I have no idea why I have such trouble with boys.
Making boy dolls, I mean (not real life boys – thankfully!)
I start off with ideas and then more often than not, they just look wrong when I actually try to bring them to life.
To be honest, the same thing often happens during the process of making girl dolls… however, usually I just plough on regardless with them and by the time I’ve finished, I’m happy. But my boys often just go wrong.
I think I should say at this point that I have no problem with real life boys looking exactly any way they want to. “Feminine” clothing, make-up, dresses… whatever… bring it on, I say! Express yourselves!
But when you’re making a specifically male doll there seems to be some indefinable “essence of boy” that has to still be there, somewhere, for the doll to sort of make sense… I don’t understand it at all. Maybe I should have cut a new “boy-shaped” doll pattern in the first place, instead of using the same unisex template for all the dolls… 
This boy doll started out with legs that were too skinny and feet that were too small, so even before I’d started on his wardrobe that indefinable “essence of boy” was missing. I had the devil’s own job turning the too-skinny legs and after I’d managed it, they looked all wrong. At first I thought it wouldn’t matter under his trousers, but it did. He looked odd. More than just snake-hipped – sort of like he’d had an operation to remove his bum. An arsectomy? Anyway, I made a new pair of legs.
Well actually, I made three more legs, not just for the fun of it, but because the first two didn’t match. One foot was bigger and one ankle was thicker than the other. I don’t mind a bit of asymmetry, but this looked not just not boy-like, but asymmetrical in a strange, club-footed, wonky kind of way. Sigh.
Then I got started on his clothes and made him some stripy trousers and a jacket. In my mind’s eye I was going for a sort of sharp-suited 1920’s look, sort of Peaky Blinders-ish, but more flamboyantly coloured and patterned.
Well, let’s just say I have an inkling that he would not have been welcome in the Peaky’s gang wearing what I made him. They might even have whipped out their blades and blinded themselves, so as not to have to gaze upon the outfit that style forgot. It fell somewhere between a very louche pair of pyjamas (but not in a good way) and a sort of effeminate version of a prison chain gang uniform. Not at all stylish and not at all what I had in mind.
I tried reworking the jacket into a waistcoat, but the more I mucked about with it, the more I mucked it up. It ended up in the bin, the unpicking and snipping making the fabric unusable for anything else.
Finally I gave up and scrapped the whole outfit. I decided to go on Pinterest and look for some pictures of what dapper 1920’s young men actually wore. Which was a good thing to do, because not only did I discover how men wearing enormous fur coats were actually a 1920’s fashion thing for a while, which explained to me why Edward Gorey was so enamoured of them (a mystery I had oft puzzled over), but I also came across these two photos, which helped me immensely:
Of course, I still had to work out what my boy doll would wear on top that wasn’t a jacket (because I’d made one ugly jacket and I wasn’t about to attempt another, having wasted enough fabric already) but eventually it all came together, with his collar, college scarf, brogues and cap being the finishing touches.
I only got a little bit annoyed by being interrupted whilst trying to paint those tiny shoes and I only snapped at my family a couple of times, because it did take quite a lot of concentration and a very steady hand and people making tea and banging about in the kitchen asking you questions is apt to make you blob paint where it shouldn’t be. Luckily it washed off, so thankfully I didn’t have to make yet another pair of legs.
I did, however, wish that I’d decided to make him a hat before I’d spent all that time stitching on hair that nobody will ever see. I did exactly the same thing with this young lady, so it’s not as if it’s the first time.
I never learn!
Anyway, he’s done now. And a fashionable young man should make a bit of an effort with his wardrobe and accessories, don’t you think? I’m sure Beau Brummel and other fancy dandies of his ilk would agree.
Mind you, they have the advantage of not having to try quite so hard to pin down looking like boys in the first place. ♥
My mother, a ‘character actress’, always said she started with the shoes – and then she knew how her person would walk and move. So looking forward to receiving these… x
Just making their travelling bags now…
I wonder if you’d consider giving your ambivalent youths more shoulder. I’ve notice boys of that age may be totally snake-hipped and elongated, but they have shoulders like coat-hangers, even if they slouch, and it makes their arms rest further from their bodies. Girls keep theirs clipped to their sides more. Boys gangle, and it makes their clothes hang differently. The 1920s was a great time for shoulder pads, too so the silhouette would be in keeping with your gorgeous co-respondent shoes and plus-fours look!
Yes, shoulders on boys are a thing, aren’t they? Though not on my soon-to-be-17-year-old son – he’s as narrow shouldered as he is narrow hipped!
I loved this post. It was really fascinating first to read about your creative process and then to be reminded that it IS a process and error is an integral part. I throw away lots of attempts and failures in my work and can work on just one element for weeks. I do agree with the post about the shoulders and her point about slouching was a brilliant observation. I wonder if a little bigger feet and a straight up and down body might do it. Loved the great old photos too.
Thanks Margaret! Yes, error is definitely part of the process! Though I never throw away my failures and quite often they morph into something else at a later date… though what my spare leg is going to be useful for I can’t imagine!
I was also going to add a photo of Edward Gorey in one of his fur coats, but I forgot…
Here we go… from left to right: Edward Gorey; a 1920s advertisement; a 1920s photo of young man wearing a “Raccoon Coat over a Tuxedo. The epitome of a trend setting man in the 1920s.” Second and third photos courtesy of vintagedancer.com
