Still here

Egads! I've been terrible at updating this summer. I'm sorry for those who have been waiting. I will get an update soon, I promise. I need to take pics....

An Annoying Cold, A Little Soup, Some Work and a Bit of Yarn

For those of you avidly following my blog, I appologize for the lack of updating this week. Seems that a nasty cold has made its way into my work, and I, unfortunately, caught it. For the first time in a while, I had to call in sick to work, but luckily, I wasn't too sick on my scheduled day off this week to get some work done on some outfits. And the little bit of soup? Homemade chicken and rice soup from my work. Yummy! Feels great on a sore throat. And some work? Not so much fun. After getting sick, I had two days of working doubles at work. Good paycheck. But not so much fun when you are feeling under the weather. That being said, what crafting I have gotten done was done way back on Wednesday, my day off. Yeah, I know, it's now Saturday night and I'm just now updating. My original plan was to finish these outfits (yes, I said finish and outfits) on Thursday after work with getting the snaps sewn on, but Thursday was the day I was so sick, and so I didn't get much of anything done. The snaps still aren't on, but two outfits are unofficially finished and one is just a little ways away from being finish (and no, sorry, they aren't Aurora, though her blue dress will get some TLC tomorrow).

This first photo isn't a new outfit, rather it is simply the red pant outfit on yet another doll. In the testing process, one of my testers suggested that the pants couldn't/wouldn't fit a doll with hips (AKA an older doll). Since I am hoping the outfits that I am designing would be usable for any doll size with just the changing of the placement of snaps, this concerned me. So, I pulled out a doll with hips and tried it on her. This is Esmarelda (who is still waiting for her hair to finish being restored) who has the 1966 Barbie body (same as Pocahontas too), which is all hips. Her hips are actually wider than her shoulders. And it seems that this design fits the best on the more "hippier" dolls. Go me for making such a versitile pattern!!!!

I started my day off by finishing up the pants to Jasmine's blue pants outfit. All of Jasmine's pants are made really similar - in fact the legs are exactly the same - but the waist band and the length of working the abdomen portion before dividing for the legs is a little different depending on which outfit it is. This picture is just after a couple of rows.

This is the first time working this particular waist band, so here is measuring the abdomen portion on Jasmine. No, I don't have it set all the way to the waist because rows will be worked on the top like I did on the red pants.

On to the leg protion. This is the third set of pants I have made, and it still seems to me that the legs would end up way too big for the doll, but they don't. I guess the doll legs are bigger in circumference than they look. This is about 1/3 of the way through the leg.

2/3 of the way through.

And after cast off. It does look a little short here, but this is just roughly put on the doll, and this is also my older Jasmine that does have longer legs than the newer Jasmine.

Both legs cast off.

And with the tiny waist band added to the top just before cast off. Looks like a really bad, baggy pair of pants at the moment.

After casting off the waist band but before sewing everything up. Some of my testers have started doing the pant legs in the round so they don't have to sew up the legs. I haven't gotten that adventurous on something this small, but with all those strings, it sure is tempting to try.

The outfit all sewn up and ends darned in, just waiting for snaps.

Here the outfit is on my original Jasmine.

And on my newer Jasmine. It still doesn't have snaps on it. Still have to do that and get finishing photos.

Outfit #2
Here's the start of outfit number 2 for Jasmine. No, it's not her wedding dress (although I have a tentative pattern written out for her wedding dress), but it does come from Aladdin and the King of Theives (the movie where her wedding occurs). This is her pink pant set, similar to the purple pant set I have made already, but with a few variants.

 A little bit further. A slipped stitch in the middle sure seems a cleaner way to make a dip in the top of the shirt than pulling up the stitches from below with the working yarn (the way the pattern I am following for Aurora and Belle's ball gowns do it).

Ugh. Strings. This is the row after creating the arm holes and changing over to the pink for the bottom portion of the shirt.

The shirt portion cast off. Just need to finish the sleeves. And darning in all those ends. The only problem with a multicolored piece. The ends. LOL.

Same as above, just on Jasmine.

Starting the first sleeve. Do these colors make anyone else think of cotton candy?

Measuring the sleeve on Jasmine...

And again. Even though I have now made quite a number of sleeves and know that they need to be approximately x cm depending on where they join the bodice of whatever outfit I'm working on, I still am not comfortable making them without first measuring them on the doll before casting off.

Both sleeves done. A crafter's nightmare. Ends. Lots and lots and lots of ends.

Modeled haphazardly by Jasmine.

Much better! No more ends. All sewn together and awaiting snaps and its matching pants. And, no, that's not a hole or a dark spot on the left (as you are looking at it) sleeve. I don't know what caused that dark spot in the photo. Must be a shadow or trick of the light.

First photo of the pants...already onto the first leg. I made so many pieces on Wednesday, I forgot to take starting pictures of some of them.

Instead of measuring these pants on the doll, I just measured them on the blue pants I had just finished because these pants are the exact same pattern as the blue pants.

Ready to cast off the first leg.

And after the second leg. I told you I forgot to take pictures. I'm getting pretty fast at making these pieces for Jasmine. It won't be much longer before she is completely done.

And I forgot to take pictures. Again. LOL. All sewn up with a lighter pink waist band. Just awaiting snaps and final pictures.

Outfit #3
I actually started this one after I finished the shirt of the first pink pants outfit. This is Jasmine's other pink pant outfit. Yes, she has two. This one isn't quite finished as far as the other two because I still need to make the robe which goes with it (trying to figure out how to make the robe still). I knew this would be an easy make because both pieces I had already made before. The top is a tube top, same as the red outfit and the pants are styled like those in the purple outfit. Here is the start of the top.

And the casting off point...lol, I told you I didn't take many pictures (even though this post has quite a few pictures in it).

And cast off.

Modeled by Jasmine.

Oops...I was even further on these pants than the last pink pants before I realized I hadn't taken a picture of them. I'm about 1/3 of the way through the first pant leg already at this point.

And already on to the second leg...the wonders of technology, you get to see it progress quickly, lol.

Both legs cast off and waiting to be sewn up.

And with the waist band on it (crocheted, just like the purple pants). I know that it looks some aweful yellow color, but it actually is a really pretty soft gold yarn. Hopefully it will come out truer to its actual color when I take the finished photos.

All sewn up, waiting snaps, and modeled by Jasmine. I hope to get the robe designed and made soon. Then Jasmine will be more than 60% done.

A Cloak for a Princess (or two)

So the title of this post is a little misleading, because there's more than just cloaks/capes in here, but do you know how hard it is to keep coming up with new post titles? I'm almost ready to just start putting the date, but that would just be boring, lol.

So first, just some pretty sunset pictures to share with you, my readers. This is the beauty of a West Texas sunset just as a thunderstorm is coming into the area. Some of the most beautiful sunsets in the world! (If you don't believe me, find out where movie makers like to do scenes that are riding off into the sunset. Yep, West Texas! Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade anyone?) I took these the other day as I was getting off work, hence the annoying power lines and light poles in the way, but still some beautiful pictures.

And pictures of the halter dress I'm making. The skirt is taking forever! I have been working on it every day, but I feel like I'm not getting anywhere. These pictures do show different though. I have less than 10" to finish the skirt.

And now to Disney stuff. These first couple of pictures are actually of the little tea sets that my swap partner used to make my stitch markers out of (well, the Belle one anyway). I found them at the store and they work so perfectly that I wanted to make some more stitch markers, so I picked up a couple of the tea sets, another of Belle and one which is just a generic pink princess one, but still the same size and pieces (same mold too, you can see Chip's chip in the pink tea cups!).

And all the pieces fit inside the tea pots! So cute! (and these are made for little girls? too many little pieces if you ask me).

This picture is for size comparison. That is a quarter laying there next to the plate. The quarter is actually a little bit bigger than the plate even!

Okay, now on to the doll capes (aka, the cloaks, hehe). This is Aurora's cape. As I mentioned previously, I am trying to get Aurora finished up fairly soon because the mother asked me to. I don't think it will take me too much longer. With the addition of the stitch markers on the cape and the circular needle for the dress, the knitting is going much faster!

And a little bit further. Thanks to the hanging stitch markers and the rib stitch at the neck, you really can tell that it is gaining length. And width! It's almost too wide for my 14" straight knitting needles at this point!

This picture is halfway through the third way down row on the body (aka, I'm done with a third of the rows from the rib stitch at the neck). Because of the 8 stitch increases on an increase row (still every other (right side) row at this point), the angle which the needles are sitting is actually the natural curve of the design. That curve and the sheer width of the cape at only a third of the way down prompted me to go get a circular needle to continue working this cape on (seeing as I didn't have a size 3 circular in my needles). The cape has since been put onto the circular needle, though I don't have a picture of it on there yet.

Same amount done as above, but measuring on Rapunzel (she was easier to use than Aurora, who has yarn still attatched to her dress). Rapunzel is slightly smaller than Aurora, but not by much. A third of the way done with the cape and it already reaches to Rapunzel's waist! I think this pattern (not my own design on this piece) will be a good replication of Aurora's cape (which really is more of a cloak than a cape).

Here's a picture from the front, if you will pardon the DPN holding the hood closed and the safety pin holding the neck closed. Once the cape is done, the hood will be sewn together and a snap will be sewn on at the neck.

So, the stitch markers were working so well to cut out time on Aurora's cape, that I decided to add them to Belle's capes as well (now that I have the other tea sets made into stitch markers). And it was a good thing I decided to work with Belle's capes too. As I was trying to get the stitch markers in place on Belle's navy cape, I felt something give in the piece! I was so afraid the yarn had broken or stitches had dropped or something! They didn't, but what did happen was nearly as bad because of where it happened. The tubing came out of the needle on the circular which the cape was on! In the middle of the stitching! Yikes!!!!!! I was able to get the cape transfered over to another circular with only dropping one stitch (that was successfully picked back up in the next row); luckily I had a spare size 2 circular needle. Here's a picture of the broken circular needle. The tubing just fits up inside the end of the needle. The needle has been since fixed and is awaiting being put back into service. A little heat from a candle melted the plastic tubing into staying put inside the needle.

It was a good thing I moved it to my other cicular size 2 in another way too. The cape was starting to get wide (I'm about a third of the way done on this one as well) and the little 16" circular it was on was not going to hold all of the stitches much longer. It is now on a 29" circular that will be more than long enough to hold all of the stitches through the rest of the cape. You will also notice that there are only 4 stitch markers on this cape instead of the 8 which Aurora's cape has. That's because the design for Belle's capes is a different pattern than Aurora's cape. Aurora's cape is more a cloak where as Belle's capes are more just a standard riding cape. The only increases which occur in Belle's capes are shoulder increases, so I have the tea cups here marking the increases and the sugar and creamer are marking the garter stitch as a reminder for me on the purl side rows.

And when I went to place the stitch markers on Belle's maroon cape, I had a bit of a personal embaressment moment. Apparently I had cast on the maroon cape and worked one knit row, and that was it! So, Belle's maroon cape got some working done on it. Here I have placed the plates for the garter stitch and the spoons are marking the center decrease spot for the hood (you will notice these complete the tea set with Belle's other cape, hehe). The spoons will be  moved after I do the neck ribbing to mark the shoulder increases.

Here's a little bit further on the maroon cape.

And here is after all the decreases have been done for the hood. I still have a few cm of straight stockinette stitch to do before getting to the neck ribbing though.

Can you tell it was a cape working day? Sorry for the backflash my camera did. I don't know why it did that.

And Aurora was not forgotten. I worked on her while watching Shrek 2 with my roommate. I was able to complete nearly 10 more rows on her skirt during the movie, which equates to about 13% of the skirt. I have reached over the halfway point in the skirt and it is now past her knees, about a cm or two more than it looks in the picture here because the skirt would not lay flat against the doll for anything in the world when I tried to take the picture.

As with the shift for Mulan, part of these outfits which I am designing are being tested for sale of the pattern. Jasmine's outfits are going to be making a mix and match pattern set and are the ones currently being tested. But my testers have ran into a problem of not getting the outfits to fit the way I do, especially the pants, so I told them I would make a new outfit soon and see if I could figure out what was going on with the design. So, I have started a new outfit for Jasmine, this time her signature blue outfit (which after I finish this one, I will be 50% the way done with Jasmine, not including her wedding dress).

Her outfits really do make fast, especially the tops, which are all of ten rows. Here is after casting on and knitting one row.

A few rows later.

After casting off for the "sleeves."

And just before casting off. Pardon the '70s yellow table background. I had to spend the afternoon/evening at the laundry mat because they still haven't finished remodeling the laundry facilities at my apartment complex. Ugh.

And cast off and modeled by Jasmine. I still haven't darned in the ends or put on snaps. I wanted to wait to put on the snaps until I figured out the problem of the fitting on the dolls. I had bought this Jasmine off eBay and I thought she was the newest Jasmine, but after the problems my testers were having, I wasn't sure. So I went to the store and found a Jasmine doll (not an easy task, mind you, Jasmine seems to be either more popular or less popular than the other princesses because she is not on the shelf as much as the other dolls are).

And boy was I surprised! The newest Jasmine is totally different!!! Luckily, this blue top seems to fit both dolls in the same manner.

And so does the purple outfit which I had previously finished.

But not the red outfit!!! Here it is on my first Jasmine doll which I had been using for a reference picture.

And here it is on the newer doll. It's falling off her!!!! It will be a simple fix, I just have to adjust the snap positions. Actually, I'm going to add snap positions to it. That way, the little girl can put the outfit on the newer, smaller dolls, and the older larger dolls by just chosing a different snap position.

Here's the two dolls side by side for comparison. Different body shapes and heights! My original Jasmine was not that different from the Aurora which I bought at the store (exact same Disney princess line as the newer Jasmine too!!! Aparerntly they can't make up their minds as to what body types to use!), so I didn't really think all that much of the body type.

But sheesh! Pick a body type. This is Rapunzel (only one body type, being a newer princess), my new Jasmine (same size as Rapunzel), Tiana (again, only one body type, different from Rapunzel and Jasmine, same as my Aurora doll), and my old Jasmine! And the sad thing is the new Jasmine and the Tiana are both from the Sparkling Princess line! I had heard about the differening body types and could see that they were depending on which princess I was working with and whether my doll was a newer or older doll, but I didn't really realize how much of a difference the body types were (execting Pocahontas and Esmerelda, who are 1966 Mattel bodies, a very distinct body type) until I put them all next to each other.

And one last parting picture. My pretty kitty Sapphire looking at mommy asking if I'm done with all the yarn yet! LOL.