Doll for a Bride to be

My partner for the Art Doll swap on Craftster is getting married.  She really wanted a bride doll.  One that was wearing the dress she is going to wear.  I might have mentioned that I am feeling extremely over my head in this swap.  The dolls that have been made are incredible.  Add to that my polymer clay doll screw up and a tight deadline and you get close to panic mode.  Still no way I am going to make tiny little fingers out of anything, let alone cloth. 

I did manage to make a set of arms that were respectable.  Then I put together the legs.  They were even better.   Stitching her together was a learning experience.  I read several different patterns and watched a lot of youtube tutes.  Either you stuffed the appendages first and then sewed them on or you left an opening and stuffed them after the doll was stitched together.  Let's see, impossible to sew together with all those legs and arms stuffed into a tiny body or four more tiny little holes to stitch closed?  I went with impossible to stitch.  I traced the outline on around the square of fabric with the face stitched on.  I stitched a seam, leaving an opening between two more rectangles.  Then I tacked the arms and legs in place and stitched around the whole thing using my zipper foot. 
Let just say It was a very good thing I hadn't cut her out before sewing.  The back seam is a wee bit a whole lot crooked.  Amazingly enough she worked out without any really strange bumps. 

The face was a challenge.  I ended up finding this machine embroidery design by  JEmbroiderynApplique on etsy. It stitched out beautifully even on the quilter's weight muslin I was using.  Poor dolly is very pale as I didn't have enough of any type of flesh tone fabric to complete her.  Her hair is wool felt embellished with a few ribbon flowers.

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 For her dress, I really wanted to make the shear upper bodice that was on my partner's dress but it just didn't look right or even really show up over the muslin body.   I ended up using some more muslin for the bodice.  The skirt was made from two pieces of satin ruffle saved from making my Victorianimals way back in the 80's.  (You never know when things might come in handy!)  Unfortunately neither was quite big enough to go around and still allow her some modesty when seated.  So I did a double wrap to cover the waterfront as it were.

You can see that she is sporting a tulle veil.  What you can't see in the picture is the wee flowers holding the gathers together.

 

Her shoes are made from some pink felt.   These worked out far better than I anticipated.  I simply traced around the foot pattern, stitched on the line, cut, trimmed and made a wee bit of a scoop.  When turned right side round they actually fit and stay on.  Amazing. 

So here she is a bride doll for a bride to be.