Wearables Making a Modern-ish Elf DONE [DZ Raymond]

Hello and welcome! This is my first time trying to record a project, and oh boy, did I pick an ambitious one.

I have a difficult time finding clothes to make for certain dolls. My DZ Raymond being one of them. I looked high and low for things that I liked but to no avail. Modern clothes just don’t suit him. Least of all, the punk stuff he’s been borrowing from my other 70cm boy.... But then it dawned on me, why does he have to be a modern day human; why can’t he be a Tang dynasty warrior? A Victorian vampire? An Elf from Middle-Earth? And thus, this project was born.
The victim, Masato, will be getting several Elvish-inspired outfits, props, accessories, et cetera. Oh, and ears. I have to mod his ears.

This is all still in the planning stages but I'd might as well open the thread. Between now and when I actually start, have some pretty pictures of clothes I've gathered from Pinterest:

Spoiler

 

@brichu - Thanks! Me too.

@Lady_addiction - Thank you. I'll definitely be posting some WIP soon... *gets pictures in order*

 

@Jany - I know right? Those pants are amazing! In fact, Masato has demanded those first, so I'm currently scratching my head over those drapy bits at the cuff.

 

@Jany - Never would have thought of that! Well there goes my plans of having suede-ish pants...

But anyways! Here's Mr. Soon-to-be Elf (complete with Instagram filters, which I love the look of on him)


Guess he needs and Elvish name now...any suggestions? I've never managed to come up with a personality and backstory, so hoping a new name will jump start something.... *grabs Sindarin dictionary*


I drew up a sketch of three outfits...none of which could pass as being "modern." Oh well. I'll be starting on the outfit in the middle as it looks to be the most fun!

• The first outfit consists of dark pants (leggings really...) a loose shirt, vest that may or may not be two-toned, and some boots. Also a leather belt with pouches and a cord to tie back his hair.
• Second outfit will have dark pants (again) with a ruffled cuff, another loose shirt, neck corset/weird short jacket thingy (I've seen it in Steampunk, I swear!) arm-guards and a wide belt. Oh and flat shoes.
• The third outfit is his "fancy" one. It'll have pants and a shirt, jacket with long sleeves, and an over-shirt thing. A belt and metal circlet will complete that outfit. I'm also thinking of doing some beaded nonsence all over the sleeves and train; or at least have some emboideredy!

 

@KlanceKlanceRevolutn - I was just looking at that site! It has helped me name more than a few Elf characters. And thank you, that means a lot to hear.

@Jany - Oh wow, thank you! You could find a base figure and sketch the outfit over top it. I only drew them out because I needed the figure drawing practice. I'm trying not to buy any new fabric for this project (even though suede would looks so much cooler!) Gotta stick with what I've got! And what I've got is a lot of cotton and jersey.
As for his personality, there's some disconect between what I imagine (showy and confident) and the physical doll (gentle and quiet) If that makes sense. Guess I'll be doing a lot of thinking about him to figure it out. But thanks for the link! I must have been a scholar in a previous life becasue the etymology of names is fasinating.

@Quiet and Insane - Aww yeah, Elves ftw.

 

Pants WIP:
I found some nice, thin jersey material (thank you, Jany, for the suggestion!), winged-it on the pattern, and learnt that I shouldn't wing-it on the pattern and spend the time to draft it. Not only are the pants too big at the waist, but the rise (?) is too short (plumber’s crack, amiright?) To quote Craftster.org; Measure twice, cut once. Meh. Just start cutting.


The extra fabric in the bum means Masato can easily sit down! Not something most of my dolls can do.... I’ll need to add an extra wide waistband (*cough*plumber's crack*cough*) But hey, it looks great from the front!

Then I preceded to pin extra bits of fabric to the cuff (as they were too short as well), sewed them on to the wrong sides Then pinned the ruffly bits in place.


I'm not sure how the finished pants will look, but fingers crossed it turns out!

 

@Quiet and Insane - Aw thanks! When eyeballing pattern, it either comes out perfect on the first try, or you muck it up completely and wonder where it went wrong. (btw, just realised you're following me in Instagram, thank you! I recognized your boy, Azrael. )

But good news (more for my sanity than anything really) I've finished the pants and they look nothing like the concept sketch! Forgot to mention that I rarely, if ever, stick to my original plans. I just let the project go where it wants; and these pants wanted to be two-toned.

After many hours of re-pinning, re-sewing, and getting very friendly with my seam ripper (which I'm surprised doesn't have a name yet...hmm...how about Ristanad? Cut + Thing in Sindarin) I could not get the drapey bits to drape correctly. So after sleeping on the problem, this happened. I actually like the black/grey combination better than if it was all grey.

Phew! Does anyone have any thoughts on what kind of shirt would go with the pants? I was thinking a dress shirt with floofy sleeves, but am not sure.

 

@Quiet and Insane - Yay! I sometimes follow people who have a SOOM Dia because...Dia... And thank you!
Ooh, sleeveless sounds interesting! I also thought about cut-out shoulders, or something like the figure on the right: Aíbell ingen Dairmata, Garb (minus the under sleeves) I mean, I could just make several shirts....

Masato is really making me earn his love! You'd think getting him a new body and having 80% of my projects dedicated to him would be enough. xD

 

@Quiet and Insane - omg I'm so jealous of your friend!! Also saw you had an RD Lucifer! I love his sculpt too.

Shirt WIP 1,1

All this talk of shirts made me want to whip up one up! But because I really don't want to work with woven fabric yet, so he got an unplanned one! The sleeve(s) are pretty tight (start drafting patterns!) and it's not very Elvish, but it suits Masato. (red seems to be his signature colour) I think it'll have a v-neck (another signature thing)

BUT, from now on I'll be sticking to the original drawing as I'm getting overwhelmed trying to think of new/better pieces. For example, I spent an afternoon daydreaming about making a pair of lacey slippers and an embroidered bag. Poor guy had no hope of being masculine!

 

@Quiet and Insane - Thanks! I don't have to remove his hands, but it's a very tight squeeze! That's half the reason I got one of my guys jointed hands; makes it easier to put shirts on. Ooh, enabler! lol Guess I'll dust off some Irish crochet patterns and get planning!

 

@Quiet and Insane - Aw, what other pairs do you have? My Yuu has some from Angell-Studio and they're wonderful. But I was thinking about getting Masato a pair from Doll Legend as they have that extra thumb-joint-thingy. Oh yes! I also love knitting, dabble in tatting and needle lace, and have a love-hate relationship with embroidery, nuido, and sashiko.

Speaking of, I finally finished a lace scarf (and just realized how "vampire" this picture looks...hmm... Elf-Vampire anyone?)


Also finished that red-shirt, as you can kinda see. Haven't tried squeezing Masato's hands out of the finished sleeves, so something to look forward to... Also, I busted out the old sewing machine and have started a flowy shirt. Not much done, but will hopefully have time to finish it this weekend; then start on some crochet shoes. OH and sculpt some Elf ears! Can you mod ears without removing a face-up? I'll report back if you can.

 

@Jany - Wow, thank you! That sure helps. I highly doubt I bothered to blush his ears, so this should be easy...I say before ruining Masato's face up...

@Quiet and Insane - omg I know! Embroidery takes sooooooo long to do. ><; Please post pictures if you ever pick it back up! It's fun seeing other people's work. Have you tried wiring the hands? It's a pain, sure, but the hands pose better than before.

HAH totally managed to get the red shirt off Masato. Then I quickly made a flowy shirt. It was easy since it was all rectangles.




The fabric is almost too thin for modesty so I doubled it up for the front yoke, but you can't really tell in the pictures. The sleeves ended up being too long, (I swear I measured before cutting, I swear!) but if I ever made a jacket to go with this, the cuff peaking out would look quite nice. Or I'll just knit up some ruffled lace...hmm...



Here's the lacing details. Sewed the eyelets by hand (I LOVE making eyelets) but had to cut the sleeve seam to get his hands through. : Also didn't have any white ribbon, so off-white will have to do until I feel like braiding several feet of cord...

That's all I can do for today as I just started another project (non-doll) and have to get on that. Phoo.

 

@Quiet and Insane - Woah, that sounds like quiet the bucket load. I wish you luck, with the projects and your sanity! And yes, wiring really helps; but it's a whole challenge in and of itself and not something I look forwards to doing again... *cough* Thanks! I believe everything looks neater in pictures. lol

@Xila - Aww, thank you! I don't have a patterns, but the shirt is mostly rectangles gathered into other rectangles with the cuffs being narrower at the wrists. It's hard to explain, but very easy to sew! I could try and draw up a schematic if you'd like.


Fine, I'll keep the off-white laces (don't have any white ribbon anyways ahah hah...) In the original sketch there was a pair of gauntlet thingys, but now I'm not sure about them. Perhaps embroidery on the cuffs instead? Or maybe yoke?? Along the front opening??? THIS is why I don't embroider more, can't think of what/where to stitch.

 

@Quiet and Insane - Oh Light, my eyesight is blurring just thinking about that!

@Jany - Thank you! Yet another wonderfully insightful comment! I never would've considered that... Though it seems I only have one bit of green fabric, and no earth tones, so this'll be...interesting... (!!!)

But I finally sculpted some proper ears onto Masato.


Also drafted the pattern for the gauntlet/vambrace/bracers (note; learn the proper terms for these things!) Not sure what I want them to look like, or even if I want a matching pair! Which one(s) do you guys like?

Spoiler

 

Thank you all!!! I was so worried about getting the shape of the ears right, so I'm glad everyone likes them. xD Okay then, I'll go with the middle one (yay, more laces!! xD) And I've started designing the cuff embroidery even though it'll be covered up... but that's okay. It's all about the details. This may take awhile as I'm so darn fickly about embroidery designs. *sigh*
Also, I bought a magazine talking entirely about Tolkien and Middle-Earth, so I'm more excited than ever for this project.

@Quiet and Insane - Masato has been getting quite a few compliments on his face-up, not that he minds.

 

@skyealloway - Aw, thank you! Eyelets are really simple to make and hardly take any time at all! They're probably one of my favourite embellishments to add.

@Quiet and Insane - Indeed! Might even have to binge all the movies this weekend...for inspiration of course. It's not even the actualy embroidery that I have problems with (well, not usually,) it's the designing part. I'm trying to weave symbolisms and a deeper meaning into it and...let's just say it's slow goings. You're right though, careful and methodical are the way to go. *impaitents intensifies*

 

Hmm, haven't gotten very far with giving Masato a new name. I'm sure this would be easier if he had a backstory, but that will probably take a millenia or more. Calphen, Calphion, Círphen, Rivorn, Maeldir, Cirithor, Seregon, Edhennor, et cetera. It'll either have a water-related meaning, or something dark/tragic. (like reaper...heh...)

Enough rambling, onto the vambrace!
Drapping some fabric over Masato’s arm, drawing all over it to get the basic pattern, which is my favourite way of making patterns. Shame it doesn't work as nicely for something like a suit jacket... *ahem* Then tracing it onto some nice fabric; I was going to make it in three pieces like this picture but prefered the look of a single piece. FInally, I remembered to draw up a design then got to work.


Browsing Needle 'n Thread I stumbled across the Spanish Knotted Feather stitch and the lattice stitch. Now, why hadn't I found these stitches sooner??!! The Feather Stitch is so much fun and very easy despite how complex it looks. The Lattice stitch on the other hand... Let's just say I had to rip back several times. *shakes fist at Masato*


(needle for scale as I didn't have a ruler or coin) I'm really loving this little thing. It could be the fact that an embriodery project is going somewhat smoothly, or the colour-scheme (Masato will be one of the Sea-Folk, perhaps because I like silver and blue as opposed to earth-tones...neh...) There's also a touch of red in the lattice to add intrest. Do you think the roses in the centre part should be red? Or should it all be silver? I've still got a lot of work to tackle before that, so I've got time to think about it...

Hang on, these vambraces are getting pretty darn fancy, so I might forgo the embriodery on the shirt. Or I'll embrioder everything as I'm really getting into this. Thank the gods Masato looks good in lace and frilly things. He's more feminine than my MK girl!

 

@Jany - thank you! ^^ There's many things Masato will let me put him in, lace, frills, flowery embroidery, but I doubt he'd like pink. A water lily sounds very nice! So after some google-imaging, I found a nice design that looks strikingly simmilar to the rose I was originally going to embroider, yay!

Spoiler

 

@Akiraniu - Thank you! All these compliments are going to Masato's head!

Water lilies sound lovely, so lovely that I procrastinated on that by embroidering the second vambrace. (excuse the blurriness)

I swear the two are the same size, it's the camera angle! I may have to take a little break after these are done while I try to figure out the last details of this outfit...and plan the next one(s)...

 

@Xila - Thank you so much. : It's no problem at all! Everything but the collar are rectangels pleated into rectanges, pleated into tapered rectangels.

(the double circle means you cut it on the fold) I modified the yoke from Inl_aki's pattern, basically making the arme-scye straight, then pleated two rectanges for the body, and two more for the sleeves. The cuffs are elbow-length, tapered rectange with eyelets, and the collar is from the aformentioned pattern.
Hope that makes sence, or at least the picture does... Will you post what you make? I'd love to see it!

@Quiet and Insane - Thank you~

 

Hmm, this is going slower than expected. I was having a lot of trouble embriodering a flower and had to frog it multiple times. Then, at my wits end, my Mum suggested that I try tatting something...!!!! I then spend the rest of the weekend making different motifs and trying to find one that was small enough for these little vambraces.


You can't tell from the picture (because I always forget to use something for scale...) but the motif is smaller than my thumb-nail! WOW. And I can still see after that.

 

@skyealloway - Yup, Thank you! Tatting is fun! Do you have the things to do needle or shuttle tatting? I've only picked up needle-tatting recently and can't fathom doing it with a shuttle.

@Quiet and Insane - Thank you! I used sewing thread so that's why it's so darn tiny.

 

@Quiet and Insane - thanks!

Are you guys sick of seeing nothing but these vambraces? Because I am! But they're finally finished.


(10p for scale) The larger motif at the top is tatted with sewing thread that doesn't quite match the embroidery floss I was using and BOY does it bug me! But I couldn't have gotten such fine details with anything else... There's a tiny 15/0 bead at it's centre as well.



And here's a close-up of the tatted motif. I'm so happy with how these turned out even though it doesn't really scream "casual," but I guess Elf's version of casual is a little different to ours. Now I'll start on a short vest looking thing, a belt, and shoes. Maybe all at once so you don't get tired of me posting the same piece for two weeks straight.

And I have no idea how to affix these to Masato's arms. Maybe with laces? Or snaps? Or magic?

 

@Jany - At this rate, the fancy otufit will have to be encrusted in gold to be considered "fancy." Thank you!

@Quiet and Insane - Aw thank you!

@skyealloway - Thanks! Ooh, that thread is a pretty shade of pink. I don't see any shuttles or tatting needle, but you could have fun with that crochet hook!

Okay then, laces it is! Now I have to wrestle Masato back into that shirt... Also I hope to make a bag simmilar, or even vaugely like.... NO! STOP ADDING NEW THINGS TO THIS PROJECT JUST STICK TO THE PLAN...