Bags and Fancy Hats

       I am not a huge fan of making saddlebags. But they are a very popular item and I try to offer some for sale every now and then. I can't stand the thought of doing them as an order anymore. When people ask I get really anxious. But I will try to offer up some finished bags at least several times a year. If you have a color you have been wanting please let me know, I don't have everything already planned out for the sale. I know it is not as good as being guaranteed to get what you want, but I just can't do it anymore. Not with saddlebags anyway.
      They really do take a lot of work and a lot of time. First I have to cut out all the pieces. And saddlebags have some really strangely shaped pieces. Next comes all of the ironing. All the tiny pieces are ironed using different cardstock guides to make sure lines are crisp. I end up burning myself a lot (nothing serious) because the tiny pieces get surprisingly hot. And sometimes I bump the iron.

     After I do all the cutting and ironing I need to start on the gluing. This is the stage where they start to look sort of bag shaped, but not really enough to feel like I am making decent progress. This would probably be a good place to call the ugly stage of saddlebags. They have a lot of them. 

      Of course I am not just working on saddlebags, I am still working on dolls. The other day I finished up another casual English doll, this time with some fun purple breeches. And I finished up a fancy hat driving doll! While I was cleaning my fabric drawer I found this green print, which is a custom piece from Spoonflower. When I first got it I put it aside, discounting it as too large a print to be useful for dolls.When I looked at it again I thought it would be perfect and I made this coat for the driving doll. I had no idea what I wanted to do for her hat, and then I came up with this fancy thing. 

     At first I was not sure if I would like all of those big ribbon curls. But I have seen hats with elaborate ribbons like this. In the end it came together and I liked it. And I liked her large jewels. This is definitely a fancy driving doll. I don't have all of the dolls planned out yet, but I think I may do at least one more driving doll. 

     Dolls are in the works, cross country kits are well underway and I have saddlebags started. I only have 6 weeks left until my NOT Breyerfest live sale. I hope I have enough time.