Inspiration to Execution

One of the wonderful things about the internet is the connections you can make with others that have the same interests. Through my love of dolls and Outlander, I have had the pleasure of connecting with some truly wonderful, talented people, quite a few of them have become very good friends over the years.  My wonderful friend Lyn is a fabulously talented artist, who has painted many of my dolls faces (she did all of my Jamie's, Young Ian, Fergus and Rachel as well).  Robyn at Period Threads is another supremely talented artist, her art expressed through fabric and thread, who I have had the pleasure to meet and work with through our love of dolls, period fashion and Outlander. I first came across Robyn's work in 2015 when I was searching for someone who could create some miniature works of art for my Outlander dolls to wear. I found Robyn's website "Period Threads" and contacted her about doing Jamie's wedding shirt and a shift for Claire. Since that time she has not only become my "go to" person for any period fashion pieces I  am inspired to see recreated in dolly form, she has become a wonderful friend as well.
In this blog installment I thought it might be fun to share some photos of several of the pieces Robyn has made for me over the years. The first 2 pieces I received were Jamie's wedding shirt and Claire's shift seen below in one of my favorite pictures of my larger Jamie and Claire dolls. I don't have a collage of them with the inspiration photos, but I found screen shots of the clothing items from the show and sent them to Robyn, and she recreated them perfectly in doll size.

I think two of the next pieces we began talking about were Claire's red Paris dress, and the gold robe she wears in Paris in S2. I sent Robyn still shots of the inspiration pieces from the show, and she was able to create wonderful miniature versions for my dolls. It isn't always easy to find comparable fabric to match your inspiration that will work in dolly scale, so for Claire's robe I found something close that we both thought would work. Robyn also made her silk long sleeve chemise that goes under the robe. I've paired the screen shots of Catriona Balfe as Claire in the robe that inspired the piece, along with my dolly version of Claire in the finished shift and robe by Robyn below.

The Paris gown took a little longer to come to fruition, but was well worth the wait. The cartridge pleats that Robyn did on the skirt are works of art within themselves as are the under clothes not pictured here. Robyn even did the earrings. I was lucky to find the fan in an Etsy store, and thought based on measurements it might work for dolly scale. It was the perfect added touch.

One of the next big projects I approached Robyn with was a British Army uniform for Lord John. While I don't know if it was at the top of her list of projects she wanted to tackle, once again, I sent her inspiration photos and she agreed to try. Result, she hit it out of the ballpark. Poor John hasn't had his clothes changed since the uniform arrived and he put it on. The details are amazing.

One of our collaborations that wasn't actually inspired by a "show" piece of clothing is the jerkin I asked Robyn to make for Young Ian. At the time, Ian hadn't shown up in the TV show yet. I found a picture of this jerkin while researching other period fashion pieces and thought it would be something well suited to Young Ian. The calico shirt was inspired by a passage I remembered from the books where Claire was thinking about Ian's fashion sense ever since he returned from the Mohawk and it was mentioned he sometimes wore calico prints.

I'll finish up with one of the last pieces Robyn did  for Jamie. I had found this fabric in a scrap bin while shopping at JoAnn Fabrics and thought of Jamie's coat he wears in the Versailles Gardens in S2. I bought the fabric and once again sent pictures of both the fabric and the inspiration pics of the jacket and asked Robyn what she thought. The result is below. Robyn also made his waistcoat. His kilt however was made by another very talented seamstress, Becky Unger, also an Outlander lover. Back when I first got Jamie I had seen a post on a doll board where Becky mentioned the Fraser plaid fabric she had found. I contacted her and asked her about making a kilt for Jamie. Even though she didn't even have a doll his size, I sent her the measurements and she did the kilt for me, which is a perfect fit.