Altered Yarn Spool Dolls

 Have you ever done a project that you liked in many ways, but one thing about it just made you nuts and ruined it for you? Well, if you have, then today you will understand this journey of mine, to alter some dolls I made many years ago. I have let them sit unaltered for about fifteen years, and every time I looked at them I knew they hid a secret, a laziness in their design if you will, that was just plain ugly. So the other day, when I passed them once again as I went into my office. I decided enough was enough and it was high time something was done about it. 

I began on the project by collecting all my needed materials, and as per usual got right into it before taking some pictures of my original horrid mistakes. I've decided I'm either a gold card carrying member of the, "Daffy Duck Club", or simply too focused on the project at hand. Most likely more of the previous than the latter! But let us not keep rambling on here, and get on with it.

You could say my alterations idea all started with a paper napkin. I had sculpted and costumed these dolls, but at the time I did them, I had never sculpted before. I didn't know the first thing about it, so I tried to make their legs out of heavy metal clothes hanger wire, covered in polymer clay. Of course it was terrible! I didn't take time to really make much of their lower anatomy at all, thinking their gowns would hide it. This is a newbie mistake, and as I said before, rather lazy on my part. In the end to begin this project I had break the polymer clay and cut their lower extremities off with a pair of heavy wire cutters. This was not easy, nor pleasant.

 

As I have been involved with various textiles over the years. I have made friends with many other like minded souls. All credit goes to my dearly beloved mother in-law, Maryann, who loved all manner of arts, textile and crafts, and got me started in it. Over the years she and her friends had collected in their weaving guild, stacks of these cardboard thread and yarn cones. They were happy to give a bunch to me and it has been fun using them in my projects every since. 

As you can see in this picture I have assembled the cones, along with some clear Elmer's glue and a small plastic container, which I have made up a bit of watered down glue in. I have already applied the napkin to the cone here and have put it upside-down on the rack to dry. The only thing not shown is my cutting the napkin to size to fit the cone, but as every cone is different so I didn't think it would be all that helpful. Just cut it in two pieces that overlap, so it covers the whole cone evenly. Plus there just wasn't a way for me to hold the thing and take picture's at the same time, while applying it.

You will want the glue water to be thin enough to spread easy, but not so sticky it rips the napkin apart. You can choose how many layers of the napkin you want too. Also, because the cardboard cone was not sealed, I painted on a layer of the water/glue first, then laid on the paper napkin, then put more watered glue on it with my paintbrush. When doing this, because it is mimicking an under-dress you don't need to get all the wrinkles out, but you do need to get the air bubbles out. I used a small flat bristle paintbrush. It seemed to do the trick. Don't worry that the wet napkin looks dull, it will brighten again when it is dry, as you can see here.

 

Here is the underside of Cymrynora Cor' Adynne before the application of her new dress cone. She  is the princess of Havahille, if I remember correctly?! It's a good thing I made tags for these things, as I can't just rattle them all off the top of my head as I used to.

Here she is, before her new skirt cone is applied. You might say she is a, "Lady in Waiting."lol

Sorry, that was a bad joke wasn't it?! The fabrics are from my stash. The lace and blue sheer, is from my twin sisters wedding gown, that I designed and made her. Cym's accessories are made from old broken costume jewelry. The nice thing about old costume jewelry, is at the time I made these things, you could pick it up very cheaply at 2nd hand stores. Anyway, Cymrynora's kingdom were friends with the Sea Folk. They gave them things on land in exchange for things from the sea. The Sea Folk loved to give pearls, and gave Cymrynora special one's for Carpet bowls. It was a favorite game that all well mannered Havahilleian's liked to play, especially in the long cold winter months, when folks are stuck indoors.

 

Here at last is Cymrynora's under-cone skirt, looking so pretty, and so much more satisfying to my artistic eye. Now she is proud to give a small peek. No more scrawny stiff metal legs, barely covered in gauze, with clunky felt footwear. Now she looks like a proper princess.

 

Here she stands all by herself, without the ugly pinching metal doll stand, she used to have stuck about her waist. This is so much better, and she is so much easier to pose. I shall not be ashamed for people to see what her nether regions look like now either. Her hands are still rather thick, but as it represents a part of my early work, I shall not mess with them.

Having finished her, to my deep satisfaction, we move on now to the next subject doll. I have chosen another paper table napkin from my stash. I used to buy packages of these very cheaply at places like, Ross, T.J. Maxx, and Home Goods. As it has never taken many of them to do what I need, I still have lots of them to play with.

 

Since you have already seen most of the process, I will just show you her underside cone, which was just glued into her lace underskirt with hot glue. I chose which part of the cone I wanted facing forward, and glued it in place. That way when her skirt is lifted by her hand, you see the part of the picture on the cone you like. I just love the birds on this napkin. Especially the three Blue Tits on the top right hand corner. As I only needed half of this napkin for its height, to fit the cone, I made sure the Blue Tits were as visible as possible. 

I just love this napkin and would have a boarder of it as a wallpaper on my wall if I could. Oh! That is an interesting thought. I wonder what would happen if I put this as a boarder along the top of one wall? Hmmm! I'm going to have a think about that!

Here is Lady Lily Lavender Mythradelle, Queen of the Woodland Fairies. She has come to play Carpet bowls with Cymrynora. She prefers to be called just, Lady Lavender by her friends. She is not stuck up or pretentious at all, even if she is a queen. She is the wife of Prince Reginald DeArcy of Harthnore, who became King Reginald of Gomber. Just to keep things straight! 

Her dress in front is made from a scrap left over from a commissioned dress I made. Can't recall the name of the person tho. Too many folks and too long ago.

 

Doesn't she look regal?  Again her accessories are made from old earrings and other broken costume jewelry. She used to have the prettiest little plume of pink ostrich feathers in her hair too, but some bugs ate the feather's, while we were living in Hawaii, and that was that. I couldn't find more of the right type and color, so gave it up. 

We close out these pictures with a nice view of her back. The back of her dress was a 1/4 yard of fabric I bought ages ago at Fabric Depot in Portland, Or. The nice thing about small dolls is that a small piece of fabric goes a long ways, so you can buy more expensive fabric for projects. When I saw this fabric I just knew she would love it for her gown, and she did! 

So there you have it. Two dolls, more simply and regally adorned. I can now set them on their shelf without fear of them being damaged by doll stands, and can even use them as Christmas Tree toppers in the future should I choose. I am well and truly satisfied with the outcome of these dolls, and only wish I had thought of it in the first place.

I hope you have enjoyed this little alteration project of mine, and hope it gives you loads of idea's on how to use simple pretty paper napkin's.

Have a God Blessed day everyone.