Before the Glory

I think this is a great time to talk about the road to success.

As an artist you always look for the details that make it "hot" or "not". Not every project, no matter the sketch, the design, the drafts, or the intense effort does the project execute according to the plan or the vision.

It took decades to articulate and construct the ideas that you see here. I started my doll clothing creations following the patterns and teachings of others. From there, I began manipulating large patterns made for humans, scaling them down to fit Barbie! This evolved into a full fledged design from sketch to final product. This evolution did not occur over night!

Recently I drafted the ideas for a broad composition of swimwear for 18" dolls. Some of the drafts emerged effortlessly into the exact idea I envisioned. Others, went completely off of the grid.

Take a look...

Sketch of "Pink Cheetah"

First Draft

As you can see, the First Draft did not go as planned. First, the iron was too hot and I melted the underside of the fabric when making the hems. I knew from the start, this was not going into the final's as is.

Next, the stitching is noticeably uneven. The ruffles fell out of alignment across the torso, while the ruffles around the leg set unevenly. Huge gathers bunched up between the leg. But this provided the canvas to return to the drawing board and fix what went wrong.

Final Draft

Now look at the difference! Much less struggle, provided a decent and functional effort that I am proud to say looks much more like the two-dimensional drawing than the First Draft.

The point, is that sometimes (more often than not) there are a lot of guts before the glory!