Figma News Fridays 12/11/15

Welcome to Figma News Fridays!

But, Yami Usagi, it’s Tues–*slaps* and what a lovely week it was, so let’s get started!

Asuna ALO version Release Date Announced

A Merry Dolly Christmas

Merry Christmas everybody! It’s actually only Christmas Eve here, but I’ve always found the day before to be more festive than the day itself. Because anticipation!

I tend to scramble for photos as holidays draw closer, so I don’t really have a special planned out photo shoot. But what I do have are some images of my dolls enjoying Christmas! This is Tamaki’s third, Kagura’s second, and Celeste’s first Christmas. That makes it their first all together, and my first having a Dollfie Dream. I hope to celebrate with two next year! Another thing I scrambled on was clothing, so only Celeste has a new outfit *mostly* made by me. The Pureneemos are wearing a mixture of old clothing, but I tried to make it look festive regardless.

Tamaki, Kagura, and the Monster Part 3/3

This labor day, I was able to get several things done. I took the review photos for Eren and Mikasa, broke down some clothing into fabric, and prepped a DD tank top for sewing. But another thing I knew I had to do was finally finish Celeste’s intro story!

So here’s the third and final part of the story. My camera battery was dying at this point, so I didn’t focus much on styling everybody for each shot, but I think the message still comes across. Also, let’s just not pay attention to Celeste’s wig change between parts two and three…

If you’d like to catch up with the previous parts to the story, here’s 1 and 2

And as usual, previous stories can be read in the Photo Stories tab.

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Tamaki: *Phew!* We just escaped that beast’s grasp by the hair of my tail!
Kagura: But it feels like something is missing…

Spring Cleaning with Tamaki and Kagura

Once again, my figures have been receiving a lot of attention during photo shoots. And after my sewing books came in the mail, suddenly nothing in Tamaki or Kagura’s wardrobe was good enough. The girls haven’t had a proper photo story in quite some time either. So after a huge wardrobe purge, new outfits were definitely in order. And to show off these new outfits, I decided to finally bring to life some photo ideas I’ve had for quite some time. This is a lot like my Christmas shoot which combined a mini story with the typical photo shoot. So let’s reign in one of my favorite seasons with something that everybody should do every now and then– spring cleaning!
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With Christmas festivities and New Years buzz having melted away with the snow, the house has taken on a stagnant air, and now that every resident has settled like dust, nothing but the sweet scents and brisk breeze of spring can rouse them.

Snow Day Part 2

Not long after our first surprise snow day, we received yet another dusting of white wonder. Perhaps dusting is not the right word though because this time around it was truly worthy of being called a storm, and we received a healthy five inches along with three days of white. Unfortunately I caught a nasty cold the first night of snowfall which still has yet to clear up completely. This left me unable to take full advantage of the snow which is upsetting the more I think about it, for that reason, I’ll just move on to the pictures!

I received something in the mail just in time for the cold weather. I’ll go over it more in my loot post, but for now I’ll say that Tamaki will no longer be the only one with lots of clothing!

Because of this arrival, most of the photos taken this time were of my dolls.

Kagura in the outfit speed sewn just for this shoot!

Big Batch of Doll Clothing!

Hello~
After finally securing a body for my Dollfie Dream in the making, I mentioned that I’d already begun sewing for her and would post what I’ve been making. Many hours of being hunched over the sewing machine later, I finally have a good sized batch ready to share. And around the time the body arrived, I also received a lovely package of fabrics from Littlebearries, so this post is to share what I’ve made with those fabrics so far as well!

The colder months always make this hobby more difficult for me since as I’m sure you’ve noticed, I rely primarily on natural light which is in short supply this time of year. I just might have learned a better way to cope with photographing figures indoors, but since dolls are much bigger than what I’m used to photographing, had to face the cold and go outside for these photos. Because of that, these aren’t exactly staged or exposed well, but you can at least see the clothes!

We’ll start with Pureneemos!

My first attempt full outfit for Tamaki.
I found the red fabric in the remnant bin and bought it thinking it was cotton, but it’s actually a stiffer fabric that feels almost like those table cloths with the white fuzz underneath. Thankfully it works just fine for doll clothing.
Since I got a good amount of this fabric, I of course wanted to make another kimono for Tamaki. I usually make the casual yukata/komon style kimono, but wanting to be more adventurous, decided to “listen” to the fabric. It sounds creepy, but sometimes you just look at something, and it “tells” you what it wants to be. This fabric would look good with long sleeves(a furisode), but since furisodes are known for their intricate patterns, I didn’t feel right making it a traditional long one. So it became a mini kimono!

Summer with a Splash of Autumn

I have quite the pile of pictures with nowhere to go building up, so in spite of the exciting title, today I’ll be merely posting a collection of miscellaneous photos. I’d call it a photo dump, since that’s what it is, but “miscellaneous” just sounds so much cooler.

I’ll go in chronological order.

Oops
Mio drops something important on the way to school.

For one month in the summer, we had rain every day, so I wanted to do a series of rainy day phots and have this be part of it, but it never happened.

Speaking of rainy days, the time right after rain was one of my earliest favorite occasions for figure photos. A grassy area of my back yard(the place this photo was taken actually) fills up with water, and if the sun comes out afterwards, creates a lovely pool with grass visible under the water. I took some of my first pictures with Tsukasa there when the clouds were reflected in the water, but have yet to see a day quite as nice as that one to do it again.

Kagura’s Patchwork Skirt

Figures have been getting a lot of blog attention lately, but the same cannot be said for dolls. This is not because my darlings have been neglected(never!), but because I’ve been hard at work polishing my sewing skills to build up lovely wardrobes! I picked up sewing as a pastime in order to not have to spend money clothing my dolls with Azone’s often shockingly expensive pieces. But the few adventures I’ve already had have really taught me to appreciate the skill and quality of official Pureneemo clothing. Not only does the clothing fit well, it suits the dolls perfectly and is available in a variety of fashions. The quality and diversity of official clothing presents a dilemma to anyone wishing to sew for their own dolls, and that is making homemade clothing without having it look homemade. I hope to improve my skills to the point that my Pureneemos(and eventually Dollfie Dream) are able to have beautiful clothing that might as well be official!

But more importantly, looking at Azone clothing inspired me to venture out of my comfort zone and learn new methods by playing with different patterns. This lead to my finally pulling out the Barbie patterns I bought some time ago. The pack contains patterns for fairly basic things like halter tops and skirts along with more complicated projects like a hooded jacket and peasant dress. Unlike the kimonos I had been sewing before, making these things introduced me to gathering(which I already don’t like on such a small scale), elastic, and the fitting required to make something designed for slim and curvy Barbie fit the chunky flat body of a Pureneemo.

After sewing the basic skirt provided in the pattern, I was reminded of a photo that I saw on Flickr of a Pureneemo wearing a patchwork skirt. This particular photographer not only has very well dressed dolls, but always has the cutest sets and props for which I love looking at her pictures!

Inspired by the skirt, I decided to try making one myself. Because the pattern I have requires side seams, I ended up doing my first attempt at draping.

Here’s my result!
When you compare to the original photo, I wasn’t entirely successful since the skirt is not as billowy as I’d like. The difference in texture also removes some of the quaint charm.
But I’d be lying if I said I am not satisfied. First, it looks like a skirt which is a good start, and second I think that the colors work well enough to make it a fun piece for Kagura.

Kagura’s Secret

And now the thrilling conclusion to last time’s story. Yes, “thrilling.”
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Tamaki: Sigh~ It’s been over a week now since I heard Kagura’s cry from outside.

Kagura and Kirito

Something short this time.
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It would appear to be just a regular day at the house, but we know that those don’t really exist.

Kagura: Hey, Tamaki! A new package just came in, so Kirito kun and I are going to see what new stuff there is. Wanna come?