A new pink dress for DearSD Charlotte

16th September 2024

I sewed a new dress! This uses the "Orietta" or "Memory of St. Hildegard" pattern from ancienne, a doll seamstress whose work I really admire. The pattern goes together beautifully and is very clear. I'll just note that it is a pattern rather than full instructions, so if you are new to sewing then you may be better off starting elsewhere.

I used a very lightweight Swiss dot voile, which was so thin that I lined the whole thing in a plain white cotton. In hindsight I wouldn't line the skirt if I made this again, because the gathering at the waist became too bulky, but I would instead make a separate petticoat to prevent the skirt being see-through. I tried to cover this crime with a waist ribbon.

I did make this dress a bit long for DearSD, but that was entirely my fault and not the pattern. (Luckily, I failed to get a full-length shot, so this particular crime is hidden.) I also greatly simplified the skirt due to not having enough lace or other trim.

The dress is mostly hand-sewn, including the top stitching. It's absolutely not perfect, but I think I'm getting better! So far the key factors for success (for me) are: a very sharp, thin needle, and excellent light. The hand-sewing was mainly for convenience, so I could be sewing while with my family instead of shut away in another room. I did sew most of the skirt by machine, just to get it over with.

For these photos I gave Charlotte the default wig from DearSD Nayu's fullset, because I still don't love any of the blonde wigs I have for her. Maybe light brown is better? The wig is a bit big (Nayu has a melon head) so there was a lot of adjusting needed between shots. The eyes are from miyabi glass studio (bought second-hand). I tied the bow on as a last-minute addition and realised I don't know how to tie a neat bow. How have I gone through life like this?

Disclaimer: In my last post I wrote about how wonderful my new camera is. It's still wonderful, but I may have jinxed something, because it took me 20+ Lightroom crashes to edit these photos (how I wish I was exaggerating!), even after turning off features and downgrading. So if the colours are a little inconsistent across the photos, that's the reason.

New eyes and wig for Lizbet, and a new camera for me

8th August 2024

Lizbet (Super Dollfie Liz) has a new wig and new glass eyes. Her wig is the Heuchera from Foveo in Sage, which is a complex dark muted green. Her beautiful eyes are made by Lepus and are 14.8mm.

Buying wigs directly from Foveo is very easy (they have an English site) and there are both direct sale and preorder sales available every so often. The quality and colours are both lovely.

Lepus is a glass eye maker from Japan. I was able to buy a few pairs of eyes on Yahoo! Japan Auctions through a proxy service, and they are really pretty. This pair has a gradient, half pink and half blue, so you can get a different effect depending on how you place them in the head.

I also got my hands on a new camera recently, which has been an upgrade in every sense of the word. Previously I was using a Canon 350D from 2005, which has a cropped APS-C sensor and absolutely no modern conveniences. It's definitely a decent camera, and will take better photos than a phone, but I was struggling with battery life (even after replacing the batteries) and focus in mid-to-low light conditions.

My new camera is the Canon R6. If you know anything about cameras then you'll know this is an absolutely massive improvement. Excellent auto-focus and eye/face focus tracking, much better low light shooting, mirrorless, a large (and live) back screen, full frame, 5 million menu options and/or improvements, in-body image stabilisation, plus a ton of other stuff... and bonus: I can finally send images to other devices over Bluetooth or wi-fi, and the battery doesn't die after 2 minutes.

(I must add a disclaimer that I was given this camera by a very, very generous family member who was upgrading their camera body. I am incredibly grateful and very much aware that most people are not just given an expensive camera as a gift. I hope I can pay this forward some day.)

Using the R6 is a joy. These photos are all taken in relatively low light, and are hand-held shots. Shooting hand-held in low light was completely impossible for me with the 350D - honestly, I had trouble getting sharp focus even using a tripod, or I would get shots which were focused on the hair rather than the eyes. This is definitely a combination of factors, some of which is probably user error... you can get great photos with any camera if you know how to use it. But having said that, I'm honestly astonished at how much easier it is to get sharp images quickly.

I'll still use the tripod, of course, but I'm so happy to have more flexibility. Generally, using this camera feels like most of the previous limitations I ran into have been blown away!

I'm using the Canon EF 35mm f/2 lens here with an EF-to-RF adapter. It's a very inexpensive lens and an older model (it first came out in 1990, but I bought it second-hand so I don't know how old mine is) but it's reviewed well, and has a 25cm minimum focus distance, which is great for doll photography.

It's really satisfying to be able to quickly get photos of my dolls. Lizbet hasn't had much attention lately, which is frankly criminal, because she's stunning. I'm embarrassed to admit I started making her a dress in July 2023, over a year ago... I need to pick that up again. Maybe next time I post I'll have some progress to share!

Welcoming DearSD Charlotte

5th June 2024

DearSD Charlotte is not in the official lineup of Dear Super Dollfie dolls that Volks offers, but I saw an example of a Charlotte head on a DearSD body in my social networks recently and couldn't get it out of my head.

So, I did what any normal doll owner would do: I bought a second-hand DearSD body from Yahoo! Japan Auctions, and a Charlotte head from an owner on Den of Angels, and stuck the two together (and did an attempt at a faceup).

I would like to get some better-quality and lighter blue eyes, plus a less fringe-heavy (or bangs-heavy for my US friends) blonde wig. I'll talk about her dress in a later post, but it's also not quite finished.

And she doesn't have a name yet.

So without further ado, here is my totally-unfinished doll...