Trying Something New

A crafting forum I love has started an Artistic Doll Challenge. Now I haven't done anything like that before, with the exception of an ugly little bear I did out scrap fabric (and stuffed with yarn) when I was about 7 or 8 years old. It was the ugliest little thing ever - mostly because I had no concept of seam allowances.

Anyway, I figured this was a good time to try something new so I decided to take part. The rules were simple - no more than five inches tall, could be just about any shape and embellished pretty much any way you could imagine. I struggled at first because there was no theme to give my ideas directions. After lots of thought, I came up with this design - keep in mind this is a work in progress. This is after she was handsewn and stuffed:


The lines you see are the pattern lines I drew on so I would know what to paint where. As you can (hopefully) see I went a Spring theme. I miss the beautiful blooming flowers and all of the colors, and thus, Rose was created. She is probably a little more intricate of a design than I should have tackled for my first doll. There are some details that didn't work and she was a pain to stuff.

The next step was to paint her, give her some pretty spring colors:


Next will be to add the embellishments. She is still a work in progress. There is a bunch of beading that needs to be done, some pretty trim to add, and such. I'm actually experimenting with a lot of techniques I've never used before.

I'm hoping to have her close to finished next week. Wish me luck and comments are welcome!