Straw Hat Making for a BJD Doll

Todays Plan A Straw BJD Hat


I have made hats from hat straw using a form before but I only have one which is a small bonnet shape. It worked well but would make a hat too small for my 16ins Dream of Doll Leya who is going to be the lucky recipient (or not if it did not turn out too well).

I started out by cutting a circle from cardboard the size of the hat brim I wanted.  Then hunted around the house for a suitable lid or container to make the sides and top of the hat.  After a few rejections, too deep, too small, too curvy a settled on a jam pot lid.  Which might sound a little too shallow but I was aiming for a 18th century country/Gainsborough style of hat, which did have shallow crowns.

 I put double side sticky tape around the outside brim to hold the first row of straw. Then put little blobs of glue (I favour the putting glue in the corner of a plastic bag tying with a metal bag tie then piercing a little hole in the corner method) on each following row and pressed the straw in place trying to keep the over laps as even as possible.

 The tricky bit is trying to persuade stiff hat straw that it wants to bend as you come to the brim and crown join.

But I think it worked out OK even if a do say so myself.  I got the look I was aiming for which is always a good thing. Then the best bit of choosing the embellishments.  I tried to keep it simple as sometime less is more. And I think the hats of this period were simple that was their charm.  A few years later and all hell broke loose on the hat scene and decorations and sizes went wild.


And the lucky lady for this restrained chapeau is...........

The rest of her clothing to match is still in the making.

Mohair BJD Wig

In The Spirit of Made Do And Mend

After having enjoyed taking apart and reusing an old christening robe I thought I would use the "Made do and Mend" principle to a mohair wig.  I rummaged in some of my boxes and found some old wigs that I had either made or bought back in my making reproduction antique dolls day.

I love doing this but in the course of several moves it become impossible to lug around kilns, heavy plaster moulds and all the other paraphernalia needed for this craft. So they were sold or given away but I kept a lot of the materials and smaller tools just in case. And some have come in useful when dealing with ball jointed dolls too.

I had made a wig out of almost white mohair which had a lovely softness and gentle curl to it but the colour just was not right for an antique doll even a reproduction one.  So it was never used but packed away in its tissue paper ever since.

So I set about reducing it in size as I had made it for a doll with quite a bigger head.  I made a few snips and took a whole section of the back out.

It was still looking a bit too big so I put a pleat into the back and that seemed to solve the problem.

Its still looking a little bit "wild n woolly" but I think if I give it a spray with water and do a little bit of scrunching I should be able to tame it. I think also a light trim could be called for too.

Its amazing how much a new hair style can affect a girl. Her whole personality started to change.

First she got a little pensive...... do I like this or not?

Then the mood changed again a little nostalgic perhaps.

Then all those fluffy blond curls started to take on a more excitable mood. A little bit on the wild side until she just began to revel in the whole blonde bimbo thing. (No offence to any blondes out there of course).

Maybe I had better have another look in that wig box and see if I can find something a little more sedate and school mistress like to calm things down!

Vintage Material and Lace BJD Dress

I wanted to start a new project for my Dream of Doll Leya. I thought something vintage would be interesting. I thought of something floaty in white.  I knew I had a vintage brodeire anglaise christening gown in my stash. The top half was not much use but there was a lot of useable material in the skirt. So I took the seams etc apart and took off the lace to be carefully pressed ready to be reused.

One of the joys I have in life is taking things apart! Give me some old dress, bonnet, or tablecloth and I will work away at it for hours. Carefully discovering how it was originally put together and deconstructing it into useable pieces again. Then the gentle washing, if needed and pressing to make something beautiful out of it again. 


This new trend of "make do and mend" is nothing new to me. I have been doing it and loving it for years.

The skirt more or less spoke for itself as the bottom of the dress was a perfect size and scale for a doll dress just had to select a section of it. The bodice I hummed and harred over for a bit.  I decided to do a separate bodice and unattached sleeves. I used a bit of orignal lace from the dress and some new lace I had in my stash.

I don't mind mixing new with old sometimes. As the dress was still pristine white the laces matched very well.

I found a nice piece of "drapey" lace material but have not as yet decided just how to use it. I don't want to make a veil or headress out of it as the whole thing might end up looking a little too much like a wedding dress which is not my aim.

I have made the sleeves so far and started on the bodice and skirt.

At the moment I have not got a wig which I think would be suitable but I will finish the wig then see how that looks.