The Pippa Convention 2015: Tea's and Tiara's

So, yesterday, the 23rd of May, was this years Pippa convention.
As I mentioned in my earlier blogpost, I arrived at Heathrow on friday afternoon, around 4.15.
I had been trying to figure out the best way to get to Theobalds Park from there, and with a little help from my friends, I had decided to take the Piccadily line up to Finsbury Park, changed over there to the Victorialine for one stop to Seven Sisters, and I had the train from there to Theobalds Grove. I just missed the connection up there, so had to wait for almost half an hour, but that wasn't really a big deal, compared to the time I always have to spend waiting at the airport.
At Theobalds Grove I was trying to stop a cab, but it took quite a while before I got one. Meanwhile Sue and her mum showed up, so we ended up sharing the taxi. Just a short drive from the station to the hotel, so we arrived there around 7.30 pm.
I had a nice room at the second floor, so just dropped off my stuff there, managed to log in to the hotel wifi, and went back down, as I was quite hungry by that time.

I ordered some food, and spend the evening catching up with my Pippa friends, lots of laughing, and after a while also a bit of crying when we were talking about something painful in my personal life. I love my friends for being those lovely understanding ladies who are just there, either for a laugh or a cry or both. xxx

At last it was really time to go to bed.
As usual, I woke up early on convention day, and as I still had lots of time, I decided to have a nice relaxing bath. I had a quite enjoyable breakfast and finally went back to my room, checked all my stuff to take with me to the convo, and also had to check out, as I had only booked for 1 night.
While we were waiting in the lounge until it was time we were allowed into the convention room, I had a nice chat  with some more of my Pippa friends, and I started knotting plugs for a reroot.
Finally we were alllowed in, lots of excitement!

The convention dolls, already in a corner of the room

I had been making up a couple of oufits for sale, earlier this year, so I even got some space at the sales table this year.

The prize table was just loaded with goodies

And there was a special dolls prize table this year as well

Of course there were the themed displays

Redheads

And so to bed

And the competitions:

Garden Party

Mad Hatters Tea Party

 
2 of my lovely friends:

table with competition prizes:

When everyone was settled, Karen started the programme:

It was a very special day, especially for Lil' Pip, as it was her birthday, and Louise made her a very yummie b'day cake:

After the singing, we started on a mini make competition, we were all going to decorate a sinamay hat, lots of ribbons , small buttons, roses, and a box loaded with fabrics were all there, so all that was needed was some inspiration.

Here's the picture of my finished result:

And all the other ones:

Of course we had a little lunch break too:

After lunch some more excitement when we got to choose our prize table doll, I managed to get me a beautiful doll by Peggy:

Lots of fun with Suey's Pippa Bingo (yummie jellybeans to use for our bingo cards!), and after that another special moment, the official presentation of the convention doll:

Once again an amazing doll!

Still more fun to be had, Julieanne had a very interesting talk about doll photography,  And Dianna, showed us how to sew for Pippa and gave us lots of patterns as well:

So many more rounds of prize table draws, and the goodie bags, and also the awards for the winners of the competition, everything was really fantastic!
Well done for the team on organizing such a great event! I think we all had a blast!
All too soon I had to leave, as I had to catch my train, special thanks to Mandy B, for driving me up to the airport, and to Mandy W, for massaging me when my shoulder was playing up again.....
I had an extra security check at the airport (was it all the dollies in my suitcase and my handbag?), but I was one of the first passengers for boarding, so all went excellent. When the plane was almost ready to take off, they found out an extra suitcase had been boarded, so they had to unload and find out which one didn't belong on our flight. Of course that meant a bit of delay, so I finally arrived at Schiphol airport around 11.30 instead of 11 pm. My husband was waiting there for me, and we took the train home. Thanks so much to mum and dad who stayed at our home with the kids, so my husband could pick me up.
Of course we had to chat a bit, and I had to show some of my stuff to them when I got home, so I rolled into bed around 2.30!

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)

 

The making of the Daisy Convention Doll 2015

As always, with a Daisy Convention, we have been busy with a whole team of people to make a beautiful convention doll.
First off we needed to decide what type of doll and what she needed to depict.
Of course with a convention in Copenhagen we all felt a mermaid would be apropriate.
Saran for rerooting was kindly donated by Melanie from Retrodolls.uk

Of course, with several people rerooting the dolls, we needed to all do it a bit similarly.
Tracy Farrant from crazy daisy custom dolls kindly handdyed fabrics for tailbody & tailfin and sewed the tailbodies for us.

 I was going to do the tailfins, which was completely out of my comfortzone, but turned out lots of fun to do.
Vicky came over to me for a day, to figure out how to and while she was here, she created the armbands for the convention doll:

The husband was a bit less happy with all the glitter we ended up with ...

Meanwhile Helen had been making a beautiful headdress:

Ingie had been busy making bra-tops:

Ralph made pretty mirrors:

It all started to come together nicely, but we still didn't have anything for her to sit on:

Ingie to the rescue! She made the most awesome rocks!

Of course the hair also needed styling, and Ingie had already styled hers lovely, so I made a couple of little video's to show the styling to the other stylists too.

So, with all the elements coming together, Jonny started drawing another fabulous box design:

Just like every year, my husband was kind enough to cut and glue all the boxes.
And here she is, our beautiful Daisy in Denmark Convention Doll 2015:

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.