Doris - my first art doll

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This is Doris, my first 'art doll'. I had never done anything like this before, I made her up as I went along. Her skeleton was made with some cable left over from rewiring the house, wrapped with strips of quilt wadding, calico and finally knitting yarn. She wears a velvet skirt featuring discharge dyed appliques, a machine embroidered blouse and a waistcoat made of silk scraps bonded and machined into a fabric. The hat is made from a melted plastic tablecloth layered with sweet wrappers, net and bits of lace. Her face is painted and embroidered and her hair is different types of braids made from knitting yarn with beads from an old car seat cover. I made Doris from recycled materials.


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Doris in close-up.

This is Doris's wardrobe:




There is a black muslin chemise, a multicoloured vest and a velvet skirt. She also has a beaded amulet purse for her special ingredients.



Close-up of chemise. Black muslin decorated with machine stitching in metallic threads and with a black lace skirt.



Close-up of applique decoration on the hem of the black velvet skirt. The motifs were discharge printed on black fabric with ordinary household bleach, then bonded to the velvet and outlined with machine stitching. The edges of the skirt were cut to shape and finished with a machine zigzag stitch.



Close-up of the multicoloured vest. Scraps of silk were bonded to interfacing, then randomly machined in a variety of threads. The back is embossed black velvet.

Doris got a new apron in response to a Tie One On challenge to use some kind of multimedia on an apron. I have used discharge printing, hand and machine embroidery.



The design was discharge printed using ordinary household bleach. The printing block was the piece of polystyrene shown in the photo. Usually it is used to fill in the gaps in the edges of wavy plastic greenhouse roofs. I curled it round and tied it with string to make the flower motifs. They are a larger version of the motifs on Doris's skirt. I outlined the design in stem stitch in stranded cotton, then added some decorative machine stitching.

Here's Doris modelling the apron.


I think it makes her look quite 'folksy'.