Christmas Dolls

These are pictures of the dolls that I made for my little sister, and 3 nieces and 1 nephew for Christmas last year. I would love to make them to sell too but between the amount of work it takes and how much I have to neglect my poor husband, I would be looking to charge between $150 -$200 per doll. So, with the idea that you would buy these for you kids, I'm not sure I'd sell any...though, you could buy them to set on your mantel or something. Anyway, I might put these pictures in my etsy shop (GO SEE MY ETSY SHOP! IT IS "THE LEMON LINE") and just say, hey, this is what I do, if you want a custom doll...you can see that this is what I do. Anyway, I'm not sure what to do yet. Though, I am drafting up some patterns to sell on etsy of the cutest...and I mean the CUTEST little stuffed critters EVER! Crows, rabbits, weasles, etc...they are the cutest.

Here is the dragon doll and the owl doll. As you can see the dragon has a tail and wings. What you can't see is that it has a ridge of spikes down its back, spiky fringe on its legs and arms and clawed hands and feet. The dragon's clothes include a firey halter-dress, a checkerd drop-skirt, and an orange cape with a bell on the end of a pointed hood (not pictured)

The owl has a cute little beak for a mouth and very large green eyes, and also a tail, and wings on its arms and backwards kneed legs (I'm not sure if you can tell with this picture or not). Her clothing includes a blue striped halter dress, a Damsel In This Dress shaped reverible wench corsette with light colored tree-bark fabric on one side and dark colored tree-bark fabric on the other. She also has a cape that is the night sky full of stars with a bell on the end of the pointed hood.
Here is a mermaid, a train conductor, and a horse woman. The mermaid also has fringe on her arms and legs and webbed fingers and toes. Her legs and arms a green and her body is kind of a crazy blue. She has a blue silk halter dress, a seaweed shrouded drop skirt and a matching bra-like top and also a cape that has sea animals printed on it with a seashell at the end of the pointed hood.

The train conductor has EVERYTHING (I didn't want my newphew to feel like since his doll wasn't a dragon or horse or something crazy that he was being cheated...he loves trains so much) His hair is embroidery floss and he has a red goatee (just like my nephew's dad) and his hands are sewn so he can hold stuff. He has a paisly button-down shirt with matching boxers, striped overalls with a pocket on the chest and two hammer loops on his hips, he has a fancy brown vest with a pocket holding a pocket watch that is attatched to the vest with a small chain. AND he came with a bucket full of tools that fit into his hands. He also came with a cloak with a bell sewn on to a pointed hood.

The horse woman has really thick and wild red hair. She has a horse body in kind of a fuzzy brown with a white tummy and socks on all for legs/arms. she has backwards knees like the owl and cute little wooden hooves. Her clothing includes a brown-striped halter dress, a grass skirt (which I STILL think is funny, he, he, he, he...) and a green, grassy looking cape with, yes, a bell on the end of a pointed hood.

Here is the group all together, you can see their hand-painted faces.

Here is a good close-up of their feet. (from left to right) the owl, the dragon, the conductor, the mermaid, and the horse.

I wish I had had the time to take pictures of them in their cloaks and also, as weird as it sounds, without their clothes on. There is plenty of fine detail on the clothes, but equally as much on the bodies. The women are all very shapely without being graphic and the man has nice broad shoulders and narrow hips too! All the dolls have fully movable joints; the shoulders and hips are sewn on with buttons and the elbows and knees are wooden beads.

The main idea came from a doll-making book that I love, but by the time I shrunk the patterns down, made a man version, added all the crazy extra stuff like fringes, backwards knees, and different feet, the design is MOSTLY my own. None of these dolls is even close enough to the original pattern for me to point out the differences.

Anyway, I had a great time making them, but I am afraid that they took FOREVER! (more than a full day each) so...I would have to charge a LOT!

Okay everybody, I want to know what the deal is. I realized the other day that if the men/women signs on the public restrooms were accurate, they would look like the picture above. I see it more and more all the time: women cutting their hair off and wearing pants ALL THE TIME! Now, don't get me wrong, I myself prefer pants some of the time. Quite frankly, there ARE some things that are a little more practical in pants like climbing ladders, riding horses and bikes (sometimes, but look at some earlier blogs and you'll realize that it isn't a big deal)... What really has me confused is that when women are DRESSING UP as in...going on A DATE, TO A FUNERAL, TO CHURCH, or even just out and about....they wear pants...sure they might be slacks or dress pants...but I've gotta tell ya, you just look like a man. And hair...I understand if your genes simply won't allow you to grow long hair, that is fine, everyone else who is reasonable and sane understands that as well....but for the rest of you women...why your hair gets shorter and shorter all the time baffles me! Especially when someone has WONDERFUL hair genes and for whatever reason they chop it all off....WHY? For convienience?

.....look here....for CENTURIES women have had long hair and their lives were so much tougher than your cushy, bloated, apathetic lives will EVER BE! Whether they were working in the fields, their homes, scrubbing floors, shoveling manure, gardening, dealing with animals, starving to death, etc....they still had long hair. It was important to them, they thought it was beautiful. It still is. In fact, I would say that it is even MORE beautiful today than ever partially because so few women are interested in it anymore.

So, I guess if you just REALLY don't care whether you look like a man or a woman, you will think I am full of bologna. But for any woman who DOES care and who CAN....it is probably the best way to look like a WOMAN without being tacky (too much or the wrong make-up) or sleezy (clothes that stoop to SHOW you are female). I don't know of anyone who thinks that long hair is ugly, tacky, lame, or in bad taste...you just can't go wrong with lovley, long hair.

So...that is my correct opinion...you are all entitled to agree with me, or be wrong. It's your choice.