Victorian Belsnickel - Part 4

Now so thick it stands on its own.

Now that I am back on some sort of normal routine, I'm back to blogging about the Victorian Belsnickel doll.  I hit a snag on things, but now I am back on schedule---sort of.  I was trying to work a little ahead so I had something to blog about each post, but that has now gone out the window.  I am now trying to make sure I have something new for each post again.  However, the snag is resolved so the project is moving forward. 

Back with side seams.

The snag came about because I ran into a couple of materials problems.  The first problem was finding the right material.  When possible, I try to use material I have in my fabric stash before I go out to buy more.  I had three red fabrics in hand.  None of them seemed appropriate for the project.  One fabric was a BRIGHT red thin flannel, the second fabric was a heavier burgundy flannel, and the third was a modern outerwear fabric I had used for the doll I made just before Christmas.  The modern  fabric did not fit with a Victorian type doll.  The burgundy just too dark.  The bright red was really bright, but I thought with a little work I could make do with it.  At least felt that I needed to try, because wool material is expensive.

Cape will attache to the coat.

I decided that I would try to tea dye the fabric to knock down some of the brightness. Before dyeing with tea, I washed the fabric with laundry soda to remove any additives from the fabric.  I did not use any sort of fabric softener afterwards.  I dried the fabric in the dryer.  Sometimes when you wash a red fabric the color tends to dull after just a couple of washes.  Well hats off to the manufacturer of this fabric because the bright red color remained unphased. I washed it again.  Same thing.  So then I proceeded to tea dye the fabric.  It might have knocked down the glare a little bit, but it was still bright red.  However, I decided to go with it.  Then I was onto working onto the next problem:  thin fabric.

Coat with cape attached.

The doll so far.

The flannel was a thin shirt weight flannel.  I needed something thicker to make the coat.  It needed some padding to make it look heavy enough for a coat.  By coincidence, I had been watching a quilting show on television and they had shown a product called adhesive backed fleece that was being used for a quilting project.  It seemed like just the thing.  The fleece came in either adhesive on one side or adhesive on both sides.  I thought that if I fused the fleece between layers of flannel that I would have a thicker fabric and it would appear as if the coat had a lining.  So, I started on what turned out to be a quest for double sided adhesive fleece.  I called fabric stores and craft stores.  Some had single sided, but no one had double sided.  I could only find the double sided fleece online.  I decided to go with the single sided because I did not want to have to pay shipping and handling fees.  Also, I did not want to have to wait for days for it to arrive.  It was quicker to use the adhesive fleece.  If I had not been able to find any I would have gone to Plan B and sewn in batting between the two layers of material.

At the first opportunity, I went out to purchase the fleece.  Then I got to work.  I cut out the coat and the lining for the coat. I cut out the pieces of fusible fleece for each piece, cutting it so that the fleece would stay out of the seam lines so they would not be too bulky.   Next I fused fleece to the back of each piece.  Then I sewed the coat together.  I wish I had cut the fleece a little narrower.  It was still difficult to sew.  Sewing doll clothes is not easy to begin with since the pieces are so small.  This doll is only going to be about seventeen inches tall. 


Anyway, I finished assembling the coat and attached the hood.  I once made a hooded cape for myself and that experience served in good stead.  I am not sure I would have understood how to attach the hood to the cape otherwise.  I have also sewn the round cape that covers the shoulders of the coat and added some white trim to the cape. I have not yet sewn the cape to the coat.  That might be best done after the coat is put on the doll so I know that I have the placement of the cape correct.

The coat is now very thick and heavy.  It looks like something you would wear out in cold, snowy weather.  I guess if I had thought about it more, I would have only used fleece on one piece of fabric rather than on both pieces.  I could have used that piece as the lining piece not had as much stiffness on the outside.  It looks right, but it was the dickens to sew.  I still have to add a piece of trim down the front of the coat.  The trim will cover where the coat is sewn together, so that will not be done until after the coat is on the doll. 

At least I will be able to show you photos of what the coat will look like.  I have not sewn it onto the doll yet.  I need to make the doll's head and hands out of clay and attach them to the doll before the coat is permanently attached to the doll.  I am behind on that.  Part of the problem is that I have been tied up with shoveling snow.  The cold weather has not been conducive to getting me to work on this part of the project because you have to have a lot of ventilation when you bake the clay.  I have not wanted to leave the doors and windows open this week with the weather so cold.  However, later this week, the temperature is supposed to rebound up to the upper sixties (Fahrenheit) so I plan to make and bake the clay parts then.

I am running out of time this morning, so I will end at this stopping point.   I still have another snag to tell you about, but I will save that for next time.  Check back on Sunday.