MONIKA age 7

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I'm dotty about sock monkeys!
They are a basic doll traditionally made using 2 Redford heel work socks. The red heels are placed so that the mouth and butt are coloured red. People made a lot of these dolls in America in the 50's. I bought an old man vintage sock monkey from eBay, I could just as easily have sewn it from new socks, but I like the accumulated character of vintage fabric, yellowing, stains & such.
A bubble bath was administered to clean it up, then I undid all the stitches and redesigned it completely, the arms, legs and ears were made fatter & were positioned differently. And I gave it a skinnier body, in fact the only bit I kept was the non-existing neck- if you can keep something that doesn't exist? At this point I decided to make it a middle aged lady monkey.
It was then stuffed with fresh stuffing.

Hair: This was the first time I tried to use mohair, it's a bit messy as each hair is rather short. Took some figuring out how to sew it on securely in the hairdo I had in mind. I would use mohair again, but only if I know that the doll is not going to be handled a great deal. At this point I could tell she was a little girl monkey, cos she looked so good with ponytails! Oh, and she's ginger, cos she's an orangutang!

Eyes: I'm pleased with the way the eyes came out. I secured them with wire inside the head and I cut open the fabric round the eyes, so that I coud use the fabric for eyelids, as the eyes looked to staring otherwise.

Mouth: I made some small teeth using ovenbake fimo, I varnished them with oilbased yacht varnish to make them shiny and slightly yellow. The heelfabric was used to form the lips. As she's 7, I tried to make it look like she's in that cute tooth-falling-out-stage.

Clothes: I made her socks using an old Hello Kitty sock, as I love the idea of a sock monkey wearing socks!
Her skirt was made from a vintage silk skirt of mine, there's a special hole sewn to put her tail through...
The cardigan was an old jumper of mine that had holes on the elbows, I was happy I could recycle it in this way, the buttons I bought at a fleamarket.
The sports a vest underneath, which has a miniature silk rose sewn onto it.
Her earrings are plastic buttons brushed with diluted burnt umber acrylic paint, cos they were a bit too bright.

Lollipop: sewn from a stuffed caterpillar from MacDonalds that I chopped the head off and removed the eyes from. I put some sequinnes on to make it look a bit shiny.
The stick has wire inside and I covered it with a ribbon.

Doll: Every little girl like to have a sweet doll by her side, right?
I made this one from a miniature sock monkey, also from eBay, I had to make the tail skinnier, cos it was as thick as the legs. It's face was sewn on really crudely, so I took it off and gave it new features. Hair is sheepswool, beads for eyes and I made the mouth and eyelashes with thread. The dress I made from this knitted look cotton fabric.

Background: I tried to make a background out of fabrics!
I photographed cottonballs for clouds, a bathtowel for the sky, a scarf and a knitted jumper for the grass and a flower ring made from felt for the daisys.
I maniputated the stuff in photoshop.

Frame: I had the hardest time with the frame, I did soo many that didn't look right, too busy, I will probably post two of the frames that I did in my stock account, one made out of battenburgcake, one with embrodiered flowers. Finally I settled for this frame that I did using stock from [link]
I manipulated the picture in photoshop to remove a lot of the bananaspots, too give it as simple of a look as possibe.

That's all I think...
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