Wearables Vega wants to finish making things (moved to my blog)

I've been experiencing a mild block on crafting that's threatening to become a serious block. I think some culprits are perfectionism, lack of accountability, and lack of information. Better for it to be Done than to be Perfect, so the inner critic needs to have a trash can shoved over its head for now. And if I don't know how to do something, ask for help and/or Google it instead of lying down on the floor and whining "I dunno what to dooo".

A bit of gentle audience scrutiny helps me. I'm better at getting things done when people are watching. "I need to report in, best have something to show for it!" "Look, there are friendly helpful people on DoA, you have no excuse to not ask for help." So here we go.

Update 5/09: I've moved my crafting to-do list to my doll blog. This thread was great when it lasted, but I kind of don't need it anymore, so I won't be updating it ... though who knows, maybe I'll come back later.

Update 28/07: more finished projects in post #13
Update 5/05: see post #6 for pics of finished projects.

Priorities

• kimono and haori for Gael. Haori for the anpiel, maybe two. These two sewing projects are the "easy, fun rewards" for finishing Vallant's hakama a button-down shirt, I don't get to make them (or take all the photos I've planned with them) until that is done. /// 25/08 Finished a kimono for Gael.

• Repair the anpiel's earrings.
• [sewing] Socks and tights. In dire need of these. Shouldn't be too hard, I think?

To-do list

• [sewing] "Trek sak" preliminary trial. (Based on pegapup's "Trek saks" which I bought from DoA MP way back as a newbie.) Waiting - bought velcro, shipped and should arrive soon. /// 5/05 - Velcro arrived, but I'm puzzled about how to connect it to the fabrics. Ask for help, figure this out, don't peter out!!!
• [crafting] Unfinished test: chopsticks from Fimo polymer clay. First prototype didn't succeed. Might need better sculpting tools? Is Fimo a good material, what other materials can I use to make chopsticks?

• [website] galleries on doll profiles. Yet another thing I started and then got distracted and petered out. Go read up on responsive web images, sort out the markup.

• [photos] Dynamics with wire. Follow sfishfish's method. Get thin wire (florist wire? jewellery wire?), use it to pose fabrics.
• [photos] Photoshoot: Syr with wings, Vallant with doll stand
• [photos] Photoshoot: A game of chess. Ask for permission to use location. Aim to get it done next holiday.

• ...run out of things to do? go look at my notebook of projects, there's no end of them.

Spoiler: Finished projects

Finished

Pics in post #15

• Unfinished project: button down shirt. Already trialled Missy's Imaginings' pattern but I was so slow, distracted and disorganized when sewing the mockup, I'm not sure that I gained anything from my sloppy attention. Do it again and this time take the mockup to complete (including buttons and buttonholes) before making the actual garment. Finish what I began. /// 12/07 in progress. 14/07 sewed a mockup. 23/07 tested the mockup and discovered it was too small, so I scaled up the pattern and printed it again. 3/08 Today I finished all the main sewing for the final garment. Just have buttons/buttonholes left. // 9/08 IT'S DONE.
• kimono for Oshidori. /// 08/08 Measured doll, cut out the fabrics, ready to sew this weekend. 10/08 Sewed kimono; inner collar and obi are left to make. // 12/08 All done.
• second kimono for Oshidori. 13/08 I'm on a roll. Fabric already cut out. // 16/08 Finished kimono and obi.
• T-shirt. The girls are in dire need of tops to wear. /// weekend of 16 - 18/08: Used a pattern from Antique Lilac and bashed out a mockup, a shirt for Oshidori, and a shirt for Justinian. I think I've gotten the hang of a basic T-shirt pattern. Time to go buy/find some nice fabrics.
• Second buttondown shirt for Justinian, to prove that the first shirt wasn't a fluke. I've adjusted the pattern, need to remake the paper patterns and then make the garment. /// 18/08 Decided not to adjust the paper pattern, and just use the same pattern as the first shirt. Fabric cut already. /// 21/08 Finished the garment; buttonholes and buttons left to sew. // 24/08 Finished.

Completed pics in Post #13

• Bracelets for Oshidori. If Gael ver.2 works for him, I might redo the anklets ver.1 into bracelets for her. /// 26/04 Gael ver.2 finished, moved to priority. Should be quick to clear the jewellery projects so I can focus on sewing. /// Finished 19/05.
• Art of 4 doll characters. Stalled out because I had to redraw one character and then lost confidence because of perfectionism. That was the last character, the 3 others are finished - you're so close to done, Vega!!! Finish what I began. /// 5/05 - I recently agreed to a significant art project (non-BJD) and will be doing a lot of drawing over the next few months. Good time to revisit this piece and finish it while I'm in a major art headspace. /// Finished 14/07. I erased the last character, drew in a different one, and that got me unstuck.
• Prelim learning: figure out how to sew a buttonhole. Hand? Machine? /// Finished 12/07. My sewing machine has a buttonhole foot. It was surprisingly painless to do!

Completed pics in Post #6

• Anklets for Gael, ver.2. Ver.1 was okay but I want something better. Already designed and prototyped ver.2, have to make it. Don't peter out now! Finish what I began. /// Finished 26/04. Satisfied. Want to do an alternative version someday, but will need better materials and jeweller's tools.
• hakama for Vallant. I was in the process of refining my hakama pattern when I petered out and left this garment in early sewing stages. What if it isn't Perfect? By now I'd rather it be Done, perfection be hanged. Priority, because I need to bust the perfectionism block and sew again without fear. If I do this one thing and nothing else on the list, I'll call it success. /// Finished 27/04. Friend invited me over to their place for an art day. I brought my sewing machine and everything over, and bashed this out in about 3-4 hours.
• Hakama for Justinian. I finished Vallant's hakama, so formalize the pattern by following my own instructions to sew a second one, for Justinian. Priority, before everything falls out of my short-term memory. /// 28/04 in progress - basted the pleats, ready to sew. /// Finished 2/05.
• Flight studio first photos. FINALLY began this but it's been hard to proceed. Possibly because it's an experiment and I'm rapidly discovering all the constraints in the system. It's a bit disheartening, but I should keep going instead of giving up on the whole project. Take a few more pics, publish them, call it done for the time being. I've good motivation to complete this - Syr and the anpiel have been stuck in the setup for a while and I want to do other things with them! /// Finished 4/05.
• Hand/foot blushing for Vallant, Syr (postponing this), Oshidori. All parts are home. Finish the Flight studio pics, then this is the reward. /// 28/04 - good weather for spraying sealant. Try to get this completely done later this week. /// 2/05 - in progress, should be finished by this weekend. /// Finished 4/05.

 

@TearsforWoo Thanks for the encouragement! I'm glad that accountability allowed you to get many things done too, it really makes a difference.

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I cleared Gael's jewellery last night, and Vallant's hakama today.

A friend invited me over for an art day this weekend, so I lugged my sewing machine and the whole nine yards (including a doll) over to their place, and bashed out the hakama in about 3-4 hours. A whole hour was spent folding and pressing all the pleats in the hakama. I got a brainwave to baste the pleats in place, because pins and clips are just too unwieldy... a genius move, because it made everything so much less troublesome. MANY thanks to this thread, I don't think I would've considered basting if I hadn't read it a day ago. I think I spent another full hour sewing down only the pleats... it sure felt that long. Gosh, this was definitely the step that I couldn't overcome earlier this year. I'm glad I did it at my friends' house -- no distractions there, only sewing!

I've gained some traction on sewing now, so I'm fast-tracking a second hakama and will try to make at least a start on it this weekend, before everything falls out of my short term memory.

I probably won't show progress pics ... posting pics to DoA means uploading them to my blog/website, which means switching to a record/archive headspace... and I don't want to get out of the creating headspace yet. I'll try to share pics later.

 

Finished Justinian's hakama and finalized my notes and pattern - milestone accomplished. I'm still figuring out how to write sewing instructions that don't turn into unintelligible garble and meaningless numbers 6+ months later, so I hope the notes make sense next time I sew a hakama.

No rain was forecasted this week, so I've fast-tracked aesthetics and am now in the midst of blushing 3 pairs of hands and 2 pairs of feet. More than halfway through now, should be done with painting this weekend. Painting dolls is always fun for me.

The flight studio languishes - I haven't been in a photography headspace, but the unfinished business is getting intolerable. I'm determined to clear it this weekend so I can get my dolls off the setup and free myself of this mental pressure. Just 2 more photos, that should be enough!

Not starting anything else until I finish the Priority list. I forgot to take progress pics of everything.

 

Aight, pics or it didn't happen

Hakama for Vallant and Justinian

Yes, I like browns and greys, and I have way too much of both colours... Both are made from suiting fabrics. Justinian's (right) is a bit shorter than Vallant's (left) but otherwise made the same way.

Spoiler: sewing process pics

Hakama pattern before sewing.


I basted the pleats together and removed the clips, before sewing the himo (waist straps) on.


My notes for the pattern, which I hope I can understand later... The base pattern is andon (skirt) hakama from W.Kimono Lab, which I modified into umanori (split leg/pants) hakama from what little I know of sewing pants. To sew, I followed W.Kimono's Youtube video, with a few additional steps to sew the pant legs together.

If anyone wants my notes I'm happy to share a bigger photo. But I can't promise that it makes any sense...

Jewellery for Gael

Left side is version 1, but I didn't like the chain design or the colour. So I made version 2 (right) in a different chain design and colour, and I like it much more. I'll repurpose ver.1 into bracelets for Oshidori.

Spoiler: jewellery process pics

Only ver.1. I forgot to take process pics of ver.2 before I put it on the doll.

Hand & foot blushing for Vallant and Oshidori

Finished this weekend. The two dolls are finally out of doll jail.



Flight studio with Syr and the anpiel





I took these two photos, discovered I didn't have the heart to go on, and dismantled the setup. This "flight studio" was an experiment from the start, to see if I can do aerial poses. Turns out it's a lot harder than I expected, and my setup has a lot of constraints. More importantly, I didn't enjoy it at all -- that's why it took me so long to start, and so hard to progress. So I'm abandoning this right here.

I really want to do flight/wuxia/fighting scenes with my dolls, so I'm a bit disappointed that this hasn't worked out, and the challenge wasn't enjoyable. I think this setup is not the way to go about it. I've been following sfishfish and gincraft and they seem to be doing some things right, so I'll study them a bit more and see if I can get some ideas from them.

 

@TearsforWoo Thanks! I'm glad I cleared all those projects because they were the "pressing business". Body blushing (at least for just hands/feet) isn't too hard to do! It's simpler and faster than faceups - if you're completely new to aesthetics, I think it's a good way to ease into the faceup/aesthetics painting process.

Forgot to reply to you... I completely agree with this. I love the "everyone works on their own thing, quietly together" ambience and that's what we did, we got a lot of art & crafting done!

 

@lutke



(If the pic appears broken, it's on my blog.)

I used retort stands to pose my dolls. They're science lab equipment (borrowed from my workplace XD) and around 1.5 kg in weight. The 1/4 doll is 0.5 kg and the 1/3 doll is 1.4 kg, so I felt confident this stand can hold the doll's full weight. But it's not designed for posing dolls and I found it very hard to work around this limitation.

I initially had doubts about the sturdiness of flexible stands so I never bought them, but I will look into them again. I've seen dolls posed with a solid stand holding their full weight, while a flexible stand is clamped to one limb to stabilize its pose.

The "set" I was using is cupboard space about 90 x 90 x 60 cm. It's cramped. I'd love to have a bigger set, especially a kind of roombox where I can suspend dolls from the roombox ceiling, but it's something I'll have to build, and I don't have the skill or space in my home for that. (Now, if I can persuade someone local to build it for me... )

It doesn't help that I have mostly 1/3 dolls, the lightest being 1.4 kg, and they're starting to get heavy enough that elastic tension alone is not sufficient to suspend the body parts against gravity. I think sfishfish and gincraft work quite a bit with 1/4 dolls (which are around 0.5 kg weight), and I believe vinyl dolls like Dollfie Dreams are also used for dynamic posing -- they're lighter and have hinge joints which are more sturdy against gravity. I've thought about experimenting with internally wiring my dolls and loosening their elastic, in order to transfer weight-bearing and stability to wire instead of elastic. But this is pretty involved.

Your ideas are good! But I don't have the energy or capacity to pursue them now. And I'm noticing other methods for dynamic posing which are more feasible for the dolls I own, so I'd rather explore them for the time being. One day I might revisit the whole dolls-in-flight thing, we'll see!

 

@lutke No problem, I'm glad to explain. I've always been interested in dynamic posing, but so far, the best operators I've found -- sfishfish, gincraft, and SaikoXIX (who is on DoA) -- all use stands, good camera angles, and/or photoediting to remove evidence of stands. I haven't seen anyone suspend elastic-strung, resin ball-jointed dolls aerially, and there's good reasons why. Resin is heavy, elastic tension just isn't effective when you want to defy gravity, and the bigger the doll gets the more tricky it is for them to hold pose. Other types of dolls/mannequins are probably more suitable for aerial and dynamic posing.

I'm happy to be proven wrong, though -- always interested to find new hobbyists doing cool poses with dolls!

 

Dusting this thread off. My very busy IRL phase is over, so I've been (very slowly) working at things in this thread.

Progress report...

Things I finished

Wire-wrapped bracelets for Oshidori, I finished this back in May (before RL crunch came) but didn't get around to posting pics. Still don't have any closeup pics of the bracelets, but she's wearing them here.



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Art of 4 characters. This was a significant unfinished project. I had drafted 3 characters, then I messed up the proportions of the fourth character and couldn't fit him onto the canvas. (In fact, I didn't get proportions right for the entire piece and I only noticed this partway through, when it was much too late to change anything.) This stymied me, so I stopped in my tracks and completely lost all drawing momentum. I stopped for around 5 months, so long that I've sold one of the dolls represented here.

I make it a point to finish all my artwork, and if I leave art unfinished, it means I've lost my confidence or hit a problem that needs focus to solve, so I have to push through. I finally mustered confidence (and focus) to face this problem, and had the brainwave to replace the fourth character with another one. That busted the art block and allowed me to finish.

I didn't get the image I originally envisioned, but finished is better than perfect. No progress pics, but here's the finished drawing. You can kinda see remnants of the original fourth character in the canvas.




Currently working on

Back to sewing - my unfinished project of making shirts. I've already figured out how to sew a buttonhole on my machine -- it was much, much easier than I expected. I'm using a pattern from Missy's Imaginings for a buttondown shirt - I already sewed one mockup to test, which was too small for the doll, so I had to size up the pattern. I just finished sewing this second mockup today, if it fits the doll, I'm sewing the finished garment next.

It's been a hard slog to pick up sewing -- perfectionism is biting me again and I'm starting to believe the story that I can't sew or I'll always suck at it. Gonna hold on to "better finished than perfect". Next post should be of the finished shirt, preferably two of them, to prove it's not beginner's luck.

 

Update. I've mostly been using this thread as a personal to-do list, and so far I've been making enormous progress. The finished projects are all under the spoiler in post #1.

I'm noticing that sewing comes "seasonally". It's not an activity I can jump in and out of easily (unlike doll photography), I need to put in sustained effort and focus to gain traction. But once the momentum sets in, I go and go and roll straight from one project into another, and I don't want to stop. I hit a similar stride in January this year and was bashing out something like a garment every 1-2 days back then; the same thing is happening now. So I guess this is how sewing happens.

This round, I gained traction a month ago and now my doll hobby time is all sewing, all the time. I'm not even interested in taking doll pics, even though the lighting is very good nowadays and I'm definitely missing out on some great opportunities. I'm not complaining, I'm happy to sew so I need to ride the hyperfocus train for all it's worth.

So far I've made:

• two kimono/obi sets for Oshidori,
• learned a T-shirt pattern, figured out how to work with knit fabrics, and made two more-or-less alright T-shirts (although I want to remake one of them because I hemmed the collar inside out, argh!),
• finally learned a buttondown shirt pattern, made one for Justinian, and am currently almost done with sewing a second one for him.

In the pipeline are a kimono/haori (and maybe hakama?) set for Gael, and 1-2 haori for the anpiel. If the hyperfocus train is still running after that, I want to learn another pattern (socks and stockings are priority!), and then try to pick up the "trek sak" that fell by the wayside earlier this year.

No photos of anything yet, I'll try to document them when the sewing train ride is over.

 

Time to update this.

I ended up sewing quite a few things. I documented everything on my doll blog, here are some pics:








And this is my last post here for now. I started this thread because ambient public scrutiny helps me get moving when I'm stuck. I'm in a crafting rhythm now, the accountability isn't so necessary anymore, so the thread did its job. It's turned into my personal to-do list I've decided to move that to my own doll blog, I think it's better off there.

If I need more accountability later (and I probably will), I'll come back again DoA is such a good place for ambient creative energy and encouragement, thanks everyone for watching.