doll restoration checklist & thoughts

[alexseanchai]

I did not find my ruler, but I found a thing with inches marked on it. This is a fifteen-inch doll. (I will photograph doll when the sun's up and the lighting is therefore much improved. I may or may not photograph doll's pretty floral bonnet. It's...very floral.)

This "how to make your own peplos" page says the rectangle of cloth for the peplos has to be wearer's-height-plus-at-least-eighteen-inches long, assuming of course the peplos in question is intended for someone in the typical range of human ovarian-morph size, and twice-elbow-to-elbow wide. Here I should note that doll doesn't have joints to speak of, beyond the shoulders and hips. So, width first: shoulder to shoulder is 4", from one shoulder to the elbow is about 2.5", so elbow to elbow is 9" so the peplos needs to be 18" wide. As for height, let's do math, assuming that doll is proportioned comparably to someone 5'6" tall:

18 / 66 = x / 15
18 * 15 / 66 = 15x / 15
x = 4.09

So the peplos needs to be about 19" long. If I had done the math assuming doll is proportioned comparably to someone 5'7.5" tall, the math would work out without repeating decimals.

18" x 19". Hm. A fat quarter is 18" x 21"...the top and bottom edges will need hemming, and the side edges also unless I sew them together. Gah. Sewing machine acquisition needs to happen. (Either that or I need to arrange to borrow Mom's...) And that should still leave plenty enough fabric to make the cloth band for the hairstyle I want to give her, unless I do that as braided yarn or something.

At least two pins will be required, depending on whether I sew the side edges together or pin them together or just leave it open down the one side. I have been googling for teeny safety pins, but I suspect there are not teeny enough safety pins to avoid looking comically large on doll. Certainly tie tacks and other clutchback pins will look comically large on doll, but I suspect that and the sew-the-side-edges-together approach is what I'll end up doing. (In theory, I have dichroic-glass-dot tie tacks somewhere in the once-and-perhaps-future Etsy inventory stash. In practice, who knows?)

Also required: a belt. Well, that's easy enough. Braided yarn. I am not experiencing a shortage of yarn. I will definitely want wool, because below article, but I'm sure I have at least one of purple or blue wool yarn around here somewhere—those being the two colors, other than saffron, highlighted in the below article.

Evy Johanne Håland assures me the peplos I'm imitating here is saffron-hued wool. I predict saffron-hued cotton is going to be a great deal easier and cheaper to acquire.

Uh. Wait. Cotton fat quarters typically have very obvious front and back sides. Because of the way the peplos is constructed, both sides of the fabric will be showing...I mean, I suppose I could buy two matching-pattern fat quarters, cut them to size and sew them back side to back side, and then carry on, but...

Same article assures me the traditional story embroidered on the peplos is Athena's defeat of Enkelados. That's...not happening. My embroidery skills are not going to be up to the task. (Like I said: eight-spoked circle, which you all will graciously pretend resembles a spider to evoke Arakhne.)

ETA: It occurs to me that the peplos is a bare-armed style. (The chiton isn't, but the chiton doesn't work for this purpose.) Doll's cloth body includes cloth arms almost to the wrist. I believe I need to add a cloak or shawl. Google is not telling me dimensions or materials of an epiblema, but I'll bet it's a heavier wool in dimensions suitable for a rectangular shawl. Google is telling me the himation is four to six feet wide and six to eight feet long (which, for this 15" doll, I'm going to parse as 15" x 22"), but that doesn't seem a reliable source? Anyway, I definitely want a heavier material for the himation than for the peplos proper. I also want a source that tells me how women wear the thing. If only because the male way to wear the thing still leaves the right arm bare!

It also occurs to me that doll's feet are plain white ceramic. (Or possibly porcelain.) I could use the stockings and booties she came with, but that wouldn't look particularly authentic. Sandals or barefoot would look authentic if not for the ceramic feet that, for entirely sensible reasons I'm sure, weren't shaped or painted in as much detail as the hands. (It kind of looks like she's wearing white boots, actually.) I'm not sure what to do here.

So, doll restoration tasks, more or less in this order:

✓ go to Walgreens or wherever, buy hair pick and baby shampoo
✓ go to Jo-Ann Fabrics and/or AC Moore, buy saffron-hued cotton fat quarter(s) (if that'll work) and a fat quarter of a heavier material in a suitable color (should work) and embroidery thread and suitable needle
* if fat quarter(s) won't work, find saffron-hued cloth (ideally wool, maybe linen or cotton) and other-hued heavier cloth somewhere online that will work
✓ find pins that will work
† take photos of doll (and photodocument whole process hereafter)
✓ attempt cleaning ceramic, carefully
✓ brush hair and if necessary more involved hair care
* style hair
✓ clean cloth body
* deal with making eyes an appropriate gray
* cut and hem saffron fabric to result in as close to an 18" x 19" rectangle as is feasible—or sew the longer sides together to make a tube instead of hemming side edges
* cut and hem himation fabric to result in as close to a 15" x 22" rectangle as is feasible
* embroider spider(s) on peplos fabric, and other appropriate symbols if ambitious
* embroider something on himation fabric? ΑΘΕ or ΑΘΗΝΑ perhaps?
✓ clean doll stand
✓ make felt sandals
✓ make felt painted cardboard helmet
✓ make teeny knitting
✓ make teeny scroll
* braid wool yarn for belt
* dress and stand doll
* photograph doll with an eye to cover art for Strength of Storms
* dedicate doll

Comments

[we_are_spc]

Gaaaah, I wish you were more familiar with celtic/welsh deities.

I've wanted a representing of Arawn for a damn long time and just...gaaah.

(he's mine, dammit. Even if Mum isn't here, he treats this body like his (Appropriate since Mum was here for most of it's life and I walked in after some really weird crap) ... and we still want.

(PM us if you want details; it's mosty system stuff that I don't want to put here.)

-Fallon~

[alexseanchai]

I did have the thought that if this works out as intended, I could thrift more dolls and make more deity representations...but that is a Definitely Not Yet, so.

[we_are_spc]

...definitely gunna keep an eye out.

We were thinking a wood carving because we have a tgrunk piece the could do, but dammit no wood carvers. Because this is something we've wanted for years, literally, and we've not been able to find even a statue of him.

Hern and Cernunos and Pan(Hell, we even have a Puck statue...we've had him for years at this point), certainly, but not Him. And we've looked. Almost everywhere. There's nothing to be found in the US. Anywhere. It's rather annoying. )And yeah, we've been kind of this distressed, the closest we've come is dedicating a generic "Forest God" statue that came as a pair. Or we bought them as a pair. So yeah.)

-Fallon~

[alexseanchai]

*nod* sympathy

[forestofglory]

Generally soild colored cottons look the same on both sides.

[alexseanchai]

*nod* I will see what Jo-Ann's has.

[kittydesade]

Reasonably sure you can still find saffron hued broadcloth for inexpensive!

[alexseanchai]

:)

[redsixwing]

That! ^

Saffron broadcloth should be relatively easy to find, and if it's dyed rather than printed, both sides should match.

If not, check the shirtings and suitings. The Joann's nearest me always seems to have saffron-colored gabardine, much to my confusion. (Gab ravels like heck but its drape is sooooo lovely.)

It's probably wise to prewash the fabric - yellows and reds can rub off if they haven't been, and it would be a bummer to clean your doll up and have her stained by her new clothes. OTL

[alexseanchai]

*nodnod* Thanks.

[sporky_rat]

You can also acquire linen from fabric-store.com in their doggie bag selection that doesn't cost much. This is half a yard of autumn gold. They don't have any more orange colored right now in the doggie bag, but it'll show up.)

[alexseanchai]

Ooh, sweet! Thanks!

[melannen]

My suggestion for pins in-scale is that you should be able to get teeny-tiny straight pins, less than an inch long (I think they're sometimes sold as applique pins or for beading?) and then use needle-nose pliers to bend them in a shape approximating a greek bow fibula (I did an SCA workshop once on making full-size ones out of curtain pins, but the applique pins are the best thing I can think of for doll scale.) (although note that bronze age fibulae could be 6-8" long, so the smallest safety pins you can find probably wouldn't be that far off.)

If you want something fancier, maybe see if you can thrift a handful of small stud earrings? That might be a little more to scale than tie tacks. (We used mismatched earrings as doll brooches when I was a kid.)

I wouldn't worry too much about hemming; I have a human-sized chiton out of cotton broadcloth that I never bothered hemming and despite being worn in tough conditions it's fine. If the doll's not going to be moving a lot, or being machine-washed, you can leave neat straight cuts (like on ancient Greek clothes) unhemmed pretty safely; you might lose a few threads over time but that's it. Or you can brush a narrow strip of watered-down Elmer's glue right on the cuts just to help seal it a little. Or hem by hand! I like hemming by hand. But a lot of doll clothes aren't hemmed anyway, because the increased thickness in the hems doesn't scale down.

If you do want to hem, a very narrow hand-sewn hem would probably look a lot better than a machine-sewn one at doll scale anyway. Or blanket-stitch embroidery around the edges can substitute for a folded hem and look like decorative trim while still being very easy. And if you can embroider a spider-y thing you can hem an 18" square!

[alexseanchai]

*bounce bounce hearts*

I'm gonna poke my fingers with the needle LOTS. :(

[melannen]

Think of the blood as an offering to the work or the goddesses of handwork? That's what I do and I'm hardly even pagan at all these days. :)

[alexseanchai]

Heh accurate