Challenge 4 - The Tonner Challenge

This sounds like a really difficult challenge, to take an oversized fabric and make it into a ball gown - without making your doll look like one of Mary Norton's Borrowers!

Well, actually once you drop your strict guidelines for making dolls clothes and let your imagination off the leash, there is no limit to the possibilities!
As I sat here in the work shop, and looked around at the many, many fabrics I had, it didn’t take long to realise I had NO large patterned fabrics.
What I did have however, was some very nice curtains!! (No not here in the workshop, couldn’t possibly sacrifice these curtains!)
There are so many possibilities when you start looking outside of your normal hunting grounds for fabric. I could have used a regency stripe fabric and hidden the contrasting panels in pleats which would give flashes of colour when the dress is in motion.

Or I could have used the pale blue Toile fabric from Laura Ashley contrasting with a solid blue fabric.
However, I decided on the chintzy floral patterned fabric as there were so many more options with it.

The contrast colours were my next decision. The rich gold, deep red or dusty green?
They all looked great but the red and the gold just highlighted the flowers in the matching colours, but when the dusty green is against the flowers it works like a background and really makes the flowers stand out. So the green has it! Also green is a very unusual colour for a ball gown.
Next decision, my oversize element, I did consider using buttons but then the Borrowers look would have been complete! ...No buttons!
The buckles looked like they could prove to be a challenge so I went with those. A simple slide buckle would have worked really well but would have been very simple. I chose the buckle with the prong just to give more detail and a controlling element to the free flowing lines of the dress.

I want to make the fabric really stand out and be what this dress is all about. I think there is a danger here of adding the fabric purely to fulfil the challenge and that would be a waste.
The pattern on the fabric is printed to look like bouquets of flowers. So I want to bring those flowers to life and make them real.
I had an idea and, before I did anything on this challenge, I wanted to see if my idea would work. So, the same day (would you believe) as we were given the challenge I tried out my idea.
I got my fabric and cut out several sprays of flowers, the delicate trails of rosebuds and the rows of forget-me-nots. I cut out a few of the larger individual flowers too. Then painted them in “Petal Porcelain” a glue like substance that sets hard, but can be molded to shape when still wet.
So, my poor old Tyler doll, carefully chosen for her “out of the way” hair do, was poised with a worried look on her face, whilst I glued and shaped all these flowers to her shoulders and back.

I stuck the narrow green ribbon on first with sticky tape, then painted the ribbons so that they would harden and give a definite “strap” for the dress.
The gluing was fun, very messy, very sticky, and thoroughly recommended!
Each strip of flowers was laid out flat and both sides were painted, then they were stuck to the doll following the line of the ribbon. The leaves and flowers could be curled up and shaped to give it a bit more life. Flowers were curled around the end of a pen, into cup shapes, and then stuck to the doll.

If you are thinking of doing this yourself, I’d give you this advice, tie your hair up first! Absent-mindedly tucking it behind your ears whilst your hands are blathered in gloop, is not a good idea.

...And, don’t wear the jeans that you just bought yesterday, absent-mindedly wiping your hands down your legs doesn’t work either!

So, anyway, I lock up the workshop, go to bed and have visions of flowers dropping off the doll, wilting and sticking in a big clump to the work surface!

...Or the whole thing just sliding off into a big gloopy mess!

Next morning with more than a little trepidation, I opened up the workshop, and there she was! Exactly as I had left her! The glue had dried from white to clear, all the flowers were there as I had left them, all hard and set solid!
Beautiful!!

...But will it come of the doll??
Of course! You just have to move it a little at a time and the whole thing snaps away. It came off in two separate shoulder pieces which just needed all the little frayed edges trimming away and they were done.
So that bit worked, I could now get on with it!!

The dress I wanted to be big, very big, to cater for such a large pattern and try to keep all the scale in the right proportions.
I wanted the top to be small and tight so it doesn’t detract from the flowers round the shoulders. It all looks very sweet and innocent so I went with a sweetheart neckline on the bodice. The bodice is fully lined and every seam, inside and out, is top stitched to give it rigidity and a corset kind of look.
The skirt I wanted to be massive, the front section had to be big to try and get in as much of the pattern as I could and I also wanted to place the pattern so that I had a spray of rosebuds trailing up the front. To balance this the back of the dress also had to be big. This could cause problems as the skirt is cotton, lined with white cotton and if you gather it too much you’ll get bulk. So the skirt is almost circular to keep the fullness away from the waist and the waist is pleated rather than gathered. The back is fastened with hooks and eyes.

My oversized element of the buckle and side panels was next. I wanted the flowers sprays to dwindle away towards the buckle so that the buckle fell over almost plain areas of the fabric, so the pieces had to be carefully placed before cutting. These side panels are also lined with white cotton fabric. The panels were sewn into the side seams of the dress and gathered into the buckle. The buckle is sewn to the dress and metal eyelets inserted into the fabric to cater for the buckle.
Sewing the flower sprays on was very satisfying and the bit I had waited for! In fact I was so eager to get the flower sprays on, I had worked all through the day and long into the night, falling asleep over the sewing machine - which hurts! Sewing machines are NOT designed for sleeping on!!
Anyway, flowers! I pinned them first, to make sure they were on the right sides and that everything still fitted the doll perfectly. Stitching them to the bodice where they touched.

Next day, I e-mailed Ted to tell him the dress was done, only to find my buckle had to be made of cotton!! Oh! Right, well, hmm, I will just have to cover it!
So the buckle came off again, it was dismantled and each element of the buckle was covered in the green cotton fabric. This was ok, and the buckle was starting to look really good but, the eyelets now were too small due to the extra fabric going through them. So, out came the eyelets and bigger ones put in.

Still, the eyelets are too small! The next size up eyelets are REALLY big ones, but they might work and I would be truly embracing the oversized issue??!!
...But they were brass!

Not good, so out came the paint pots and I mixed up a colour as close as I could get to the green of the dress. The brass had to be sanded down before painting so that the paint would adhere. It would have been a good idea to do this before attaching them to the dress, but hey, you live and learn!
The eyelets painted, the buckle put back together again and the dress is done.
I have to admit the buckle does look better covered, it now becomes part of the dress - a happy accident? ...No, I planned it all along of course! ;o)

As a finishing touch and more for my own satisfaction than anything else, I wanted to make shoes to go with the outfit. Having seen the boots on the Ellowyne Wilde “Tatters” doll, I decided this fabric would look great on boots like those.
I have seen Dr Marten boots made in fabric similar to these and they looked great, unfortunately ball gowns and Dr Martens are not a graceful mix!
So high heeled boots it is!

And that’s it! My oversized (- overgrown, more like!) ball gown!