Fashion Doll Patterns: Jane, emerging........

The beginning of a Lord Perry Pattern design begins with a series of inspiration; no historical collection would be complete without the six wives of King Henry VIII, of England.  Because they are so popular, we know quite a bit about them from historical sources, movies, and television.

When I decided to create patterns for these ladies, I wanted to use quite a bit of accuracy yet incorporate those details with techniques that made construction a bit easier and provide an appearance more consistent with modern opinions of beauty and styling, etc. ( I'm sure most of you recognize the influence of "Anne of the Thousand Days" on the pattern "Anne, the Ambitious",)  You can view this tradition of styling on all costumes of re-makes of older period movies, etc; the original costumes are always used as models or inspiration for the updated versions of these costumes, yet look very different in each movie.

Several years ago in London, I collected several copies of costumes that were worn at one time or another of the wives of King Henry VIII of England.  One of my favorite costumes was this representation of Jane Seymour who gave King Henry his obsessively desired heir but died in the process (too bad so many of his targeted passions were unlucky enough to become his wives!) 

Lord Perry patterns fit Fashion Royalty dolls with only minor modifications; I have purchased eight different dolls to use as models, those with FR, FRA, body types little or no modification whatsoever (Vanessa or Veronique Perrin); the FR2 and FRT body types only need minor increases to length of lower leg and lower arm pattern pieces, so they should work beautifully with the existing Lord Perry patterns. (I took a dress off one of my Barbie dolls with the vintage body type and it fit perfectly ).  I will know more when I dress more of the dolls in my costumes.  

Moving forward, I will show these modifications on the new patterns Lord Perry will release.  I will also show a picture of both the Mattel Doll (Barbie) and Integrity doll (Fashion Royalty) in the garment I construct (usually, one will wear view A and the other will wear view B )-you already know Lord Perry patterns have at least two views of every costume.  

I have chosen the doll, chosen the costume I want to re-invent, and I will now begin the construction!  Hopefully, I will soon show you the result of the first effort.  Please remember you can see all of the Lord Perry Patterns @ LordPerryPatterns.com

Lord Perry tip for the week:

 When cutting out pattern pieces ( I have my pieces ready for the first proto-type),
I always use rotary cutters and a fabric glue such as Fray-Check to seal the raw edges of the pattern.  The pieces of fabric are simply too small to suffer seam damage, especially on the fabrics suitable for these costumes.

Fashion Doll Patterns: Local Boutique

It has certainly been a busy week for Lord Perry Patterns!  This past week we had a boutique sponsored by the HOA for the benefit of club members, etc. and I spent a lot of hours getting ready for it.

We actually had quite a bit of traffic.  To the left you see me starting to set up the booth for the boutique (held the following day).  This boutique gave me the chance to do a practice run for the doll show in the spring.  Lord Perry has not put on a show for almost fourteen years, so I needed to do a trial run.  The boutique offered the venue to do so.

I am sure you can imagine how much work it really takes to get everything ready for even a small show; even after all the dolls are dressed, groomed, and styled,  the patterns organized, etc.  It takes at least two hours just to arrange the merchandise, etc.

In the picture to your left, I am trying to decide if I want to dress one of the new Fashion Royalty dolls I just received.  I decided it was too late to do it for this show (hair gets messed up, etc.)

As you can see below, I also had plenty of "help" in getting ready for the show; I must have moved Jacques a dozen times while I was trying to get ready for the show.

The boutique was really quite a success; I did not sell very many patterns that day, but I did generate a lot of local interest and expect to receive orders after the first of the year. 

The boutique was in conflict with the San Jose Crossroads doll show, so that did not help in me getting the doll enthusiasts, but it was too late to get into the show as an exhibitor when I decided to do a show; as I mentioned earlier, the boutique was really a great opportunity to get ready for the 2017 season.  It also prompted me to finish a couple of the patterns I had partially completed.

Fashion Doll Patterns: Vanessa Perrin and Fashion Royalty dolls

Vanessa Perrin in Perfectly Plain

What a delightful bonus for Lord Perry Patterns!!  (LordPerryPatterns.com)A cyber-friend introduced me to the fact that Lord Perry patterns fit Integrity Toys Fashion Royalty dolls! (Vanessa Perrin, Monoco)  I just had to test this out and used my prototype for a soon to be released pattern (Perfectly Plain #0902) as a model. I am thrilled to find this to be so very true.  

The doll is really beautiful, porcelain, (or some other material that looks very like) articulated arms and legs, and proportioned much like the old style Mattel doll body.

I am delighted to be working with the doll for my future pattern releases (this doll is slightly taller (12 inches) so I will probably have to make some small adjustment to future patterns.  However, I believe that adding only 1/4 to 1/2 inch to the length of any existing Lord Perry pattern on the market today, and possibly adding 1/8 to 1/4 inch to some of my lower sleeve lengths (dolls are the same from shoulder to elbow) will work beautifully for any Lord Perry pattern you might already have.  I am really looking forward to using this doll as a model.