An Edyth/Elaine/Dixie doll - Abigail

When I visited my friend, Edyth O'Neill last summer, she gave me a little face mask that she had painted many years ago.  She had put it aside because it had some small dents in it.  I loved it, so I decided to make the mask into a doll.  Her name is Abigail.  Edyth is a wonderful oil painter.  She has made beautiful portraits of children in old fashioned dress.  And she used to make Izannah dolls, using masks like Abigail's.  She has a beautiful blog: http://edythoneill.blogspot.com/.  Visit it!

I made a custom designed cloth head for Abigail.  Her mask is sewn onto the front of the head.

I used Dixie's IW pattern for the body, enlarged to 175%.  Abby is BIG!  Note the rat terrier, snuggling next to Abigail.

I made Abigail a bonnet with ruffles and lace and sculpted a breastplate and painted her back curls. I only had a face mask to work with, so I decided to embellish Abigail this way. It would have been difficult to match Edyth's hair and skin tone. so I made defined boundaries between the face and the rest of the parts that needed painting.  I soaked the ruffles in Paverpol, to make them VERY stiff.   This was the first time that I had used Paverpol.  It REALLY made them stiff. 

Abigail and Tace, a standard sized Dixie doll.

I love Abigail's sweet face.  Thank you, Edyth and Dixie!