I started out with a small scrap of flannel, and drew a little crooked smile. Pencils marked where the eyes would eventually go. I also used a blue Sharpie and colored the end of a Q-tip blue, then smudged on some blue 'rosy' cheeks. I have some liquid fabric stiffener, so I applied that over the face area with another cotton swab and let that dry. I traced a free-form alien blob on two different scraps of poly-cotton chintz fabric. I forgot the like sides together rule, and cut around the shape, leaving a small seam allowance, then had to re-work things a bit so that it worked when I realized my 1st mistake.
My drawing only had one arm, not on purpose, I just was thinking of it as a drawing, and would have drawn another in front of the body. I added a second arm drawn on scraps and did the cut out, hand stitch, turn inside-out deal. I did it with a pencil, forgetting I had a set of chopsticks in the kitchen. No cotton batting or Polyfil sent me off to the powder room to get a bag of 100% cotton swabs, which I pulled apart to make stuffing.
Next brilliant move, I cut a circle out of the front panel of the body and pinned the face piece behind it. I may do it differently next time. I hand stitched, in tiny stitches, all around the face edge, you can almost see the row of white thread stitches below. I then went back with some matching embroidery floss and tried to do an "X" stitch pattern around both pieces, making it more secure and fray resistant.
Next step, I added two matching irregular buttons to the face where I had marked their placement. I used the same embroidery floss, which made the eyes really pop. You can see the face coming together nicely.
Time for the big "sew". I placed printed sides together again, pinned, and then began the hand stitching around the line of the design. This took hours, particularly as I have some very bad Carpal Tunnel pain in both my hands. I took breaks and wore my wrist braces, but it was a challenge.
I left a small, actually too small, hole on one side, and then turned the whole doll inside-out. Actually it was right sides out, but that is just going to confuse the matter. I used my chopstick to work on the "horn" and limbs, making sure they were fully turned out. They actually ended up so much smaller than I had anticipated. Lesson learned there.
It was now "stuffing" time. More time spent shredding cotton balls and then working the fluff into all the smallest parts. This took quite a while, but I could finally see the doll coming into itself.
After fully stuffing the little critter, I started attaching the missing arm into place. I secured it with tiny hand stitches in white thread first, then added more "X" embroidered stitches for fun. I really like that the arm worked out to be the opposite pattern front to back. Closing up the last remaining edge and I was almost done.
Meet "Beeple 3", no idea where the heck the name came from, just popped into my head. Fully stuffed the horn curves over the forehead nicely all on it's own. The expression on his little face makes me smile too. This is my first complete "Art Doll" from start to finish with no pattern, plan, or guidance. I just dove in and went for it. I am likely influenced by the many amazing dolls I have come across in Etsy the last few weeks while writing my other blog Foraging For Fab.
When I was all finished, I noticed a tiny fraying hole in the back of Beeple. I decided to stitch, well 'darn' actually, it closed, and it made a great spot to place Beeple's ID tag. I made the tag from more stiffened flannel scrap, and then just wrote on it, punched a hole, and secured it to the back of the doll. I added an embroidery floss "bow" just to make it a little more polished.
I really like how my very first complete doll came out considering the fact that I faced quite a few challenges and forgotten rules. Not sure what I will do with him now, but he is going to go meet my nephew later today. He measures 7" tall, so he is actually quite small, but since I had stitched the entire project, I think it was the right size to go with. Now I just need to make him some friends.
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