I was one of the first people to sign up for Colleen Babcocks delightful Mystery Doll Pattern. I knew it would be good and it was well worth the wait for all the pieces to arrive! Because of my heavy work load, I was late starting and then other things got in the way so my poor doll was left standing on her her long armature legs waiting for me to get back to her.Meanwhile all the other people were posting pictures of their completed dolls and I just couldn't get going with mine. I think it was also that I hadn't planned what I would dress it in or what colour hair - and I hate shopping, so never had the fabrics etc that would make it something I would really like.
So she stood on her long legs and stared at me. Then we had our yearly Victorian Fete and who should be there, but the Twisty Twins - young twin women on stilts, who said nothing, but struck poses and made graceful gestures. Suddenly inspitation sturck, I saw the connection and hurried home to my long legged doll and got to work.
Luckily, last year I had completed a shoemaking class with Diane Keeler and had these cute shoes on the last I had made for them sitting doing nothing and they were just the right size! So I painted them black, Modpodged them to look like patent leather and attached the lasts to the wire armature legs. I added some extra wire and moved it up through the legs for strength and wrapped the wires together with masking tape and painted it all with gesso, then with white acrylic. Now I had a long legged doll with shoes on that stood alone! I went on to change the arms, then the mouth, because it didn't match the look I was going for in the end.
I designed the outfit, with the curvy little body Colleen has designed in mind - a great shape! I wanted to have black and white stripes, but the best I could do was this.
To finish it off, I found a velvet scrunchie already decorated that I've had for years and I made her the mask holder. To make the mask I drew the same face on both sides. Because she is smiling I thought it safe to have the sad face on the mask. I dangled some tiny bells on silver cord and wrapped a long bamboo kebab stick with fine ribbon. I placed it between the glued faces and modpodged over it.
So there you are! Colleen's wonderful doll pattern re mystified! Sorry I didn;t make your pattern up fully Colleen, - but I do love your dolls body! It makes this figure look really good. Thank you for the inspiration!
