Custom Doll Clothes: Medieval Shirt for Cryptid's Skelfthyrnir

So, one of my oldest dearest friends (who goes by Cryptid on Den of Angels) went and got herself a 1:4 scale resin ball-jointed doll.

Now, I know the general sense of 'ball-jointed doll' is 'pretty, possibly vaguely-anime-influenced, young woman with a waiflike body and dewy face,' and they're not everyone's cup of tea-- they were never my cup of tea and I did give it a whirl back in the day, but what Cryptid got was a red deer skull head, with full antlers, on a lean-but-ripped vibrant purple male body with deer/goat/satyr legs.

He is Skelfthyrnir, the Lord of the Forest, and I thought he was so darned much fun that even though he wasn't due to arrive until January, I sent Cryptid a chest of tribute for Christmas-- stuff I thought she'd get more use out of than I would, for a doll like that, given that one of the things I've learned about myself as a doll collector is that, although I love historical and fantasy costuming for dolls, I rarely display the historical, fantasy, and historical-fantasy stuff I have.

... Or what I had. I've sold off a lot of stuff. Something about my collection of 1:4 dolls (currently all Tonner or Kish) just keeps saying 'these are modern, contemporary people' to me.

It was a lot easier when my 1:12 dollhouse doll supplier was still around-- she just disappeared, I couldn't even find an obituary-- and I could make whatever I wanted because I could just turn right around and sell it at a miniatures show. When it only takes a few hours to run up a whole outfit, it's a lot easier to turn a profit than it is on something that takes a whole day for one garment, even if being able to use full-scale sewing techniques and miniature sewing hacks makes 1:4 sewing a lot of fun.

So I haven't done a lot of historical or fantastical sewing for dolls in a while, despite watching a lot of historical costumers on YouTube on the regular.

Then Cryptid went and got Skelfthyrnir, and because once you pop you can't stop, she ordered another fantastical BJD, this one a dragon-girl who might not be as comfortable running around naked (or in a loincloth made of kid leather that was in Skelfthyrnir's tribute trunk), and I had this really weird moment where I went:

"... I primarily identify myself as a miniaturist. I named my business not only for my tendency to fall in and out of projects and hobbies, but because I was at the time the only person I knew of who sewed removable clothes for 1:12 scale dolls. And this person, who is near and dear to my heart, who I have known for 19 or 20 years at this point, does not have a single example of my sewing."

This could not be allowed to stand.

So even though I got started on her stuff first, I don't want to jump into what I did for the dragon girl, who won't even be in the US until the end of April, and I don't want to post her stuff until she's here to model it, but Skelf!

Skelf I can talk about.



Skelfthyrnir, the Lord of the Forest, has a shirt.

And yeah, all my nice photo-backdrop pics turned out a little... bleachy. There are in-progress shots that are better, don't worry, they're just also full of whatever weird crap was behind me while I was sending updates to my friend. Also Cryptid took some pics and they're just fabulous, but I'm saving Skelf himself for last.

( Follow the cut for 15 more of my pics, and 7 of Cryptid's! )

Custom Doll Clothes: Medieval Fantasy Tunic for Cryptid's Skelfthyrnir

So you've seen Skelfthyrnir's basic shirt. You've heard me say my general intention for it was to act as a lining for more colorful tunics. You've even heard that it serves as a mockup, so tunics using fancier fabrics can happen.



I must admit I got fancy basically the day that shirt landed in Cryptid's hands.

Once again using Cynthia Virtue's worksheet as a guideline, and remembering to add a little length to the arms, I adjusted the sleeve heads to be more curved, later-period, and thus fancier, and played in my stash of fat quarters.

This is just a black cotton with a gold metallic overlay printed on, but it sure looks like something woven half of black wool and half of cloth-o-gold.

But I said to myself, I said, "Self," I said, "If I have to do another facing, I will scream."

So I decided to line the whole tunic. No big, dig into my stash of Old Sheet and whomp something up, right? That's what the Old Sheet stash is for, linings and mockups.

But then I said to myself, I said, "Well, it's not a very complicated shape. Instead of lining it before I do the side seams, how much harder could it be to make the whole thing reversible?"

( Come see 28 more of my pics and 17 of Cryptid's and see how much harder making it reversible actually was. )