Victorian Belsnickel - Part 2

Muslin "skin" covers the layers of batting.

Last time I blogged about creating the body for the doll.  I had pretty much completed the basic body. I was not able to find the photo I had taken of the doll after it had been covered with a final layer of muslin quilt backing.  In fact, I was not able to find a whole file of the photos I had taken.  I have gone through my entire photo section and the recycle section and the file is nowhere to be found. I spent an hour looking through photo files.  At this point, I am going to have to declare a section of the photos completely lost. 

Duck cotton pants are stuffed into the boots.

I was only able to take a photo of the muslin on the upper body of the doll because I had already started to add some of the clothing.  So my first picture will show the upper body of the doll where I have covered the layers of batting with the muslin quilt backing.  I would normally have used an unbleached muslin for this layer as the unbleached muslin more closely resembles flesh color.  However, I had some bleached muslin scraps, so I used them instead.  None of this layer will be seen once the doll is completely clothed.  I am going to sculpt the face and hands from bake in the oven polymer clay, so the color of the cloth is not a problem in that aspect.

Pants are sewn onto the doll at waist and boot tops.

Today I will be blogging about making the pants. The material was a duck cotton.  I used a basic pants pattern which is basically a rectangle with a curve cut into one corner.  You sew the curved seam, the inner seam, and the outer seam and you have a basic pare of pants.  There are no zippers or elastic waist bands.  The pants waist is sewn directly onto the doll. 

I made the pants ankle length but planned to stuff the pant legs into the boots.  I think every detail of the doll should help tell a story.  By stuffing the pants into the boots it adds to the story by suggesting that the snow is wet and the character wants to keep the pants dry.  The bottom of the pants legs was sewn onto the boots once the boots were completed.   There will be more information on making the boots on the next blog post.

Some doll makers might have chosen not to make pants in the manner that human pants are made.  Since the doll will have a long red coat, the thigh and waist portion of the pants will not be visible on the completed doll.   To save time and materials (and therefore money), many doll makers would have just made tubes to represent pants legs.  Each tube would have been slipped onto a leg and sewn onto the doll.  That is a perfectly legitimate way of making a decorative doll.  I chose to make full pants because I want my doll to be detailed in the event someone looks at the construction of the doll.  Seriously though, unless the other person is a doll maker, no one ever does this.  People just look at the doll and say "That's nice."

Back in the 1990s, there was a big debate going on among doll makers.  The debate is whether or not a doll should have underwear.  There was one side that said that underwear was not necessary because it was just a doll and no one cared.  The other side said that the dolls were not fully dressed if they did not have underwear on and that going without underwear was disgusting.  I am not sure that it would be as big an issue now as the ensuing years have brought us thong underwear and people are "going commando."  My take on the situation is that I would at least like my doll to have a normal public appearance, so my doll has a full set of pants rather than tubes for pant legs.  However, underneath the pants he is going commando.  No one will never know from looking at the doll because the pants are sewn to the body and there is no way for anyone to check without taking the doll apart.

Anyway, I spent my morning searching for the photos so I am running late on other work that needs to be done.  Check back on Sunday for the next blog post.  I will be showing how the doll boots were made.