This dress is inspired by the first dress made for Hitty by her owner, Phoebe Preble, in Hitty: Her First Hundred Years. I have to confess here that I love love love "living doll" children's literature, from Memoirs of a London Doll to the Doll People series. Hitty was one of my first encounters with this literature and is still one of my favorites even after all these decades. Of course, Hitty's wasn't a corset dress, but this is a reinterpretation, not a faithful reproduction.
[My first outfit] was to be of buff calico strewn with small red flowers, and I thought it was very fine indeed.
I even gave her a red "coral" necklace like Hitty's; although Hitty doesn't get that until later in the book, it's deeply associated with the character of the doll.
Pink gingham, the perfect spring dress. I made this for her for Easter but am only just now taking pictures.
Slightly blurry, but still charming. Ten years on I'm still so in love with her face. Maybe that's why I can't bear to replace her with an actual polyurethane resin doll--I can't find one with the charm of the Moxie Teenz face she's already got. Ellowyne Wilde is close, but she's not PU either. Besides, I'm most comfortable with playscale. So in the end, why futz with perfection? And I don't think anyone here can argue that Riri is perfect just as she is.
I made the skirt a bit longer, and went a little crazy with the sleeves. Well, it is an Easter dress, after all.
Another spring dress, this one green and white striped. Because she doesn't have enough green dresses and green is her favorite color. She's okay with pink, and light purple looks great on her because of her eyes--heck, she can wear any color I put on her (except orange, which she hates anyway), but green is her fave.
I saw these fake balloon animals in a prize machine and I couldn't resist getting her one. So she now has a blue balloon kitty cat!
This is the first shirt I made for Cherry and the first faux fur wig, and they still look pretty darn good on her. These days I usually put her in a lighter pink, but she still rocks the hell out of the hot pink wig. For a wig that's a decade old it still holds up and styles incredibly well. The Starbucks mini drink is a purchase from AliExpress.
As I have noted before, I have made tons of wigs for Cherry, out of every scrap of faux fur I could find. Samples from online fabric stores, keychain pompoms, even little fur pillows--I like being creative. I also have made her a number of necklaces to go with her corset dresses, like the one shown here, a black rose.
This particular dress really brings out the purple in her eyes. And as you can see, I did repot her cherry tree. She can even "pick" some of the blossoms because they pop right off and back on.
In her late spring/early summer kimono, Chaeri (or Chieri, for the Japanese spelling) is getting ready to pour tea for her guests.
Another AliExpress buy, a real porcelain tea set with cherry blossoms and no-handle cups, complete with its own tray.
The kimono has an apple blossom pattern on yellow, with a green obi.
And now, just for the fun of it, a Cherry advice meme! You'll notice it's the basis for my new avatar.
(Please don't judge me for how tempted I am to use this avatar over at the Den...)
