2009 Sewing Project - birthstone-colored clothes - January/Garnet

So, I had this idea. I thought it might be nice to try and make some doll clothing every month this year, and use birthstones as inspiration for colors. Between all the dolls the spawn and I already own, and the ones we have on order, I have plenty of sewing to do.

For example: January's birthstone is garnet. I had a garnet-red rayon dress I bought several years ago that did not fit me anymore. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take a picture of the original dress before I started cutting it up, so I don't have one. From now on if I use clothing, I'll try to remember to take a picture of it first.

Anyway, I cut it up and made dresses for both Andrea and Hisui out of it.


Here are my garnet creations.

There was a stylized celtic sun design on the front of the original dress-bodice that is now the design around Andrea's neckline. The original dress also had a ruffle on the bottom and more black celtic embroidery around the front. I used this for the skirt of Andrea's dress. To finish it, I hand-stitched a tiny picot trim to the neckline. The pattern I put together was based on one of Gracefaerie's, although I adapted the front of the bodice so it comes to a 'V', and the sleeves are my own.

Here's a close-up of my gorgeous Andrea, showing the detail of the bodice and the picot trim.


For Hisui's dress I used a lot of the lower edge of the back of the skirt from the original dress, which had the ruffle but no embroidery. I stitched black cotton lace along the gathered seam of the ruffle on both the skirt and the lower edge of the sleeves. I decorated the front of her bodice with the same cotton lace, and picot trim around the neckline and on the sleeves. I used Patchwork Pansy's lolita pattern for MSD's, with a few small adjustments to the sleeve pattern. I also made her a black lace-trimmed petticoat to wear under it, since rayon has a wonderful drape, but not a lot of body. In fact, I also had to line the top part of her sleeves with muslin so they'd actually puff.

Here's a larger picture of Hisui, showing the details of the dress..


Now, I have about a week and a half to come up with at least one outfit for February - in purple. February's birthstone is Amethyst. I have some ideas. Let's see if I can pull it off.

 

Thank you all! I am hoping that it will keep me motivated to design and sew throughout the year.

I will update monthly - hopefully - when I get the outfits done. I'm currently working on February's amethyst outfit. It's a party dress for Andrea (my Elfdoll Ryung). I can't believe I only have another week before this month is over!

 

Thank you all! I'm a big fan of re-claiming and recycling fabric from old clothes and using scraps left over from other projects. I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot of both as I work my way through the year.

As for similarly-colored birthstones like pearl, diamond, and opal - I will do my best to be entertaining. ^_^ While I will probably go with white in April for diamonds, pearls can range from pure white to silvery-grey to black, so I have some leeway there. For October, I'm thinking of going with pink tourmaline, which is an alternate birthstone choice for that month.

If you can't tell, I'm really enjoying this project.