I like illusion and simplicity when costuming my dolls.  I like color and drama.  I like for the costume to define the doll.  I love to embellish and I lke beads and shiny trinkets, as well as unusual textures and accessories.

On this page you will find two examples of what you can do with ribbon and beads, unusual hair, and pillow fringe to completely cotume a doll without once going to your sewing machine.  It is an exercise in creativity and imagination, and these are two tools that the doll artist relies upon more than anything else to make an impact with dolls.

Mary's Muse She is completely costumed using a roll of model lace that I got in a bin at a local department store for about a buck.  The lace is simply wrapped around the bosom.  The sleeves are strips that are applied to her arms in two different effects, one is wrapping the other is tacking the strips to the arm.

The panty is acheived by wrapping the lace around the legs, then the one pant leg is tacked to the waist in strips and secured at the ankle with a wrapped cuff of the same lace.  Simple but effective. Gold seed beads and bugle beads complete her wardrobe.  Her neck band is simply wrapped and tucked.

Her hair is part of a clown wig that I found marked down after Halloween.

Enchanted Winter was an opportunity to show case a wonderful print doe suede.  I did not want the fabric to lose any of its effect by making a costume out of it.  I wanted the fabric to be the theme of the doll.  With the exception of the head, I made the whole doll from it.  I found the wonderful fringe at a store that had bolts and bolts of pillow fringe, on one of my stops in North Carolina after I taught in Virginia last year.  It matched perfectly. It made wonderful hair, shoulder treatment, and leg treatment.  She has a fringe of it around each ankle. I added a girdle of the fringe and embellished it with beads. I brushed the fringe with glitter paint to give the illusion of rain, and I added the leaves from a small floral pic I found for a dime. Again strings of beads add texture and sparkle.

The whole effect is earthiness.

It gives the illusion of the dark, rainy days of a Texas winter without the drabness.  Without the beads and leaves, the doll would have been too stark, and the theme would have been "gray" instead of "winter". So as you can see, the addition of the little accessories and the glitz of the paint, as well as the beads give the doll a whole new dimension.  Her face too was more severe than most of the faces I do.  This of course was not planned, but I find that the painting usually follows the cotuming.  And I have worked by painting the face last for a long time now. It has become one of my habits and serves me well.

There are of course times when you will want to use patterns for costumes.  When you  want to capture an era, make a particular detailed costume that you see in your head.  By all means follow that idea, and find the pattern that best defines your doll and that idea.  But don't forget the little things.  That special trinket, the little touches, and the overall look of the doll.  Costuming your doll is one of the most enjoyable and creative things you can do in your doll making.  Costuming and embellishment define your doll's character and personality.

Costuming

This page was last updated on: 4/2/2010