To a certain degree creating the clothes for this paper doll is much like creating a costume for a human. I start by draping my “muslin” (in this case a soft, white, rice paper) to get the shape I want. I can’t use exactly a pattern for a person because the puppet’s body only approximates a person’s. Paper is much less forgiving and yielding than flesh.

Once I have a working pattern, I cut out my paper and sew it on the machine. I keep the stitch length very long, otherwise I run the risk of perforating the paper. That would be bad. Sewing paper is no problem. Turning the costume rightside out is nerve-wracking. This is the point where I am most likely to tear the paper.

The paper with the beautiful vine pattern does not please me as the bathrobe. Seen in context it is too grey and looks more like a cross between a lab coat and a kimono. It isn’t soft and fuzzy enough.

So I headed back out to the paper store and come up with three different papers. A combination of two of them pleases me. (If you click on this photo, and then click again when it appears on the album page, you’ll get to see a much larger image. It’s a pain, I know)

While this is still the dud head on an unfinished body, the costume is real. I think it gives you the idea of what the finished doll will look like.

I still have to make her slippers, that that is a comparatively easy pattern. So from here, I can start making the three final figures.