Long long time ago - Or, Spring Is Here Hopefully?

Well, obviously, I am a horrible blogger! Egads. It has been nearly half a year gone by! I am going to blame it on the winter. Longest winter I can remember. Ever. No kidding.

The whole east coast of the US got deluged with snow and cold. We were still having snow the last days of March this year. The mood around here was one something like preparing for an ice age. We still have 3 feet high snow banks in our yard, and there is just a hint of grass showing around the porch.

All is well, though, it seems. We had a 50 degree day this week, so I am just going to say spring is here. It doesn't look like it outside today, but let's be optimistic, shall we?

If anyone is wondering, this winter I was busy making doll dresses and some other random fashions for Blythe. I am saying at the moment that I am not going to make any more custom dolls for sale. Maybe sometimes one for myself, but I have had a good run, customized maybe 125 dolls for others, and for now that is enough.

That could change, but I feel pretty good about the way my little dress shop is going, so kind of want to just give that a whirl. In the past I have done virtually everything for dolls. Reroots, dyeing fiber for reroots, customizing Blythes, Sad Eyed Susies and other dolls, dresses, hats, goggles, masks, original clothing, and anything that I could think up.

It has gotten so that I just have so much stuff everywhere. I would like to put some of it away and just do one thing for awhile. So, it's dresses for now. They make me happy. It's something I am pretty good at. So, that's that.

Of course, I can never seem to concentrate on any one kind of fashion for very long, so things seem to change day to day. I have gotten so I can make more than 1 of something, but not as often as would be practical. I am inspired by a lot of things, and usually I just like to do whatever comes to me.

For this post, I am just sharing some photos of some of the things I made and sold in my shop over the winter. Hope everyone in the northern hemisphere is bursting into spring madness and that in the southern, you are easing into fall and things are maybe cooling down a bit.

Stay colorful!

XOXOX

Cindy

Nights in White Satin

Well maybe not white satin, but white silk in any case. I actually spend most of my nights more in plaid flannel. It's Vermont, after all. White satin, silk or otherwise just sounds better, doesn't it?

I really love couture. I wish I owned some. I wish I had somewhere to actually wear it. I mostly like looking at couture in magazines. I also love dollie couture. That, I like making myself. I like photographing it, too. I have been concentrating on making some strictly OOAK things lately. I really don't love making things twice. I don't know what it is about that, but once I have made something, I am ready to move on. I admire people who are more patient than I am. They can design something with the intent of making it a dozen times. I think in many ways, that is the more profitable way to be. If I make something twice, it will usually not be quite the same as the first time. I am just not that consistent. So maybe OOAK is really more my thing.

The trouble comes in pricing things that are OOAK. If you make something only once, the time you take to design it and construct it is going to be a lot more than the making of something multiple times when the kinks are already worked out. It's one of the reasons I have pretty much put a halt to taking custom commissions for clothing in my etsy shop. I can't charge enough to make it worthwhile. If it takes me all day to do something and I can only charge $30, then I am a very lovely person, but also kind of poor :) It's a hard call. For OOAK couture, it seems like the prices should reflect the time and materials. The dresses I am showing here did take me most of the day to make. I made one at a time and spent a day on each, more or less. I usually am not using patterns, because honestly, any that I have drafted up, I haven't marked clearly and who knows what goes with what? So, when I make a OOAK gown or outfit, I am starting from zero. Usually I am using white silk or a similar fabric and I am then constructing the outfit from scratch. I may start with a pattern shape I have already worked out for part of an outfit, but then I pinch here or there, taking in fabric where it is too full, or adding something where it isn't full enough, changing what I started with to suit me. When I am finished, I usually have no idea what I actually did, because I was more or less immersed in that particular dress. It just exists as it does, and there is only 1.

At that point I will generally dye the finished dress to a color of my liking. I mix a bunch of colors in a haphazard way, and voila, a new color emerges, but I have no idea how to recreate it. If there is something I have made that I really do want 2 of, well, I can go back and try to remake it, and maybe I will come close, but at the very least, probably the color will not be the same. So, rather than try to fit a square peg into a round hole, I am just telling myself that OOAK is the way to go. For this week anyway :)

Autumn is in full swing here in Vermont. I cannot believe how colorful it can get here in Vermont in just a week! Kind of like this dress shown :)