Notes from the Melody Maker

Quite recently, I was just browsing eBay, as you do. I saw this advertised for a stupid high dollar amount but knowing it was the first I had ever seen this lovely lady on eBay, I hit the buy it now faster than you can say lickety split!

I’ve made her body and begun working on her clothing, but nothing has been made yet. She’s an interesting shape. Her chest plate is formed front to back vs side to side. I’m not sure why this is made in such a fashion but I have seen it multiple times. It makes for the upper body shape to be compacted under the chest plate and the arms are less able to be raised. This matters in dressing the doll so I’ll need to keep that in mind while creating her clothes.

Secondly, Anna’s chest plate shape influences the rest of her body shape. She’s more narrow side to side and rounded across her front and back. She actually has a bit of a bust.

I tried an experiment with making her and used cedar sawdust to fill her. The very top 2 inches of her body are cotton but the rest of her filling is the cedar. Sawdust was a popular filling historically which is why I tried it. I don’t know if I’ll use it again – the jury is still out on that. I’ll know when she is completely finished.

Another interesting feature of Anna is that her name and date are inside the chest plate instead of on the back as was done with every other Tasha Tudor doll I own.

This necessarily hides the identification once the doll is made up and it makes me wonder how many unidentified dolls out there actually have details that just cannot be seen.

Come back again soon as I’m working on some undergarments for her. The challenge of her shape will make it more interesting, I’m sure!