Victorian Belsnickel - Part 5

Doll cape with wool roving trim.

Last blog post I showed the coat and wrote about using the adhesive backed fleece as a lining to give the material more bulk.  The coat is together, and the cape is assembled, but not yet sewn to the coat.  There was one more thing I wanted to do with the coat, and that is what caused the second hold-up in this project.  This idea set me back a couple of weeks, mainly because there was no local access to the items I needed to complete this section.  It turned out to be another quest trying to find what I needed.

Cape and trim for the front of the coat.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the material I was using was a very bright red; much brighter than I wanted.  I had some white adhesive backed fleece left over, so I thought I would use it for the trim on the edge of the cape.  It seemed like it would be a good idea.  It was white and soft and looked like it would make a good trim.  However, once it was on there it just did not look right.  In fact, between the bright red and the bright white, it looked like a gaudy costume.  I decided that I had to do something, because it just looked too ... something.  I can't even figure out how to describe it.  It just changed the look of the whole outfit.

The plan for the coat.

I considered taking the fleece off and adding cotton batting, and that might have turned out to be the better solution, but the batting looked a little flimsy given the heaviness of the coat.  I considered purchasing some fur, but thought that the fur would be a little too upscale considering the coat's material.  What I finally hit on was that I had a lot of wool roving.  I decided that since I already had the roving, that it would be a fun project to needle felt some of the roving onto the trim pieces. I also decided that I would use some weak tea dye to keep the white wool roving from looking such a bright white.   I had purchased white roving for the hair because natural roving looks a little yellowish.  The idea worked, but it was also the snag where the project started to go into a tailspin.

The doll so far.

As I blogged earlier in the project when I was looking for wool roving to use as hair, needle felting seems to be a fad that has come and gone.  Just as I was had trouble finding the roving, felting needles were not to be found.  They did not have any felting tools at my closest craft store, nor any of the three fabric/craft stores in the area that I normally frequent.  At this point, I think I should have taken this as a sign.  But I was stuck on the idea, so I ended up ordering the felting tool and felting needles online.  I had to wait a few days for them to arrive. 

After the felting tool and needles arrived, I started the needle felting. Things went well at first.  It is sort of a relaxing mindless activity: punch, move the needles, punch.  I was about an inch from finishing the trim around the cape when I started running out of time.  I started punching faster.  That was a mistake.  The tool holds three needles.  The first needle broke, but I kept punching with two needles.  The second needle broke.  I kept punching with one needle.  Then the last needle broke and I did not have any more needles.  I ended up having to order more needles online because there were none to be had locally.  You can't just use a regular needle for needle felting.  The needles have small barbs or notches on them that grab the fabric and pull it down into the base material.  So another few days wait for them to arrive. I ordered double what I though I would need just in case.

My needles arrived.  I finished felting the cape trim and the trim that will go down the front of the coat.  It still looked too white.  I had ordered white wool roving rather than natural color roving because the natural tends to look a little yellowish, not really the color for Santa hair.  So, I thought, why not give it a weak tea dye, and since the adhesive on the fleece fuses with steam, fuse it afterwards to insure that the roving stays put.  Using steam would also help to felt the wool roving a little more.  That idea caused the next delay. 

I brushed on a weak tea dye with a soft brush.  The flannel soaked up the water and soaked the cape.  I steamed it on the cotton setting on the iron.  Wet wool and steam is not a pleasant mix.  It smelled like wet sheep, maybe like a barn full of wet sheep.  I can't say that I would recommend this to anyone.  The flannel was still much wetter than I thought it would be. I did not want to steam it too long because it could mess with the adhesive that I had fused to the fleece.  I had to let it sit and dry out for a day or two.  But it did seem to work.  The roving is staying in place.  The tea-dyed trim looks better than it did before.  So I guess that it is a win, albeit hard won.

And that is about where I am on the project now.  I am ready to sculpt the head and hands from bake in the oven clay.  I have been holding back on that because I needed to have a day where I could open up the windows while the items were baking.  The clay requires ventilation while the baking occurs.  Tomorrow is that day.  The temperature is expected to be in the upper sixties (Fahrenheit).  I plan to hit the studio first thing in the morning.  It may take all day, but the project will take a giant leap forward.

Check back on Thursday for an update on the doll.