Have I gone mad?

'I'm afraid so. You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are.'
This little conversation entirely covers my past 3 weeks.

I arrived back home from Denmark the 4th of May, and as you all know I did a bit of blogging about the Daisy Convention there and of course I had a couple of things at home to catch up with, not to mention some family stuff going on....
But... My Pippa Pals had told me they really missed me last year at the Pippa Convo, and really would love to see me again this year. So after a lot of thinking and calculating, I finally decided to fly up to London on Friday, and go straight back home after the convention, as it felt it wouldn't be fair to my family to leave my girls in their care for 2 long weekends in less than a month time. Yep, that's right. Pippa Convention was yesterday, the 23rd of May this year.
Of course, with all the plotting and planning for the Daisy Convention I hadn't been doing anything for the Pippa Convention until after the Daisy Convention. (well apart from buying a couple of gifts for the prize table, oh, and making handbags for the convention dolls...)

The Pippa Convention was at Theobalds Park, and the theme was Tea's & Tiara's.
With those themes in mind, the convention team thought up a couple of fun competitions:

‘Mad Hatter’s Tea Party’

This is a single doll makeover (Pippa, Pippa Pal or Pete) and the doll must be customised e.g. re-root, custom outfit by yourself and must not be wearing standard Pippa outfits or outfits purchased from others.

Parasols

Design and make a parasol for Pippa. This could be as easy as customising a cocktail umbrella (or as complicated as you choose to make it).

‘Garden Party’

Design and make an outfit for Pippa or Pete suitable for a Garden Party.

To be displayed on a stock non-customised Pippa/friend doll. 

So I had to decide if I wanted to have a go at the competitions, and if so, what to make...

I started with a bit of research, and made up a few boards on good old pinterest.

I had to decided if I wanted to make something floral for Garden Party or something more classic. We don't have any Garden Party's here in the Netherlands, or at least, nothing which you would officially call Garden Party, but a few years back I went to a Strawberry Tea in the UK, so I had a feeling it might be comparable...

I had some nice silk and lace lying about, so decided to go for the classic look. First I made up the dress, and used picot beading on the neckline. After that I had to have a go at a hat, not really my cup of tea, but with some tutorials, I managed to make something acceptable. I thought I'd better try to make a parasol to go with it too. Either to try out for the parasol competition, or as my entry for it, if I would run out of time. (which I did, so I had to split the outfit and the parasol for the competitions.

So, last sunday, with not even a week to go, I had to decide if I would take up the challenge and try to go for the Mad Hatter OOAK doll competition.

As I really liked the idea pretty much, I just jumped in, and decided that if I would be able to make a coat, I would be able to make up the rest too. It was a bit fiddly, and I had to try a few times, before the coat was looking right the way I wanted it, but I managed. A pair of socks was easy to make up, and I thought a pair of pants would be easy enough too, but of course I had to embroider a bit on it, but by monday evening I had finished those 3 parts of the outfit.

On tuesday I started the reroot, and finished it on wednesday, curlers were in her hair by wednesday night, and I kept fingers crossed it would work out the way I was hoping for. Thursday morning came, and much to my surprise and happiness, the hair turned out right the way I wanted it to be. So on to creating a top and a bow. of course there was only black ribbon with white polka dots, but I realised I had some fabric markers somewhere, so started coloring the dots. I made up a halterneck top, and also tried to make a waistcoat, but decided to ditch that one, as it just didn't work out the way I wanted it.

Thursday evening came, and I finally grabbed all my courage together and started on the repaint. Thankfully Tim Burton's Mad Hatter wasn't exactly a beauty, so I managed to get the make up done too....(Yes, I even paid attention to the hands)

I also had to make up the top hat, and remember, I'm really not much of a hatter...

Friday morning came, and I still had to put in lashes, but I also needed to pack my stuff, as my train would go at 12.54. So I decided to go for the packing, which was the main important thing, of course.

Unfortunately I forgot to pack my daughters tiara and a pair of Daisy shoes, which I had promissed to one of my Pippa pals, but other than that, I was all ready for it (although my hatter still didn't have lashes).

So, when I was in the train to the airport, I took out my reroot hair, and a small sewing needle, and started on the lashes. I didn't have any siccors with me (they are not allowed in handluggage in the plane), so I used my nailclipper to cut the lashes.

Finally she was completely ready:

"Have I gone mad?" "I'm afraid so. You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are."

As you may imagine, I did have a lot of fun again, creating those competition entries, although I was a bit pressed for time. Special thanks to my eldest daughter, for lending me her dolls house scissors and her pastel chalk (which I used for the complexion of the mad hatters face and hands)