Wearables A cart (or two) from Hobbiton - various Hobbits and a Dwarf

Right? The costumes were what gave me the idea of Tolkien-inspired dolls in the first place

I had an arrival today so I stole some doll time - during which Kori's default helmet ended up on his head again. Look at that hairsplosion around his ears. It might fit (with a bit of persuasion), but oh my goodness.

 

Spot the difference!



It's not much. Folco finally got his shirt done(ish), and Kori's vambraces are laced with their proper fake leather ribbons now (and I sorta got used to the hairsplosion, so the helmet stays ... for now). Whee ... I guess. Not enough doll time lately!
Violetta snuck out while the boys got their stuff done, and came back with a bucket full of squashes, pears, and apples. Hobbits and their priorities!

 

*dusts off thread*

Having entered Kori('s armour) in the current Sewing Project, I went back through this thing to check what else could possibly count as accessories - who agrees Folco could do with a neckerchief? And those suspenders are still unfinished, too. I think I finally have a plan for those: I'll sew buttons on his trousers and loops of elastic to the ends of the suspenders. Unlike button holes, elastic loops will go over differently sized buttons if I can't find / make the same buttons again for another pair of trousers. (Why did that take half a year to figure out? We shall never know.)

 

I'm happy to hear that! They just sort of happened ... as my projects tend to do. And sometimes they get attention.

The boys went treasure-hunting in the crafting supplies, and both found things:



Kori snatched the last two pretty silver beads for beard jewelry (lucky there were two left!) and he found his future belt buckle. It's not a buckle, I think it was meant for a bracelet, and I think it came out of a box of old craft supplies stuff my parents found while cleaning up our old stuff in the basement ... so I don't know what it is, or where it came from, but it's heavy and awesome and looks like something a dwarven finesmith would wear, so it's his.
Folco found a match box with 10 little buttons (might have come put of the same box as Kori's belt decoration) - too big for his shirt, not fancy enough for the waistcoat, but just right for the suspenders. Yay!

 

Sooo I've been racking my brains about Kori's clothes. I don't have too many doll-scale fantasy fabrics so that's been a bit of a challenge - until I spotted Nori (I think) proudly showing off his knitwear. That works! I picked up some pretty knit stuff for something completely different a while ago (project has since been scrapped), and that's what I'll use. It's not quite what the movie dwarves are wearing, but then, Kori isn't a movie dwarf.
Then I guess I'll be using wool for the next layer - Fili is wearing a kind of sleeveless, calf-length tunic. I have leftovers in a dark brown that looks very earthy and dwarvish, I only need to find some trims to fancy it up a little. Then he can still wear armour over the wool thing if he wants, while the wool serves the extra purpose of bulking him out a bit. Middle-Earth problems - all the dolls are too skinny!

Here's Kori with what will become his shirt:

 

Thank you! Yes, I'm absolutely planning foot hair. I have quite a bit of leftovers that have been brushed out of each wig, so it can be the proper colour for everyone ... but I'm not quite sure yet how to make it look right. Last night I caught myself contemplating the idea of curling it around a toothpick, the idea being that if it's curled very very tight and pulled apart a bit it might look like lots and lots of individual curls even if it's not. I have a test run drying right now, depending on how long that takes there might be fuzzy Folco feets later today

 

What are hobbitses without furry feetsies?
Flocking would probably give the best results ... but it needs special fiber, right? I'll definitely keep it in mind, but for now I'm more comfortable trying to use what I already have.

The curling experiment went rather well, but I messed it up trying to pull it apart. Shouldn't have used a full-length lock, I guess ... next try: Cutoffs and shorter, fuzzier ends.

edit - well! Not that messed up after all. Still need some trimming, but this is about what was supposed to happen:

 

Thankies! I'm waiting for the second strand of alpaca to dry so I can do his other foot. In the meantime I got some work done on his still-unfinished clothes ...

 

... Now I know what I forgot - blushing! I need to blush the feet first. For one thing because the actual hair will look better if some is blushed on first, and for another because no hobbit in living history would ever had feet that clean. Let's hope for spray-friendly weather ...

 

Can't steal what's shared Best of luck! Actual hair should help disguise mismatches ... also, pics or it didn't happen.

 

Great ideas, @Ellidyr! I'll check those vids, if I can use my leftovers that would be perfect
@VampireAngel13 awwww isn't he the cutest Baggins around (What sculpt is he? I seem to be getting a Littlefee vibe?) Wooly feet would hide the mods, please share pics if you work on him

Come to think of it, as much as people complain about Iple dolls' big feet, they sure still look small for hobbits. Maybe too small? I wonder if Folco's feet would fit on the girl body ... only what to do for him? Must try some feet switcheroo. The weather won't let me spray things yet anyway.

 

Good point! I'll give it a shot tonight (not at home right now, taking advantage of Dad's workshop building a new tank for the snek). I'm thinking JID boy feet for the girls, and YID girl feet for the boys should work ... if the joints cooperate. We shall soon find out.

Weeeeell ... this happened:


Violetta wearing Folco's right foot as Folco is wearing a spare heeled nYID/SID/EID foot (they're all the same size anyway).
(Folco is NOT AMUSED at having to wear a heel foot. But all my big girls are in flats, so these were the only spares I had.)

I like the look. A lot. BUT the big girl feet swallow the JID ankle joint whole, those would take a good bit of milliput to be made to fit. Even the JID boy feet would need a fair bit of putty to work with the JID girl ankles.
But I still like the bigger-footed look, so it'll have to happen. Meaning I'll need to order a bunch of feet ... or try and find some on the MP, all the girls come with two sets anyway so someone might have a spare pair of flats. Or maybe I can still add to the GO that hasn't shipped yet. Either way, I'll need at least one new pair (for Folco) and I'd feel more comfortable about modding a spare pair so I'll try and order a pair of JID boy feet too. Or I'll get replacements for the defaults when I order Holman, whenever that will be.

 

Thank you! I asked in the GO thread if it would be possible to add another pair of feet to the order, now we wait. Folco's new feet could be found on the MP, but for the girls I'll need to buy new ones if I don't want to mod the defaults, which I'd rather avoid - with mods there'd be mismatch anyway, and even though I can't imagine ever selling any of my dolls, I'd much rather have their matching, default feet unmodded.

(The noodle is a garter snake, he's only a couple months old but he's growing out of his baby tank so I need to get his proper one done soonish ...)

 

Well ... there's good news and bad news. The bad news is, I wasn't able to add hobbitty feetses to the GO ... the good news is that that's because it's already shipping. So my last missing main crew member might make an appearance soonish, depending on how fast he gets to our host and from her to me.

There isn't much on the MP ("big girl" feet pop up every now and then, but usually on the other side of the world so that shipping would cost more than the feet themselves, and no JID boy feet at all because where would those even be coming from), so "Project Bigfeet" is on hold until I order Holman (Edwin). Plus it's very fitting that someone named "Proudfoot" should come with a bunch of extra feet

 

On the subject of Holman ... do you guys reckon I could get away with corduroy trousers for a hobbit? The plain red cotton is the only other red fabric I have, and I want him to be a bit more colourful than Folco.
Also, that yellow / cream / tan-ish whatever-it-is. It's a leftover from a human-sized project, a friend gave me the scraps ages ago. I was going to make something SD sized from it, a long gown or something, because of the pattern's size, but there isn't really enough left ... do you reckon hobbits' waistcoats need to have smaller patterns, or could I use that? (Part of me wants to go fantasy fabric shopping, the rest wants to use more from the stash as that is already threatening to take over the place ...)

 

Still no clothes, but Kori's hair jewelry looks fancy now.

 

... and instead of sewing, I planted a garden.
I'd been meaning to cover the extra shelf space in fake grass anyway, and it will support a backdrop now, but I don't have any backdrops yet so have a pic of two hobbits in the WIP garden.

 

Side note: They do. Well, "wescot" (to quote Hamfast Gamgee), but - close enough for one whose son calls potatoes "taters".

 

I'm getting the Hobbiton gang ready for a meetup this Saturday, so there's finally been progress regarding Kori. I've been contemplating flocking the hobbits' feet even though they're still the wrong sizes, but I do want to add blushing and it's still bloody freezing. Oh well. we'll see what happens, the flocking itself is a pretty quick process.
Right now I'm working on lasts for Kori - if I want to make actual leather dwarf boots, I'll need them.

The current plan is: Real leather, heat / wax shaped and hardened around the toes, no squaring (that appears to be Thorin only). Laced with faux suede ribbon like his vambraces (maybe use the same leather?), maybe lined in felt for both added thickness (I want the boots bulky) and stain protection.

 

Update: Got lasts made, got all the leather parts cut out and am going to line it with something other than felt, for a more fur-like look. Stay tuned. ;-) I'm also watering the toe parts, hoping to get them shaped using nothing but water - I don't really need them as stiff as wax would make them, but I do want to shape them a bit. For that, I bulked out the lasts using bunched-up tinfoil (that would withstand wax too) and now we wait. In the meantime, I'm sewing up the other parts.



Update, the shaping worked! The whole constructs (lasts+foil+leather) have been wrapped in kitchen towels and are going to spend the night on the heating. I have quite a few errands to run tomorrow, but I hope to be able to put the shoes together afterwards.

Update 2, shaped toe parts! Not exactly even, but hey, for a first try ...

 

Sneaky-sneak preview ...

 

And the whole gang at the meetup! There was something WIP about everyone (of mine), but some things from the long(ish)-term to-do list got done ... bonus points if you can spot them

 

Thank you! They're only temporary until my next Iple order, I'd like to go up one size for them. These were an exercise in feet fuzz and yielded some valuable lessons Plus, they look more hobbity now until their final feet come in. (Who just imagined a pair of feet marching in the door by themselves? *raises hand*)
I was side-tracked by a spontaneous dyeing adventure - now that that is done, I'll go back to the elves for a bit to hopefully get the boys' outfits done, then return to Hobbiton.

 

Side-tracked again! I spent all Sunday learning how to needle felt, only to find out that goats - even felted ones - are most definitely herd animals ...



The short one is Aberforth the Ancient, first of the Hobbiton goats (and still eyeless as my needle is too thick for detail work and I don't want to bake polyclay in this heat). The white one is both unfinished and nameless. We'll see how big a herd Folco ends up with ... and I'm already considering the ultimate madness project, too, and that one concerns Kori. Suffice it to say I'm currently trying to figure out what to use for an armature strong enough to carry a doll ...

 

I'll check that out! I thought I had figure wire strong enough, but nope ... the search continues.

 

Another good idea, thank you! I'm not 100% sure what I want / need as the whole thing is super experimental ... I'll check it all out! Pretty sure the reinforcing idea will make an appearance in some form.