Half Doll #3

I really have fallen in love with half-dolls.  I browse them on eBay all the time, looking for the perfect little ladies...and I'm picky.  While I can't afford the very high-end collectibles, I AM very choosy, especially when it comes to paint.  I don't want any of the ones that look like they were extras in a clown horror movie (and they are out there)!  From what I've learned, many of the really nice, delicately detailed and precise half dolls came from Germany, but then the molds were copied across Europe and Asia.  A lot of the ones that feel hurried and careless seem to come from Japan.  But I'm sure it all comes down to the luck of the draw, and who was wielding the paintbrush on any given day!

After doing two dolls using Giulia Punti Antichi's patterns, I decided to be brave and try one on my own.  I had this doll -

 - and an old German DMC sampler kit with a row that seemed like it suited her.  Then I found a piece of 28-ct. Quaker cloth in Palliser Bay from Kiwi Illusions/Country Stitch.  See, I'm using up my stash!!

And here she is.  I think I'll name her Margaret, after my niece who's (current) favorite colors are purple and blue.

Her underskirt isn't quite perfect, but she's a proper lady who won't be flashing her bloomers at anyone, anyway!  I had a tough time because her skirt was rather narrow, meaning that her cushion needed to be more of a tube than a poof.  The centers of the purple flowers on her skirt are filled with seed beads, and I used the same beads - plus one little drop from a prize in last year's Lima Beads Easter egg hunt - as her necklace.  The necklace was kind of a last-minute addition, as I realized while I was sewing her to her underskirt that her neck had a very well-done repair in it.  At some point before I got her, the poor girl must have lost her head!  So her little necklace hides the crack.

Now, time for another stash dive and something else to finish...