Fall feelings

Last week, Erin from "Still Live, With Cracker Crumbs" announced that she and Lisa from "Boondock Ramblings" will not have a "Comfy Cozy Cinema" event on their blogs this year. Instead they'll be doing "Sweater Weather Cinema" with fall movies ... and I found myself thinking that I didn't really know any except for Halloween movies and therefore probably wouldn't be able to participate.

Of course I know movies with fall scenes, but I never thought of them specifically as fall movies. To be honest, I had never thought about that topic at all until now.
Here Erin explains what a fall movie is for her. Check it out and if you have your own favorites, let her know and maybe tag along for the "Sweater Weather Cinema" with her and Lisa?

Now I let people know a lot - whether they want to hear it or not - that fall is my favorite season. I love the colors, the rain, the air, and of course saying goodbye to summer (and the fan).
However, I was surprised myself to find that many fall inspired items I made over the years, this is not even everything!

And of course I can't forget my Autumn Dawn and my Fairy Queen Jessica!

I guess I express my feelings in beads and wire?

Little Angel Sunshine

Oh Sweets, you are just a little too late to be in the Nativity play, but that's okay, there's always next year.
No, actually this is NOT another advent calendar door although you could think that.
Which reminds me, thank you if you have been following this year's advent calendar. I hope you had some fun with it.

Now where does this little angel come from?
This is Sweets from Mattel's Sunshine Fun Family. I was a little confused at first because I knew the Sunshine Family which had a father, a mother, and baby Sweets (and later there were also grandparents and an African American family). I had not been aware that later there was also the Sunshine Fun Family in which Sweets was older and there was a new baby.

If you have been following me for a while, here, on Facebook, on Instagram, you may have noticed that there are a few themes that keep turning up. Cats, tentacles, and wings. Be prepared for this not to change anytime soon (or ever).
After I had finished the Christ Child, I remembered that my sister had a small collection of vintage Mattel children, Tutti, Todd, Chris, and Carla, Barbie's siblings and their friends, and I thought they would make nice little angels with smaller wings, so I asked her if she would give me one of them.
That's how Sweets Sunshine made her way to me. My sister thought with that face she would make a pretty angel and I had to agree.

I beaded a white gown with short puffy sleeves for her and gave her bead embroidered wings.
Someone gave Sweets a haircut on top, but as her long hair had originally been in ponytails and was hard to tame anyway, I made a golden star embellished headband.

For a spontaneous idea, she turned out pretty well, don't you think?

Christ Child Dawn - The twenty-fourth door

Happy Christmas Eve!

In last year's advent calendar I told you about the tradition of the Christkind (Christ Child) who is the gift bringer in my area of Germany - an angelic figure with wings and golden locks, sometimes with a halo, sometimes with a crown.
The idea to turn a Topper Dawn into an angel eventually, obsessed with making wings as I am, just had to come to mind when I first thought about projects for this year's calendar, but not before I finally started working on her in November, it came to me that she wouldn't just be an angel, she would be the Christ Child on Christmas Eve which of course is the gift bringing day here in Germany.

P.S. I know that I usually talk a little about how I made an outfit, but it's Christmas and it doesn't seem the time for detailed descriptions.
If you have questions, let me know in the comments!

Dawn was a registered trademark of the Topper Company. I am not affiliated with Topper in any way.

Vampire Bat Angie

I have to admit it to myself, I am not very good with jewelry at the moment. There's a pair of earrings in my drawer that is only waiting for me to decide on earwires. There are also a few small beaded hearts in a baggie waiting to be used in something. I keep picking things up and putting them down again.

Feeling so little motivation right now has a lot to do with what's going on, in the big world and in my small world.
Luckily that doesn't seem to mean that I can't get creative at all. My muse obviously thought that it was about time for me to work on a doll design that - together with two others - has been on my table for months now. This time I actually doodled a sketch of three outfits (during a meeting when I wasn't needed) that had already been in my head even months before that, more to remind me than to follow them in detail.
My doll outfits develop during the process, and not even I can tell what they are going to look like in the end.

For this one, I used an Angie doll for the very first time, a lovely Topper brunette with the head mold P10.
Her hair color doomed her to become the bat lady. You may remember that I have become quite fascinated with bead embroidery wings (ooh, just had an idea for another design), and I definitely saw Angie mostly in black with bat wings. If I still rerooted heads, I might even have been tempted to give her black hair. And call her Angelina for a more romantic vampire name.

The first decision was about the dress being tight or an opulent ball gown style, the flowing nightgown style was out right from the start. One thought that popped into my head, probably because I had been watching old Addams Family episodes on YouTube, had been a dress like that of Morticia, but first, Morticia is not a vampire, and second, I want to make my own designs.
So the dress finally became tight, but there is no plunging neckline, no long sleeves - not only because they are difficult to make with beads as the arms are so close to the body, but because I wanted the contrast of the arms against the wings - and instead of the "tentacles" at the bottom the skirt flares out at a higher point and is a little longer at the back.

To sew crystals to part of the skirt, was a spontaneous decision. Black and siam red is a combo that is irresistible to me. Only when it got dark and I turned the light on, I noticed that I had used both dark and regular siam crystals. It's hard to believe as in these pictures the dark siam seems almost black, but in daylight you have to look very close to tell them apart if you use black thread. Luckily, I liked the effect of different "blood drops" and therefore just added a few more of the light siam crystals instead of ripping everything out.

As usual, I beaded and beaded on the dress until then it was almost too late to make the shoes. Will I ever learn?
Then I realized that I have never thought about vampires' shoes before. Ballerinas, high heels, slippers? I took the easy way out with some simple sandals because they aren't seen underneath the long dress, anyway. They have slim ankle straps, soles and two straps across the toes.

Much more interesting are the wings, at least to me.
I haven't succeeded in getting a good video (yet, I will keep trying) that shows the sparkle of the silver lined red bugle beads against the AB shimmer of the shiny black sequins.
I could have used matte black sequins or shiny ones without the AB finish, but I love the effect of black exploding into color with a small movement.

You know I love making accessories, but they wouldn't have worked in this case.
Angelina just got a small choker with a "vampire bite".

I am still contemplating either trying my hand on some red lips and vampire teeth for her myself or outsourcing the task to someone who's quite probably better at it.
Even that doesn't happen, however, I am really happy with my dark beauty!

Update April 2024:
I finally tried my hand at a vampire smile, but after many attempts, I gave up on the teeth because they didn't go together with the eyes, and I really didn't want to mess up the eyes. A wide smile didn't fit and just two white dots looked ridiculous, at least to me, as if she had crumbs on her mouth or something.
The red lips, however, work much better with her overall look than the pink ones did!

Angie and Dawn were registered trademarks of the Topper Company. I am not affiliated with Topper in any way.

Autumn Dawn

A small tin with old bead soup in autumn colors called to me this weekend. When the beads call, you have to listen and I did.
I happened to have a doll in my beading box - because who doesn't - and could start right away, then one thing led to the other.
Let me introduce Autumn Dawn. I think it's quite obvious how she got her name wearing those colors although it's probably more like late summer, walking around sleeveless, in crop top and sandals like she does!

Actually, the name is a little misleading. Just the head is from a Topper Dawn, the body is from a Dawn clone marked "Hongkong B & G" about which I couldn't find out anything. The doll came to me like that, I don't know what fate brought those two parts together.

I think I have mentioned before that I often start with the bottom part of an outfit, in this case with the skirt that I made from the bead soup. As the beads not only had different colors and finishes, but also differed in size, I opted for a colorful  tiered skirt with wide folds to hide the irregularities a bit.

Next were the sandals. As the bead soup had not been enough for a floor length skirt, they were much easier to do than the shoes usually are when I have once again forgotten to bead them first and don't have much space for working.
Autumn Dawn's one foot is a little straighter than the other one, so to make sure the sandals would stay on, I beaded the wide straps at the ankles (my first odd count peyote, by the way).

The top is a new design. Usually I start working from the waist, either directly on the doll working my way up, or I make a front and a back part working from the bottom up and then join the seams at the sides.
This time, however, I made the peyote back part sideways and then extended it on both sides, finally joining them in the front which resulted in a crop top. Two straps on both sides made it sit really well.
To give it a little extra, I added the bronze drop beads at the front and sides.

Dawn likes accessories, but a necklace would have been too much, so she only got two little bracelets from different beads.

The hat. I can't resist a hat and my excuse is that Dawn's hair refuses to stay in place. This hat from gold lined and amber AB beads was mostly inspired by the amber beads' limited number, but also by one of my favorite Murphy Brown episodes. I was so tempted to add a tassel, follow the link and you'll know what I mean.

Last but not least, the purse. For someone who only carries around her beloved shopper, I am definitely obsessed with beading purses, totes, etc. for my dolls.
I chose the color to resemble linen, with matte "leather" for the strap, and embellished the purse with small golden spacer "flowers".

There you go - Autumn Dawn :-)

Dawn was a registered trademark of the Topper Company. I am not affiliated with Topper in any way.

Dawn on vacation

Still summer, still hot ... Dawn desperately needed a vacation. Other than Jessica last year, she didn't plan just a weekend stay, so some thought would have to go into the packing.

First of all, Dawn decided on doing something drastic (which even I had thought about in a weak moment the other day and that really says something).
She needed a haircut and other than me she didn't want "as much as necessary, as little as possible". She didn't want a pixie, she wasn't that brave, but a good deal had to go. There, her head felt so much lighter now and the hat fit better, too!
Dawn loves this hat because she can wear it so many ways. The brim is folded up and embellished in one spot which she can wear in front like she had seen on a Hercule Poirot episode once - even if the sun hat shown had had a much wider brim - in the back or how she finally wore it, on the side.

With temperatures like the ones we have these days, Dawn insisted on a tank top, best in a fresh color. The lime green one wouldn't have been my personal choice, but she was right after all, it worked great with the new black linen pants and her favorite old leather belt.
Just the white sneakers with the rubber soles now and she was all set.
For jewelry she chose a simple bracelet.

At first, she wanted to travel light with a small backpack - I couldn't help but point out that it reminded me very much of a grumpy face. Come on, don't tell me you don't see it, too.

Then, however, she got Granddad's battered old leather suitcase from the attic after all.
You never know when you feel like going out dancing, do you? Her favorite mini dresses went into the suitcase, however, when I asked her if she wanted to take high heels, sandals or ballerinas for those, she said her sneakers would work just fine.

I'm sure she has everything she needs, and if not, she can always go shopping.

Now an extra information about Dawn, I hope she won't mind me telling you that.
There are Topper dolls that have visible nipples and bellybuttons and she's one of them. I completely forgot to take a picture of her before she was dressed, so you will just have to believe me.

So, Dawn has left for her trip, I wonder if she'll bring me a gift back from wherever she's going to!
At least she has already sent me these pictures from one of the local sculptures ... which looks strangely familiar to me ;-)

For those who are interested in beading techniques:
- The tank top and belt are peyote.
- The pants, the sneakers (except for the soles), and the backpack are Herringbone. The "zipper" does not open, by the way, I'm a beader, not a sorceress.
- The suitcase is bead embroidered on white backing and lined with a dark blue satin fabric. The inside straps are faux suede with golden jumprings. Like for the backpack, I used two different browns to enhance the feel of worn leather. The edges and the center of the bottom are a narrow metal tape that I filed down a bit for the battered look. The buckles and hinges are golden Delica beads.

Dawn was a registered trademark of the Topper Company. I am not affiliated with Topper in any way.

Dawn is going boho

Usually I need a break after completing a doll outfit. I take a while relishing the feeling and admiring my own work - yes, I know that doesn't sound very humble, but it mostly is a very interesting path from the first row of beads to the completed doll and I'm always amazed myself that it has actually happened!
This time my bead mojo was strong enough for me to start on a new doll only a few days after finishing the wedding outfit and once again there were experiments, failures, and a complete change of plan.
You see, my first plan had been pink, but I had problems getting the same pink in both size 11 and 15 seed beads, so I checked the colors I had on hand and went for a favorite opaque luster red instead.
Luckily red with some golden accents looks stunning on this girl with her long blond hair and luckily she's not as afraid of color as I often seem to be myself or this dress would be black now ;-)

My second plan had been a kind of evening gown which I'm not going to say more about in case I'll do a variation of it eventually after all (how often have I said that about things?). The reason I didn't follow that plan were the gloves.
Did you know that Dawn has really small hands? Bead gloves simply looked too bulky, even with 15s, and of course there wasn't a chance I could have made a thumb with beads.
So the gloves turned into sleeves instead, 3/4 long which is a preferred length of my own.
When I was still a knitter, I hated sleeves. It was my old problem of having to make the same thing twice, boooooring. This time I made the sleeves first, that's definitely a new one for me.

What I really like about making these doll outfits is how one thing influences the other, often unexpectedly. After the sleeves I made the top and when I was at the top of the top - I often start from the waist because the beads don't try to run away there - and joined it with the sleeves, it hit me. A Carmen neckline!
And the Carmen neckline called for a wider, flowing skirt.
You may think at first that this dress doesn't look that different from that of the Fairy Queen, but actually there are several things I did like this for the first time.
There's the neckline and my first long sleeves, there are tiny crystal embellishments (you have to trust me on this, it's hard to see here), and not only is the waist a bit higher up which accentuates Dawn's lovely figure, but the skirt also flares out higher up, and after increasing always in the same spots for some rows, the skirt then falls down straight while the Fairy Queen's skirt is increased all around and all the way down to the bottom.
That's the fun about making these dresses, even though you are limited by the beads not being flexible, you can still play with designs.
I think Dawn likes it, too, judging from the way she's showing off her new dress.

The dress didn't seem to need many accessories, so Dawn is just wearing some simple gold sandals - I'm sure she would also have liked to go barefoot - a classic two-toned coated hematite ball chain and a cute little daisy chain. Maybe she has just made that herself before going to the market?
Yes, she has been to the market with her netted cotton tote that she has also made herself, no doubt, and she has brought home a huge ear of corn which actually fills up the tote. Hopefully it's organic, but I'm sure Dawn knows what she does! ;-)

I already have at least two new designs in mind, one of them will take more planning because of the technique I think I'll have to use, however, so I can't promise when there will be more to see.

Dawn was a registered trademark of the Topper Company. I am not affiliated with Topper in any way.

The Bride

It has been almost a year since I made my last beaded doll outfit which was Miss Francie Bennet, but this weekend I felt the sudden urge to grab one of my Topper Dawns and give her a new outfit.
This particular Dawn has several problems, mostly with her legs, so the only plan I had at that point was some kind of a slim skirt to hide them.

When I got my very first Dawn, I had begun to make her a wedding dress which I didn't like anymore when I was halfway through the project which is why she finally got an evening gown instead.
How about revisiting this idea?
There were several reasons to go for it. With a wedding dress you can go overboard if you like and your doll won't be able to complain. I knew I had plenty of pearly white seed beads in both size 11 and 15. A wedding dress has always been part of fashion shows. It's almost May, the bridal season is upon us. I'll use any excuse I can find.
Of course I don't have a husband for Dawn, but she'll have to live with that.

As the dress became more elaborate this time, I refrained from making many accessories - less to read for you!
Dawn is wearing a simple silver necklace and a "pearl" headband (which looks classy, but also helps to hide that some child in the past seems to have tried to cut her hair into bangs). At first I started making a short veil flowing down from the headband, but it wasn't heavy enough to fall over Dawn's hair in a pretty way, so I took it back off.
I also didn't bead shoes this time, but happened to have a pair of what I think are clone shoes in white which worked better for her little problem feet (I can so relate even if mine are not little!).

Now to the dress.

As planned, the skirt part is slim and long enough to hide most of the shoes because I didn't like the look of them with the dress much, both for the material and the tone of white. I promised Dawn she won't have to walk long distances ;-)
The front part of the skirt is embellished with lines of tiny silver lined crystal seed beads for a reason. There are tiny gaps in the "fabric" due to the Herringbone technique, and is it because I know Dawn's problems or because I think I can actually see them, at any rate I felt the need to distract from them a little. Also, I like a bit of silver sparkle!

The top part is a mix of Herringbone and Peyote and has off shoulder straps. They do hide an imperfection on Dawn's arm, but actually I made them because I liked them with this top.

I also wanted the dress to have a train, that had even been a plan for my attempt at that first wedding dress years ago.
The decision fell on this tapered train that begins like an overskirt at the waist (I have loved overskirts since I was a child, my drawn ladies always wore an open one). Not making it straighter at the edges is not because of the Herringbone technique that is worked in bead pairs, by the way, I just liked the different look.
For a second, I thought about embellishing it as well, but then I decided against it. Instead I added the little bead "chains" at the front.

Flowers had been on my mind, too. A flower on the headband or one at the neckline, at the waist maybe, but it all seemed too much.
Maybe I will give her a single flower to hold eventually.

I already have the next project on my mind, but it will probably have to involve the loom, and so far I have been hesitating to get the loom out around den Dekan (my kitten).
We will just have to wait and see what happens.

Dawn was a registered trademark of the Topper Company. I am not affiliated with Topper in any way.

Miss Francie Bennet - Part 1, The doll and the dress

Some projects take a little longer than others. In this case, little means more than five years. That's how long Francie had to wait for her beaded outfit.
I think it was worth the wait. My first try at looming her a particular style of outfit went completely wrong, but now I knew how to use different techniques to give her her (or rather my ;-)) dream outfit.

Let's talk about Francie first, however, because this one is special.
"Colored Francie" (#1100) came in two issues in 1967 and 1968. She had a twist waist, bendable knees, and rooted eyelashes. The difference between the two issues were the hair and eyes. The first one had red hair and reddish-brown eyes, the second one had dark brown hair and eyes and a darker skin tone.
There was just one problem. "Black Francie" as she is known among collectors may have had the skin, but she didn't have the features of a true African American doll because the mold of the Caucasian doll had been used. The doll didn't sell well and so wasn't produced in large numbers. Probably African American children just couldn't identify with her which is understandable. It's why Christie is often regarded as the first real African American doll.
That makes her one of the most sought after Francie dolls (after the Japanese specials).

My girl (Francie is supposed to be a teenager) is the first issue. She has a few problems - so do I and after all she's just two years younger than me! She has some nicks on her foot, some light scratches here and there, and not only has she lost some of her hair over the years, but some of it looks like it has become burnt and has shriveled up and some of it is kind of orangey.

I was not brave enough to risk the hair she does have, so she didn't get a new hairstyle. I didn't touch her bangs and for the ponytail didn't dare playing with beads, but used just a bit of string because even light combing cost her more hair. Re-rooting was not an option, though, I would only have done that if she had been mostly bald, also I had planned a hat for her.
It's not as if the outfit is historically correct 100 %, anyway. There are things that are hard to recreate in beads, but I have done my best.

Now why do I call her Francie Bennet?
I'm a fan of Georgette Heyer's books, especially the ones set in the Regency period (1811 - 1820), and I love Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice". From the start I wanted this special doll to wear something special although I knew it would be a bit of a challenge. Her name is of course inspired by Miss Elizabeth Bennet, the protagonist of "Pride and Prejudice".

Today I'll show you her dress.
My original choice of color had been pink and grey. Although I'm not necessarily a big fan of pink, pink and grey has been a favorite color combination of mine ever since I had to crochet my very first chain stitch string bag in elementary school.
Like I said, I had already tried a loomed version with Delicas, but although I had measured more than once, it just didn't work out. I took the parts of the loom and left them in a drawer to die. Yes, I was mad. Eventually I gave myself a good kick, cut the parts up and used the beads in both my Flapper Dawn's and 80s Barbie's outfits.
For the next attempt, I chose seed beads instead of Delicas because they look nicer in Herringbone. Don't look for the grey beads, in the end I decided the contrast was too much and I'd rather play with colors in the accessories (as a matter of fact, however, the grey beads are hidden under the dress in some kind of underpants, shhh).

Miss Bennet's dress is made from pink lined crystal beads. I love them, in the light the crystal parts sparkle so beautifully! Unfortunately I didn't quite manage to catch that in pictures.
For a very subtle contrast I chose sparkly rose colored 15/0 seed beads for the ruffles around the neckline, the lace at the bottom of the dress and the ribbon that is sitting right under the bust and ends in a bow at the back which is hidden by the shawl, though, which you will see tomorrow.
I couldn't believe how long it took me to make the dress, but Mattel dolls do have long legs and here it seemed even longer because of the high waistline!

A real problem were the shoes.
Had Francie stayed inside, she would have worn shoes with a very pointy tip, a side seam, a rounded kitten heel ... all things that I couldn't recreate in beads or things that wouldn't stay on Francie's feet, and of course there were still her foot problems.
So I settled for some boots instead, in honor of the scene in the famous 1995 mini series "Pride and Prejudice" in which Lizzy Bennet is walking across the fields through the mud to visit her sick sister in Netherfield Park.
I was even a little tempted to add brown beads for mud to the seam of Francie's dress *lol*
Of course these boots are by no means perfect, but they were the best I could do, and believe me, I tried. I think I made at least six shoe versions once again and there was massive cursing. I tried 15/0 beads to make the "leather" look thinner, I tried slippers that went high up to hide the feet, to no avail.
If Francie wants to wear brown basketball boots, so be it. I wear comfy shoes myself. Maybe I'll have an amazing idea one day, but actually you can hardly see them under the dress, anyway. For this picture I pulled the dress up.

Okay then, that's it for today.
Tomorrow I'd like to show you the accessories I made - besides the pompadour that already sneaked in with the second picture.
I hope to see you then!


Francie is a registered trademark of Mattel, Inc. I am not affiliated with Mattel in any way.

Is it the 80s? Part 2

Welcome back to Barbie's fashion show!
Yesterday I told you a little about her and her clothes, today is all about her accessories.

As usual, I started on the shoes first. I didn't know what I would be in for ...
Funtime Barbie has quite long, but very slim feet. I can relate to long feet, mine are, but I almost got jealous of them being so slim. That didn't last for very long. It seems that she has just about as many problems to find shoes that fit her as I do.

You can't see it that well here, but Barbie was made for fun times on very high heels it seems. I should probably have taken a comparison picture with one of the others, maybe I'll do that eventually. So far I had worked with only one pair of "high heel feet", the first time I beaded a doll outfit for my Flapper Barbie, and for those I got a pair of Mattel shoes from my sister which worked nicely. Only afterwards I began beading the shoes as well, simply because I couldn't find shoes for my Supersize Flapper Christie, well, actually those were wire knit and crochet with beads and she has rather flat feet compared to Funtime Barbie.
I tried one pair with heels, but my plan didn't work out by a few millimeters - I'll let you know if it ever does - and I liked the idea of slippers or sneakers better, anyway.
No kidding now, sixth time's the charm (and yes, I had hoped for third at least). I was ready to go all Grimm's "Cinderella" and cut her toes off (Rook di goo, there's blood in the shoe ... you know what I mean?)!
In the end, however, I made it. I'm not gonna let a pair of tiny shoes beat me. Ha! You may wonder what the problem was as they remind of those that Francie Dietrich is wearing which they do, they just were muuuch easier to adapt to Francie's flat feet.
If I hadn't been so worn out, I would probably have tried to give the shoes laces, but I was afraid that I would mess everything up again now that I had finally beat the enemy!
Oh, and a P.S., ignore the "pin pricks", vintage Barbies tend to have those on their legs.

Now to Barbie's hair.
I told you that Funtime Barbie came with pigtails. She had a lot of hair in some spots, and I think I washed, combed and cut her hair a whole day long, including pulling out some to make her hair lie flat. Let's put it like that, in the end her hair looked nice and not even crooked, but it refused to lie flat. The problem wasn't new, in fact I had had used wire to give her a ponytail when she still wore the wire dress.
So how about a hat? In my surprise bead mix there had been that beautiful dark red which would go well with pink.
I had two hats with a ruffled edge in the 80s. They cost 2 DM each and I loved them. Then a friend decided he had to have one of them, he looked so funny with it that I couldn't say no, and I had only one head, anyway ;-)
The difference between my hat - made of hemp, I think - and Barbie's was that I didn't have a hatband on mine and mine had a rounded crown instead of a flat one and was a lighter red.
By the way, the hair only looks crooked in the back because one strand is caught in one of the ruffles.

If you have known me for a while, you know that I don't tend to brag, but I am really, really proud of Barbie's sunglasses. They are not perfect, but I'm happy to have had the idea and making it work. I couldn't have done it all alone, when I looked for an idea what to use for the lenses, my sister had the right one - photo negatives!
I picked one from the end of a film that had almost nothing on it, cut two pieces, glued them onto the wire frame - whose arms really go around the ears to hold the glasses in place, by the way - and cut the excess off.
This is definitely something I'll have to keep experimenting with!

Barbie could also take her glasses off and put it into her purse. I am almost sure that the purse is "woven" even if I can't put my finger on what exactly makes me think that, it's probably a memory somewhere in the back of my mind.
Look, she even put her favorite charms on it.

You know that my dolls can't go without at least a little piece of jewelry, often a cuff, a choker, or a necklace. A necklace wouldn't have worked in this case because of the straps, so Barbie is only wearing a sweet little cuff. Anything else would have been too much.

I just noticed that I haven't said anything about the beading technique that I have used. This time only the shoes are a mix of Herringbone and Peyote, everything else is done in Peyote.

Well, we are coming to the end.
Thank you for sticking with me, I hope you like what you have seen and are looking forward to the next doll project. I know I am!


Barbie is a registered trademark of Mattel, Inc. I am not affiliated with Mattel in any way.

Is it the 80s? Part 1

Today's post gave me the chance to get out one of my Barbie books again. I haven't gone through them in a long time, and I'm afraid I have forgotten a lot while I used to be able to list all accessories coming without an outfit most of the time, knowing the name and sometimes even the number.
Let me tell you about today's Barbie doll first *turning the pages*
She's Funtime Barbie #7192 from 1975/76 who was only available in the European market, manufactured in Korea as her butt markings would show you had I taken a photo. Her blonde hair was in pigtails, she had a TNT waist and bendable legs.

From the book "The Collectors Encyclopedia of Barbie Dolls and Collectibles" by Sibyl DeWein and Joan Ashabraner

Here she had to undergo a wire crochet experiment many years ago, an orange mini dress with velvet underneath. Was it pretty? Not really although she never complained. It was one of my very early attempts, ready to get ripped up, so when I had a whole bunch of left over pink Delica beads, she was the first one in line for a new outfit. She deserved it for being so patient for so long ... and suffering a kind of pattern on her thighs resulting from the wire.

To hide those spots, I decided to give Barbie a narrow almost knee length pencil skirt (I was determined to use up all those leftovers!) with a walking slit in the back. Thinking about it a little, I also knew what had inspired me. In the 80s I had had - and I wasn't the only one - stretch denim shirts like that, shorter ones, but also a black one that went down to the ankles. I loved that skirt even if I could hardly walk in it *lol*
I also wore that same pink, just in a blazer, although it was never my favorite color, but the blazer had the best pockets, the best length - blazers could be huge in the 80s and I'm not just talking about the shoulder pads - and it was on sale AND my size!
Obviously Barbie's skirt doesn't stretch, poor girl, she can't even sit in it right. Problems of a fashion doll ...

Now what top to make for her?
I wanted it to be a fresh look. At first I thought about something short and figure hugging, but then my inspiration came from the airy and loose knitted or crocheted sweaters that someone I know liked to wear back then. Granted, these sleeveless summer sweaters usually had an ajour pattern, but I wasn't quite sure I could have pulled that off, so I went for a summery pink and white look instead.
It's funny how what you see in beads usually translates into the "real" thing before my inner eye. I can almost feel a summer breeze going through this sweater.
For a bit of an extra, I gave it kind of a keyhole cutout by crossing the halter straps at her neck.

So far, so good.
Next up were the accessories, and as usual I was looking particularly forward to making them. I never know beforehand what I will make exactly, and this time I really had fun trying something new!
I don't want to make this post too long, but I hope you'll be back for part 2 tomorrow with a closer look at the accessories :-)

Barbie is a registered trademark of Mattel, Inc. I am not affiliated with Mattel in any way.