Vampire Halloween Doll - Part 5

Progress has been made this week!  It feels as if this doll has been dragging on for a while.  But first, a note to self:  If you have to hold the doll three inches from a sixty watt bulb and look through a magnifying lens to see what you are doing, you are working too darn small.  I used to enjoy the challenge of working on small dolls.  Now it is not fun any more.  It is just too hard to see it.

Anyway, I did make significant strides on the doll this week.  The face was painted and the vampire fangs added.  Hair has been attached.  And the doll is partially clothed.  The pants and shirt are on.  I have not attached a collar to the shirt.  The bow tie and cape ties will cover that area.  I am beginning to feel like the project is moving forward again.

It really is not just a matter of having been too busy to work on it with this project.  The doll is so small that it comes with a more problems than working on normal dolls.  The doll is harder to hold on to because of its size.  The tiny arms and legs easily get tangled up with the thread used to sew the clothes onto the doll.  Normal size paint brushes and sculpting tools are to large for painting and sculpting tiny features.  Sewing stitches need to be very small to be in scale with the clothing.  This is probably going to be my last tiny doll.  My fingers and eyesight are not up to the task any longer.  It is safe to say that this project has not been the a great joy to create.  But, I still plan to finish the project.

Trying to get the hair onto the doll was a challenge.  It was some sort of synthetic fiber.  It was very stiff and very resistant to being glued onto the doll.  First I tried a tacky craft glue. That did not work.  Then I tried a low temp hot glue:  not working well.  I was beginning to think I was going to have to sew the hair in as individual strands.  I generally do that on my dolls, but this was supposed to be a quick craft doll for a fun Halloween project.  It was not in the plan to spend so much time working on this doll.  I finally found a way that worked, but I am not sure that I would use this method on a regular basis.  I pulled a dollop of glue from a glue stick with a toothpick.  I cut a small piece of doll hair (about three times the length of the head) and mashed it into the glue and held it in place until it stayed.  I continued doing this across the entire head.  After the glue was dry the doll received a hair cut.  He still needs a little more trimming.  That is as far as I was able to go on the project before I had to stop and get on to something else.

The clothing for this doll is created by sewing pieces of cloth directly onto the body of the doll.  It would be very difficult to make the clothing and try to slide the doll into it.  The shirt is short sleeved because I did not feel the need to make long sleeves that were going to be covered by a jacket and cape.  The cape is the only item that will be constructed like a garment.  It will be a black cape lined in red.  At least that is the plan for now.

So things are moving along.  Maybe the doll will be completed in a week to ten days.  It depends on how long it takes to make the jacket and cape.  I also have sort of a surprise idea for the casket.  Check back on Thursday for the next update for the Vampire doll.