Anyway, I run out of ideas pretty fast, so I'm always game to make custom dolls. I've made some of my best stuff for other people. I get easily bogged down in my own favorite figures that I forget about everyone else out there.
I've made a small batch of the new boudoir style dolls just basically as a test run to see how they'd come out. I' frankly like making the better because the larger size makes it easier to do more highly detailed costumes, and honestly, that's the whole reason I got into this business in the first place. Ha!
This one started out as a Josephine Baker doll, but I couldn't get her face right for the life of me. Eventually I was messing around with some Twiggy style eyes and ended up just leaning into it and making her into a Diana Ross-style girl group singer. As you can see, she was a prototype and her arms came out a bit too long, but I ended up liking and keeping them that way.
This one is my favorite that I've made in this style so far. I really love menswear and was inspired by a Rudolph Valentino doll I saw somewhere on line. I put him up in my etsy, but I may end up keeping him! I've been making their costumes out of clothes I find at thrift stores or cast offs of my own. His suit is made from an old blazer of mine, and his shirt is from a shirt that I really loved but spilled coffee on. His boater hat is made from a Pendleton wool scrap I got from my aunt!
Hunting for the fabrics to make their costumes out of is one of the most fun things about making dolls again. Since I hunt for stuff constantly for my space, being able to use things that I find that are not sellable , or in terrible condition is pretty great.
These take forever since I completely sew them by hand. I've gotten pretty fast doing the bodies, but the clothing takes a lot of time. It's the most fun, but also most time consuming because I try and do some research to make them look like the real thing!
