Day 88 Pt 1-How To Save Your Dolls

Good evening, everyone. Today I want to give a tutorial on "How To Save Your Dolls". This is my 1st tutorial and I am a little nervous. There are also a few false starts so please, do bear with me. I am also sorry I skipped Day 87C but I will get back to that soon .

SO, here goes nothing..

This morning, I made an important decision which entail cleaning and clearing my work space aka dining room. And of course, I had to accidentally knock down a pair of dolls which fell 3 stories from the shelf.

Now, some of you may know how important dolls are to my project for without them, my project is nothing. And these dolls are extremely fragile, especially around the neck. This is in fact not my 1st accident and I have a pair who were sadly decapitated. I cannot tell you who yet because you can still see them in some of my stories.

Anyway, this pair is similar to the pair in the 1st picture,. A man and his lady, waltzing in front of a tacky gate. with grass and all and of course, the dreaded wooden base with the same brass tag.

Luckily for me, their heads didn't fall off. And even luckier, the awful gate, the wooden base and fake grass patch broke into pieces.

The only damage as you can see was that my girl has lost her feet. Thanks to the missing grass patch and feet, this pair of dolls are now shorter than the other 69 dolls I have.

Now if the same thing happens to you, the 1st thing you must do is to weave a basket.

Would you believe I forgot how to? Even though I have already made 9 or is it 11? So off I went to Casey's minis who has a tutorial or more on almost every conceivable mini (except if I may say so, How To Save A Doll). I stayed too long, thanks to Tessie PLUS Casey had like 13 different tutorials ranging from "very easy" to "rocket scientist." I decided that at my level, I should pick the "Not So Easy Baskets".
I don't have all the materials she said we will need but I figured I could use whatever I have and add the 14th tutorial to her "Complete Blog of..."

And so, instead of woodsie for the base, I use the cap of my contact lens box. I also replaced the poster board with a glossy advertisement card I tore up in the morning when I was cleaning up and cotton strings instead of waxed linen.

3 hours later, this was the result:

Now, this is unlikely to happen to you but as far as I am concerned, these Not So Easy Baskets might as well belong to the rocket scientist.

I gave up and thought, at this rate, I might as well knit one. And so 15 minutes later, here is my 2nd attempt:


I can hear cooing already..yes, isn't she perfect? Well, she would be if I really knitted it. Not so. This is in fact a "toothpaste cap" basket. Find a suitably shaped cap, 1/2 way decent glue and cotton food strings and just glue the strings onto the cap. Don't forget the base. Check my Day 68 for how. You need not worry about the inside because this is a basket and baskets are meant to carry things and this one must carry many.

Now if you like leaves like me, that's the 1st item that must go into the basket.

These were in fact plastic leaves I used for my Queen Anne. I sprayed some "Moss Green" paint on it to lend some realism because who can stand plastic. For maximum results, use paint meant for dried flowers.

Then if you have, like me, bought a whole load of junk off ebay like this:

don't junk them, even though you really should. Instead, start stuffing as many as you can into the basket, like this:
After that, glue the completed food basket onto the dolls and Voila!

Now, that still does not solve the other "short"coming. Here's THE CRITICAL STEP: Place them on a bench as precariously as you can, as if the girl is about to fall off, like this:

And finally, put the whole piece de resistance into a crowded scene that you are planning, like ..er..maybe a thriving flower shop?:

And there we have it, a few simple steps to saving your precious dolls. And not only that, you also have a story to explain the awkward way the man is holding his lady because you do not want your friends wondering why your dolls are dancing around their food, do you, even if it is Discount Tuesday?

Here's the story: It is a cold and rainy Tuesday and their usual groceries day . As part of their rounds, a stop at the florist is a must for the lady of the house. They are a little late because of the rain but that did not stop the crowd, already gathering at the stall. Thanks to their height or lack of, they have to stand on a bench just to see what's still available. The lady, anxious to catch a glimpse of her favourite flower shop, leans over a little too much and is about to fall when her man grabs her.

Now if your doll should unfortunately fall because of THE CRITICAL STEP as mentioned above, watch this blog for I most probably will have a tutorial on that as well.

I hope this tutorial has helped you and thank you, for reading this far.

Oh, I forgot, there is still the remnants of the 1st basket case. If you are a dud like me, then I am afraid you will have to junk that. BUT KEEP THE CAP. You never know, it may save a doll someday.