Behind the Creation: Rose Maiden - May - The Darling Collection #1

I have to admit I've been avoiding doing this first blog post mainly because my tendency to be a perfectionist quickly becomes very OCD-ish. I'll write a post and rewrite about 50 times before finally giving up. However, with the publication of my first original doll pattern and the initiation of our first collection, I figured I may as well post our first official blog post: a look into our latest amigurumi doll May!

Originally, I had designed an entirely different type of doll but I've been under pressure to make a gift for someone and I also had a now-discontinued peach colored yarn. Truthfully, there was very little planning with this doll, it was mostly make-it-up-as-you-go.

 The Inspiration

My sister and I are huge Historical-British-Victorian-Era-ish fans. I'm pretty sure we've watched BBCs Pride & Prejudice at least 50 times. So as a gift I wanted to make something along those lines except...poofier.

As I've mentioned before, I am a double-major in Art & Science. In art, when we're looking to make a new piece we look for references for specific things sometimes when we have a hard time getting the 'notion' of something. 

 Now, I'm not a fan of Lolita or the idea behind Lolita- my sister likes the clothing as many do (though she owns none). She suggested I looked at pictures of Lolita dresses since they have some resemblance to the Victorian/Renaissance era.

Honestly, too much frills and lace for what I was looking for but I found the trims to be intriguing as well as the sleeves.

The Color Combination

I had specifically bought a peach colored yarn for this particular project - since the person this was meant for wears peach colors often.

Finding complimentary colors is always my biggest challenge. You really don't want to go with different shades of pink, because it tends to blend together. Theoretically, you want to do pink with something else, the bigger the difference the more intriguing. Finding that something else is relatively the most time consuming part of designing an amigurumi like this.

 Actually Crocheting

Ribbon has become somewhat a thorn in my side. I can never find the right shade or size and when I do it usually requires shipping in from a foreign land on the other-side of the world.

For this doll I experimented with crocheting floss as a substitute for ribbon. It was actually quite difficult in the beginning since floss doesn't suggest what size hook should be used with it. Thankfully, due to my accidental collection of crochet hooks one seemed to work relatively well. Thus creating a worth adversary to ribbon.

 It's All In A Name

Rarely do I ever have a name in mind for a doll before making it. Sometimes I do and a lot of times it changes after I've finished assembling the doll. 

When I took a step back and really looked at the doll. She reminded a lot of Gweneviere from the musical Camelot. More so, when she was singing about the moth of May. In addition to that, there's the saying " April showers bring May Flowers"- thus I named her May :)

 The Darling Collection

 As I said before, I had other designs before creating this one. Those other designs were specifically for my etsy store and I still 100% intend to make them.  I already knew the collection name, of course but May has inspired new names for each of these dolls. 

1. May
2. April
3. June
4. Juli

 It's just too cute to resist :) granted- April comes before May and I won't be able to ever make May again unless I can find a replacement for Vanna's Choice Soft Pink but I am every bit confident the other three will be just as lovely.

You can purchase May as a crochet pattern at:
Etsy
Ravelry
Craftsy


What themes would you guys like to see?


♤ Stephanie B.Q.