Sunday, April 19, 2015

A Series of Stressful Events (+ Giveaway!)

Wow, it's been over a month since I was gone. My apologies for my absence - four weeks of crazy deadlines and difficult personal issues tend to eat up blogging time. But today's post isn't a series of complaints - it's a story of perseverance against the odds (read: my doing things that I really had no time for, and suffering the consequences) in which your help was indispensable.

To make it short, I'm going to present it as a timeline:

August: While I was on vacation with my family, the Doll Wardrobe released the theme for the Winter Fashion Design Challenge, and it looked like a lot of fun. I'm a fan of Fluttershy from My Little Pony, so I thought that her Equestria Girls outfit would be the perfect thing to make. Until I saw it, that is.

By litingphires on DeviantArt

Sorry, but that's just too boring. As I'm also a huge fan of the Lizze Bennet Diaries, I realized that Jane Bennet and Fluttershy have very similar personalities, so I decided to make the sort of outfit that Jane would wear, but in Fluttershy's signature color scheme and motifs.

September - November: I started sewing the outfit as fast as I could. In contrast to the summer, when I had plenty of free time to sew, all my time was eaten by my courseload. I put everything together as fast as possible, and took photos during my trip home (it rained, so technically I took them an hour before I had to leave). When I got back from my trip, I realized that I'd left the charging cable for my laptop, so I had to run around for twenty minutes at midnight trying to find someone to lend me a cable. Since it was dark, I missed a curb and fell, which meant that I needed to be in an air cast boot for two weeks. The things I do for love sewing contests (yes, that was a Song of Ice and Fire reference, and kudos to any of you who caught it). 



February - March: Voting opened, and I checked it daily. It was very close for most of the time, but at the end my entry came in third out of four in the votes. It was a disappointment, but I resigned myself to it, was very grateful to all of you who voted for me, and put it out of my mind.

April: I got an email from The Doll Wardrobe with the subject line Winter FDC Entry. At first, I thought it was a joke or a mistake, but then I saw this post. There was dancing, a little bit of shrieking and crying, and plenty of celebratory chocolate was consumed. I haven't been so happy in months, and it would never have happened without your support. 

So, per the traditional agreement, I'm going to pay it forward with a giveaway! Details are still uncertain, so comment with what you think would make a nice prize (within reason - as much as I would like to give you extravagant prizes, that's just not in my budget) and hopefully before long I'll have the giveaway up and running. 

Once again, thank you for reading and for your support!

4 comments:

  1. Congratulations for winning! Great job :)

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  2. I voted for you- could you please make the outfit as a printable to email to the winner? Including the accessories and a paper doll maybe? Thanks, that would be great!
    P:S: When you make paper dolls, have you ever made them have hair accessories or hairbands? I was thinking of a Muslim paper doll with a headscarf... would I have to make her permanently attached to it?
    Also how do you make two paper dolls the same size in the same pose (e.g. so they can share clothes and for convenience of photoshoots)?

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  3. Thanks so much, Polka Dot Bee and Josefina! That giveaway idea sounds fun, and definitely feasible.

    In answer to your questions: I have made dolls with hair accessories. You would not have to permanently attach the Muslim doll's hijab; I love that idea for a tutorial, though, and will write one up when I have time. As for making dolls with matching bodies, I create a template body that I trace over for each doll. Hope this helps!

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  4. Congrats!
    I'm not personally a fan of Fluttershy, but I really liked yours!

    Aww, I'm sorry you were in an air cast! I've been in and out of boots, casts, and pretty much everything else you possibly can, including crutches 3 times in the past 4 years, so I know it's not at all fun. But hey, 2 weeks isn't bad!

    Ans yes,the voting. Argh that was stressful. For the first week or so I was in the top 2, and then when it ended I was 4th out of 7 (I was entry #1).

    And the joke thing, yep, that's my reaction whenever I win a competition. Except for the fact that it's a paper. On a wall. And they actually are giving me the award.

    Again, congrats! I'm not very good at giveaway ideas (I'm trying to come up with one for me, also, and failing miserably). IDK. Hmm....Maybe a set of paper dolls from all over the world (by set I mean like 4-8). Maybe they could be based on H4H dolls.

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Thanks for reading this post! Your comments make my day and I would love to hear from you. I only ask that you don't write anything malicious.

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