USER POST: Doll Restyle/Custom: “Duel Queen” Clawdeen (Part 2 of 2)

Hey beasties! Last time I talked about my design process for Duel Queen Clawdeen, a Yugioh-themed restyle for a gently loved New Scaremester Clawdeen I found at a flea market. Today I’m going to talk about the process of bringing the look to life. For reference, here’s the design I ultimately settled on:

So with our colors settled on, it was time for one of the most stressful-yet-exciting parts of any project: shopping! I took the bus to my local Joann’s to get supplies. The good thing about working with dolls is they don’t take much fabric (SIGNIFICANTLY less than the 3 yards I typically use for my own EGL skirts and dresses), so I was able to source entirely from the remnants bin and quilting fat quarters.

As you may notice, the zipper shown here is quite large; They didn’t have any doll-size zippers and I was too impatient to buy one online, but that’s alright. I felt that using a full-size zipper would lend itself well to the cartoony, exaggerated look I was going for.

Take note also of the fabric for the vest. As I mentioned in my first post, I’m a costume design student (or was at the time- I graduated a few months ago). We’d recently hemmed a pair of fake leather leggings for the lead on a production of Bat Boy: The Musical, so I took home a piece of the leftover fabric. It was juuuust wide enough to use for Clawdeen’s vest.

With supplies gathered, it was time to sew! I started with the shirt. I used one of Chelly Wood’s patterns, and added a collar, which was pretty simple- Just a folded-over rectangle that I cut to the length of the neckline. I also harvested the velcro from the Barbie dress Clawdeen came with to make the back closure. While I deeply love my sewing machine, Kevin, I didn’t want to deal with all the fang-nangling of sewing doll-sized clothes by machine, so I did it all by hand. Once the shirt was done, I painted on stripes using black fabric paint and a very tiny brush.

The vest was a bit of a trickier endeavor. I used the same pattern as the shirt for my base, but restructured it to move the opening from the back to the front, and cropped it to a bit above waist length. I added a collar once again, but kept it a bit shorter than the length of the neckline, to give the illusion of some sort of… lapel or something. Finally, I added the front zipper.

Stitching it all together was a challenge, but a fun one!

Next up: the skirt!

Now, for those of you who have never done any sort of clothing design, it’s not uncommon for the finished product to wind up looking a bit different from the initial design. The fact of the matter is that even for experienced professional designers, a design on paper just can never quite fully account for things like manufacturing difficulties or the way fabric behaves when put onto a human (or in this case, werewolf) body. So, sometimes changes have to be made.

So what factors prompted the changes in this case? Well, here’s the thing… I don’t remember >_< I know I added some shimmery black netting to the hem because I felt like I’d accidentally made the skirt too short, but… Why did I ditch the front insert pleats? Was it out of laziness? Did I think it was too much? Was it something about the fabric itself? Only the fox god knows. But one way or another, this was how it ended up looking. Still cute, I’d say!

Finally, I created a belt using the last of the zipper, stitching it over itself in the back to create a closed tube. I used some black embroidery floss to create a tie in the back, since it’s what I happened to have on hand. I also painted some gold details onto the shoes, at a friend’s suggestion.

And with that, she was done!!

…OR WAS SHE? The astute reader may notice she’s missing a few things compared to the original design: Namely, a few earrings, an arm cuff, and of course a duel disk! One way or another I just haven’t quite gotten around to making them yet, nor fully figured out how I’m going to do so. I think I’m going to talk to my dad about 3D printing, since he likes doing that, and see if I can 3D print a duel disk and arm cuff. Stay tuned, maybe..?

Side note: Having been both a. in a dorm and b. new to doll collecting, I didn’t have much on hand at the time to do a proper photoshoot with Clawdeen. So the backdrop she’s in front of is actually a Dark Magician T-shirt turned inside-out and draped over my sewing machine case, hehe.