The compleat Zlata

My Waldorf doll is finished, and it took a fair amount of work to get her done.  Here's what she did look like...

...and here's what she looks like now.

Not as easy as I thought it would be, but not as hard either.  I began by marking her face with a dull pencil, and I did this freehanded so her eyes are a little off-kilter.  Hey, I'm not selling her or giving her away, so who cares if her eyes are a little off-kilter.  I will say that I'm glad I spent part of my adolescence drawing faces for the What's Her Face dolls, as that taught me how to sketch a simple, smooth mouth.

Actually, I gotta back up and show an intermediate step.  To get her eyes placed where I wanted them I was supposed to use map pins, but I didn't have any so I resorted to using push pins.  The results were...interesting.

LOL, she looks a little like a Daruma doll!  Indeed, when I showed her to Mama like this Mama suggested that I leave the push pins in place and paint on pupils.  Not a terrible idea, but the push pins would never stay.  So I sketched them on and then sewed them on, using brown for the outline and the eyebrows, that violet shade for the iris, and dark pink for the mouth.

Some folks also stitch in pupils and light clusters, but I decided to just be happy with the simple results I got.  The stitching is crude in places, but for me it's worth it to have a face.

The wig was the worst part, mainly because it took forever, and partly also because I've never worked with boucle yarn before.  See, I chose to first crochet a wig cap and then attach strands of yarn later.  This was hard to do because boucle yarn is very hairy, and it can be hard to see the stitches clearly.  I wanted a neat little skullcap, but I got a shallow bowl (I used a 5.75mm hook and followed my own pattern of single and double crochet stitches, for those wondering).

I sucked it up and began hooking boucle strands to the cap, transforming the bowl into this weird spider-jellyfish chimera.

After I got the edges of the hair crocheted in, I realized that I'd have a devil of a time getting the wig on the doll if I didn't attach it right then, so I did just that and crocheted the rest of Zlata's hair while the wig was on her head.  Zlata ended up with a LOT of hair, enough so that she could pass for a hair metal musician if I dressed her right.  So I braided it to keep it out of the way.

Nice, thick pigtails, just like one of the dolls advertised but NOT sold by Happy Komi and those other scam sites.  The style is bulky, but Zlata's cap and hood stretch to fit, so it's all good.

Yeah, my first attempt at making a wig came out pretty kludgy, but she at least has a wig so I'm just going to leave well enough alone.  Next time I won't crochet in quite so much hair around the base of the wig cap.

Overall I'm fairly happy with Zlata now, though I'll admit that my stitchwork needs a lot of practice!  I was tempted to give Zlata cornflower blue button eyes, like Epaphroditus has in The Stocking Child.  Hmmm, Epaphroditus...that's an obscure name if I ever heard one!  I thought it would turn out to be the scientific name of a flower or insect, but it turns out that Epaphroditus is the name of a Biblical figure who later was declared a saint.  How the Stocking Child got the name is beyond me (he doesn't use it much in the book), but the name can mean "lovely" or "charming" and thus fits him well.  Kudos to Tam for turning me onto that book, by the way.  Every month Tam does a lovely post on a doll-themed book, and so far The Stocking Child has been my favorite.  Since Zlata is made out of stockinette fabric she too could easily be a stocking child, minus the button eyes.  By the way, when the human protagonist of The Stocking Child first finds Epaphroditus the little doll is tangled up in a patch of burrs.  I wonder if the burrs left snags!  The book doesn't say so I assume that Epaphroditus came out of the burrs no worse for wear (kinda like Br'er Rabbit in the briar patch), but I know Zlata would probably snag if she were trapped in a patch of burrs.  See how finely stitched her fabric is?

Guess what my yard is full of.  BURRS!!!  If I decide to take Zlata outside I'll have to be very careful where I put her.  That said, I think Zlata needs a friend, a friend with cornflower blue button eyes and a crooked stitched mouth, a friend who converses with animals and humans alike and has a knack for poetry.  I think a doll like Epaphroditus would make a very fine friend for Zlata, and a very fine project for me to work on during the dreary months ahead.  Yes, winter is a fine time for sewing and snuggling soft, warm dollies, provided one doesn't already have a lapful of real live children (or pets in my case).  Regardless of when or if I get Zlata a friend, I've gained a new respect for the folks who sew these dolls' faces and sculpt them.  No, I still don't believe that all-natural materials are necessary to make a nice Waldorf doll, but I know now that sculpting their interior is NOT for sissies!  I'll definitely not be making one of these from scratch; sewing Zlata's face and fumbling with her wig is good enough for me.

See y'all on Thanksgiving!  I usually try to take a break from blogging then, but...well, I couldn't think of a better time to jam a post in.

Cheers,
RagingMoon1987