Dollieh Sanctuary

Takahirokumiko is away tending children at summer camp... lucky her, not. So while she is away I offered to dolly sit her boys. Akane decided to stay behind with her mom's doll, but Kharis has been visiting. Since he was so conveniently at hand... and I so rarely get to sew for bigger dolls... he's getting some new clothes suitable for his elven princely self.

First his 'warrior' garb.




Now his more courtly attire.





And finally a pretty pic with my pond/waterfall.

*3* You do such a wonderful job sewing outfits!

That's weird... I swear I posted in here... maybe I forgot to click "submit"
Anway, i was saying, love both outfits! the material on the green vest is very pretty!

I particularly like the picture by the waterfall as I love ponds. A few years ago I dug and constructed one myself in the backyard, but we got tired of the upkeep so we just filled it in a few months ago.

Well, he's sure a lucky fella to get to stay with you! He looks handsome in all of his outfits and I really love the picture of him lost in thought by the pond/waterfall.

*3* You do such a wonderful job sewing outfits!

Thank you. ^__^

Anway, i was saying, love both outfits! the material on the green vest is very pretty!

I particularly like the picture by the waterfall as I love ponds. A few years ago I dug and constructed one myself in the backyard, but we got tired of the upkeep so we just filled it in a few months ago.

I had the green brocade scraps hanging around, from a medieval bodice I made for a friend last summer. I sewed her clothes, I got to keep all the leftover fabric. ^__^

It's not a very large pond, I dug it all out myself. It's a figure eight roughly in shape, the smaller part is deeper about 20 inches, the wider end is only about 12, with a plant shelf around the edge. It's just lined with pool plastic held down by the rocks. The waterfall is just river rocks stacked, no cement or anything so I can change things at any time if I want. The water lilies are taking over the deeper side and I have a half dozen frogs living in the pond. Used to have fish, but they swam away in a flood a couple years ago. -_-;

Well, he's sure a lucky fella to get to stay with you! He looks handsome in all of his outfits and I really love the picture of him lost in thought by the pond/waterfall.

Thank you. Takahirokumo is a former student of mine, declared herself my 'personal assistant' her last two years of high school. She's a wonderful person, I don't mind making her boys look pretty. ^___^

Great outfits. But the shoes--I want to see close-ups of those wonderful shoes.

hehe it's so much more fun to make a pond than it is to clean it, isn't it? That's so sad about the fish! I'm lucky we never had any get out after some mishaps with forgetting about the hose...

Mine was a 4x10' oval and 2' deep in the middle for the plants and 1' ledge around the edge.
I actually started a trend in the neighborhood! 4 other people on the block built ponds after I made mine.
Of course they all had to make theirs bigger and better :/ Show offs!

But for some reason I was the only one that kept water lilies, so the fish had good cover to hide under. We have herons pass through the area, so everyone else's fish got eaten but mine lol

The green brocade is just gorgeous on him.

EAB wrote:Great outfits. But the shoes--I want to see close-ups of those wonderful shoes.

I apologize for the crappy pics... but lighting in my loft is not good for taking pictures... these are based off a basic shoe pattern that has been bouncing around Europe since the Iron Age. Vikings used them, Celts, Germanic tribes, and they are the common 'soft' shoe used by Scottish and Irish dancers today.

These were made out of that moleskin fabric (to look a little like suede) with some fray check and embroidery thread.

bottom:


front:


side:


a pic off the internet of what they look like full size, I grabbed this pic because it's the same gathered toe, most of them today aren't gathered, but have multiple tongues at the toe and looks neater to be honest, I might try that next time, but this was my first attempt!

hehe it's so much more fun to make a pond than it is to clean it, isn't it?

As long as you are careful about not getting a lot of grasses and leaves and all that in there, you don't have to clean it. I've had it in for three years now and never cleaned it beyond trying to scoop some of the silt out that went in due to floods. The water is circulating because of the pump, so it stays very clean. Also as long as the fish are not fed (or overfed) you don't have to worry about that debris collecting. The most I do is sprinkle some of the barley powder in to fight the algae. But this year the toad tadpoles did a good job, no algae bloom.

The shoes are great! I DID notice them in the pics too and had seen that style before.

Hmm.... maybe we got a lot of algea because it was in full sun and my mother fed the fish too much. We had a LOT of fish in that little space hehe