HINTS about ERTE Challenge #8

Erte's take on moonlight,

"Queen of the Night"

Challenge #8

Dot wrote, in response to Ted's post that Erte would be a part of our next challenge,

Dear Santa Ted:

Only since it's Christmas, could you open up your bag just one more time?

You see, no matter how we research, it's kinda useless to start on anything before we know what the twist in this challenge might be............and some of us have been REALLY good and have our shopping done, and would like something to do while all the goodies are in the oven.

BTW, don't forget to stop by Christmas Eve - we'll be leaving out your traditional plate of cookies!! hehe

Merry Christmas!!
Dot

and since she has been so very very good,Ted responded with a full bag of tricks for us all:

Yum, Yum, COOKIES.

Have you all finished your Veronique challenge outfits? Can't wait to tackle the Erte challenge?

The ERTE challenge is all about INSPIRATION. This creative artist inspired the fashion designers of his era with his fantasy fashion illustrations that were published in VOGUE. His theater and film costumes further influenced the world of costume and film.

The other influence of the Art Deco period was Paul Poiret and these two artists have left a fantastic legacy behind.

So, as a modern fashion designer how would you create a modern gown inspired by the work of these two designers?

The challenge is to create a floor-length gown inspired by the Art Deco style of Erte and Poiret. The influence can take the form of pattern or silhouette.

The Dollway designers did not have an actual model doll -- only measurements and suggested "stand-in" models. The At Home designers may use any Tonner 16-inch fashion doll to model their fashions.

Alexandra and I will post images on our blogs and discuss the influences and how they might be applied to a contemporary gown

Have fun.

Ted

Meditation on Moonlight

Day for Night

. . . and channeling Veronica Lake

Finally, I got Veronique settled into a venue!

Finally! I'm on a roll with a design for a dress: I worked up a pattern and have a pile of fabrics on the bed next to me and am snipping and scrunching and also keep telling myself, "Remember; people think moonlight is a cold, clear, light blue."



I did manage to get Veronique into California, and we compromised on her seating for the venue I chose for her in which she could enjoy outdoor moonlight. Adele is helping calm her and get her used to actually being outside.

I'm excited.

Pierre is clamoring for a coordinated outfit.

Still rolling around the Veronique challenge

Does Veronique ever relax?

I'm looking at her clothes and she is always in tight clothes.

The "Diamond Dusted" outfit is a gorgeous one, a sort of hostess outfit and the only one I can think of that suggests relaxing.

Is moonlight always cold? That's my question, as the judges on this challenge seemed to take issue with warmer colors as an interpretation of moonlight.

Also, I have jumped more into the concept of moonlight: what do we do in the moonlight, as the entire concept is Joie de Vivre -- taking joy in life. To take joy in moonlight, one should be outside -- or lying in bed with a clear crisp white rectangle of window thrown across the bed by the moon . . . or, like my cats, stalking small living things in the clarity of the light of the moon, the clarity achieved by the contrast of the highlights in the direct light of the moon against the crisp dark shadows thrown against the area lighted, the crispness in direct contrast to the darkness of what is enclosed -- inside buildings, bushes, trees, shelter of all sorts. Wildness is a component of moonlight. . . and Veronique is so controlled, so bustier-ed, so put together.

I am too California for this challenge: I have seen owls take off from the side of the road, bears ignoring me while they pick my trash (mmmmm, cake!), coyotes running silently in a pack down the middle of a mountain road in clear crisp moonlight, a family of raccoons snuffling in the attic and fighting their way across the road -- not fighting cars, fighting each other; raccoons coming to the window to peer in . . . . I have been tossed and tumbled by the Pacific until I was breathless, until I swam to the bottom thinking it was up; caught in rapids in Taroko Gorge, trapped under a capsized raft; pulled to a tantalizing depth, just barely able to touch my toes intermittently to the sand while trying to rescue a non-swimmer pulled out in the Taiwan Straits; listened to the chiming of millions of shells and shards in clear water off the Pescadores . . . . I have run across an entire island, a country, by mistake -- run across an entire island by mistake, yes. I have run the length of three islands and two bridges with mad intent . . . . I have climbed to the source of the Santa Ana river high in the San Bernardino Mountains, where the water bubbles from under a plantain-like leaf, a skunkweed type leaf.

and I wonder what Veronique does to enjoy life?

I want to dress her comfortably for a moonlit evening out -- not without her champagne and friends -- yet in the place I select, in California, she would be out of place dressed as she dresses.

What do people do outdoors in New York -- or is that where her cosmetics company is located?

Isn't she taking some time off at the moment to travel? I believe she is in Paris or on the Riviera.

I have not travelled in Paris, though I spent some time there in the Gare St Lazare -- or another one, en route from Amsterdam before I took the underground to the correct one -- asking every hour then every 15 minutes where I should pick up my train, until the information clerk's shift change and a new clerk told me it was another station and it might not be likely I would make it there in time, but I did, to board the train to Madrid.

On the way south, I was stuck in front a teenaged girl and her mother who boarded somewhere south of Paris, the girl hacking and coughing and honking constantly, never once covering her mouth and never once reminded by her mother to do so. "Oh my God!" I said to myself in alarm and horror at the realization, "Peasants! They still exist! I thought they only existed in van Gogh and Breughel."

On the way back, I met a gracious young man, a French train attendant who carried his own corkscrew, as the train did not, and opened my Spanish wine for me.

veronique - challenge 7 - Clair de lune

Claire de lune led me to Paul Poiret . . .

and I'm going to need to wrestle those bustiers out of Veronique's hands: how one can enjoy life stuffed into a bustier is beyond me. I certainly enjoy seeing her in them; it's time for Veronique to take a break and go out into the countryside or a more relaxed place than she is used to . . . .

Challenge 7, Veronique: Preliminary Thoughts from the Stump

Preliminary Thoughts from the Stumped,

as some of us At Home Players are:

AliMcJ wrote: I'm a bit stumped, perhaps intimidated because Jason Wu does such a marvelous job at dressing and designing all the FR people, and I'm fairly familiar with the lines. The dolls are very leggy and delicate and Jason's designs are intricately detailed in perfect scale. Stories about Veronique's cosmetics company and all the dirt on the other company and characters involved are here, and there are archives of collections of other years: http://www.fashionroyalty.com/

Luckily for me, I have a Veronique from IFDC 2006, a lovely blonde that's been itching to get out of her box and pose. When I get dolls of such limited editions (this one 500, I think; maybe smaller), I tend to "save" them -- keep them in their boxes and open the boxes and admire them from time to time. I have two of these, so I know I can open my own one -- and need to anyway to get some good pictures of her in her outfit. I think she'll tell me what she wants; I know she's thinking of a good rest: Adele talked her into it (and I got a great Adele with the right lipstick on from my buddy Kevin K). Wonder why he's not here? Anyway, I may have reached my level of incompetence. I'll take the ladies out and see what all they have to say to me -- maybe over a bottle of champagne howling at the moon together. How is everyone else doing on this one? --Alison

--- In projectdollwaychat@yahoogroups.com, Durelle wrote:

Alison...you know I am stumped too.. I can not wrap my brain around this challenge yet.. I think I will be needing some of that mentoring TED promised us... I have some Lame I ideas floating in my visions but the question is ..... Hmmmmmm.... to create a "Centerpiece" ensemble it would seem it would not make sense without the rest of the collection... Am I just a dope or maybe I am just not getting the whole concept. And yes Alison....where is our buddie Kevin...he would really love this stuff.. We must tell him ....

Dollie-ON, Durelle Demi-Divas by Durelle http://demi-divasbydurelle.50megs.com/ Visit my new blogg...... http://demidivabydurelle.blogspot.com/

In projectdollwaychat@yahoogroups.com, agarva1 wrote:

Hi Durelle & Alison, I'm stumped too!!! We have a saying down here - 'Beyond the black stump' meaning the middle of nowhere (outback etc). That's where I am sitting at the moment!!! : I had an idea but what's getting me is the detail that FR fashions have and my lack of confidence in sewing for such small girls so it doesn't look 'frumpy'. I too am finding it difficult as without the rest of a collection how does 'moonlight' centrepiece show the 'joy of living'. i'm feeling a lack of confidence at the moment. I too might need to contact Ted with the one idea I have. AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Thanks for posting this!!! I'm glad I'm not the only one!! A bit down in downunder Agarva

Challenge 6: Alex in Iconic Wear, comments

Alexandra's comments on my Alex Challenge, redesigning an iconic dress:

DESIGN ONE - "Some Like It Hot" -- I think you are certainly headed in the right direction[,] but it seems to me that "Sugar" is all about sweet sexiness. She is the classic dumb blonde with hidden brains. She uses her natural charms to their best advantage and dresses accordingly. I think you need to convey that more in this costume.

Hopefully, the costume, when the pleats are let out and the blouse is tidied up, it will convey the contemporary schoolgirl Lolita look of Japanese Anime-Manga while giving the dress a more authentic 1929 flavor. The thin fabric I used on the skirt under a tight hip band should add motion to the hips.

At present, a total redesign of the hip band is in the works, and I still have not come up with a 100% satisfactury solution to the putting the garment on and off problem, i.e. a solution that does not entail an entirely new skirt section.

The hip band, as planned, is beaded in transparent light peach/neutral and turquoise beads, with light peach triangles at the four points the current skirt band has -- starting off an Art Deco flair to the band.

Responding to The Alex Challenge: How to Solve It at Home?? clarification?

My initial response was, as usual:

Oh boy! So far I've met every challenge with an enthusiastic and gleeful rubbing of hands and energy to start. Now . . . to pare that enthusiasm down a little bit in terms of time I spend thinking of outfits. Oh boy Oh boy Oh boy Oh boy Oh boy Oh boy Oh boy Oh boy!

A little later, came an "Oh Boy!" of another sort, looking for clarification.



I set myself a list of questions as to why I would want to be reimagining an iconic garment and came up with numerous reasons for doing so. However, when it came to fitting it into the film, it seemed to lose reason -- that is, I could imagine having a different color, or time period, setting, and so on, all of which would require a reimagining of other elements of the scene. One possibility also is not particularly caring for an iconic garment, and I can't think of one I don't care for. In reimagining Scarlett O'Hara, as an example of something I didn't care much for, the whole antebellum south style leaves me cold, at least at this point, so reimagining the dress would take it into another time period I think. . . . For those reasons I am wondering if you can give any clarification on how to redesign a dress as if it had not been done before that also fits in with the set and other clothing established in the film, as those things all working together are what make a garment appealing and result in its becoming an icon (case in point, the white shirt and short dance tights of Audrey Hepburn).

Should I be looking at replacing, for example, Audrey Hepburn with Alex, who would not wear that particular outfit as well as Audrey Hepburn did, though another one that fits the bill could be designed for her?

I do have one film picked that I can mine for possibilities -- "The Women" -- so I'm not MIA on this one. I'm just curious, as I hit a wall last night while considering things outside of the film I lit on (as a hummingbird lights on things), and the clothes in it may not be stand-alone icons.

Alex challenge

This is the description of Challenge #6: Iconic Film Costume with Madame Alexander's Alex as a model:

Ted wrote:

At Home Designers,

The ALEX challenge is a complex one but if you follow these steps you will be able to solve it very easily.

This challenge is about ICONS in the movies. Thousands of films become famous and memorable because of the central female character. The film and the actress become icons for the film.

In many of the films a particular outfit also becomes an icon simply because of how it "works" in the film.

Here is a brief list of such films, stars, and outfits. All have been done as dolls.

Judy Garland in THE WIZARD OF OZ

Vivian Leigh in GONE WITH THE WIND

Marilyn Monroe in THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH

Tippi Hedren in THE BIRDS

Audrey Hepburn in SABRINA

The challenge breaks down this way.

1) Select a film

2) Determine which scene the icon outfit appears in

3) Imagine how it was described in the script

4) Create the outfit AS IF it had never been done before

The TWIST. Your new design must "work" in the final film and be compatible with the sets and other costumes. You should imagine your design set into the finished film.

Costume design descriptions are usually brief unless there are specific details (functions) required. For example. Tippi Hedren basically wears only one ensemble throughout the entire film. But, because it is a suit it can "change" to vary her look and enhance the character (and storyline) of the film. That is its "function" and would probably be noted in the script.

Be careful that your design doesn't get "lost" in the crowd. The Ascot scene in MY FAIR LADY is very tricky because everyone is dressed in black and white.

Accidental icons. There is a certain irony that the icon outfit for FUNNY FACE isn't any of the couture gowns the character wears, but the black sweater and Capri pants she dances in during a cafe scene. This outfit is such an icon that a couple of years ago the GAP used it in ads.

So, choose your film carefully.

Ted

Grabbing Bits from a Whirlwind

I was all over the map, literally, all week, trying to come up with a country or p.o.v. on it that hasn't been done and had gathered fabrics for several different versions, and I think I will still do them all. I had Japan, and several viewpoints/sectors of society their fashion, Burma rolling around -- though their traditional clothing, the Longyi, wouldn't really transmute much: it's worn contemporarily and I have a couple I like to wear, and have a "foreign" variation on it. With the Burma idea rolling around, I also wanted to create a Susie travel set paralleling my own, collected and worn around Asia: that one's on the burner.


Then I got to "I can use camouflage for an American Outfit," and put that on the back burner; two different outfits from Japan, both of which I will continue with and both of which I decided didn't vary enough from the originals, though they represented contemporary interests there. Another American Susie was a sort of Southwestern Susie with jeans and a made-over jeans jacket plus . . . . The bits from that, the outfit and props will go with the one I wound up settling on to submit. I'll do it, not say it, so no further description of what it is; two different outfits for "La Frontera" Susie.



Yesterday, pulling more things out of the stuff I brought back after Thanksgiving, I rediscovered the fabric I made her skirt from, worked in the camouflage stockings (which need leather soles intended for use with the jeans), and was preparing to finish up by using a made-over jeans jacket as part of the outfit, attaching the red handwoven Mexican fabric you see in the picture to the top of the jacket, i.e. over the denim jacket foundation, leaving the denim sleeves and collar showing. It would have been a faster solution; however, in the process of laying the fabric over the jacket, I decided to use the red fabric to make a red jacket I've had in mind for a couple of years, one I like one I had had for over 30 years and which was vintage when I bought it and which I sold on eBay before moving to Texas for this ten year period (we're halfway there). I loved the jacket and have wanted to recreate it in doll scale.



Putting it on as an appliqué seemed a waste of the red handwoven fabric, especially when I have had this red doll jacket in mind for so long, so I threw expedience to the winds in favor of divine inspiration.


Chaotic in a sense, like throwing elements into a whirlwind and letting them swirl as I work on each part of an outfit that emerges out of the whirlwind, that finalizes itself and tells me what it is.

. . . and that's how I usually work.

challenge #5: Travel Susie: "La Frontera"

more items are involved -- this one emerged out of literally a world of ideas, a combination of a couple of ideas and my unpacking some fabric from my mom's house, and then a rediscovery of small pieces of handwoven fabrics from Mexico, a large patchwork bag I had deconstructed and packed into my fabric source-bag.

My head is still brimming with ideas; this one was within range and used a couple of them, and in the process grabbed a hold of/on an idea I'd been tossing around for some time: a "tourist skirt" and a red wool jacket like the 1940s Mexican red wool Tourist Jacket I had had for many years (since the early 1960s) before finally parting with it on eBay about five years ago: a sweet short jacket that I was and am no longer slender enough to carry off well.

Susie is such a slender and delicate little doll that sewing even the skirt turned out to be much harder than one might anticipate; scaling fabric to her size also takes more thought and skill to bring about successfully.

challenge #5 (susie) vote for KAREN's IRELAND

Vote came down to Ireland or Greece, and I settled on KAREN KOLKMAN's IRELAND, as it caught my eye first, is imaginative, fully realized in terms of detail, and a lively interpretation of traditional Irish wear (and was also a country I wished to do and did not have time for -- knitting a traditional Aran Isles sweater in white or ivory on a very small scale).

Blue Ribbon to Karen

and

Red Ribbon to Judith.

initial reactions:

again, from the private comments, notes to myself as I look through the Runway show, I omitted any comments that are off-the-cuff negative and any comments about the work of those who don't welcome feedback.

Just including my thinking processes since I write them down as I look for a piece to vote for, as I find ways to narrow down the choices; any negative comments that come up in this context are mere excuses for winnowing it down to one vote and are not the things that strike me first; they are the things I had to nitpick out of my favorites.

Susie is a very delicate little lady and so is hard to design for, as clothes look bulky on her.

I like both of the London outfits, Debbie's the better of the two, and think that of all of the designs, the outfit for Greece was most imaginative, best kept in mind the challenge and the character and delicacy of the doll. Is Judith going to win again?

The outfit I initially responded to was Karen Kolkman's Ireland and need to revisit it after going through all of the designs.

Both of the London outfits also fit the size and character of the doll. However, in doll clothes, London's been done.

Now I am left with Greece and Ireland. The Ireland is lively and imaginative and on task, and I'm troubled by the stiffness of the fabric in the skirt. I also like the completeness of the outfit -- the pin and the bag. Now, can I give this high marks with "I'd prefer to see a lighter weight plaid in place of this one?" Sometimes we are limited in the choice of fabric we use to design a piece and say to ourselves in choosing the fabric: "Do I choose based on the fabric pattern I want in order to indicate the pattern and find one in the right weight for later production. or do I use the right weight fabric and substitute the color when it gets to production?" I think I'd give more weight to the former.

The outfit for Greece is lively, imaginative, on task, well-made, and complete: the espadrilles are an excellent touch.

I'm down to an eenie meeni miney moe here. Do I choose on the complete package? Do I give more weight to Karen's because Judith won one already, and this is popular vote and not for elimination. Yes, that is what I will do. Karen's has more work involved in it and was also the one that captivated me on first look, so that will decide my vote.

--Alison

Susie Challenge

Susie

Too Many Ideas, Too Little Time

Dithering and Dallying

. . . with my slender little Susie.

So many ideas, so little time!

Well, I will enter in one I have already entered elsewhere, as we can enter more than one, and because she does indeed fit the travel Susie or

Susie of many lands theme: the doll I made to represent Fleur Delacourt, the (half-?) Veela from Beauxbatons school in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

I made her before the movie was cast or released and both she -- Fleur the Susie doll -- and I were very disappointed in the casting of that particular role. Fleur, my Fleur, actually hissed and spat, as Veelas will, when she saw who was to represent her on screen: Veelas have white hair, and Fleur's was described in the book as a silver waterfall flowing down her shoulders and back. It was an image that stuck with me and while playing with ideas for the white-haired Riviera Susie I had bought for the purpose of a makeover, she announced to me that she was a Veela, specifically Fleur Delacourt.

While indeed, as the Captain of her Quiddich team, she could be a sturdy girl, she didn't read like a stocky muscular girl as was cast in her role.

Veela, or Veelas -- I think it might be a singular mass noun with no plural -- are actual (mythical) creatures outside of Harry Potter books, as are many of the mythical beasts, character names, items, and so on, which is the great value of the book for children who read it: it gives them a grounding for archetypal mythology to be applied later in their studies.

Actual Veela are not as breathtakingly lovely as those described in Rowling's book, nor are they portrayed as youthful. They are some sort of eastern European forest dwellers; I'll have to research it again.

Even Victor Krum is a legendary eastern European, someone like Vlad the Impaler. Enough of the Harry Potter: this Susie represents someone from "that neck of the woods," bad pun intended.

Challenge #4 Comments from Alexandra

I was thrilled with Alexandra's comments, once again.

Now twice I've patted myself on the back, sure I had a winner -- once with Evangeline (Challenge #2) and this time with the Tonner ballgown -- and the winning entries are always superb, so
I don't mind not being "The Winner" when I see such wonderful work and when I get such nice compliments on my work; knowing that someone "gets it" is another way of winning:

Tyler challenge (#4)

DESIGN THREE - This is a very charming and whimsical solution to the challenge. The shape of the gown is correct for a ballgown. While I think this might work for a costume ball I seriously doubt that it would be right for a standard ball. I love the pencil earrings but they are much too big. High marks for originality and inventiveness.

Especially important to me was that words charming, whimsical, with high marks for originality and inventiveness were used, as those are what I strive for, always trying to think outside of the pink box, so to speak.

Another, perhaps even more important, thing is Alexandra's noting that I had the correct shape for a ballgown. I was excited about this for two reasons, three, actually:

• I've never worn one and never made one;




• It was noted that the official designers had missed the mark on ballgown when designing a ballgown with outsized elements;




• and I work hard to meet all requirements of a visual challenge, an artistic challenge. Working within a framework is a great stimulator to creativity.
  

I missed the mark in one area -- I took the doll with me to Hermosa Beach to continue working on, as I had sent pictures of it just pinned in place with the accessories completed before I left on the morning of the 20th:

I had designed the pencils and eraser as the other outsized elements and made them first. When I got back here on the 27th/28th, I realized that I had forgotten an outsized element was to be more a part of the ensemble. I had had other designs in mind, one of which had a long trailing stole, and another a full-sized fan as something of a walking stick that could also be used as a background: a fan oversized like that of Temari from the Sand Village in Naruto.

I got myself focused so I could take what I needed with me and finish it up in California, and had, at one point, had an elongated back on the skirt of the dress as an oversized element -- not a train, but a longer back, with more gathers in at the back waist as well; when I hemmed it, I had forgotten that and decided to hem it just off the floor so that she could dance in it better.

For events to which this gown could be worn, I thought that it would be a nice gown to wear to a charity ball, one benefitting a form of arts and letters, even writing scholarships, if not to a ball sponsored by the New York Times or another publishing company.

Whew! I had more to say than I thought.

Maybe some of this can go in the place holders I put for the outfit, along with the relevant photos. I'm not sure how steady this site is on photos after all the RanD ones disappeared. Got to get this back up before Rudy and David go to judge the Susie competition (another one for which I have a world of ideas -- pun intended)

Time to walk Fidel:

Challenge #4: Sketch to Finished Gown

The ballgown shape is something I don't think in ordinarily, though I do love the downwards vee of a bodice over the stomach. I was surprised and pleased to see how closely the final product resembled my initial sketch (which I hope to put just here, below this text -- after I manage to bypass Windows Vista [here I go again] to get my scanner useable: I need to set up an entire other computer to do so; I have no intention of buying a new one just because Microsoft decided to shove it out of functionality within the program). My initial sketches often bear little resemblance to the final product.

Challenge #4: The Back of a Ballgown

I tried to think about dancing with a number of people in a social setting and was mindful of the low-cut back and kept it as high as I could while keeping the shape of the front bodice. The bodice piece was made all on a straight line to keep the piping neat and was curved just by the use of darts.

I kept the back as high as possible as I don't think that I would want to feel different men's hands on my bare back while at a social ball, and would want enough fabric from the waist upwards to ensure that my bare skin be covered.

Starr

Starr

Starr

Brenda Starr, Girl Reporter: Black & White & Read All Over

Because I was using Brenda Starr as my Tonner doll, once I settled on newsprint as an element, "Black and White and Red All Over" screamed out at me and I ran with it. With no scanner to get a nice print and lines/bars only page, even on paper yellowed a bit, I went with getting a crossword puzzle online as my print element. I tried and tried to get the Will Shorts crossword referenced in "Word Play" (is that the name of the documentary about crossword enthusiasts and Will Shortz) -- the one that came out on the day after the 2004 election with a special corner in it where the winner of the election could be either Clinton or Dole, and all the other words in that section were alternates for the same clues as well. Will Shortz knew both Clinton and Dole were enthusiasts of the NYTimes Crossword Puzzle and cooked this one up especially for them -- and indeed, both Dole and Clinton said, "Hey did you do the crossword today?" to each other after the election.

Brenda Starr Steps in for Tyler, who is still in her cryogenic tube.

Here is Brenda Starr, Girl Reporter, waiting patiently while I pile outsized elements on her.

The triangular piece is actually a piece of most intricate embroidery, in the tiniest serpentines made of even tinier buttonhole stitches, that came out of Afghanistan in 1978, before the Russian invasion and the later Taliban takeover. It is a collar/yoke for a child's dress or shirt.

Under it, the white piece, is a child's collar worked in intricate stitches by someone in the family: it is made up of rows of solid popcorn stitches around the outer curved edges of the collar. It was in with the clothes for my big baby doll, which I had from the age of 4 on, perhaps younger, along with a few pieces of my own baby clothes, of which this must be one.

Another piece that came out of the same bunch of clothes is a worn cloth wool cap that my mother must have made. From it, I took a pattern for my Dollfie Dream, Evelyn, after seeing that the worn cap looked adorable on her (linguistic note: the keh-ai [or cuh-ai] in Chinese and the ka-wai in Japanese is often erroneously translated as "cute," a word that makes most of us gag, especially when applied to things like paintings; literally, however, it translates as "can love," better rendered by lovable or adorable).

The pattern I took from that hat I used to make a black hat with white piping, for more practice with piping, and then scaled it down to fit my RanD Angel -- who has gotten a name finally: Evangeline, and I call her Angel or Eva (pronounced Ava) with the last name of Darling, after having seen a wonderful recent British film version of Peter Pan while I was in Hermosa. Eva Darling, Angel Darling.

I built the outfits around the reversible hat I created for Evangeline when I took the Ellowyne Wilde Challenge (Challenge #2). The pictures have disappeared, so there goes more work down the sewer (see Dollway Yahoo chat board for discussion of sewer and the proposed sewwer). I have the pictures on my computer, though they disappeared from display on the blogspot page. I mean, all that needed to be done was to let us know how they wanted pics here and how they wanted them hosted. I could just as easily have linked them from my remote host -- more easily, now that I think of it -- and now I will have to do it all over again, placed in relation to the text they accompany.

re: Tuesday 30 October Post

Oh boy, what happened to the photos I added -- is there a one month time limit on storage?? or perhaps is the blog site only partially working right now. I'll have to put them up elsewhere wilth links to them; just reading the text is no fun -- or do I have to break this all up one bit at a time, one bit for one photo?? That makes it a bit hard; I can work around it, I suppose. Of course none of the photos carry the names that I assigned them, just long strings of numbers like this: cid:0971FD2CE47C4CBB9DE42934E194A1D8

That's what comes of knowing html, I guess -- oh, and so I suppose that since this is a later addition to "My RanD Angel in Outfits I Designed and Made for Challenge #2," I will have to move it up to a separate post. O.K. I'll do that and hope that no one gets confused by my confounding of the autoprogram here.

Challenge #4 -- Getting off the Ground . . . .

Put all my other black fabric in machine and hot washed twice, using the full cycle. I threw in a sock (any white cotton rag will do) to test for how much color was coming out. That looks good, so at last I can start my Challenge #4.

I have a great idea, and again, it's now time to pack and leave, so will I manage to get all the ingredients together before leaving to board the babies at the vet and then going to the airport tomorrow morning?

Ralph's in Hermosa Beach is doing me a supreme favor: I realized that if I bought a turkey tomorrow after arriving there, I would not have time for it to defrost. I called Ralph's from here (Texas), and they will put together a grocery order for me today, along with a nice Butterball turkey at $0.49/lb. with a $25 purchase and deliver it to my mom's house today so that the turkey can start to defrost.

One item destressed.

The big stress is that my small bag -- my ID bag from IFDC which I've been using for ease -- disappeared, along with my driver's license and money (not much) and credit card. Apparently it didn't disappear in the house. Got to get a new license this AM if I can.

Everything's piling up on me too much -- and what I want to do is carry out this great idea I have for Challenge #4, as I only submitted a drawing last time.

Challenge #3, the LBD That Wouldn't Die

I have now washed that piece of black nylon stretch knit at least seven times (and that's not counting the secondary washes in hot water after pouring out the first wash and using soap left in pan with more hot water) and set it in vinegar before the last (seventh? eighth?). At least on the last (first and secondary), the amount of color coming out is much less than at first, and I have hung it up to dry.

Now it's time to take off for Thanksgiving, and that project will stall. I hope the time out won't finish it off before I do.

Challenge #4 Guidelines

A ballgown -- basic ballgown structure -- utilizing

• a large-scale print or graphic fabric
• another large scale element (accessory separate from or part of gown)
• made entirely of cotton (or cotton blend, as laces in 100% cotton are hard to find

Time Out from Challenge #2

Ellowyne's "Time Out Doll," as referenced in the poem here (earlier post), disappeared between the time I took pictures of my RanD Angel with it in a black wig and the time I wanted to take pictures of my Angel in a lighter brown wig, more like Ellowynne "Chills:" darned thing wandered off somewhere. Yesterday, while folding up all the fabrics, some left out for LBD, I found the Time Out Doll clinging to the silver mesh I'd used for the underskirt. I'd looked everywhere, including in the hurriedly-folded fabric selections.

At the moment, my Angel does not have the other sweater sleeve on and has had a wide pewter-like metal belt put on over her sweater, which has given me lots of ideas for the design theme I had been working in before I decided to play along in Project Dollway.

Hopefully the email I sent with all the photos for Challenge number 2 will get posted here; I just now tried out that feature and don't see it in my files yet.

Tyler Challenge

Oh boy! Cotton!

Great fun project this looks like: oversized graphic component, oversized accessory on or accompanying dress, to be a (large by nature) ballgown, made of cotton (or cotton blends, as pure cotton lace & specialty items are hard-to-find).

Hope it's not due on the Thanksgiving weekend: won't be back to my computer until after the Tuesday after, and this project is fun fun fun!

Comments on the Project's LBDs

People on whose entries we may comment publicly -- i.e. in the Project Dollway chat; nonetheless, I will place those comments here. I doubt that I will publish comments on people's work not on this list, though I may comment on it privately:

Andrea

Karen

Brandon

Mario and Gianni

Leigh

Kimberly

Debbie

Judith

(Christopher)

(Safina)

That said, I doubt that I will make any negative comments at all, based on what I said on the Yahoo chat board for this project about evaluations as a tool for growth. It is possible that if I have come up with "negative" evaluations (i.e. found reasons for eliminating entries from being the one I cast a popular vote for) for any that won, I might publish those. I certainly will not "pile on" to anyone who already has had a disappointment.

By way of introduction, I give a quick look-see for first impressions, then check through all of them, the rubric, or list of requirements fixed in mind as a basis for evaluation of one to choose as my people's vote.

My off the top of my head comments as I worked through the pictures then are:

Sent: Saturday, November 10, 2007 2:23 PM
Subject: Andrea

Thoughts as I go through these; the mail screen works as great notepaper.

On first glance, none of them really provides a startling contrast between the black and the accent color. On closer examination of the group as a whole, I am drawn to Andrea's and Safina's

Individually, though Andrea's seems not to fit the modern requirement because of the hemline; on closer look, the dress is awesome, as it has a modern fly-away pointed bodice that gives the appearance of the wearer's shoulders and arms being a part of a 1940s two-tone women's suit jacket. It then fits modern in a most innovative way as well as having gorgeous accent details applied. Further, it has attention to detail in having made the hat and the shoes, as per specs. Hat follows theme of early 1940s in a postmodern design; almost Blade-Runner. Workmanship appears to be impeccable.

Since Andrea's is last, I return to the front of the list and begin there. These notes are not for publication -- I will only publish those that wind up being the top three, and have decided that those will be posted to my blog.

1. Love the red pleated inset, answering the challenge of an accent color in another innovative way, echoed beautifully in the clutch purse, a deco feel.
(Kimberly's)


4. Karen's grabs me right away, with the addition of metallics to the LBD; metals can or cannot be considered colors. Here, since gold is the accent and also shows up as/reads as an accent color rather than a light element, with the silver of the dress reading as a light element, is an elegant solution to the challenge that also incorporates fine workmanship, as does Andrea's, down to the seam in the nylons. That hemline might knock Andrea's out. . . . my first choice for a front-runner.


8. I find out that the other ensemble that initially attracted me is Safina's. I like hot pink with black; it's another foolproof choice. I like the concept of the dress, with the translucent midriff and the loosely-pleated bust and the design of the bodice and neckline. The workmanship is disappointing. It is another garment too bulky for the doll, and could be an excellent design reworked with the knowledge gained in making this one. Also, the pink and black with a blonde is a good choice. Don't know which blonde Silkstone this is, but she looks awfully tired.

11. I'm back to Andrea. I love it. I love the 1940s look to it and the cut of the bodice that brings it to modern, a post-modern fashion statement that does all the things the challenge suggested be done.

--Alison

13 November 2007:

I didn't want to be piling on to Safina: her workmanship is better than this. However, since her dress was one of the two which originally grabbed me for being a good response to the challenge of providing a contrast to the LBD, and then had many good elements in its concept, on which I had commented, I decided I should publish these comments. Also, because I think that with more time, she would probably have reworked this dress to her satisfaction: things happen, and when you take risks, they happen more often, and that is the value of risk-taking: you make mistakes and then you have a roadmap of how to get there better the next time.

One thing I noticed and wondered about in looking at the group of these LBDs was longer hemlines, and I wondered if that were a current or currently hatching trend reflected in the doll dress designs. I have my Art, Fashion, and Town-and-Country mags sitting unopened since August.

On the socio-cultural-political relationship of clothing to current events, shorter hemlines reflect times of an economic upturn, and lower hemlines reflect a time of more privation, more conservative or cautious times. The classic examples of this are the "roaring 20s" and the market boom and the 1960s and economic security, both sandwiching the shorter hemlines of the WWII and post-war years. 1929 saw the stock-market crash and hemlines fall; the 1970s brought in the midi -- though those may have been times of socio-political-economic freedoms. Was there at that time the beginning of a loss of intellectual freedom, a time of intellectual privation? I'll need to give more thought to that and to the years involved. The 1980s brought in a very different style of dressing -- and there were those wonderful legwarmers, which of course require a large open space between the knee and the hip. The 80s was sportswear, shorts and legwarmers, tights. . . and the 90s were rather unremarkable; perhaps they are still too close in time.

Just wondering if lower hemlines are on the horizon. Most probably we will be heading into a time of economic privation in response to the excesses of the last eight years; it has already started.

Have our fashions been relatively paralyzed since 11 September 2001, as we all have been in one way or another?

An Eleventh Hour Alternative Urge

Now, along the line of this process, Friday, maybe, I was playing with some jewellery elements and worked up a great belt that I decided should have its own LBD to go with: not just a belt but a shawl, inpired by one of Patsy's in "Absolutely Fabulous" and some boots, inspired by Isaac Mizrahi in "Zipped," which I watched Friday or Saturday (and in which, coincidentally, I saw Robert Best doing a good job of hanging out as a sounding board). In other words, I had a whole new solution good to go in my head.

I stayed up late Saturday night sewing the bodice for this newer LBD concept, and as I worked, I noticed my doll was getting dirty. "Hellfire!" I exclaimed, "This is a leotard-swimsuit stretch synthetic and the black's coming off -- the very reason I don't let my girls wear black!"

At the moment, the fabric, and the bodice, are soaking in their fifth hot water and tide bath, a muted reddish shade bleeding out, rather than the usual blue.

When I get the bleeding down to an acceptable minimum, I will resume that project. I have the jewellery done. Oh, and it involves gold lamé; I just moved my baggie of lamé in this ongoing cleanup and organization I've undertaken since last August. I found my red lamé, which would do in a pinch, but I really want to do this as envisioned, so it doesn't really matter that I need to wash and wash the black fabric: I must have put the lamé "somewhere special," as it wasn't in my big clear plastic suitcase of color fabric. Actually, it was in the course of looking for the gold lamé that I finally turned up the black leotard jersey for which I'd been looking with no success since last August. It was where I expected it to be -- in the big clear plastic suitcase, but on the very bottom, where I couldn't see it even with the case upside down: I had to take every piece of fabric out before I saw it, so that was a good chance to refamiliarize myself with what all is available in there.

I hate to tell you what else I turned up in the process.

Drawing Out the Little Black Dress

I have three silkstones, two in lingerie, a redhead and a blonde, and one African American one who came to me nude. She's been wearing a little green skirt and jersey top for some time and when I set her up to pose for my drawings, the shape of her skirt was perfect.

Silkstone dolls have a lovely skin quality, gorgeous legs and the tiniest little waists and uplifted bustlines carried on fairly broad shoulders and ribcages, and were all elements I wanted to put into play, to emphasize, in the design, starting with the legs and waist, which the little green cotton skirt emphasized. That was where I began.

The bodice, now. Well the only excuse for a neckline is to emphasize the jewellery one wears, so I figured in a minimal bodice, like a one-piece swimsuit. Something on tv triggered it, though I don't recall what. I wanted the back to be open and to run up the sides of the body to just cover the sides of the bust -- that side line is what I wanted.


That then left me with do I want straps or not? I had already thought that I would continue on with the chain strap element I used on Ellowyn's Little Black Deconstruction Dress. Straps had nowhere to go; if it were a bathing suit, I would cross them. I decided then that I could use a thin silk (on the doll, my available fabric, tulle) understructure to which the bodice could be sewn so that I could do away with straps and also provide the modesty a useful LBD prefers, along with a contrasting color, a muted red-violet, a slightly paler one (a muted RV tint*) -- so that it would show against my model's darker skin.


A high neckline that closes at the back of the neck would provide the vertical support for the strapless bodice. Leaving the entire back seam open to the top of the skirt would provide a peek-a-boo window to frame not only the model's (lovely) skin, but also frame the long counterweight of the back of the necklace, which I decided, if this were a production piece, would have one of those tacky or tarty little Tiffany heart charms as its weight: they're popular. For one of my own, I would use a teapot charm, to indicate that this is not just a LBD but a tea dress -- as the loose sleeves of the underblouse suggest.



To emphasize the legs and waist, the short but full skirt with (what is that piece called, a yoke?) a waistline-hip yoke was already in place, and to further emphasize them, sheer nylons -- panty hose -- in the same muted RV tint with a diamond and dot design in black running up the outside of the stocking on each leg would pull it all together elegantly: the diamonds are meant to be woven as open spaces, again to provide windows for skin, as the back of the blouse does.

* muted red violet tint: great minds think alike, Durelle!

The shoes grew before any of the other elements after the skirt -- just a simple strap across the ball of the foot, exposing 3-4 toes and covering joint of toe to foot, with an ankle-strap and covered heel.

The necklace would be silver, a flat circle chain, three (or four) strands from mid-shoulder to shoulder, draped to hang just below the hollow of the throat and clavicle, across the sternum, and just above the bodice line -- as low as possible into the neckline without being in close proximity to the highest part of the bust fabric. These draped chains would join larger circles meant to sit on the shoulders, tacked to blouse if need be. A chain and clasp goes across the back, from which drops the counterweight in the window/frame element of the blouse back.

In the second stage of the drawing, I thought to put halter straps into the bodice and a very thin buttoned join across the back of the neck, attached as bias tape to the blouse neckline. In the final revision, which I had to do on the computer, I took them out again (and they are still seen in the reproduction of the full drawing -- at top of page).



Now a funny thing happened on the way to the . . . . It was so relaxing, just drawing and thinking on the white paper that, in darkening up the lines to trace over, finalizing shapes, my pencil started tracing the motion and hemlines of the sleeves and each made a circle, from the models just where they were: two adjacent circles. What wonderful structure underlay the whole thing!

From there, it was a short step to seeing a Yin-Yang circle behind the two figures, one of which had not had her hair colored in yet, so that the hair colors provided the seed parts of the opposite within the larger ground of the comma-shaped halves,.

Since I had opted to do a drawing, I let it turn into a drawing -- not an illustration -- from which I got an immense sense of satisfaction. On the final presentation, compilation (is is compiliation or compilation???) of representative elements, the Yin-Yang drawing element takes center stage with the cropped section of the two dolls in front of the black and white, with the full-length examples receding in importance.

The Little Black Dress

The Little Black Dress

It's almost like a title for a Fairy Tale, The Brave Little Tailor," "Little Red Riding Hood," "The Little Engine that Could," "The Little Black Dress."

I can never think of "The Little Black Dress" without mentally translating it to its older name, "Basic Black," which in turn makes me think of Licorice Ice Cream. That was the result of a game that went on some time in the 1960s on KPFK in Los Angeles, in which people would brainstorm names for Ice Cream -- improbable ones at the time. Remember Baskin Robbins' 31 flavors was new around 1959, long before Green Tea Ice Cream and its southern cousin Tempura-Fried Ice Cream -- two names which at the time this game was played would have brought ROTFLMAO laughter from players and listeners alike.

The name that has always stuck in my mind as the most wonderful imaginary flavor they ever came up with was "Basic Black," and for that reason, I can never think of The Little Black Dress without the horrific urge to break into completely inappropriate laughter.

That said, the corners of my mouth and the lip edges of my nostrils have been twitching this past two weeks, a period in which I decided to take it easy on the challenge and stick to a drawing instead. I worked into the wee hours many nights on the Ellowyne (gosh I keep forgetting how to spell her name, with or without an "e") challenge, happily playing with my wonderful Angel, who just might be named Esther or Estelle.

I had just gotten some new tracing paper, very heavy, like a vellum, which I used for making permanent patterns from Ellowynne's (spelling again!) dress, and decided to use it to do my final drawing on, after sketching it out on drawing paper.

Besides feeling like drawing instead of making, making, making, I avoid black fabric for my dolls: even lined, it's deadly; what better time to take time out? All my fabrics I prewash in hot water and Tide with bleach, at least to get the starch out. Some I machine-wash, others I hand wash. The black gauze I used for Ellowyne's dress was well-used fabric I had gleaned on one of my trash-picking Tuesdays -- and prewashed in hot water and Tide with bleach.

place

ellowyn wilde

summing up

place

ellowyn wilde comments

My RanD Angel in Outfits I Designed and Made for Challenge #2

The Ellowyne Challenge Pictures disappeared!

However, I have uploaded them to my Flickr files at:

well, I'm still trying to find the alphabetize function after adding the alphabet to them in order to get them into a less random order . . . .

well, I do have a Flickr account and I am AliMcJ, if that helps at all!

Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 7:22 PM

With the sheer hose (seen in photos of grey reverse of dress) that match underblouse with classic black pumps, this is a more formal night outfit. Brooch on hat. Left off the silver rope necklace as too much with the pins, keeping the long garnet rope.

Striped socks can be worn day or night on a nineteen-year old, depending on venue, looking oh so elegant nonetheless in any way with her grandmother's rope of garnet beads.


NIGHT DAY
Silver shoulder chain more visible above left.
Also note change of wig to match the Ellowyne "Chills" coloration better.




Intended first as day, then night, and now day: having the two-layer reverse and a blouse underneath makes it look more like a jumper. With a thinner reverse (the same lace as on the hat), we'd have two evening looks. However, once the silver seed beads are added, for structure and design, this may take shape as a cocktail dress once again. Silver seed beads intended to run down both sides of box pleat, on the pleat, spaced nicely, to give more weight to the front. More seed beads to be added on top of seam of skirt to bodice, spaced more closely than running down box pleat; this will again bring more weight toward the ground, straightening out hang of bodice as well as providing a faux flat-felled seam on the back side of the skirt.

If still more weight is needed, a decorative silver seed bead border or rosettes may be added to hem of dress (it's not real silk satin -- though for a synthetic on this small scale, the hang is not bad)

The dress reversed, without the pinned skirts, and just for fun as a neopunk:



That works too. If seed beads need to be added to hem, wearing the dress reversed, as on the left, won't be a possibility.

Having burnt several finished garments made with synthetics (which I prefer not to use), on the handle or stem of my mini-iron, I decided to turn those experiences into something useful and heated all raw edges of the grey fabric to melting, just short of hardening, on the stem of my mini-iron, leaving the bottom edge unhemmed in order not to add more stiffness to the skirt.

Lots of possibilities with this outfit; can be worn without underblouse also; since Ellowyne specified that she didn't really like short skirts and lots of skin, we designed ensembles with ample coverage without sacrificing style.





. . . and the sweater is not designed to have only one sleeve. I wasn't knitting it of brambles, as in "The Seven Swans," yet still wound up a half a sleeve short.

After putting it all together -- with the sweater as a main focal point from the beginning -- I overblocked the sweater, so it is not pulling the skirts in as much as I think it would if blocked very lightly:

and scenes from the poem:

Whew!

Sorry for so many photos -- this has so many possibilities!

Fun and exhausting project; I don't think I'll knock myself out again like this, at least for a while! Once I got going, on what is a first outfit for my RanD Angel (nearly the same body measurements; Ellowyne's head is larger by about 40%, maybe even 50% -- that is to say it is 140% to 150% larger. The paper doll to exact measurements was a BIG help). Will make a hat that will fit her too.

Also, this doll was an absolute delight to work with -- her legs, strung BJD, take on a number of different personality characteristics: Japanese pigeon-toed kawai ("lovable"), bow legs, knock knees, athletic legs, and straight "regular" legs. Her weight is wonderful to have in hand and to heft around in fittings, and she is soooo affable!

I do have my jewellery supplies and tools out, so LBD may get a nice selection of jewellery; certainly Ms. Silkstone will want a boxful from which to make her selections! -- and we need to make her some shoes as well, so she may wind up being a paper/cardboard doll decked in jewellery! Then again, my devilish side is cooking up something "just for the halibut."

Done and time for a well-deserved timeout -- maybe that two-timing clock-faced doll will come knocking from wherever she ran off to! Trying to remember what it was at the Mad Hatter's tea-party ". . . ever since they quarreled last spring" (the hatter or the rabbit had quarreled with Time).

Alison

ellowynne poem

silly one I wrote

for Chills:


I like the grays of gloomy days,
the ticking tocks of antique clocks
in empty rooms with warm red oak;
I leave without a sweater or cloak.

Flashy gold and lots of bling
are far too bold and not my thing:
My grandma’s beads fulfill my needs
for embellishment and fashion.

Frips and frills give me the chills:
Wool and velvet, silk and satin,
gleaming silver feed my passion.
- - and the Vintage clothes my glamma
gran collected when she was young.

Nights out I stop at Pru’s mom’s shop
and sit and sip midst walls of oak
and warmth of books; erasing need
of sweater, jacket. coat, and cloak

I am nineteen come Halloween;
to save my mind, I leave behind
obsessive wrath of dear Ms. Plath,
for earthy scribes tune more my vibes:

Whitman, Eliot, Sandberg, Frost;
cummings, Corso, Ginsberg, Patchen

Pink Martini, Django Reinhart . . . .

From here on out, I take time out,
my time-out doll in hand;
I take up brush to fill the hush
by which my mind expands.

"Drivel! Drivel!" scribbles Sybil
- - "Fa shizzle!"

AliMcJ for Ellowyne Wilde’s 19th Birthday

ellowynne placeholder

ellowynne notes

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for ellowyne

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placeholder for gene? ellowyne

The Gene Challenge

Click on photo above to see large view of page submitted as first challenge entry.

I was surprised and dismayed when I first heard of Project Dollway, after all designers had been chosen: my FDQ had lapsed, we hadn't had the dough to resubscribe (though it's my yearly birthday present), and I hadn't dared enter a bookstore during that time, as I invariably come out with a bag full of doll magazines, anime magazines, and manga.

My dismay turned to delight when I found on opening the newly developed Project Dollway pages that people could play along online -- and the deadline was that Friday (2 days away) -- and even more delighted to find that I had not missed the deadline when I sent in a note that I had failed in my mission; the deadline for at home players was Sunday night. In a desperate last-minute participatory gesture, I assembled the above photo and sketch combination: rather poor quality photo image in contrast to my usual standards which have unlimited time as a component. Without a scanner (Windows Vista is incompatible with my working scanner and I still have not tested it and my Nero CD burner out on my old Acer laptop to see if they will fill the gap left by Microsoft's latest "advances." Again, the advance in Microsoft's latest rush to be first is more like the advance copy in the publishing world, still in need of some proof-reading and redaction, usually known as beta-testing in the computing world. Get used to it, I have a stack of soapboxes under my computer that spill out without the least provocation. Perhaps I should color-code all soapbox-related sections in soap sales orange [see Vance Packard's The Hidden Persuaders for what this references.]) I had no way to get a clear image of the sketches and had to photograph them, at night on top of it all, as with the Gene. This accounts for the yellowish tone of the photo -- not bad for the means employed.

I already had Gene dressed up in her chinchilla jacket, waiting for clothing, so I took her pic and sketched, based on fabric I have available, her red carpet outfit.

Gene said that it really doesn't matter what you wear when you have a chinchilla jacket: it's a perfect last-minute touch of elegance when you hear about a party late and need to make an appearance; in this case, she had been wearing Mel Odom's oh-so-perfect Hollywood tap pants and top under her chinchilla for a while. We decided that a quick hakama in moleskin and a leotard top would be the perfect last-minute formal attire in case she had to remove her jacket inside, and pretended that she actually had those in her closet.

Project Dollway

I'm having a nice time playing along at home on this: "I work well under pressure," as an old Nebbish sticker says. The deadlines get me kicked into gear: I spend a good portion of my time pondering and then, when I must stop pondering and get to work, zoom, I'm off and running.

I'm thankful for the extra week extended for the Ellowyne challenge, as it gave me more work time -- I had already reached the end of my allotted ponder time and was already working on outfits, and this gave me the opportunity to make them the way I like to: by hand, with French seams.