Well here we are again … and I promise you that this is the last lesson you’ll see Jolie without a face … because by the time we leave the “class room” today she will be all done save for her beautiful face and full head of red hair! (oops … did I say too much )

As always – for those of you who are late to the party click here for lesson 1, here for lesson 2 and click here for last weeks lesson 3.

And as a reminder … this is where we left Miss Jolie last week

Today we are going to finish dressing her – shoes and all.

But let’s start with her top – because as such I could just leave her like this right – but that is not really how to learn is it?

Also it is a bit bare – much as I like simplicity, these cloth dolls, well at least if you follow a Barbara Willis pattern – they are full to the brim with lace, silk, buttons and embellishments and I have already reined it in a fair bit as I’m just not keen on too busy.

I love her tights and could easily have left her sitting in her tights – and she’d have made me smile every time I looked at her – but again – that is not going to teach me (or you!) anything is it now?

So today I started by sewing some lace around her waist. Some lace that I got that day where I started hyperventilating in the fabric store … remember this?

and then I stitched some trim around her wrists and the collar of her top

Because remember … I had to cover up this

At least you cannot see it now – so please don’t tell anyone!

Next – what to do for her top – it is still too “simple” and I am doing this to learn you know …

Once again I went with “Danielle’s” clothes, from the same book, just because I like it slightly better than the lace overlay on “Jolie”.

First I had to make some sleeves

I decided on a light pistachio green and the red I also used for her arms – again not using my smarts, because any other color would have shown up more, I must remember to think ahead – not just spur of the moment thoughts!

I stitched, I cut (as previously explained – that is the way Barbara prefers it – oh and it is so easy this way!) and then I turned.

I sort of “ironed” the sleeves with my fingers as the silk will simply not be as “alive” if you use a hot iron – it will be flat and not show off its gorgeous colors.

I then decided to put little beads on the sleeves – to look a bit like buttons. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do this but “Danielle” has them and I thought I could always take them off again – but they stayed because they were cute once on “Jolie”.

and on the sleeves went – to be stitches almost at the top of her arms. You’ll see in a little tiny bit why not all the way at the top!

Nice … right?

But now the top bit there is missing something to “cover it up” – and puff sleeves is what is called for.

Jolie’s puff sleeves are quite a bit bigger (10.2 x 25.4 cm) than Danielle’s ( 7.6 x 20.3 cm) and I chose to go with Danielle’s puffy sleeves.

Cut, stitch, turn and hand-sew a running stitch top and bottom.

Pop them on Jolie, pull the threads, tie a knot  and “voila” … her “top” is now finished.

I think she is looking rather nice now!

But look at her feet – she needs some shoes because cold feet – there is nothing worse!

I was at the store and got these hoping they would work. I’m sure that if I had spent a little more time rummaging around on the internet or in other stores I could have found something cheaper but this is what I got and it worked out just fine!

I traced the shoe pattern on the fold – changed the needle in my sewing machine to one that could cope with the leather and then I stitched the top of the shoe and the back of the shoe, leaving open the toe and the top of the shoe so she could get it on!

Once that was done I was told to flatten the shoe if you will, and then stitch an angle on the heal and shorten the toe … like this

Cut around the toe – and pop the shoes on her lovely foot …

… bit of a Cinderella moment here – was it going to fit?

it did!!!!

I’m not going to tell you I just popped them on and moved on to embellished – I literally squealed and giggled like a 13-year-old girl seeing Justin Bieber in concert – I felt enormous joy and happiness and a ton of love!

I did sew on a little pearly embellishment – just because I had it and because it looked incredibly cute – non?

(is it silly how much I think of camels when I look at that shoe? … it is like a camel face … and I’m not going to make any jokes about that!)

This, my friends, is where we leave Jolie today – next week she will be finished and I promise you … it is well worth coming back for!