple pull-on pants were just the thing -- only I had to design the pattern myself and that took a bit of trial and error.

Knowing that I experimented first with a flannel rag. It became PJs because even the first effort didn't turn out too bad. Yay!

I've fiddled with the pattern a bit more and come up with an even better fit, which will debut when the Soso faceplate arrives all freshly "faceupped" from Ban's Boutique. 

A Coat for the Soso

After sewing for a couple of days I was wanting a change of pace and I turned back to the knitting. This time knitting a coat for the little fella.

It's my own design, based loosely on the idea of the Pukifee coat I designed a few years ago. The numbers have all been changed to fit the larger doll of course. 

I'm very pleased with the fit, but I'm still tweaking a few minor things in the pattern itself.

A Tiny Wardrobe

I spent some time this week sewing and knitting for the incoming Realfee Soso. After sending the Mari faceplate off to Sweden I have a female Realfee body here (19cm) and the Soso is intended to be a boy. That's okay though because I also have a male Realfee body and another Mari faceplate on order. When the Mari with a male body arrives she will trade bodies with the Soso so that I will have a male Soso and a female Mari. Got that?

Anyway, as I was saying, I've been knitting and sewing up a Realfee wardrobe.

First thing I tried was a little pair of overalls.

For these I took the "MyLittleWorld" "AllOver" pattern and had the Littlefee size copied at 86%. I think they turned out quite well!

Next I fussed around with itty bitty pockets. Topstitching those was a challenge!

And those itty bitty pockets were added to the back of a pair of itty bitty jeans. These were once again a downsized Littlefee pattern.

You remember "Leggy" don't you? He was the model this time.

These turned out WAY too long, but I'm going to use them for the Soso anyway. 

Hmm, this post is getting a bit long. I'll continue with the knitted portion of the wardrobe tomorrow.

Introducing "Legolas"

Legolas has arrived. You can call him "Leggy" if you wish. 

Just don't let him catch you referring to him as "half a man" or anything equally as rude.

He is an excellent kick boxer, so consider yourself warned.

Legolas was rather bored just sitting around, doing nothing, at Redrosette's place, 

So she sent him along to me knowing I could make good use of him as size model for knitting and sewing.

He'll be quite busy now that he has a job to do, so you might not see much of him.

But then again, you never know?

Maybe he'll drop by once in awhile for a bit of a cameo appearance.

He tells me he's also considering a second job as a shoe model.

Soso Cute!

Just a quick update. My friend "Ban Sidhe" of "Ban's Boutique" has finished doing the faceup on my Realfee Soso and it will be on its way back to me soon. I have no pictures of my own to show you, but here's a link to her photo.

The eyes pictured are the artist's. I haven't decided what I'll be using yet. I want to try a few different colours and sizes before I order anything. 

In the meantime I have nothing new to show you because I've been working every day on a commission I'm doing for Ban Sidhe in exchange for her faceup skills. In addition to her requested hand knit Realfee coat I am throwing in a few "extras" that I think she will like. Once she receives her parcel I'll update here with photos of the finished items.