Meet Fryda

...finally!  All done, dressed (!) and looking as quirkily beautiful as ever.

This is what I love about dolls, despite everything that's not gone quite as I expected or hoped it would, she has her own style and personality and has come into her own.  I would love to tell you how I made her clothes, certainly I started using the American Doll patterns (particularly for the jacket) but, in truth, I can't.  Like everything else with this doll, the best laid plans quickly fell apart and so I just sewed.  

Trying to make Fryda more "pretty doll like" didn't last long: the original blue or green dress idea quickly didn't suit, and in a rummage of the scrap box I found this pin-stripe dark grey wool.  Fryda and I embraced her Gothic inclinations!  The jacket is more-or-less as the pattern would suggest, except that Fryda's measurements were radically different.  So, using the tailoring skills I learnt on the Victorian jacket, I tailored it to fit, except for the sleeves, which I liked oversized and loose.  I also left the edges unfinished to gently fray.  The wool does not fray easily, so it won't damage the jacket, and I liked the contrast of shabby with such a structured jacket.  It would make a good pattern to scale up and make in my own size... and another project is born!  

The skirt was nothing more than a leftover strip of faux silk, which I cut into three and shaped onto her.  Long definitely didn't work, so we went for mid-length and a net underskirt with a little gathered detailing as suited.  The buttons I have had for years and were a good size, I also liked the splash of colour, which softens all the black.  And finally her hair is twisted with ribbons and a clear bead/ribbon concoction, which came off an overly fussy pair of slippers.

Now that she's all done, Fryda is not going anywhere; I may be far too old for such things, but she's mine :)  I have no idea where she is going to gently rest out her days, Megs has taken a great liking to her, so it will have to be out of reach, and I don't think sitting is the best way to display her: she's certainly not an elegant doll, sitting with her legs crossed at the ankles is the best she can manage.  For now, she can enjoy Christmas from the sideboard, in the New Year I will have to think of a good and suitable place to keep my quirky little Fryda.