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This costume was a Christmas present for a relative who collects Barbie® dolls. I had been thinking about branching into Renaissance costumes for dolls for a couple of years, this present was a great way to try my hand at it. I've learned a few things specific to miniature work which I've included with the respective pattern pieces. Most importantly I discovered it takes twice as long to create a doll costume than a human size one, though one might think the opposite were true!☺
The doll itself is a Kayla® Doll, one of the New Friends of Barbie®. I chose her for the closed mouth and long hair, a combination that is harder to find than most. Note that this doll is thinner and longer armed than the regular Barbie® as well as knock kneed (not that you can see the latter under the dress). The horse itself is a Hummingbird Meadow Mare™, one of a series of Barbie® horses.
The name Lady Brisbane came about when I was picking out the colors. It reminded me of a nobility team in NERO® Avendale that used blue, silver and white for their team colors under their first Baroness. So from the Barony of Brisbane the Lady Brisbane was born...
I sewed the dress in silver crepe back satin with white Kona cotton for the sleeves. The trim around the neckline and cuffs is a silver metallic, with the trim sewn on the cuffs so that the loops extend past the edge to create a picot look. The trim around the sleeve arms is a navy scallop, embellished with sapphire beads at the scallop peak.
Deviations from the pattern: The pattern calls for hand embroidering a chain stitch at the neckline, I chose trim for a more dramatic look and added it to the sleeve edge. The sleeves are longer than I think makes proportional sense, so I hand stitched a loop of elastic inside the bottom band to squish up the sleeve better.
Lessons learned: Although my Viking Designer 1 adjusts stitch lengths and widths based on the user specified weight of the fabric being sewn, it does not adjust the length of the basting stitch for lighter weight fabrics. I never noticed this until working on these sleeves, the default 6mm was way too long for miniature work so I moved down to 4.5mm for later pieces to ensure smooth gathering. In the future, I would choose a fewer thread count cotton fabric for the sleeves, to provide better drape at such a small size. I would also extend the right back extension on the back skirt facing another 1/8" to allow for turning over an inside finished edge, I think the raw edge left by the original pattern is sloppy. Finally, I would put elastic 1/4" from the finished end so that it gathered at the wrists with a cuff, instead of the cuff created from the second band.
Notes on the pattern: The pattern calls for two #2 snaps in the back, I found this size way too large. Perhaps the pattern has a misprint and what they meant was #2/0 snaps? The pattern piece for the sleeve does not include the markings for the ends of the basting stitches as shown in the instructions, either on the pattern piece or outside the pattern piece. Which brings up a pet peeve I had when working with this pattern: some pieces require that you transfer the markings from the outside of the pattern piece to the pattern piece itself before cutting it out. If I can manage to hand print markings small enough on these pattern pieces, why can't McCalls print them on the pattern pieces in the first place?
I braided the hair down the back and wrapped it in thin blue ribbon, trimming a little hair at the end to taper it. At the front of the ribbon I sewed a small bead that had a flower etched onto it. The necklace was beaded in alternating freshwater pearls and small silver beads, the amulet is the top part of an earring (with the post snipped off and filed down). The earrings, as embarrassed as I am to admit this, are the stick on kind that came with the doll.
Lessons learned: I thought I could braid hair in my sleep, but braiding the hair of a doll is much harder than I ever would have thought! In the future, I need to find some type of solution to both relax this synthetic hair and keep loose strands from flying away as I try to bring them under control.
I sewed the robe in blue raw silk, embroidered with a renaissance cross pattern in a blue metallic thread for a tone on tone look, lined with silver crepe back satin. The trim is a silver metallic, the closure at the front is two turquoise beads and the shoulders have two sapphire beads for the train to latch onto.
Deviations from the pattern: I added lining for the skirt because of the bad stabilizer experience. Originally I started with the lightest weight tear away stabilizer possible, so that I could remove it without pulling at the fabric. Unfortunately the tear away did not want to be pulled away from all the small crevices in the design (probably because the stitch length was longer than normal embroidered running stitches, as it was intended for quilting) so I switched to a new (to me) type: the kind you iron off. This disappointing product has the texture and weight of buckram and after much ironing and scrubbing of the back with a soft toothbrush, I still wasn't able to get the stabilizer out of the crevices. So I lined it to cover the small remnants of stabilizer that just would not come off. Another deviation was that I made the skirt five panels instead of two. Now I could say here that this was because I wanted to contrast the embroidered silk with the unembroidered or I wanted better draping at the sides or a variety of clever reasons... but that would not be the truth. ☺ The real reason is that after sewing out the many test samples, I ran out of thread! A run to the store for the same exact brand and color number resulted in a multi-shade difference of the blue! So I was stuck and had to panel the skirt together, alternating with the unembroidered fabric.
Lessons learned: Stabilize quilt embroidery designs with organdy and/or accept that embroidery embellished pieces need to be lined. And never use heat away stabilizer again!
I sewed the train in navy panné velvet, with a silver and white faux fur mantle, lined with silver crepe back satin. The trim is a navy scallop embellished at the edge with silver beads.
Deviations from the pattern: The pattern does not call for a mantle, but I wanted a framing of fur around the hair so I added one at the shoulders.
I sewed the horse blanket in silver crepe back satin, appliquéd with the embroidered blue raw silk, outlined with blue metallic thread satin stitching. The trim is a navy scallop embellished at the edge with silver beads.
I made the saddle by cutting down the plastic saddle included with the horse and painting it with a grey dimensional paint (to give the crackled leather look), embellished with metallic silver and sapphire blue paint. The trim is a navy scallop. The silver metal chain at the neck is fastened to the saddle with the other earring post (like the amulet) and at the front of the horse is the bottom part of the earring.
The horse's tail has been wound at the base with silver metallic thread to make it stand out better.
Lessons learned: I attempted to paint the bridle as well with the grey paint, but the details were being lost quickly. In the future, I plan to create the saddle and bridle from actual leather, if I can find Barbie® horse size buckles somewhere!
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