Heads, New Doll and more Tour de France Ramblings

There’s been a lot going on in the doll making world about heads lately. It started with Berrie and her fantastic head tutorial then I’ve noticed other dollmakers talking about their heads. Anyhow, I just wanted to share a little trick I use to avoid what I call ‘ghost neck’. You can see a perfect example of ‘ghost neck’ here (it’s above the ‘d’). I gave Constance a gn doll to use as a sample body for sewing up clothing..low and behold it shows up on Etsy. Thanks Con! (you know I’m so joking!)

img_3003.jpg

So, after you put your cover on the head I pull it down very tightly at the bottom and secure with a few pins. Then you machine it closed, making sure you pull down as you machine. Another hint to avoid GN is to have a decent sized neck, not a really thick one, but now a wobbly one either and to make sure thd ‘body’ of your head (underneath part) is substantial.

img_3004.jpg

img_3005.jpg

The next thing is to tie your neck. I do this by holding my hand above the neck groove, winding my string around a few times and then pulling while sliding my hand down off the neck. Does that make sense? Does this help at all?

img_3009.jpg

So here she is.. the new 10″ doll with her big sister the 15″ doll. She grew after some head issues and tweaks. I love her and her cute little ness. She’ll be up on Etsy tomorrow.

Ten Reasons Why We Love TdF

1. man running naked along side riders ‘cheering’ them on

2. 5 people dressed up as witches running along side riders

3. man throwing water on all the riders to ‘help’

4. lots (and I mean lots) of men in very little speedos running around

5. the last 5 minutes when all the riders just ‘give er’.. man alive that is strength

6. feeling I get of accomplishment just watching the riders go up hills, mildly satisfying

7. man holding a kangaroo (blow up) cheering on Aussie rider

8. scenery

9. so much momentum gained that we saw a rider actually coast up the hill

10. one million spectators on last night’s part.


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

15 responses to “Heads, New Doll and more Tour de France Ramblings”

  1. con Avatar
    con

    Any press is good press! You make me wish I had watched tour de france with that top ten list

  2. tab Avatar
    tab

    OMG – i love the 10″ doll! thats exactly what my little girl could handle as she is still too small for a regular bamboletta :o)

  3. Meike Avatar

    Yup, it does help, thanks! And it’s nice to be able to take a tiny peek behind the scenes at Bamboletta land! 🙂

    LOL – men in very little speedos, eh? Maybe I should tune in this afternoon…

    P.S. The tiny doll is so precious!

  4. Christine Avatar

    Hm, you do it on the machine? I make the dolls by hand… I guess I should try the machine then, would be a lot faster.
    I do the neck the same way you do, btw.
    And the small one is so cute! Turned out beautiful. 🙂

    Christine

  5. Rohini Avatar

    Thank you very much, Christina, that is great help.

    You know what I would also really like to see? It is the heads without the tricot, I always wonder why my dolls face don’t turn out so shapely. Or if the cheeks are big, than they are kinda ‘monkeesh’.

    The small and the big dolls are very cute together.

  6. admin Avatar
    admin

    Con- next year I’ll arrange a TdF viewing party 🙂
    Thanks Tab!
    Meike.. hmmm, the men in speedos make you laugh more than anything, they really should not be in speedos
    Christine, I only sew the body and that bottom part of the head by machine, I attach everything else on by hand sewing. I find that using the machine on the head bottom gets the tricot nice and taunt
    Hi Rohini, Next time John (maker of the heads) makes up a batch of heads I will take a photo. I can’t even get them like he does, I just don’t have the hand strength. He’s got quite the system, he uses 2 different types of wool (he says that the Corridale compacts better and the Romney is better on the outside) and 3 different types of string..including parachute cord! I’ll ask him to give us a tutorial. thanks for the compliments on the dolls everyone!

  7. Berrie Avatar

    Good on ya Christina! I love seeing the way stuff is made. We all come to our own way through trial and error. Sometimes lots of error. My big goal is o NOT have the dreaded GN. I never had a name for it before. You’re a peach!

  8. Monica Avatar

    LOVE! That’s how I feel about your new doll.

    Thank you for the tutorial Christina! One day, I’m going to have the courage to try making one myself! 🙂

  9. admin Avatar
    admin

    Thanks Berrie.. don’t you find that you are continually finding new ways of doing things? lol, I love that part! what do you think- have I coined the phrase ‘ghost neck’? ha.
    Thanks Monica! You really should give it a try, we’re all here to help!

  10. Sue Avatar

    I find it really interesting to see how everybody is making their heads. That’s one of the great things about making dolls and haveing contact with other doll makers. We learn from each other and evolve our own doll making all the time.
    Doll makers are great people!

    Too bad the Tour de France is over tomorrow.
    Me and my hubby watched the Tour for years. Some areas the tour goes through me and my hubby have been to and the footage of the tour is always fantastic.
    Last year we even watched the Tour on our move from Alberta to Florida. On the 6 day drive we either watched in the morning before we left or the re-run in the evening at the next hotel.
    When I still lived in Baden-Baden/ Germany I was once one of the spectators on the side of the road in the hills around Baden-Baden. It’s so cool ! I think I still have some photos from that Tour somewhere…. I must dig them out and show them to my kids……

  11. […] Bamboletta has a tutorial on making a nice neck. […]

  12. jen Avatar
    jen

    Can you please help me out, so after you tie it, do you untie it and then sew it? or do you sew over the tie? I’m a bit confuse. any help would be much appreciated.

  13. Bijoux Avatar

    My brother recommended I might like this blog. He used to be entirely right. This put up truly made my day. You can not believe just how so much time I had spent for this information! Thanks!

  14. […] ya se le pone la tela de la piel. Bamboletta explica cómo hacer el cuello para que no salgan arrugas. Yo no vi esto a tiempo y no lo hice, y me […]

  15. autumn Avatar
    autumn

    any chance you could reupload the pics? they’re not working =) Thanks!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *