High Flying Raven

High Flying Raven in her full outfit.

This is a doll I have unexpectedly fallen in love with. I wasn't even going to buy a Raven. But I did and now I love her!

I'll start from the begining. 

I have loved Helen Kish's dolls since the 1990's. I remember making paper doll versions of her ballerinas in blue and white

                                                                                   

The girl in the foreground was my favourite.

In those days, I was a teenager and not a lot of dolls were available where I live, (and ordering things internationally was a lot more complicated than it is now) so I never even dreamed of owning the dolls I saw in magazines. Although in 1998 I actually wrote off to a shop in America to find out how much it would cost to buy the porcelain Bonnie doll, when I got the reply I was crushed and shocked.

  Helen Kish's Bonnie from 1998

 I haven't kept up with what's going on in the doll world for the last few years, so I didn't even know about the Chrysalis dolls. Last time I was paying attention Riley had only just been introduced and I was only just paying attention then, the last time dolls had my full attention Bethany was only just getting started.

Earlier this year I decided to buy myself a doll, initially I planned on getting one of Dianna Effner's vinyl dolls which I was vaguely aware of, but I was a bit disappointed by their lack of articulation and a bit scared by their price. (I had only seen the studio dolls, not the Heartstrings ones which are a lot more affordable.) And at some point I stumbled across the Chrysalis line. I had to have one! I was enchanted!

But not by Raven. 

I'm not going to say I disliked Raven, I didn't. I just didn't like her either. The other Chrysalis girls I saw and wanted, Raven I simply overlooked as uninteresting. I was actually confused by this. As far as I can see, of the Chrysalis dolls Raven's is the most quintessentially Kish face, and I love Kish dolls. But not Raven.

In the end I (obviously) bought High Flying Raven. Why? She was on sale, I loved her outfit and I planned on using her body to fit patterns for the other dolls. She was never going to get to wear the finished clothes. 

When she arrived I was madly in love with my Lark, Raven was deboxed, placed on a shelf next to Lark and forgotten.

It was two weeks before I finally took Raven down to have a look at her. I got her hood and goggles out of her box and spent a frustrating fifteen minutes putting them on her. I love the little hood and the fact that it's lined with a sheepskin type fabric and that the lining isn't just around the edges but all through it. The body of her little jacket is lined too (not in sheepskin, just cotton) which always impresses me with dolls clothes.

Raven's little hood, goggles and jacket.

I took her jacket off to see what the dress underneath looked like and it is really lovely! All little pink ruffles. I don't like pink but it does really suit her colouring. Of course I had to change her shoes to see the dress as a dress. Spent five minutes trying to unlace her boots before I realised they unzipped down the back and felt a bit silly.

Raven's boots and socks

A change of shoes changes Raven's look completely

(Shoes are MSD shoes from Alice's Collections)

And her face is just beautiful. She reminds me of my sister when she was a child, and of an old Bru doll. . . which isn't overly surprising since the bru faces have always reminded me of my sister as a child too. Actually I've half got a thought to buy the palest Raven I can find and rewig and redress her like and antique doll.

  The kind of face I'm talking about.

 Raven all pink and sweet.

And now Raven has gone from a doll I never expected to like, to one of my favourite dolls ever! I find that strange about these dolls. I'm probably going to sound like a crazy person but they have an amazing amount of personality. I've discovered I can't name them before I get them, or more often than not I get them and they just don't accept the name I give them. 

My Raven was initially going to be named Briarlee, but firstly I discovered I can't say Briarlee without it sounding like Briley and even when I said it right, Raven just looked at me as though she was thinking "That's not my name." 

I call her Rowan now, I have no idea how that came about because I was calling her Rowan for about a week before I even realised I was! Since my rule with dolls is that if you change their name and a week later you're still calling them by their factory name, the name you've given them is wrong, I've decided it works the other way too. If you find you've been calling them something that isn't their name for a week without realising it, that probably is their name.

The other thing I am finding with the Chrysalis dolls is that I'm giving them back stories and personalities in my head which is something I haven't done with any doll since I was about twelve years old. They really do take on a life of their own! And I really love the different looks Raven has. In her full original outfit, I think she looks quite cheeky, but if you change her down to just her dress suddenly she's very demure and sweet.

And finally some more pictures of Raven, just because I can.

 Raven in her full outfit and goggles

Raven in her full outfit with her goggles up.

Raven in her full outfit but without the hood and goggles.

Cafe Creme Layered Dress

Adrielle (Kish Wren) feels all grown up in her lacy dress.

This dress kind of designed itself as I went. I stumbled across some milk coffee coloured embroidered net at a charity shop and couldn't not buy it. When I got home I tossed it into a box of fabric and it landed on the satin I used for the underdress and I knew I had to make a dress from it!

I originally wanted the finished dress to look a bit more like this :

 Eliza dress from I Love Gorgeous's 2013 Summer collection

But because the Chrysalis girls don't really have a waist, I couldn't find a way to make the waist look right. Everything I tried made it look really chunky and out of proportion. So I decided to use a belt instead of a gathered waistline. And when I put the belt on I decided to place it a bit higher, because I thought it looked better.

The hem was going to be plain. But I found some pleated ribbon and had to add it. Then I had to shorten the overdress so the ribbon showed. 

 I'm actually feeling a little bit mod in this dress!

The belt was made with a length of ribbon and a buckle I actually got from an office supply store, lots of scrap booking shops sell similar things.

Truthfully making this was an absolute nightmare, mostly because the fabrics were apparently trying to drive me insane. The satin had an explosion of fraying every time I breathed anywhere near it, and the net decided it wanted to be anywhere except where I wanted it to be!

The overdress is wider than the underdress and it was supposed to be gathered onto the neckline, but with the way the satin was fraying I decided it would be better to just pleat the excess net in at the centre, which actually worked quite well.

I also like the way the brown looks against Adrielle's ginger hair.

Ok so construction. It's a simple a-line so it isn't complicated and the pattern still has the longer overdress but anyway. . .

Cut the pattern pieces, place the right sides of the overdress pieces against the wrong sides of the under dress pieces and stitch them together along the armholes and neckline.

Then turn the pieces inside out so the outside is the right side of the overdress and the inside is the wrong side of the underdress.

Sew the shoulder seams.

Topstitch the neckline and armholes, this isn't absolutely necessary  but keeps the layers from slipping around later when you're dressing the doll. When top-stitching the neckline, continue down the back as far as you plan on having the back open.

Sew the side seams. Preferably sewing the underdress and overdress seams separately, but you can combine them.

Sew the closed part of the back seam, combining underdress with overdress as one seam.

Add fastenings.

Then add a belt or sash.

I've totally forgotten what I was doing. Adrielle looking unusually vacant.

To make a belt you need a buckle. Lot's of places that sell scrapbooking or craft supplies sell tiny buckles or you could harvest one from another doll's unwanted dress or even from an old pair of shoes. Or in a pinch you could use one of those sliders that go on bra straps. Make a loop with the end of the ribbon around the crossbar and stitch in place and trim to length. (I never actually trimmed mine or made anything to hold the ends in place which is why her right armed is pinioned to her side in all the pictures - it's keeping the incredibly long end of her belt from moving.)

And now I'm ready for my coffee thanks!

Rowan's Rainbow Romper

Rowan (Kish Raven) in her new romper.

This one piece romper is perfect for warm weather. Cute, playful and fun.
Made without the belt, it could be an old-school gym suit. And I'm seriously considering remaking it with a skirt instead of shorts as an edwardian over-dress.
 It is a bit more fiddly to make than the other patterns, but it isn't particularly difficult and the results are worth it.
Just a reminder I've made no allowance for seams, turnings or wrap on the pattern.

 Rowan (Kish Raven) ready for some Summer fun.

The neckline can either be lined by doubling the yoke and cutting a second back bodice piece to yoke length, hemmed or faced by tracing facings off the pattern.

Construction is as follows:

Sew shoulder seams and hem, line or face the neckline.

Gather lower bodice section onto the yoke.

Add sleeves. I pleated the excess fabric into the centre top of the sleeves rather than easing or gathering along the whole edge. I felt gathered sleeves when the bodice was already gathered would make the whole thing too puffy.  But you can ease or gather the sleeves if you prefer.

Next sew the side seams and the under side seams in the sleeves.

Sew the front and back seams from crotch to waist in the shorts and then the leg seams, hemming the lower leg edge.

Sew the bodice to the waistband only gathering at the front.

Sew the shorts to the waistband, gathering evenly all around. (Will only need light gathers.)

Hem the back edge and add fastenings. (I have one on the waistband, one at the neckline and one midway between)

And then you nearly have this!

I stupidly never measured the half belt. It's even more surprising because I made TWO of them. That's why this wasn't posted yesterday. Yesterday morning I looked at the belt she had (yellow baby ribbon threaded with coloured star-shaped buttons) and hated it.

To make the half belt, thread beads onto a length of baby ribbon.

Then with the romper on a doll, check the length. It needs to go from side seam to side seam at the waist band. Make it as loose or as tight as you want it by adding beads or taking them off.

Then take the romper off the doll, thread the ends of the ribbon onto a needle and push it through the bodice side seams, right where they join onto the waistband. Either knot them inside or stitch them down to keep them in place.

Don't worry too much what colour the ribbon is unless it's going to show. I was all excited because the ribbon I used on the rainbow belt was the exact same colour as her romper. Now I feel a bit silly because the beads cover it completely!

  OOPS! From this angle you can see the facing sticking up inside the neckline!

 

Things I wish had existed when I was a kid. Off topic - Lego Friends animals

 This is totally off topic but I am so impressed by these that I had to share.
In our house we collect Lego minifigures. The little blind packaged Lego people that you can get at most supermarkets for about five dollars. They're cheap, provide thirty seconds entertainment and look cute. Of course the fact that they're blind packaged means you don't always get the one you want, but the surprise is part of the fun and occasionally when you get multiples you can use them to do fun things like this:

My brother decided Tarzan wasn't going to be as friendly with the monkey as he is in the movies.

So, last week I had surgery (which is why I haven't updated) and afterwards a friend gave me a couple of the Lego Friends Animals sets. I've never paid any attention to the Lego friends, I've always had the impression that all the Lego in them is pink and lilac and overly simple. Surprisingly it's not!

O'kay the packaging is lilac and pink and there are more pink and lilac bricks than in say a Monster Fighters set but not so much so that it's unbearably saccharine. And they don't seem to be any more simplistic than the traditional sets either. In fact, having looked at a lot of Lego on line over the last week, I would estimate, if I was still a little girl and got a non-friends Lego set, I would have built it, and then lost interest. I can picture the child me playing with the Friends sets for hours.

Anyway back to the pets. These come in little bags like the mini-figures, but they have a picture on the front that shows what you're getting, so they're not blind packaged. Like the mini-figures they're cheap. Here the minis are five dollars each, the pets are five dollars and eighty cents or something. But there is so much more playability!

Firstly you don't just get a pet. Each pack does include a pet, but it also includes bricks to make a playscene. BUT not just one playscene! Each set comes with instructions to build one thing, but you can download instructions from the Lego Friends website to make a second scene and you can combine it with two of the others to make a third scene!

Squirrel made with packaged instructions

Squirrel made with downloaded instructions

Squirrel set combined with cat and turtle sets

These were so much fun, that I actually bought all of them (so far there's nine) and spent a whole day assembling and reassembling them - and I'm a grown up! If I was still a kid, I probably would have exploded from excitement and for a toy that's under ten dollars that's pretty impressive!

So far there are three series of three pets. And each series combines to make a bigger set.

Series one is : cat, turtle and squirrel

Series two is : hedgehog, poodle and bunny

Series three is : fawn, puppy and parrot

The Fawn is my favourite (and another thing that would have made me explode if I was still a kid).

 

Seriously if you know a little girl that could do with a five dollar reward or present, or if you need something to add to a present for a little girl - get one of these! They are amazing!