My contest entries

I had a couple of people asking me if I could share some more pics of the details of my contest entries, and I thought it would be fun to also share with you the work in progress.
As soon as I knew the themes, I started brainstorming what to make for the competitions, I read up on a lot of Hans Christiaan Andersen's fairytales, and my first thought was about the princess who had 12 brothers which were turned into swans, but I had difficulty finding enough miniature swans at a reasonable price, so I decided to go for another fairytale.
The Phoenix Bird spoke to my imagination, and I made a hidden board on pinterest for inspiration...
I have now made this board public, as the competition has finished.
pinterest Phoenix
So, the decision was made, and inspiration found.
I went to the market to look for materials, both for my Phoenix and for my Viking, and I ended up buying ribbon and braid.
So my first part of the outfit started with making a skirt, with all those different coloured ribbons.

 Next, I bought some red metallic fabric, with the intention to make a catsuit, but obviously the fabric was less stretchy than I thought, so I cut off the bottompart, and only kept the top.
I also planned to make a mask for her, as I found an excellent tutorial for it from Antique Lilac
apoxie mask tutorial
All I had to do was follow the steps, and bring in my own fantasy:

When the mask was cured, I lightly sanded it, and painted it, afterwards
As a finishing touch I added some glitter and boa feathers:

Although I had made the mask on a Daisy with a standard body, I thought a Dashing Daisy would be much better for a Phoenix, as she would be able to spread her arms (and wings).
Just a week before the convention I finally got hold of one that was in need of a reroot, added bonus was the fact that she was softheaded, so really an excellent victim. I was very pleased to find out the mask fitted well on her.
I still had some fire mist saran hair in my stash of reroot hair, so I immediately started a reroot and styled her hair in a ponytail. I had planned for spiral curls, but never did them before, but decided to give it a try anyways.

I didn't have small straws, so decided pipecleaners were the best option.
While Daisy's hair was drying, I had another look at the outfit, I still wasn't satisfied with the top, so decided to see what it would look like if I would glue boa feathers onto it. That really made a difference, and I started to feel confident I would actually be able to turn her into a nice bird.
I made up another pattern for a pair of somewhat tight fitting trousers, not the most impressive trousers ever, but most of it would be either in the boots, or under the skirt, so well enough for my purpose.
Final step was to make up a pair of wings. I had several tutorials on my pinterest board, and decided to kind of combine them. A few days before the convention she was all ready, my beautiful Phoenix Bird:

I had also been working on a necklace for her, but when the top was covered in feathers, I decided the necklace would be too much, so this turned in to my entry for the jewelry competition:

Meanwhile I had been working on my Viking competition as well.
I thought it would be fun to make a Viking which would be totally different from last years convention doll, and I already had a Viking inspiration board on pinterest, so whenever I found something I fancied I just added to it.
At a sewing/crafting for dolls group on facebook, there was a pattern by Marian Jasper for a smock for Ellowyne, and I decided to try and resize it for Daisy.
It really is an excellent pattern with lots of detail.

After sewing the smock, I decided to try and make a leather corset top
 

Next, I had in mind to make a bow and arrow, and followed a tutorial from Antique Lilac, but one day before the convention I realised I still needed to finish the arrows and decided to leave that out all together.

I embroidered the smock with a small chainstitch.

I also finally managed to make a closure with a bead and elastic loop.

Of course she also needed an overdress, and I thought the fabric I used last year would look great for it, and I was just hoping no one would recognise it being the same.

Of course this was still not enough, I felt she also needed some kind of armor, so I started experimenting with my leather ribbons again:

I also made some armgards and a 'leather' necklace to finish her protection.

I had also bought some faux fur braid at the market, which I thought to make a cape with, but I decided she would look better withouth a cape and just added a bit of it under her corset, as a little Viking touch up. I also made the boots with it, basically just sewing it up, and cutting a leather lace to size to hold them up.

My husband had been sawing a shield for me, which I finished with stain, and I added some leather to the edge and found a lovely dragon on ebay, which was just the right size for the shield. As a finishing touch I added dollshouse nails so the leather would also stay in place.

I had also found some miniature swords on ebay, so I had been making a scabbard and a belt for it too.

The last step would have been a reroot, but I felt I was running out of time, so instead I grabbed another doll which I had already lying about rerooted, and braided her hair to make it a Viking style girl.

I tremendously enjoyed my creative journeys for these competitions, I used many materials and techniques I never used before and am really pleased with the results.