Maximum Effort

     I share a lot of information about doll making. Over the years I have said exactly what I use for this or that and sometimes exactly how I do things (sometimes with photos). There are some things that I do not share and that might make people mad. But honestly, the best way to learn something is to do it. And that includes figuring out what doesn't work. And something that doesn't work for me might very well work for someone else. I don't want to be limiting. 

    Today I am going to talk about things that didn't work, time wasting, money spent and what I finally figured out. In making miniatures, including dolls, we often end up using things in ways they were originally not intended to be used. For today's post on maximum effort (which is also a movie reference for people who think I am complaining instead of being funny, lol) I am going to talk about putting a logo on a sweatshirt. There are a lot of ways to do this in miniature. But the first step is checking the size. Iron on transfer paper is not cheap. So I put the design into Publisher and make a bunch of copies in slightly different sizes until I find one that works. This is not hard. Also, I do have to flip the imagine since when you use transfer paper it goes imagine side down. Anyway, I had a good size, the first step was complete. I should note I did also have to add a black background to the image (which is awesome and transparent!) because my printer could not apparently "see" what it was supposed to see.

     Next I took out the transfer paper and made a row of logo transfers. I always like to have more than one because you never know when you will mess up or what else you might want a logo on. I got out the doll iron and out it on... and it disappeared. Now I understand why they make dark t-shirt transfer paper. I did not have any so I had to put this doll on hold and order some. 

     When I got back to the doll I was excited. I was going to have a perfect logo on the shirt, it was going to look super professional and everything would be great! I was wrong. For one, the instructions on dark t-shirt transfer paper are extensive. There are a lot of rules on how to use it and there are 3 layers (instead of 2) on the transfer stuff and you need to do such-and-such to the thing and then so-and-so... OK. I was ready. I made my tiny logos again, got out the doll iron and put it on. I was not going to fiddle with it until it was completely cooled off. But a quick check on the edges showed that the logo was not totally affixed to the shirt. So I ironed again. That seemed better. I put it aside to cool, semi-confident that it was going to be awesome. I was wrong again. 

     The logo didn't adhere to the shirt at all. I don't know if it was because the transfer was so small or if it just didn't like the material (which I don't remember exactly what it is but it is not plain cotton, but all the knit I can get at the moment). So I was a little concerned that I wouldn't be able to pull off a logo on a sweatshirt. That bothered me. I can make a knight in full armor but not a logo on a sweatshirt? I am way too stubborn to give up. I was starting to be afraid though that I would be left having to put the logo on printer paper and gluing it on that way. Being on a doll, this wouldn't be the end of the world and would look just fine. It still bothered me. 

     So I went back to thinking about this. There HAD to be a way to do this that didn't look cheesy and that I would not hate every time I thought about it. Silk is the answer. I have printed fabric lots of time for lots of different dolls. I prefer printable cotton (my printer does not) for actually making doll clothes. Years ago I went through a phase where I made all sorts of western dolls with things like feathers, flowers and leaves or butterflies and birds on them. These were all printed in miniature, on silk, and I cut out and used the pieces to make designs. It was actually a lot of fun. And now that I am thinking of it, I might again make a peacock feather doll. I have a project I am working on that that would be perfect for. Anyway, back to topic. There is (of course) another step to using very tiny pieces of printed silk for anything. When you cut the silk it will start to fray immediately and your tiny pieces will look shabby and horrible in no time. So first you need to remove the silk sheet from the paper backing and coat the back with glue. I use Alene's jewel-it glue for this. I imagine a lot of thin glues that dry clear would work, this is just what I have always used. Spread it out thin and try to make sure the fabric is not wrinkled while it dries. This holds the fabric together so you can cut out teeny tiny pieces. Or just small ones. I did all of the things and I cut out the logo. I win. 

    Putting a logo on a sweatshirt should never have taken me this long to figure out. It is not even a new concept to me. The dark material messed with me though. I have made tiny t-shirts, with ironed on logos, and they have worked out perfectly. I have made tote bags and other things with logos. All of them were light colored. Light colored transfer paper is super simple to use. Because I was thinking about transfer paper I didn't think about my old printed silk tricks. That would have saved me a ton of time and a lot of money. Now I have a package of dark transfer paper that I need to figure out how to use. But at least I defeated the logo problem. 

     The next thing that I had to figure out was making the hood for the hoodie. Originally I thought the logo was going to be the easy part. How funny. Because of course it was never as simple as putting a hood on something and calling it a hoodie. Anyway, I made a hood and I made a shirt, but then I had to hand sew them together because there was no chance this was happening on the machine. No worries, I have been hand sewing forever (I also have boring ugly nails now and I should fix that).

      In the end I defeated the hood problem as well. 

     Which likely would not have been a problem at all if I had been OK with just sticking a hood on the thing. But no, it's a hoodie, I wanted it to also be functional. Because if you are going to do a thing you might as well do it right. It was why I struggled to put a logo on the shirt with transfer paper. I do like the cool details. I will admit, I skip details that won't show. It saves time. There are people who LOVE all of the tiny details on miniatures. Even ones that never show. Knowing they are there is enough. But I have found that if I was to do that it would take a lot more time, and that would have to raise the prices on the dolls. There has to be a balance. But there was no question in my mind that this hoodie had to work. That was not a detail I was willing to skip. 

      When I was dressing the doll I realized that I didn't actually like how the hood was laying so I took in a couple of stitches more at the throat. It made the hood lay correctly and fixed the way the strings we laying as well. I have said before that there are a lot of ugly stages in doll making. Some of the ugly stages are not even all that ugly, they are just those little things that are not quite right that bug you. It was definitely worth it to work out the issues with this doll. I think she looks great (and yes, we drink a ton of seltzer).

      I really should be working on miniatures for my sale. But this doll in particular was weighing on my brain. When I have a doll issue I need to work out I can't just put it aside. I have to solve the problem. If it was a standard hunt seat doll I might have been able to just step back and tell myself I would get to her in a week or two. But I didn't really know if I could make a hoodie. And I had to figure it out. I was happy when it was done and I didn't have any desire to make another one. But all of a sudden I want a doll with a logo hoodie. I don't actually have a logo though. I'll have to see what I can come up with.