Sophie and Scooter

The doll club challenge this year was inspired by Ari Seth Cohen's documentary and book called Advanced Style.   Both depict older ladies who do not let age define what they wear or what activities they do.  I loved looking on line at the "fashionistas" and all the older ladies in their fabulous styles.   I love art to wear so I couldn't resist trying to make a piece of wearable art for my doll.   

Sophie is wearing a coat that was inspired by Sue Kreitzman's wearable art coats.  Sophie loves going for walks with her beloved Westie, Scooter.    She says that Scooter keeps her active and young at heart.   

Sophie's head and hands are polymer clay and her face was painted with Genesis Paints.  She has a cloth body.   Her fuchsia pants, purple blouse and multi-color shoes are made from silk.   Her coat is made from dupioni silk.   I had painted the designs and then appliqued them to the coat.  To ensure that the designs would fit on the coat, I made a scale drawing of each pattern piece and the designs so I would know how they would fit.  

Getting the coat on the doll was also a challenge.   I had to leave one sleeve partially open so I could attach the arm to the doll after the coat was on.   The hands also had to be attached to the arms after the coat was on because the finger positions were too big to fit through the sleeve opening.   

For her hair, I bleached Tibetan lamb, made wefts then glued the wefts to her head.   I then cut and styled her hair.    Her glasses are hand made from semi-stiff vinyl.   I used a wood punch to cut out the "lenses" and then used scissors to cut the shape.  

Scooter is needle felted from roving, Tibetan Lamb and yarn. 

I love her outfit so much I'm thinking of making one for myself!!  😄