Angel

I may not be the kind who holds onto things for their sentimental value, but I am cheap. I'm not going to shell out for something I already have, especially if all my current one needs is a little facelift. So when I pulled my 6 year old angel tree-topper out of the Christmas box this weekend, and her wings fell off, I figured I'd spruce her up a little, and fit her into my Christmas tree color scheme before I glued her wings back on.

I learned a few things in this process; first of all, sewing a Victorian style gown in size DOLL is a lot harder than I anticipated. Also, real (or at least soft/moveable) hair is far easier to work with than painted hair. (I would have preferred a higher neckline, but her hair prevented that.) And last but not least, when you leave feathers laying about, your cat will feign sweetness in order to sit in your lap and try to eat the feathers.

Anyway, let me show you a few before and afters of her (minus her wings, I'm trying to add some different colored feathers to them but am not too sure of how to proceed with that...) Also, I'm not too sure why she had a wand. As far as I know, angels don't typically have wands. So she's not getting it back.

I painted her face, darkened her hair, and brought her forward a few centuries, fashion-wise.

And for comparison purposes, a side-by-side.

I think she looks great. :) I love being able to take something I paid less than $10 for and make it uniquely mine.

(You like how I got completely distracted and haven't even touched the new/old table and chairs?)

Joining:

and:

and also:

Doll makeover: better than expected!

Have you ever started a project kind of mindlessly, thinking you'll just kind of see where it goes?

Last night I was itching to do something, but I didn't really feel like starting on something complicated. I wanted a simple project that I could work on while I was in the living room watching SNL. Then it came to me! Remember that creepy looking doll I picked up in Magnolia last month? I had been looking at pictures from all the Dia de los Muertos celebrations in Mexico, so I figured I could dress her as a mourner. I cut off her dress, and painted her tiny face white, then realized her hair was getting in the way. I ripped the whole piece off, (which enabled me to paint her whole head) and then started drawing on the face details. It turned out way better than I expected. I had no idea that I had painting skills like that. Anyway, once I saw how well her makeup turned out I had to go all out on her dress.

I used a few scraps that were laying around, hand stitched everything onto her, and voilà! An adorably accurate, slightly creepy, really expensive looking doll.

(This one is to give you an idea of her size, compared to the spool of thread.)

I put her on the window so I could do a side-by-side before/after, and Belle wasn't sure whether she was a friend or foe!

This is one of the better ones that shows off her dress.

Oh, I also went to restore yesterday and got two more pieces to cut up. A sparkly black short-sleeve turtleneck, and a gold sparkly sweater dress. They're both too small for me to wear so they'll be getting re-purposed sometime this week. Maybe even later today, I am in a DO STUFF kind of mood. :)