Holiday Angels - OOAK Artist Emporium

Holiday
Angel s
An Introduction to Polymer Clay Sculpting
with Deb Wood
Session 4—34 Pages
*Please read through the entire session
before you begin.
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© Deb Wood /Enchanted Hearts 2013. All Rights Reserved
Copyright Notice and Disclaimer: The instructions herein are copyright protected and any copying, forwarding, reposting or reprinting of any kind is strictly forbidden. This includes but is not limited to
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brought to you in good faith and in no way does the author accept any responsibility for error, accident or injury to participants due to the instructions presented in this document.
And… Finally...
Here we are, already at the last session for our class. That went fast, didn’t it? In this session we will finish up on the wings by adding some feathers to give them a ethereal look,
then we’ll make two styles of headpieces! You can make both if you like, or simply choose
your favorite for your angel to wear. I did this so that while this is a Christmas themed angel, she can also be appropriate for year round display. I always think Angels make wonderful gifts so by giving these options, you can create the perfect gift to give your friends or
family.
Well, lets get started, shall we? The sooner I stop talking the sooner we can get finished up.
Ready? I am…
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General Information
I’ve talked about clay handling and baking and also those pesky moonies. In this session I will add to the baking info as well as
share my clay recipe for what I use for flesh color, most commonly, anyway.
Since I started this angel with a pre baked armature, here is more information about why that is important.
Some clays tend to shift in color when they are baked more than once or baked for a long time. That’s frustrating! So to avoid
that, and yet to make sure your figure is baked all the way through, I create the wire armature and cover that with clay as I did
in the first lesson of this class. As I mentioned then, that is two fold, it gives you a sturdy figure to build on and it also bakes the
inner clay so that too is solid.
When clay isn’t cured all the way through, there is still active polyvinyl chloride in that clay and over time those oils will slowly
deteriorate the clay around it. It will ‘eat itself’ from the inside out. The outside might look and feel cured, but the inside isn’t.
Very undesirable. And the problem is, without doing drilling or cutting tests, you won’t know it. So, what I do is prebake that
armature, then the layers of clay that are placed over that armature are also cured fully because they aren’t so thick.
Now, lets say that you sculpt a figure where the head is 2” thick. According to some clay brands, that would have to be baked 2
hours to be considered cured. (Some people measure from the center out– so a 2” head would actually be 1”, since their logic
is that the heat goes in from all sides at the same time. This is open to debate and since I haven’t tested this particular process
I can’t comment. )
When a head gets large like that, 2" or more, it's best to bake an armature, like a skull shape inside so the clay you're putting
on is not that thick. This armature could be made from aluminum foil also, with a thin layer of clay over it. So, it's baked, then
sculpted on, then baked again. But sometimes it’s not feasible to have an armature inside the head, for whatever reason, so
here's what you can do to protect a larger body part as much as possible to avoid color shifting in the clay.
When you get ready to bake this head, you will want to lay a layer of polyfill on the baking sheet, cover that with a *Kleenex.
Then lay your head on that bed, then cover with another Kleenex- and then a layer of fiberfill, or quilt batting, or even tent a
kitchen towel over the head. This insulates the clay from temp change in the oven which is most important to avoid. That's
what generally causes scorching or color shift, that temp change. Just be aware though, that hot clay is extremely fragile so
you will want to make sure that any towel, batting or tissues don’t put undue pressure on the clay you are trying to protect.
This is particularly important for fingers or toes.
Then use oven thermometers to make sure the oven is accurate. I suggest having two thermometers, that way you can double
check between the two, one placed on each side of the sculpture in the oven.
When I sculpt with my Puppen blend, I can bake repeatedly without any issues and without protecting the sculpt in the oven,
so until these issues come up for others, I tend to forget that multiple bakes can be an issue. I do bake my sculpts sometimes 5
times, and that's why I appreciate the Puppen, it doesn't change color on me. You'd think I owned stock in the company but
no, I don't. I just like the clay. I'm sure there are a lot of good brands out there- we just get used to them working a certain way
for us.
So while I am on the subject of Puppen, here is the ratio and combination I am currently using. (I should preface this by saying
that before I discovered Puppen about 20 years ago, I was using Fimo Classic Flesh #43.)
I take one whole package of Puppen, Rose color, 500g and to that I blend in 1/3 package, or about 4 oz (2 small packages) of
Classic Flesh #43, and the same amount, 4 oz of Fimo Effects #014, that is a translucent clay. Fimo Effects is considered part of
the Soft clay line for Fimo, but I still use it because I like how that clay counterbalances the Classic flesh color, which takes
away some of the translucent quality of the Rose Puppen.
And the reason I add the #43 to the Rose, and don’t use it straight from the package is to my taste, the Rose is just too pale,
too translucent, I like fuller bodied color in my sculpts, but I don't like the opaque colored clays at all, so this is a happy medium for me.
I blend all the above together in a food processor, dedicated to clay conditioning. More about that on my website.
www.debwood.com
* Kleenex. Yes, I mentioned that brand intentionally. For some reason, at least in my experience and with the clays I use, Kleenex brand tissues don’t stick to the
clay while baking. I don’t have a problem in the world with using fiberfill to cushion a sculpt in the oven, but there is nothing worse than trying to pick fiberfill out
of your clay. So protect with a Kleenex and save yourself some hassle, work and time.
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More Information
And one more thing before I move on, I never ever mix brands. I just don't believe in it, because while they are all polymers, they do have different properties and baking requirements
and I suppose you've already figured out I am fussy about that. So no blending of brands for
me. If you want to, feel free, but then bake the clay at the highest temp required for the brands
you're blending. Baking at lower temps and you risk not having a fully cured product, baking
higher and for sure you will get scorching. So the answer is to find a brand that works for you,
for your methods and your style and use it according to the label and you should be fine.
Now, since I mentioned baking a Kleenex on the previous page, more about what can be baked
safely at these temps.
Just about anything. :)
With the exception of some plastics, most any item is safe in the oven at 265-275 degrees. One
problem I encountered several years ago and that was with synthetic eyelashes. Didn’t realize
they were and in a rebake with eyelashes in place, the result was shriveled up eyelashes. And
since I glue them in with super glue… well, I don’t need to tell you what a problem that was! So,
watch that– but otherwise, I have baked many fabrics- (think about how hot an iron would get!)
tissue paper, feathers, paper towel, accessories like beads, charms, metal is fine, of course.
Plastic beads are generally fine but it would be wise to check that first, by placing one in the
oven on a bake cycle and see how they behave.
I would never bake the plastic accessories like those used in the berry and pine headpiece for
this class, and while I have never done it, I would assume the plastic in the pine would melt and
become misshapen. Plus melted plastics give off harmful fumes so avoid that.
Someone recently asked me about pasta machines for blending and conditioning clay. They are
great, I have two of them. Both are fully dedicated to clay use, you would never want to mix
clay with flour, or vice versa and you would never get one clean enough to use for food again.
Mine are Atlas brand, and they are more expensive, however, some of the craft stores are starting to offer pasta machines for clay. That’s fine– I haven’t used them, but be aware that the
metal used in these can be of a lesser quality and can have an oily residue on the rollers.
You will have to completely clean the pasta machine before using and between uses too. To
clean a pasta machine, what I do is take a dry paper towel, and hold it firmly against the rollers
on the underside of the machine. While turning the crank, I rub back and forth with the paper
toweling and wipe the rollers from below. Then repeat from the top, all the while, cranking
away from yourself. Don’t roll the rollers backwards.
And another way to clean particles etc is to take a piece of scrap clay and roll it through the
rollers, starting at #1 and working your way up to #5 or so, don’t go thinner than that, the clay
will get clogged in the rollers. You can roll the scrap clay through several times, by rolling it
through, folding in half, roll through again, etc, trying to get the pad of clay to be almost the full
width of the rollers. This will pick up dirt and lint, and particles of other colors of clay left behind
from a previous job. Save the scrap clay to use again later.
Never use water on a pasta machine. Clean with dry towels, or if you must, use rubbing alcohol
to clean the rollers, pasta machines will rust.
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When we last left off, we had her wings made, and while you see
her arms padded here, we didn’t get to that in the last lesson.
We’ll be doing that shortly.
Before we finish the wings, try then on her for fit, and decide if
you want them to be pointing upward, or if they are going to be
pointing down, as shown below.
I decided to point them down, so I just gently bent the main
frame wire downward, that’s it! Next we’ll prepare the feathers
and get those applied.
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Adding Feathers
Did you know that feathers have a left and right? Well, they do. Another miracle of nature, birds have the feathers growing on each side grow in the correct direction for that side. So to begin, I lay out while hackle feathers, these are the
feathers around the neck of a rooster– and sort them depending on the direction of the curve. This matters when you
apply them to the wings. Then applying glue to the top edge of the wing, I begin laying the feathers in the glue, starting
out at the edge and working my way up toward the main frame wire at the beginning of the wing. The glue dries clear,
thank goodness! So don’t be afraid to apply a generous coating and lay the feathers in. I am using Gem Tac glue for this
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step but Ultimate glue would be fine too.
Here you see one side completed, the by turning it over
you can see the other side.
I repeat those same steps on
both wings until I am satisfied
with the feathers. You can add
as many or as few as you like, I
personally like to see some of
the film showing through too.
The glue will hold tight to the
film so no worries about them
falling off later.
Next we’ll add a little marabou
feathers to the wings, near the
base where they attach to the
angel.
TIP:
Keep a damp towel near by
as you complete this step.
Feathers will be sticking to
your fingers so use the
towel to remove glue from
your hands.
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To strip marabou fibers from the feathers, do as you see here– gently pull the feathers off the main quill. Lay
them out in clumps. Cut the ends of the clump even and dip into the glue, then apply to the wings at the point
where the main frame wire comes out. Tap them down and let it dry completely. That’s it!
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Wintery Headpiece
I LOVE making these! Sometimes I just sit and
make headpieces just for the fun of it!
So to the left you see I have gathered some
items that I might use for her headpiece. I like
the cedar, that’s just plastic but it has a
frosted finish, then the red berries work for
my Christmas theme.
I am showing you the pieces with a dime in
the photo so you can see the size reference.
Below are the simple parts I decided on using
and also the wire needed to build the headpiece. In this case, a short piece of 22 ga wire,
24 or 20 would be fine, that’s not fussy– and
also some very fine wire for attaching the
pieces to the headpiece. For that, I am using
30 ga wire, about the size of a thread. 32 ga
would be fine too. 28 ga would be too heavy.
TIP:
Search out the floral section of the
craft stores, particularly during the
holiday season. Think outside the box!
Pick up items and imagine them cut
apart and how they would work for
our purposes here.
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Before starting, cut the branches, or
whatever item you have decided to use,
into small pieces. We’ll be attaching
them one at a time.
To start, wind the fine wire around the
heavy wire to attach it. The heavy wire
is about 6” long. (152.40 mm) That’s
longer than it needs to be, but it gives
me something to hold on to.
Then, wrap the wire around the pine
piece, near the base. Wrap around the
main wire again, then attach another
piece of the pine. Continue in this manner until you have the main wire mostly
covered with pine.
Notice that I have them going in different directions. You can do that or you
can lay them all in the same direction
too so it will look more like a laurel
wreath on her head.
You can see from the back side here, it
doesn’t look fancy, but they are firmly
attached. I will cover the wires later, but
for now my goal is to have the pine attached to the wire.
Make sure this piece is long enough and
you have enough pine to reach around
your angel’s head.
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Next come the berries!
You can see below, the branch that held
these miniature berries– when you see it in
the store you might think they wouldn’t work,
but then when they are cut off the branch,
you get a whole new perspective, don’t you!
;)
These are just simple Styrofoam balls that are
painted and glittered. I cut the tiny pieces
from the main branch, then using a tweezers,
I dip the ends into some glue and set them
onto the wreath headpiece.
Easy!
Continue to do this until you have enough
berries in place, then be sure to let this dry
completely.
Once again, the glue dries clear, so applying
extra glue is not a problem, you want them to
hold.
TIP:
For my example, I am using Gem Tac
glue, because it is so strong, it is
intended for gluing gems down on
fabric, so its waterproof and flexible
after drying. But you can use Ultimate glue for this step also.
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If you decide you want more sparkle, you
can add micro beads to the headpiece, or
even a large scale glitter would be great!
You can work quickly with this step, and
use the excess glue you used to apply the
berries, and simply pour micro beads over
the headpiece.
Or if the glue has dried, then using a toothpick, just apply random spots of glue to the
headpiece where you want the micro beads
to be.
Notice the small tray I have under the
headpiece, this catches the extra beads and
has a pour spot which makes it easy to put
the beads back into the tube.
So, holding the headpiece with a clamp, I
pour silver micro beads over the headpiece.
I like using a hemostat clamp because you
can sit the clamp down on the table and it
holds the item up while the glue dries.
Finally, I apply a generous coating of glitter
fabric paint to the inside band of the headpiece, this helps hold everything in place
and besides, it looks nice! :) Set this aside
and let it dry completely.
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“Charm”-ing!
Look how cute she looks with her hair upswept and the pine headpiece on!
Now a quick mini lesson on the charm snowflake. I added some dots of Gem Tac glue to the points and center, and
fit tiny Swarovski rhinestones on the charm for some extra sparkle. So she could hold it and it stays facing forward
while she does hold it– I use very fine wire, like 32 ga, through the loop. Twist that and that will be threaded through
her fingers in the last steps. Set this aside for now.
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Beaded Halo Headpiece
The 22 ga wire is about 8” long (203.2 mm)
The 30 ga wire is about 30” long (762 mm)
To make her beaded halo headpiece, I start the same way,
by anchoring the fine wire onto the heavy wire.
Then thread on a bead as shown. Twist the bead, that
twists the wire. Repeat this several times and work your
way up the heavy wire. Space these beaded wires out by
twisting around the main wire between each one, as
shown in the photo directly above. This allows you to
stretch the design out– and you can also slide them together for a tighter design too. Check for fit before you
proceed.
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Just for fun, you can add another row of beading and wind this back and forth through the center of this headpiece. To do that, attach another long piece of thin wire, 30 or 32 ga, to one end. Make it about 12” long. Anchor
that, then string several seed beads onto the wire.
Wind the thin wire around the main wire once or twice, then add more bead again, continuing to weave through
the center of the headpiece. Once you get to the other end, you can repeat this, going back through the design
again, weaving as you see in the last photo above right.
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After the beads are all strung, go ahead and arrange them and shape the overall headpiece to suit your angel.
Again, try it on for size– and if you wish, you can join the two ends together to make a halo, or you can leave the
ends loose so its more like a headband. When you are done shaping the halo, once again I apply a layer of glitter
paint to the wires, this gives you a nice finished edge and it also holds everything in place. I love this product! :)
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Costuming
Here are the fabrics I showed you at the beginning of the class. I decided on the sheer synthetic that you see
here; and I also selected pure silk for her under skirting.
A word about fabrics and this technique of draping. Synthetic fabrics will hold their shape when wet with the sizing, where silks droop when they are wet. The silk gauzes, like I used in this class, almost become invisible when
they are wet, they are that thin. That can be awesome, or awful, depending!
So choose the fabric you want to use based on the look you are after.
For my angel, I wanted her dress to have some ‘bounce’ so I used a synthetic. It’s sheer and has a slight line in the
weave, but I think it will work well for this project.
Look for fabrics with interesting textures, feel, etc. “You can never have enough fabric,” says the
fabric addict to the trusting crowd. I still have fabrics from the 70’s! But I sometimes dig in those fabrics because I remember one that I know will work perfectly for the use I have at the time. Be on the
lookout for fabrics with tight weaves, small scale patterns etc, things you can use for this scale work.
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Before we begin, we have to cover the wires in her upper
arms. If you recall, I used 14 ga aluminum wire for the
arms, and its doubled, this gives her strong arms with lots
of flex, plus you can bend them several times and not have
to worry about the wire cracking, it’s soft and pliable.
Try her arms on again, but don’t glue them on yet.
I am using cotton quilt batting and I cut a piece the size of
the open part of her arm. The strip is about 10” long.
Apply glue to the upper arms and lay the end of the strip
down into the glue. Wrap the strip around her arm until it
is the right size for her body– imagine how big her upper
arm would be.
Cut the strip off– and then I used a needle and thread to stitch the end of the wrap down. Repeat this for her
other arm, then remove her arms and set them aside for safe keeping. We will put them back on her later– but
it’s the last step. We want to keep them clean and out of the way for now.
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Shoes
To make some sweet little shoes on her feet, I selected a lace that would work to make her foot look like a slipper. But
first, I painted a ‘slipper shape’ directly on her foot, so when the lace goes on, it looks like a shoe! Cut the lace to fit, apply
some glue and place the lace over her foot. Tuck the ends under– then cut a piece of fabric for the sole of her foot. Felt
would work for this– I used a piece of velour. Be sure to cut a hole where the brass rod fits up into her leg.
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Buttons and Bows
Well…. There are no buttons here, but you get the point! :) (I say this stuff to make sure you’re paying attention!)
I decided to add a little bow to the top of each foot– and because these are SO tiny, I use silk ribbon, 1/8” width.
(3.175 mm) I like silk ribbon for this because it is so soft and delicate and makes a perfect miniature bow.
Following the steps above, make tiny bows. I work from the long piece of ribbon, I don’t cut the length until the
bow is done, it’s too hard to make a bow from a small piece of ribbon. Use a needle tool to help you if you have
trouble getting the loop through. After you get two bows made, use super glue and glue to the tops of her
slippers.
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Panties
Since our angel has real clothing on, you will be able to look up under her
skirt– so to give her a nice finish underneath also, we’ll put some tiny panties on her! This is simple and is the way I usually do make panties for my
sculpts. Cut a shape as you see here, (Make a pattern from paper towel first
to get the size and shape right.) Then add a bead of glue around her waist..
And lay the panty fabric in the glue. I start in the back, then draw the fabric through her legs and finish gluing around her
waist in front. As I said, this is just to give her some covering, it doesn’t have to be fancy. I used a tricot fabric, you can
even cut up some old panties to get the right fabric if you wish. You can use a small scissors to trim the shape around her
legs once its on her, that’s fine!
Next, because the next steps are pretty messy, I want to protect her body and feet, so I wrap her feet in plastic and tape it
down.
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Dressing Her!
Here we go! But before we start, we need to protect the angel as well as the cloud base, so wrap everything in plastic wrap and tape it down so it stays put. We’ll be handling this quite a bit.
To begin, I make an under—skirting for her. Measure YOUR angel from the waist to the base. Using that measurement, cut a piece of fabric that width and about 24” long. (609 mm) Since I used silk, I made this quite long, it will
gather up nicely. If you use a heavier fabric, reduce the length to about 18”. We will be trimming the length later.
Using a heavy thread, (I like carpet or button thread for this) stitch a running stitch along the top edge of the skirting. Gather the thread up and fit around her waist. Take it off again, and apply a thin bead of glue around her waist.
Gem Tac or Ultimate, either one is fine. You could use Fabri Tac glue too.
Everything you will see from here on out will be basic stitches and then the technique of draping fabrics to create a
costume.
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Costuming
In the photos above, you can see the stitched edge tightened
around her waist, which pushes the fabric into the glue. Tighten
the thread ends, tie and knot it off.
While the glue is still wet, you can adjust the gathers around her
waist, making them evenly spaced around her. Allow this to dry
completely before proceeding.
TIP:
I like to hand stitch to gather fabrics for costuming
my work. The heavy thread takes the rigors and
doesn’t break as easily as a machine gathering
stitch will. Plus it allows you to tie the ends of the
stitches and hold everything securely.
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© Deb Wood– Enchanted Hearts
All Rights Reserved 2013
Patterns
Panties
Cut 1
These patterns are estimated sizes, your
angel may need slightly different sizes.
Cut pieces from a soft paper towel to try
for size before cutting your fabric.
Front
Gathering line
Sleeve
Cut 2
Gathering line
Under skirt:
Doll’s measurement from waist to base, then about 24” in length
Dress and collar:
Doll’s measurement from the top of her head to the base, then about 15” in length
Panties: Pattern shown above
Sleeves: See pattern above
2424
Sleeves
Gather the lower stitched line up
too– and shape the sleeve as you
see above.
Try the sleeve on the angel. The
fist gathered stitching line will go
at her shoulder, the second one
will go around her elbow area.
Cut two sleeve pieces and run a gathering
stitch along the curved, top edge. Leave
that thread attached for a bit, then using
another needle and thread, stitch up the
underarm seam too. You will notice I did
not put right sides together, which is typical in garment construction. Instead I
overlapped the two sides and stitched up
the middle.
Then run another gathering stitch around the bottom of the sleeve, along
the line marked on the pattern. Leave that thread attached too for a bit.
Take the sleeve off her, and using
a toothpick, apply a bead of glue
around her upper arm, on her clay
body. Go all the way around the
arm with the glue.
Fit the sleeve back on her and
press the upper sleeve gather into
that glue. It’s fine for the gathers
to be showing, this will be covered
up with the dress. In other words,
you don’t need to fold the gathered edge under. Pull the gathering thread tight and knot it off.
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TIP:
All the fabric edges are unfinished, nothing is
hemmed. This will all be taken care of after the
fabric stiffener is applied.
The next step is to anchor the sleeve just above her elbow, on the arm wrap fabric. So apply another bead of glue
over the batting, around the whole arm.
Tighten the sleeve fabric down into that glue by pulling the thread tight. Knot this off.
Repeat all these steps for the second sleeve. You will now have her under skirt on, plus both sleeves. We’ll put her
dress on next!
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The Dress
This looks confusing, but it really isn’t so stick with me, ok?
We’re going to cut two arm slits in the fabric for the dress, fit those over her sleeves and glue it all down. To do this, we’ll
need to sew another running stitch that will form her neckline.
So, once you have the dress piece cut, (the height of your angel and 15” wide) cut slits at the 5” and 10” spots, these will be
her armholes. Cut them about 2” from the top of the piece. Run another gathering stitch along the whole top edge, just
above the slits. This will form the neckline. Slip the piece on the angel and pull the gathering stitch up. (Last photo above)
15” (381 mm)
1.5” (38 mm)
Height of Angel
Gathering line
1.5” (38 mm)
5” (127 mm)
5” (127 mm)
5” (127 mm)
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Apply glue around the
holes in her back to
anchor fabric there.
After pulling the thread to gather up the neck ruffle, you will need to apply glue around the sleeves so that part of the dress
gets anchored to the sleeve. You will also have to put a ring of glue around the holes in her back, so the dress lays down tight
and flat against those holes so you don’t have trouble fitting the wings in later.
Once the sleeve slits are glued down to the sleeves, you will sew a running stitch around her waist. (See above, right photo)
Don’t worry if the slit doesn’t fit just right– or if it’s too large under her arms, just raise her arm out of the way and glue the
slit closed. Lower her arm again. The great benefit of having poseable arms!
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In the top photo above left, I have gathered all the way around her waist– then slipped the needle through the
knotted end of the thread and pulled tight. Knot the thread off and cut threads.
Next, placing some ribbon around the middle of her waist helps to shape her dress. You can use your imagination
here– or leave this off and have a blouson top to the dress if you wish. For my angel, you can see I came around
her waist, then criss crossed the ribbon in front, then tied it off in the back again. I left long tails because I will tie
this into a bow in a bit.
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Things Get Messy!
You’ll be amazed at the results from these steps! But first, protect all the surfaces, this product is basically watered down glue. There are other fabric stiffeners on the market, but do use a water based one, like Stiffy.
You will notice there are some frayed edges on the Angels garment, don’t be concerned about this, it will all be
trimmed away later.
So work on a ceramic tile, and make sure that the base, her legs, etc are covered with plastic wrap. It wouldn’t
hurt to wrap her head and hair too. She won’t mind and will appreciate you took care to protect her. :)
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Basically, you are going to be using the brush to saturate the fabrics with the stiffener. As you can see in these photos, I
have poured some of the Stiffy into a cup (I use candle/votive cups for these sorts of things, they are heavy so they don’t
tip easily, they clean up easily too and are just the right size) and am brushing the product onto the fabric.
Start with the under skirt– soak that down, then apply the product to her dress, including her sleeves. This is why we left
her arms off, we don’t want to get them all messy!
Pin the collar ruffle down if it doesn’t lay down nicely. You will notice I pulled the under skirt out in the back, giving it sort
of a bustle effect. I also lifted the skirt of the dress out so it was fuller. You can place crumpled up plastic wrap under the
skirt to keep it out while it dries. Let this all dry completely– probably overnight.
If you used the product straight and didn’t dilute it, the fabric will be as stiff as paper when dry. In the bottom left photo
you can see I am starting to trim the edges. This has to take place on completely dry fabric.
I didn’t suggest you dilute the product, but often I will use Stiffy at a 50/50 water to product
ratio. That works well for most costuming. Since our Angel is ‘draped’, we’ll go with the
product at full strength for this project.
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After all the fabrics are dry, you can go ahead and cut the raveled edges. The fabric will cut like it’s paper! Both the silk under
skirt and the dress are trimmed, you can cut the length of the dress now, and also trim the neck ruffle so it’s the right size. If you
pinned it down while it dried, you can lift it to trim it, and then it will lay right back down into the shape you left it. Since this
fabric has basically been sealed with a watered down glue, the edges won’t ravel anymore either.
The ruffle around her sleeves also are trimmed for a nice finished look.
Next, go ahead and cut away the plastic wrap from around her legs, her shoes and also from the cloud base.
TIP:
If you decide you don’t like how
something is shaped with her costume, simply spray with water, it
will soften the product and the
fabric so you can reshape it again!
You can place her wings
in her back now. You
should be able to find
the holes because of the
glue you placed around
the holes, if you need
to, use a needle tool to
open the holes up again.
Slip her wings on her,
place her charm ornament in her hand and
use a dot of glue to hold
it in her fingers.
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Finishing Touches
And finally, we attach her arms!
Simply apply some glue to her arm wires and slide her arms
into place. Be sure you turn the hands the way you want them–
and also make real sure you put the left arm on the left and the
right on the right side! ;)
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All Finished!
Well, here she is! All finished– and if you look closely you can see I have given her a crystal charm
to hold with her beaded halo, and the brass snowflake is shown with the wintery headpiece. It is
so fun to be able to ‘play’, isn’t it? This is the most perfect excuse for grown ups to be able to play
with dolls. I hope you’ve enjoyed this class and thanks for being here, Hugs, Deb
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© Deb Wood /Enchanted Hearts 2013. All Rights Reserved
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brought to you in good faith and in no way does the author accept any responsibility for error, accident or injury to participants due to the instructions presented in this document.