vest

Iris’ Green Outfit from Broodhollow

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A green vest with a light green flower pattern and a wide Peter Pan-style white collar edged with lace. Also, a green skirt that falls above the knees with a subtle, darker floral pattern and lace around the hem. There is also a green beret with a gold ornament on the side.Click for larger version (PNG); click for PDF version. Click here for the list of dolls.

One of the handful of webcomics I read is a relatively new one called Broodhollow, which I found via Metafilter. (A word of advice: if you want to start reading Broodhollow, start from the beginning.) Its creator, Kris Straub, describes it as “Tintin goes to Innsmouth.” Set in 1930s America, encyclopedia salesman Wadsworth Zane, who suffers from anxiety and compulsive behaviors, discovers that his recently-deceased great-uncle has left him something in his will. This brings him to Broodhollow, “Town of a Thousand Holidays” to claim it. There, he meets various quirky townfolk and comes to believe that something is very wrong with the town… It’s a horror story, but the cartoonish 1930s style, the comic tone and Zane’s good nature take the edge off. Of course, then, when things do get scary it’s even more shocking, but so far, to me, the scariest moment in the series was completely non-violent.

One of the aforementioned quirky townfolk is Iris Bellweather, daughter of one of the executors of Zane’s great-uncle’s will and one of Zane’s first friends in town. She wears this cute outfit, which I always thought made her look like a Girl Scout. Well, the lace and patterns are my own embellishment, but now I’m coloring with Photoshop everything has to have a pattern. Plus, I figured out a way to do lace easily… more on that next week. The skirt pattern is from flashtuchka’s Vintage Floral Patterns and the shirt pattern is from Pixels & Ice Cream.

Queens of the Sea #10: Striped Shirt and Vest for Mary Read

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Click for larger version (PNG); click for PDF version. Click here for the list of dolls.

Welcome to day ten of the Queens of the Sea series, part of the Random Magic Pirates book tour! Here is the mini-bio for today’s pirate, provided again by Lyrika:

Mary Read: The Last Woman Standing

Mary Read was an English pirate and contemporary of pirate Anne Bonny. She’d spent her early days as a soldier and innkeeper, and her character was marked by bravery and resoluteness, as this snippet of a story from her short but tumultuous life illustrates:

An occurrence soon happened that put the attachment of Mary to a severe trial. Her lover having quarrelled with one of the crew, they agreed to fight a duel on shore.

Mary was all anxiety for the fate of her lover, and she manifested a greater concern for the preservation of his life than that of her own; but she could not entertain the idea that he could refuse to fight, and so be esteemed a coward.

Accordingly she quarrelled with the man who challenged her lover, and called him to the field two hours before his appointment with her lover, engaged him with sword and pistol, and laid him dead at her feet. (From: The Pirates Own Book (1837), by Charles Ellms)

She was one of only three people standing to defend the ship she sailed on when Captain Jonathan Barnet’s crew attacked in an October 1720 battle. Mary Read, Anne Bonny and an unnamed seaman fought off the pirate hunters, while the rest of the crew remained in the hold.

The battle ended in the capture of the ship, Revenge, and all her crew; Mary and Anne were both imprisoned and Anne’s lover, Jack ‘Calico Jack’ Rackham was hanged. Anne vanished from historical records and her final fate is a mystery, but Mary died of a fever.

I like the contrast here between her tattered striped shirt and that spiffy black and silver vest – the intended implication is that the vest is, shall we say, a new acquisition.

Take my poll and let’s choose the Queens of the Queens of the Sea! They’ll both expire on the 28th, but I’m not sure when, so if they’re not closed by noon PST on the 28th, that’s when I’ll pick the winners.

poll by twiigs.com

poll by twiigs.com

The contests will be open until May 27th, 11:59 PM Pacific time. So if you haven’t entered, today and tomorrow are your last chance! Click here for the chance to win an original drawing, for those of you who can give me an address if you win, and click here for the chance to design a pirate outfit, open to everyone!

Check out the tour schedule here! And for more information about Random Magic, here’s the trailer for the book.

Also, check out the Rum + Plunder treasure hunt for more pirate prizes!

Halloween LOTR Costume Series #4: Hobbit Outfit with Green Skirts and Embroidered Vest

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Click for larger version (PNG); click for PDF version. Click here for the list of dolls.

So, as I’ve discussed here before, my mom and I would doubtless be hobbits if we were in this world. I did start reading the Fellowship of the Ring again, and I’ve just finished all the Shire stuff; aside from all the stuff about who was whose third cousin twice removed, which I am quite sure I would forget entirely, it sounds like my kind of place. We might admire the elves from a distance, but at the end of the day I’ll take the hobbit-hole and frequent presents…

Now, my paperdoll is built a little more like an elf or human, and you will have to draw the hair on the tops of her feet yourself, but she still gets a hobbit dress because hobbits are fun. And they like green! Yes, I’m so there.

Poll is still going… fairies could still take it all, but I hope not because I would love to do a week of lavish masquerade gowns… is it bad of me to influence the voting?

poll by twiigs.com

Calamity Jane in Fringed Leather Jacket and Buckskin Breeches

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Click for larger version; click for the list of dolls.

I’m listening to Deadwood Dick’s Doom, or, Calamity Jane’s Last Adventure, a dime novel western by Edward Wheeler. At three hours long I will probably be done with it by tomorrow, but if you like westerns or Deadwood, which I do, it’s an enjoyable three hours. The reading is a mite uneven, as with a lot of LibriVox books read by many readers, but overall it’s great, and some of the readers really put some life into it. I mean, how can you not love this line:
“Yes, I am Deadwood Dick, the celebrated cuss from Custer clime– the diabolical devil-may-care devotee of road-agency, from Deadwood the hunted hurricane, Harris, just as you see me. And according to a recent act of Congress, if you or any other two-legged individual attempts to harm yonder girl, whoever she may be, I’ll agree to furnish him with a free pass over Jordan by the most direct ethereal line. I mean business, so let some pilgrim of enterprising disposition open the market.”

Bullock couldn’t pull that off, but just imagine Swearengen chewing on it, preferably while waving around a pistol, even if the chivalrous sentiment isn’t quite his department…

Anyways, this is a drawing of Calamity Jane’s outfit, based off of this picture of her scan courtesy of this Calamity Jane site, Calamity Jane gets to show off in this book, putting a bullet through the neck of a bottle midair, but at the moment she’s in mortal peril. I’m not worried, though, Deadwood Dick has a 3 for 3 record of protecting helpless women, so far, and I predict that tomorrow she’ll be out of her predicament and back with him.