Here she is….! Princess Nieva, the heroine of my story. What fun I had making her. She is about 11 inches tall. First off I decided to make her darker skinned than my other figures, I guess I got bored with using “Pale Peachy” for my characters! I used some Latte color wool from Living Felt and I was pleased with the result. Also my brief research about people living in snowy lands told me that not all are light skinned and blue eyed, so that was further reinforcement of my idea. I was not going for a particular ethnicity as she is a fantasy character from an invented land, however I did search for inspiration by looking at many different cultures living in frozen lands.
In the process of making my princess I discovered that she likes yoga! A good demonstration of just how posable she is. (I think she looks good even before she got her hair - but she will never forgive me for posting this pic on the internet!)
Lovely wavy locks in the making…
My other characters have quite funky looking hair in crazy colors so I decided to go a little more conventional for the Princess. When I made the spaniel dogs before Christmas I learned how to make wavy fur. So, using the soft black wool I got for the black spaniel, I made some wavy locks by twisting lengths around a skewer, wetting it and letting it dry.
Kinda piratey looking underwear!
Of course once my princess was finished she needed clothes of some sort. (I rush off to Pinterest and look at costumes, Inuit clothing etc etc…! ) In thinking about underwear I was torn between just felting stuff permanently to her body vs making something removable. I went for removable because I’d like my princess to have a wardrobe of different clothes - because hello, she’s a Princess! I thought about the climate in my story which is snowy and freezing at the outset. What underwear would be practical for my princess? I have been watching way too much historical fashion stuff on Youtube so what I ended up making was a pair of drawers. These are very (very!) loosely based on early 19th century women’s underwear which initially consisted of two separate legs tied at the waist - hence “a pair”of drawers. I figured that way she wouldn’t have to take them off to go to the bathroom. Several of my friends have remarked that I am the only person they know who would worry about how their doll was going to pee in the snow! It’s the little details that are vital, my friends, (or I’m just crazy!) what can I say?! ;)
Next up was outer clothing of some sort. Again, thinking of climate I wanted something similar to the warm hooded coat I made for Grandmother Zuri. I acquired a variety of colors of felt and fabric and settled on the eggplant/purple felt. I made her coat shaped on the bottom and added a generous fur trim all round. The fur is knitting yarn - I just had to have it, but it has a tendency to shed and unravel so I had to glue the ends. I went back to Grandmother Zuri’s coat and added some fur to hers too. That lovely ribbon I bought on Etsy for the reindeer harness came in handy again for the front of the coat. My hand sewing skills have improved somewhat, and it does help working with stuff that doesn’t fray!
OK, now on to footwear. Princess Nieva would need boots for the snow, but I wanted them to be removable as she will have different clothing later in my story and boots may not go with it. I designed a pattern (another skill I am learning!) for boots and tried it out in cheap felt, before moving on to my pricey, teeny, piece of Michaels faux leopard skin leather ;).
Once I had the pattern worked out, I moved on to making the real thing. I sewed tiny loops for the laces to go through so they can be undone. The laces here are thin strands of hemp and are way too stiff really, so I will have to find a replacement. However, the boots worked out surprisingly well and, in fact made it even easier for my princess to stand unaided as I left the soles unfinished.
In this pic you can see that the boots are unfinished on the bottom. My daughter had the genius idea of adding the little magnets to Nieva’s feet so that I can use them to help pose her later for my story illustrations. More on that at a later date…
Using more of the reindeer harness leather I made Nieva a belt, attached the little knife in a sheath, and …ta da.. she is ready for adventures! Oh, but wait, she needs yet more clothes, because - “princess”. Lol! But that’s for next time…..