I know I've been promising for some time to have pixies, elves and gnomes finished for this fall. Don't fear. We've got four pixies ready to go, a few more at various stages, and possibly some of the older experimental ones. Should have some listed by September along with the tutorial. But, before I get them finished up I thought I'd share some comparisons of all the things we've changed since we made our first pixies over the years. Though I'm finally working up an actual pattern/tutorial for these that includes all the revised pattern pieces at the correct size with tips and solutions we discovered for various problems we faced, I wanted to take this time to go through our experience for those who would rather alter
Ghillie's Poppet pattern/tutorial to make their own. Hopefully some useful information can be gleamed from all this. I'd love to hear any opinions on them, too.
We tried to make them as close to the CoS movie version as possible, at first. However, we wanted to go with the books description over anything else. If you've read my previous posted on pixies (
1st,
2nd,
3rd and 4th,
more, and
more) you can see the learning process at work. Though her tutorial and pattern are wonderful, no pattern piece in Ghillie's original pattern, nor even instructions, were safe from our tweaking. Every part was adjusted or completely changed for some reason or another. I won't even go into the wing experiments we went through again, which in her book "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" Rowling decided they don't even have (This explains why they are removable.). She, or should I say Newt describes:
"The pixie is...Electric blue in colour, up to eight inches in height and very mischievous...Although wingless, it can fly and has been known to seize unwary humans by the ears and deposit them at the top of tall trees and buildings..."
So, our versions have been a mashup of the different sources into an ever morphing creature as we learn new skills. In the beginning, we experimented most with was the fabric choice. We've tried a few different fabrics but really prefer the Alova Suede Cloth, which can be difficult to find in the right colors, especially in the wrong season. There are similar faux suedes, velours and other fabrics, but again, to make the two tone version, it is tough to find a good combo. Steer clear of anything woven that can fray! As an inexpensive choice I'd say Polar Fleece (Georgie and Lewdvig in the center of the above pic) was okay, and it comes in all sorts of colors. Only problem with it is that it tends to stretch out and loses the sculpted details. We've also tried some vinyl fabric on the house elves, but don't recommend it at a small size. The suede cloth is easy to work with and doesn't rip or fray too easily and is thin enough to work well for tiny parts. We had our best luck finding it in the fall. The main portion of the body is a bright almost royal blue while the tummy and ears are a lighter shade of blue or dark lavender leaning toward the violet side.
As you can see above, we've also tried different face and eye treatments. We tried some eyelids on a couple (Lewdvig and Marvin above) and even a nose from the gnomes. The doll eyes have varied in size, too. At the moment, we are preferring the solid black over the blue irises which tends to make them look a little spaced out.
The size was something we were back and forth on. We shrank the original poppet pattern down, guessing at the size and proportions in the movies, but it was too large based on the description in the Rowling's books, which is "up to eight inches". The originals we made ended up about 11-12" tall from antenna tip to toe. As our skills improved, we were able to work with smaller parts. But, when resizing the pattern, we couldn't just shrink it. The seam allowances also shrinks and isn't wide enough to be adequate. We had to widen each seam at the smaller size. The tiny 7" size on the far right was WAY too frustrating. The legs and arms get skinnier and harder to turn, so you loose the fingers and toes and wind up with clubs for hands and feet. We didn't even want to try the covered antennae. We used wire covered in metallic blue fabric paint, instead. After various attempts, we settled on an 8-9.5" range.
The joints have always given us grief at the smaller size. It was hard to find affordable shank buttons and in a size that fit in the arm without showing a bulge. We tried a few different solutions that each had good and bad effects. We even tried removing the buttons all together as in the 1st pixie on the left, but I don't think this is practical if the dolls will be played with much or posed frequently. Next, we tried just sewing the arms and legs into the body seams like the gnomes. This is easier and sturdier, but eliminates the ability to pose them, which we liked. Then, we got the idea to try small snap on doll eyes as joints with washers. This works good, but is more costly and still a wee bulky...not to mention hard to find around here in tiny sizes. We reluctantly went back to shank buttons, but have now found a way of making common inexpensive flat buttons work by changing the way we put them in.
Here are two later phase pixie side by side. For the new and improved pixies we found a way to make the antennae slightly narrower and finally added the tail nub in back. We overlooked the tail in the first ones due to the lack of good reference photos of the back of the pixie. We've also arched the back, widened the ears and head, and cleaned up the toes. Not pictured, we also came up with a wired ear that can be posed that you may notice on a couple when I post them on Etsy. We plan to use this new wired ear feature in some house elves.
This is where we are at this point. There are so many other things we've learned. I'd say we've come a long way since the beginning. With all the changes, I'd decided it is probably kinda confusing to just keep sending people to Ghillie's Poppet pattern with a long list of changes to make. So, as I've mentioned, I have spent a good deal of time lately working on an indepth tutorial, which is coming together pretty well. Hope to have it up with the pixies this fall. Thank you for the patience. And, big THANK YOU to all who have left comments and contacted me about these. As much as we have enjoyed making them and having them around our house, it is nice to know others appreciate them, too. The daughter has even told me she thinks these new ones are way cuter and more like the movies. She even likes them more than the licensed ones we've seen for sale with the creepy grins. I think I have to agree that grin is creepy! But, I don't know if ours is in the same league. It was sweet of her to say that, though.
UPDATE: Now you can own one of our pixies or make your own using our Cornish Pixie Pattern/Tutorial available in
my Etsy store (mieljolie).
