My apologies to anyone who reads my stuff on Den of Angels, but a lot of this blog will overlap a bit with those posts. The most info ends up here, though, and is easier to Search.
This is the clothing post for Moira, my modded Minifee Muscle Girl.
She is a Fairyland Minifee Mirwen sculpt, on a previously Male Minifee body and she's meant to be part of a
Medieval-Fantasy setting, and both of those facts mean I have to make
her clothes myself.
I started with her daily clothes. I try to give each of my dolls one
Everyday outfit with accessories, and then some of them get a Formal
Outfit, or an Armor set, or sometimes both.
I made her some underwear, a bra-like top, and some cropped short trousers.
The bra is cotton from a gunnysack towel of the kind I buy for doll
clothes. It has a nice texture but is thin and light. The bra has snaps
in the back for ease of changing, but she'll probably keep it on all the
time under shirts.
I did make her some matching medieval braes, or underpants, which look
like little shorts with a drawstring. Those, however, are for shots of
her getting dressed or going swimming. Layering clothing is actually
kind of impractical on a doll, so she is not wearing the underpants in
any of the following pictures. Viewers of photos will assume she is
wearing them, but having her actually layer them under the trousers
would add too much bulk. I often "cheat" like this with my dolls'
costuming, where layers are concerned.
The trousers are some kind of poly velveteeny stuff I had around, and
they fasten at the fly with a false button sewn on over a functional
snap. (No way am I buttoning pants that tiny, or sewing real buttonholes
at that size!)
Shoes! These are often called Ghillie Brogues or "bog" shoes, and are a very
simple shoe of a type worn in many parts of Northwestern Europe, from
the early Dark Ages all the way into the mid- and even late- Medieval
period.
I wear a similar pair when I do reenactment, so it only took a few
attempts to make a version this tiny for Moira, out of thin or garment
weight leather.
Her tunic is made of some cotton I had that looks like linen with its
slubby large weave. I hand-sewed it, which gave me the chance to do a
thorough job finishing the seams and adding some details like the
decorative stitching down the sleeves.
It doesn't open down the back, because the keyhole neckline and the
Minifee lock at the neck mean I can pop her head off and then easily
slide this tunic on. It has 3/4 sleeves and flat felled seams, and a lot
of stitching around the neckline to let it handle being played with and
not fall apart.
The "belt" is just some cotton cording I had around.
I was messing around with my stash of thin leather and decided to make
her some boots. They slide on and then are fastened by the tie at the
top of each boot. These will be part of her armored outfit later. Her
red trousers come down to the boot tops except when she is sitting. I
will need to make her some other trousers for the armored outfit to
avoid that, I think.
I also made her a belt pouch and a warm weather cloak, though it isn't finished yet.
Here's the whole ensemble so far. The belt pouch is more of the thin
leather, with an acorn shape and a button and string closure.
The cloak is a reincarnation of a poly-cotton shirt I used to love,
which had this lovely chain stitch embroidery all around the hem. I
pleated it around the neckline, and I mean to add some kind of closure
at the collar if I can just figure out what
kind of closure I
want to use, and how I want it to look. I could use metal findings, or a
string closure, or put buttons on either side of the collar for a cord
to wrap around or a strap to be buttoned through....
Apologies for the fuzzy quality of these pictures. It's hard to get out
my nice camera when I am excited about what I am working on so these
kind of shots tend to get done with a phone, in poor light.
My health has been iffy lately so I have a
lot of time lying around in bed/ sitting about on my bed. I managed the
other day to do a bit of sewing.
Close up shot: While out on a rare clothes-shopping trip, I
found a clearance-priced sweater made of a loopy cotton blend knit,with
some kind of foil screened onto it. This exactly like a tiny version of
a stuff that gets used for budget chain armor in film and TV. I knew I
had to use it for some mail for my dollies!
I
sewed some of the fabric into an MSD sized hauberk, or "chain-mail"
shirt, with the back open to slip on easily and the front split for
riding, but I didn't want the edges to stretch and distort, so I
stitched around them. To hide the stitches, I used that cotton swab
there to dab silver paint onto the black thread I used. The open back of
the shirt will get little jump rings sewn on so it can be laced up.
(Extra
info: In human scale, if you don't have a lace up back to your mail
shirt, you have to do some really idiotic wiggling to get out of one.
That's why they always show heroes shucking ON their mail, but you never
see a hero in a film taking his mail OFF.
You have to hike the skirt of
the shirt up around your middle, then bend over from the waist, aim
your head and arms at the ground, and then wiggle and wriggle until the
mail slides off, and hope your hair stays
under your arming cap
because if the mail gets caught in it, you have to rip or cut your hair
free.
It is polite in reenactment to either look away from a fighter
trying to take off their mail and preserve their dignity a bit, or if
you know them, you offer to help. If you know them
really well, you hang around to watch and mock them shamelessly, since they can't come after you with mail over their head!)
Here's
the lousy phone pic of the full effect of the hauberk. The seams I had
to make at the shoulders are still visible, but I am going to make some
outer fantasy plate armor for Moira to wear over this that will include
some pauldrons, or shoulder caps, to hide those seams.
Watch this spot, more will be added!
