MY FIRST EVER DOLLHOUSE SCALE DOLLS

The first three of these pictures are already elsewhere on this site, but as I decided to make two dolls in one go, the project grew and I made a separate page for it.
At first, I just meant to make a 1:12 scale doll for my dollhouse, just to see what it's like to make one. But then my parents' birthdays were approaching, and it was going to be my stepdad's 60th birthday, so I thought I might as well make something special and make doll versions of them for presents!
That also meant that I didn't need to be so fussy about the scale as my parents don't have a dollhouse (yet..), so I started making the dolls without any particular measurements, other than what looked sort of right. They're still very close to 1:12.

Here are my first attempts, a head, feet and hands of FIMO (skin tone colour no. 43):

In this close-up of the head, you'll notice that the neck is a bit fat. I didn't bother trying to make it look perfect as I will cover it with hair anyway:

And close-up of the hands and feet:

I didn't take pictures of the second head, hands and feet, before baking. And there was a bit of a baking related disaster! We recently got a new cooker, switching from an electrical one to a gas one (although I was dead against it - I think gas cookers are suitable for holiday use or professional kitchens, I don't want one at home). This stone age invention doesn't have temperatures marked on it (I've never had to deal with anything as ancient as gas marks), and I trusted Daniel to get me the right temperature... Well, all my FIMO items were burned, those near the back of the oven became dark brown, and those in the front became just slightly brown. It doesn't matter with the other items as they were going to be painted anyway, but it certainly made it pointless to have used skin toned FIMO as my parents turned black, which meant that I was going to have to paint them.
(Moira @ Yahoo Roomboxes group has since given me instructions that the right gas mark for baking polymer clay is one half (1/2), only the middle shelf should be used, and all items should be in the front part of the tray. *sharing this in case anyone else out there has to struggle with a stupid gas cooker..*)

My stepdad, the mummy. Heh.. I had made little pin holes to all the doll parts before baking them. After baking, I put some metal wire in all the pin holes, and glued it firmly with super glue. I then used 2-3 pipe cleaners to make a body, attaching the body to the doll using the metal wire - I wrapped it tightly around the pipe cleaner. After this, I "mummified" the dolls by wrapping narrow strips of thin cotton around their limbs and torso. I kept applying wood glue as I wrapped, so that the fabric wouldn't slide all over the place later on. (If anyone is thinking of making a similar doll, I would just like to mention that the body does get a bit stiff once the glue dries, so if you want your doll to be in any particular position, create that pose before "mummifying" the doll. Or, if you want to be able to move your doll into different positions later on, leave ankles, knees, hips, wrists elbows and shoulders unwrapped. Doing it my way does allow some post-wrapping movement, but not too much.)

Close-up of my stepdad's doll head:

Hands:

And feet:

Mam doll with only legs wrapped:

Pipe cleaner jungle...

Close-up of my mam doll's head - this is the head you saw in the very first pictures, see the colour change!

I wish I were making a black doll as these hands would have the perfect skin tones!

Mam doll's feet:

Both parents painted with new skin colour:

Mam's face before details:

Stepdad's face before details:

Mam's face details painted!

Another angle:

Mam's painted boots (like Pertti Palmroth boots):

Stepdad's face details painted!

Another angle:

He got painted shoes too:

Mam got woollen hair! She actually doesn't have red hair anymore, but I had limited colours of wool available, with this one being the only natural looking colour for hair, so.. Not only was my mother temporarily black, she's now also gone back to dying her hair red - at least in doll form like!

The back of the hair:

Left profile:

Right profile:

But wait, mam often wears goggles, so... I made tiny glasses of metal wire. Here they are on my finger:

Tadaa, one mam doll's head finished!

It does actually look a bit like her..

Profile:

The first item of clothing:

And a back view:

Close-up of the boots:

Finished! Mam is wearing black trousers and boots, a white silk shirt, and a navy blue jumper:

Profiles:

Close-up of a hand:

I made the collar for the silk shirt by gluing two strips of silk on paper (using paper glue stick, which doesn't stain the fabric), and letting it dry before cutting out collar pieces, which I then glued in the position I wanted them, on top of the shirt.

Trying to get a better face picture by reflecting light from my laptop screen!

Another angle:

My stepdad doll before haircut:

Profile:

The back of the head:

And profile (had to take pictures while waiting for the glue to dry!):

Making the shirt of thin cotton:

Sleeve detail:

Making black trousers:

I glued the sleeves in the right positions:

Both dolls finished!

Closer view:

Mam doll:

Stepdad doll:

Slightly better light for close-up:

And same here:

My parents have never visited me in Ireland as my stepdad can't fly after having had several operations on his ear, and mam won't travel on her own. So, I took pictures of their doll versions in my dollhouse, before sending these dolls to them. This way at least their dolls have "visited" us!
There are already so many pictures on this page, that I've made a separate page of those "parents in dollhouse" pictures. You can see them here.