Joy Renewed

Let’s be upfront here…

I start this review off with a lot of bias! I’ve been a fan of Ginger Melon for a very long time, every pattern I’ve bought from her has been brilliant, so you can guess what I’m going to say already.

I’m not really a large doll maker, even at 17 inches tall this doll is considered large for me.

I bought this pattern because I was asked to turn 2 girls dresses into finished dolls and the prairie doll outfit that compliments this doll looked like what I wanted.

The dresses belonged to a customer who had dressed her own children in them some years ago. She had hoped her own daughters would want the dresses, but sadly not and the dresses needed a purpose.

The Sparkle pattern is straight forward, Shelly Down, who is the creative behind Ginger Melon, writes patterns with a lot of photos and simple, clear instructions. Beginners are sure to find something they love on her Etsy shop.

I made 2 dolls, using orange yarn for the hair (Perhaps I was thinking Anne of Green Gables!) and made felt, sewn on eyes.

I used the additional Prairie dress pattern and this was the result

A new commission came in, this time for a memorial doll using part of a wedding dress.

Maybe one day I’ll write a post about the passion that’s needed in using fabric from people’s memories, let’s just say I took a great deal of time before making that first cut into the Bridal fabric.

I used hair extensions as the doll hair, managing to match the colour and this time I embroidered the face before colouring in details with Polychromos pencils.

The actual dress was a shoulder less dress with a stole, it was the stole that I had been given. I managed to use the pattern on the edge of the stole as the dress skirt pattern and used the shoulder less dress that came with the Sparkle doll pattern as the template, adjusting it for length and size.

Then I made a miniature stole and a pearl necklace like the bride wore on the day.

I bought another Sparkle pattern, this time for doll shoes and made a pair of white bridal shoes to finish the outfit off.

I’m not usually a fan of AI, I’d love to take photos of my dolls in interesting locations, but my mobility makes that difficult. I’ve since found a background editor on Canva and have started adding in backgrounds to some of my makes, though I don’t touch up the actual doll through AI. I hope this is a small compromise.

Well, the sparkle doll pattern has been wonderful, I’ve since finished a third doll, someone asked why I don’t have a doll that looks like me, so she has grey hair! Clothing yet to be made, but there are several additional outfit patterns on Ginger Melons Etsy page to give you a wardrobe of options.

Anyway, here is the finished Bridal Doll.