I’ve been focusing on digital for so long that I don’t even recall the last time I posted about doll-related creative projects! I’m shifting, though, away from an all-consuming obsession with digital to my first love, actual dolls. Right now I’m working on Zombieville stuff, but [eventually!] I’ll get to those BJDs who have languished, unfinished, for a year or more. [I’m sorry, Delmar and Fritillaria!] In the meantime, see below for details on Isabel’s wardrobe and workplace.
Inspired by everyone on Tumblr [read: DollsAhoy and oak23] making nifty stretchy raglan sleeve shirts for their 1:6ers based on DollsAhoy’s pattern, I ventured back into 1:6 scale sewing this weekend. Using some seasonal socks that I picked up cheaply at Goodwill, I attempted yet another shirt for Isabel. [1 women’s knee-high novelty sock = 1 DollsAhoy raglan sleeve shirt @ 100%.]
Amazingly enough, it fits! And it looks like a sweater [despite the glaring messiness of my hand stitches]! And it was so much easier than my first 1:6 scale sewing project, the collared shirt.
Thus emboldened, I have decided to make Isabel more shirts in the same style. I regret that I’m about a month too late for cheap Halloween novelty socks, as Isabel would definitely rock the ghoulish chic. Hitting up the local stocking emporium, Sox Market, I did however find two pairs of socks with skulls and crossbones for my next number, as well as a really loud pair with color blocks of orange, yellow, and pink.
Notes for next time: Increase pattern size to 120% for Isabel. Though the stretch knit of the socks allows her to fit in the 100%, her broad shoulders really strain it. Also increase height of neck trim to equal hem trim so that neck trim is not eaten by bulky seams.
In other news, Chapter 14 of Zombieville starts off at Isabel’s workplace, so I have been constructing the set for her office.
Like all my sets, Isabel’s office consists of the same few items displayed in a different configuration. The wooden boxes serving as her desk and table are the same wooden boxes I have used for desks, counters, and even shelving in many other scenes. Phone, tissue box, water bottle, wall cabinets, and office chair have also appeared numerous other times. The set, still in progress, needs a calendar, a bulletin board, a CPU for Isabel’s computer, a desktop printer, and possibly some shit with her company logo on it.
The filing cabinet represents the scene’s one innovation [well, along with her desktop computer, but I’m not discussing that since it’s still in progress]. The cabinet base is a cheap balsa wood set of drawers that I got from Michael’s, a craft store. File folders are business cards that I folded in half and trimmed to fit. Folder labels are made from reusable adhesive flags made to mark book pages or to indicate where someone should sign a document. I did not make a full drawer of folders, just a few that I then shoved toward the front of the drawer and braced there with a strategically folded business card wedged in the bottom of the drawer.
