Hat and Hair

Obviously I'm not a very prolific blogger. Nor have I made very much in the past few months. But here's a recent picture, in case anybody was curious what Una-na was wearing this summer.

People Clothes

Forgive me blog-gods for I have sinned, my last post was four months ago. In an effort to keep my blog from being yet another abandoned project (and because I told my Mom I'd show her what I've done) I'm posting two things I've made in the past few silent months. Unlike the things I've uploaded so far, they're actually people-sized clothes. They were made from patterns in Sewing Lesson by Machiko Kayaki. Lisa V., thanks again for this fantastic book!

Sewing Lesson by Machiko Kayaki

ISBN 978-4-579-11093-3

This seersucker dress was a piece of cake. I followed the pattern verbatim and was very happy with the way it came out. May I also say I love working with seersucker, much more so than with the muslin I used for the following project...

...this camisole. It ended up being more work than I had bargained for because (a) the fabric turned out to be too sheer for my tastes and I decided, mid-project, to add an inner layer, (b) the fabric was flimsy and hard to keep straight, and (c) I altered the pleating in front to have an even number of pleats facing either way symmetrically. The original pattern is designed with an odd number of them going in one direction. I don't know why, but asymmetry on a centered detail just bothered me to no end. So if anybody looks at this in any detail they'll see my very poor craftsmanship. However I know most people won't as long as they don't know I made it. So please don't tell!

Meet Bea

Meet Bea. She's my newest doll. I made her for a challenge on the VintageClothdollmaking yahoo group where I've been lurking since spring.





The challenge was to make a doll with a full trunk and wardrobe presentation. Originally I had visions of multiple outfits for different occasions and some kind of creative hand-made trunk. But alas, midnight tonight is the deadline and all Bea has to wear is what she has on her body right now. We did, however, manage to pull together a nice little portrait with a mother-of-pearl inlaid trunk. Nobody that sees that would imagine she's as destitute as she is. Special thanks to my DH for help on the set dressing.

Bea is short for Beatrice, but that's too long a name for a doll just barely over a foot tall. I imagine she lives in the New York of a century ago, so currently she's of 1907. My inspiration when I started her was a Steiff character doll from around 1913. I found a picture of the undressed doll in a book and based my pattern on that but ended up changing a lot of things as I went along. Of course judging from the clothed pictures you would never guess the two had anything to do with each other at all.

I like this picture taken of Bea in Cape Cod before I finished her hair, before her debut, let's say. (Dress courtesy of Una-na.) It's the picture of a girl enjoying her last days of summer holiday before returning to the demands of the big city and cooler months.

Fun with Stop-Motion

When my hard drive crashed a while back I thought I had lost more than half a year's worth of files. What I missed a little more than I probably should have was a bit of stop-motion animation I had tried out on my own just for fun over a couple evenings last winter. It's no Wallace and Gromit, but I got a kick out of doing it. Luckily my DH managed to recover everything by putting the hard drive in the refrigerator (that's a story for another day). So now I have my little animations back, and I've promised my dear nephew Vincent I'd share them with him. So here they are:

Last Day in Istanbul

Shamefully the whole of August passed by without a single new post. I'll blame it mostly on my computer crash, although that's not entirely fair since it's been back up for a couple weeks now. Time flies whether you're having fun or not.

I have a few more pictures of Una-na's adventures in Istanbul that I've been meaning to post for the past month. They were taken on our last day in Istanbul.

We took in the sights of Sultanahmet. Here we are in front of Hagia Sophia, originally constructed almost 15 centuries ago.

We were lucky enough to hear a Ottoman style military marching band play before they marched back into Topkapi Palace with much swagger and style.

We made some friends taking pictures in front of the Blue Mosque.

And we had kofte at the one and only Tarihi Selim Usta Sultanahment Koftecisi - roughly translated "The Historical Kofte Maker of Sultanahmet" - which is definitely not to be confused with its many imitators. My DH, undaunted by onlookers, helps me with Una-na's pose. However I'm fairly sure he prefers to remain anonymous in the context of this post.

More from Istanbul

Some vintage fabric that used to be part of a dress belonging to Oktay's grandmother became a new dress for Una-na. Lucky girl. Yesterday she wore it for a little exploring in Cukurcuma, a bohemian neighborhood of twisting narrow alleys, full of antique shops, galleries and cafes.



Exhausted from the maze of narrow streets, we went to Ortakoy for a bit of fresh air. We stayed till almost midnight drinking tea and playing backgammon.


Before coming home we stopped in Bostanci for some late-night eats.

Brunch in Istanbul

We're in Istanbul this week and today we had brunch overlooking the Golden Horn. Una-na wore a new outfit made from Gulden Teyze's fabric stash.

Una-na insisted on driving the '65 Chevy, so we were half an hour late.

With a Barbie we met at brunch.

Crossing the Bosphorus.