Re: Work In Progress--Deryni Action Figure Project (was Duncan Action Figure)

[Evie]

You do have a point. At least it's big enough that they don't have to share a twin size bed. 

[Laurna]

Love the wall papers. Bathroom looks great.
There is something about the rooms lit up in the darkness that is really cool to see. Nice view from the window. I hope they are on top of a hillside, I wouldn't want to live in a building that tall.

[Evie]

Maybe it's a high rise apartment building on a hill?  LOL!

The actual reason for that perspective, of course, is that I couldn't find a photo of that city (Toledo, Spain) that wasn't taken from a height, except for a few that were taken from outside the city walls, looking up at it from a distance.  But given that it's established in BoP that Eilonwy and Paddy live within easy walking distance of the Cathedral, on the north side of it (opposite side from Rhemuth Castle), I didn't want to put them clear out of town and call that "walking distance"!  Granted, they're both young and in much better shape than I am, but I still doubt they'd be walking more than a mile to church.

And the reason I chose Toledo, Spain for my image search (aside from that being the actual subject of the "City of Rhemuth" art print I've got framed and hanging above the bed) is that it shares the same rough layout of a castle and a cathedral in close proximity to each other within a medieval walled city by a river.  It could be that the area topography is rather hilly (the Castle, after all, seems to stand on higher land, and the confluence of the Eirian and Molling rivers there seems to hint at higher ground around it that would cause ground water to follow those pathways) and that within the City walls enclosing what is now the downtown area, a lot of residential buildings grew upwards rather than sprawling outwards. So let's assume the Adamses live on the top floor in one of the newer buildings in the old part of town, at the top of a hill, in a flat that's small enough to still be somewhat modestly priced despite the scenic view. 

[Evie]

I haven't done an update this week due to last week's vacation and then getting settled back in at home, so let's do the thing. 

For those who missed seeing them in my other thread about my impromptu beach holiday, Duncan and Helena had a fine time at the beach, sporting new outfits.









But all good things come to an end, so now we're all back home and Duncan and Helena are recovering from their fun trip while I turned my attention back to my modern Mini-Deryni.  First on my to-do list is Morgan Haldane's wardrobe, because a duke and royal heir needs something more to wear than black leather.  Yes, yes, I know, but he just can't show up at court functions, business meetings, or charity balls wearing only biking gear or stripped down to his Calvin Kleins!  (No, sorry Laurna, he really can't!    )

So this weekend, I altered the pattern I made to create the beach shirts, adding longer sleeves, and did a test shirt for Morgan out of thin white cotton fabric.  I don't have any fasteners on the shirt front or cuffs yet, but miniature buttons and ultra thin velcro are on order.  The ultra thin velcro is a special sort often used for making doll clothes, and instead of having a standard hook and loop closure, it's double-sided and has got more of a smooth feeling surface on one side and a plasticy feel to the other, but the surfaces grip each other without snagging doll hair or other doll clothes, and it's much less bulky than regular Velcro, so I'm looking forward to seeing how well it works. If it ends up not working out, I'll have to find a thin needle that will fit through the holes in my extra small metal snaps, because there is no way I'm going to sew tiny buttonholes for buttons only 4 mm wide or smaller!  The mini buttons are the smallest sort available, used primarily for crafts like doll clothing or scrapbooking, and they are 4 mm across, so hopefully that will work for the shirts.  If not, I can use them on items that tend to have larger buttons (such as jackets and coats) and use beads for buttons, or if I can find a small enough hole punch, just punch my own from thin white plastic such as empty milk jugs. 

Here's my resulting prototype.  I also have some thin black cotton fabric, so if this shirt turns out OK, I'll make one out of that fabric next.



I didn't cut the cuff pieces quite wide enough, so I had to improvise slightly, but I can make the necessary alteration to the pattern before I make the next shirt.



The bottom of the sleeve closest to the cuff is split and hemmed, and there's a little pleat at the bottom where it goes into the cuff.  I will add a tiny bit of the ultra thin velcro to secure the cuff and add a bead button to the outside (or maybe a pair for "cuff links"?), since if I simply sew the cuff closed, I'll have to remove his hands every time he wants to change his shirt!



I cut a length of ribbon and tried tying it around his neck like an actual necktie to check if the length I'd cut was long enough, but it was about two inches too short. Still, it gives some idea of what the shirt will look like with a tie.



The outfit is starting to come together, although I can't quite see Morgan wearing a pink tie, unless he's at a fundraiser for breast cancer awareness or something.  (Which is possible.)



Devlin feels a bit awkward about Morgan taking his jacket, though.  He's a priest, not a Chippendale dancer!



Narrow ribbon works well enough for a narrow tie with ends tucked in, but for a tie made from silk fabric, I wanted more of an actual tie shape, so I cut out a cardstock pattern, used that to trace a tie shape on very light iron-on interfacing, then ironed that onto some periwinkle silk KK sent me a while back.  Then adding on a seam allowance, I cut out the silk around the interfacing shape, turned the silk's edges under, and used fabric glue to tack the edges down in back.  The top of the tie is wrapped with more reinforced silk to create a faux knot and then attached to a narrow elastic band that will fit under his collar, so I won't have to risk ruining the fragile silk tie by repeatedly tying and untying it in an actual Windsor knot.



The periwinkle tie looks good with the dark jacket (which is actually a midnight blue rather than black, but shhhh, don't tell Fr. Devlin!), but he needs dress trousers.  The sports pants made from windbreaker fabric just won't do for a dress occasion.  However, they fit much better than the jeans and khaki cargo pants I've got, which were made for an action figure with shorter legs than Morgan has, so I turned them inside out and used them to create a pattern to make suit trousers with.



I got a yard of this fabric from the remnants bin at Joann's Fabric some time back and have been hanging on to it in hopes that my sewing skills would eventually reach the point where I feel ready to try sewing a suit with it.  It's a very thin fabric, possibly originally meant for lining fabric, but it should drape quite well on an action figure body and it has a lovely pinstripe to it.  And if I mess up my first try, a yard is a lot of fabric when working in 1:6 scale!  I feel confident enough to try my hand at dress trousers, though when it comes to a matching jacket, I might need to see if I can find a Ken jacket pattern to start off with, then alter it to fit a larger sized figure.  That's how I managed to create my shirt pattern, after all.



Morgan usually wears these with the closure in back, since they were designed to be worn that way (they have pockets on the front), but upon close inspection, it appeared the rear pieces were exactly the same size and shape as the front pieces, unlike some trousers patterns I've seen where the back pieces are slightly wider and higher to leave enough room in the seat area for sitting, so I put them back on him with the closure in front and sat him down to make sure the fit will still work that way.  Since it does, I will make the suit trousers from four equal sized pieces and sew them so the fly is in front where it ought to be.



I cut out my fabric pieces.  Next step--add Fray Check to raw edges.  The lighter gray pieces show the reverse side of the same fabric.



If you zoom in on the reverse side of this fabric, there's a tiny herringbone pattern in it.  I'm half considering making a second pair of trousers with this side on the outside.



I sewed the rear crotch seam, but the gray thread I had on hand was a light (almost silvery) shade of gray, which I think shows up too much when there's tension on the seam, so I have put dark gray thread on my shopping list.  If I can't find the right shade, I'll try black, since that's less likely to show up as clearly.



I've left poor Morgan half dressed, hoping I'll get around to finishing his trousers soon!  He also has dress shoes (three pairs, in fact) on the way here, so hopefully he'll have a whole new outfit soon.



I think the stripes should work quite well in this scale.

[Jerusha]

Lovely work, Evie, and I like the trouser material.  But how did you get Morgan Haldane to hold still for all the fittings and not bolt out the door?  Fianna?  Old Ballymar?

[Laurna]

How do tailors ever get their wealthy clients to hold still? Threat of the pants being cut too tight if they do not accommodate? Though Old Ballymar should do the trick. 

Love the white shirt and blue tie. That is going to be good suit fabric. Did you remember to cut the fly with extra fabric to fold back? If not, you will need to add a placket piece. That's easy, but it is so small on this scale that it is annoying.

OK, I actually prefer the 007 suit jacket on Devlin; perhaps it wasn't quite big enough in the shoulders for Morgan. I'm not sure really. but it really looks good on Devlin. I have no idea how to make a jacket for Morgan, but one from the pants fabric would look great.  Good luck!

[Evie]

Devlin and Morgan actually seem to have about the same body shape (a lot of the newer action figures like Morgan's ZY body are consciously patterned off the very popular TTM-19 Hot Toys body that Devlin has so they can wear the same clothing), but I think the difference is that Devlin wears the jacket over a sleeveless dickey rather than a long sleeved shirt, and at this scale, that one thin layer of cotton can add enough bulk to make a huge difference. If Morgan doesn't run screaming from the room at the idea of wearing a clerical collar, I can switch shirts briefly to see if the jacket fits Morgan's body better if he doesn't have shirt sleeves under it.  If so, I can make him a cheater shirt or two to wear with the jacket, and full shirts for when the jacket is off.

As for keeping him still during a fitting, I suspect that deep down Morgan is secretly a bit of a clothes horse.  Maybe not to the point of being in danger of turning into Gwynedd's equivalent of Beau Brummell, but at least he realizes he has both a ducal and a royal reputation to maintain, so it just won't do to keep turning up on the wrong side of the fashion columnists' Best/Worst Dressed in Gwynedd lists.  That said, if you're offering him some Old Ballymar to stand still, he certainly won't turn the offer down! 

[DesertRose]

As for keeping him still during a fitting, I suspect that deep down Morgan is secretly a bit of a clothes horse.  Maybe not to the point of being in danger of turning into Gwynedd's equivalent of Beau Brummell, but at least he realizes he has both a ducal and a royal reputation to maintain, so it just won't do to keep turning up on the wrong side of the fashion columnists' Best/Worst Dressed in Gwynedd lists.  That said, if you're offering him some Old Ballymar to stand still, he certainly won't turn the offer down! 

I would think someone who grew up in a royal Haldane ducal family would have long since learned to hold still during a fitting by the tailor; it would be a very ordinary part of the process of acquiring clothes to him, like checking the newspaper (or the Internet nowadays) for sales on school clothes is this time of year for parents of school-aged children.

Likewise, I don't see him turning down a tumbler of good whiskey, either. 

[Shiral]

"Who do you have to know to get a  pair of dress pants, around here? I'm the freaking DUKE of CORWYN!!"

[Laurna]

  LOL Shiral! That is the perfect caption for the last two images above.   

[Elkhound]

Back in Midaeval times, ready-to wear didn't exist.  All clothes had to be made to order; if you were wealthy, you had tailors & dressmakers among the servants; if you were middle-class, you went to a tailor or dressmaker; if you were lower class, you sewed them yourself or got your wife or mother to do it.

[Evie]

Back in Midaeval times, ready-to wear didn't exist.  All clothes had to be made to order; if you were wealthy, you had tailors & dressmakers among the servants; if you were middle-class, you went to a tailor or dressmaker; if you were lower class, you sewed them yourself or got your wife or mother to do it.

True for brand new clothing, at least, although there was also a thriving second- hand clothing market, since clothes were too valuable to simply toss out when you were done wearing them, so what wasn't altered to fit,  made over, or handed down to children or servants were sold to the second-hand sellers, where people of more modest means could pick up used garments that still had some wearable life to them. And again, alter them to better fit their body and their station, since there was a fine for running afoul of sumptuary laws and dressing above one's class. Of course,  people who could afford it sometimes thought it was worth paying the fine, so a merchant wanting to attract wealthy customers might buy a nobleman's used finery secondhand and pay the fine for wearing clothing more luxurious than he'd normally be able to buy new, so he'd appear more prosperous and hopefully attract more well heeled customers.

[Elkhound]

So the fine was sort of a cost of doing business, like some polluting businesses pay their EPA and state-equivalent fines.

[Elkhound]

Also, fashion didn't change as fast.  Sort of like men's formalwear now.  If it were in decent shape and it fit me, I could wear my grandfather's tux.  Perhaps this or that year a double-breasted is more fashionable than single-breasted, or shawl collar over peaked  collar, or a vest may be preferred to a cummerbund or vice versa---but nobody is going to look askance at a man who wears the less-favored option.  (Different for women--God forbid she wear last year's dress, or even the same dress at two formal occasionsn the same season.)

[Evie]

Not much more to report, since I am still waiting on my tiny 4 mm doll buttons to get here, but the doll clothing Velcro I ordered at the same time arrived yesterday, so I've got Morgan Haldane's trousers mostly completed.



This ultra thin Velcro from Etsy is double sided and isn't as barbed as regular Velcro, so it is less likely to snag doll hair or other fabrics.  I have used a bit of it to secure Morgan's fly.  Another small piece may end up holding down the waistband tab or I might use a small snap (the Velcro might actually be slightly thinner), but I've got some extra small buttons (4 mm across) on order, so I want to add a button to the waistband before putting the Velcro under it, or it will be a lot harder to sew on.  I used Fabri-Tack glue to attach the Velcro, and it seems to have attached it securely.  Sewing would also have worked, I suppose, but I didn't want any stitches showing on the outside of Morgan's trousers.



If you zoom in on the side view, you can see the Velcro in the fly, but when the waistband tab is held down, the closure is much less visible.



Holding the tab in place where it will be fastened to the band so you can see how the Velcro fly closure become nearly invisible.  Now I just have to get those button in and sew some onto the shirt as well so I can add the Velcro closure last.

And now, a gratuitous artsy shot of Morgan hanging out with our cat Luke.