My First Izannah Walker Doll Eliza Rose

She is finally done!! I hung out with this girl for 2 weeks! From mere stuffing, cloth, thread, clay and paints, here she is ... little miss Eliza Rose, an Izannah Walker inspired doll.

See her creation/WIP here (posts prior to this post):

Part III; Part II; Part I




First off, this workshop was the most amazing workshop. From start to finish everything fit together perfectly. This is important, because someone like me, who somehow can find a way to travel off the beaten path and mess things up ... LOL... that did not happen here. It is a very well put together class and there is really no way to mess up ... not even by me! That is the kind of workshops I like! I am still amazed at all the photos she has of real original Izannah dolls she provides to her students for reference. This was a huge help!

The hardest part of me was probably her thumbs as they are sewn on after the hand/arm is sewn. Second to that was the difficulty in the sculpting. I am not totally comfortable still with air dry clay for faces. Also, sculpting the likeness of Izannah is harder than I thought. Her face relatively simple and youthful and perhaps I over analyze and try to gain too much detail. So next time I will try for simpler.

Her outfit consists of a chemise (undershirt) and petticoat. I distressed them to looked aged, stained, and old. I would say I am an average novice sewer. I learned some neat sewing tricks during this workshop too, so that was a bonus!



She also wears pantaloons under her petticoat hemmed with lace. This is a photo of her pantaloons.



This is her petticoat, again, I like to distress ... stain and age these articles of clothing. It is a replication of an old doll. I love this part of making new cloth looked old!



Her dress pattern/fabric was not the first choice I had for my first Izannah Walker Doll. I want to save the fabric I initially chose for my next doll. I knew this first one would have some bumps and hurdles and didn't want to waste fabric until I was more sure about what I was doing. So even though her dress is not truly reflective of that time period, she does look good in blue. :-)



I truly enjoyed working on her. It was nice to wake up everyday and know what I had to do next. Every night I would go to sleep and lay there for a while thinking about her. Sometimes I couldn't fall asleep and I would jump out of bed and go do a few more things on her.



Most of her is sewn on machine however there are many areas that are hand sewn. Which, is not my favorite thing to do, however, I did find it very relaxing task of pulling a needle and thread through cloth.

I was creating something with my bare hands with the sweat of probably half of what the real Izannah may have gone through to make her amazing dolls. After all, I had some modern day conveniences available to me .. like hopping into my car to visit Joanns fabric shop. LOL

Well, here is a photo of original IW dolls. I hope my next one I can acquire a bit more likeness however Dixie said it may take another 10-12 dolls! Whew! Am I ready?