Friday 19 January 2018

Topsy Turvy Doll - Elsa & Wonder Woman


I so loved how my first up-side down doll turned out (seen here) and I have had requests for more, so now, finally, I have finished another flip doll. This doll is a Disney / DC topsy turvy mashup of their most popular characters. Elsa from Disney's Frozen and Wonder Woman from the DC Extended Universe, and seen most recently in the movie Wonder Woman. As you can see they are not exact representations of their characters, merely just my interpretation of each character limited by my supplies.


As one of Disney's most popular characters in recent years, Elsa is an official Disney Princess, Queen of Arendell and the re-imagined Snow Queen. This young lady, along with her sister the Princess Anna, the magical talking snowman Olaf, Kristoff and his reindeer Sven, are so popular they are instantly recognisable. So despite not being an exact likeness, this Elsa doll looks enough like her character to be obvious to most.


One of the most well known and long standing female heroines and icons of feminist power is Wonder Woman. Over the years her looks and outfits have changed and altered with the times but she is forever Princess Diana of Themyscira, the Amazon Warrior. With her pair of indestructible bracelets and tiara, my doll version of Wonder Woman is immediately recognisable as her outfit has changed so many times there is no wrong way to dress her.


The Elsa doll was given a blue dress in snowflake print with an under shirt of pale blue. The top of the snowflake dress was created to look like a bodice to more resemble the style of dress worn by Elsa. As I have mentioned above, the outfit is not exact as I had to rely on the original pattern for this topsy turvy doll that was altered slightly for this dress, as well as the materials that I had on hand as I only use recycled materials.


Elsa's face is hand embroidered and her hair is stitched to her head, first stitching a hair layer over her head before stitching a second layer of hair for her front hair wave and plait. This is so she will have no bald spots if her hair is moved about. It was tricking getting her plait just right but I am very pleased with the end result.


For the Wonder Woman doll, I made it in very much the same way I made my first Wonder Woman topsy turvy doll, with a few minor changes. First her skirt is plain blue, her wrist cuffs are yellow, or gold, and her tiara is designed so that the star pattern is embroidered, to more resemble the tiara as seen in the new Wonder Woman movie where there is no longer a red star on her tiara. Her hair is also stitched with two layers to ensure no bald spots.


These topsy turvy dolls take so long to create and put together but the end result is so worth the weeks of effort put in to hand stitching each and every detail. Along with their individual facial expressions and embroidered definition on their hands, each doll has its own unique character. The finished size of this topsy turvy doll is about 14 inches from head to head and about 16 inches from head to hem, as the skirt hangs a little lower to fully cover the doll under it.

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