I SWEAR, I nearly accidentally texted my sister with a message that finished 'love Hewlett' instead of 'love Helen'. Clearly, I have typed Hewlett so many times into my phone it comes up before my own damn name...

Also known as the super teeny-weeny Major Edmund Hewlett post - and FINALLY completed! I originally started making tiny Hewlett and Anna dolls for the ever-wonderful @calamity-bean way back at Christmas-time, as a little thank you, but with one thing and another, it's ended up as a sort-of Easter present. Sorry, @calamity-bean! But at least you should get him (and the lovely Mrs Strong) by the end of April. Call it a token of my respect and friendship. Well, Mini-Hewlett here went together much better than Anna did, possibly because I'd already worked out the logistics of making men's uniforms from @rapid-apathy's Mini-Simcoe. Being smaller, though, the major got much less pretty braid and silver lace sewn on his uniform - something Simcoe would probably be insufferably smug about. But Mini- Hewlett has got a Mini-Anna, dude. I wouldn't gloat too much. I think my favourite part of making the major was probably his tiny riding boots, made out of a small piece of leather stitched in a tube with his painted feet. The dark red sash is a tiny piece of ribbon - and his brass buttons are those little stick-on dots you can find in craft shops sewn down ! Sadly the facings are a bit uneven, so he looks a bit absent-minded - and dishevelled. (Personally, I think Anna may be to blame for that one, hehe) But gosh, his HAIR! That was my favourite part, because it was so simple! I'd struggled for ages trying to make a tiny removable white wig, and initially I was just going to paint on his dark hair - but I eventually discarded that idea as being overly- complicated for such a small project. I found some some soft black 'cuddle fleece fabric', and simply glued a scalp shaped piece onto Mini-Hews scalp. IT gives him adorable rumpled black hair, that is also rather nice to pet, should you be in the mood! @calamity-bean - maybe you should practice Annlett voodoo with these to ensure a happy season 4 outcome.

A little something I drew ages and ages ago - way before @calamity-bean ‘s amazing ‘How to Draw Burn Gorman’ Tutorial! At the time, it didn’t quite look like him - almost, but not quite. And I was too worried about messing it up if I went any further , so it sat lonely and abandoned on my lunch break sketchbook. But then came along the tutorial of awesome,and I finally figured out that insane jawline and cute-as-a-button mouth. All-praise @calamity-bean!

@calamity-bean - the picture I couldn't add to my previous post, a fleecy-haired Hewlett! (And shockingly immodestly dressed, I might add. I think Burn Gorman is actually a bit more appealing than this in real life -at least, I don't think he's a bony wooden mannequin) He's been sitting patiently in my 'to do' box whilst I finish my Big February Project waiting for clothing ...

Mini-Wigs and Be-Yarned...

I have discovered one of my pet peeves recently, and that is: wig making for tiny people. Sculpting faces and hands? fine, no problem. Sewing period accurate stuff, down to tiny Watteau pleats? No biggies, it’s a breeze! But then we come to the hair and I just… ugh.

So, for your amusement and interest, have a record of M-P’s wigging exploits!

1)Mohair

Back in the days when I was making Mini-Simcoe for the lovely @rapid-apathy​, I briefly tried an experiment with mohair, in a lovely auburn curl. Minicoe was originally going to have the finest most realistic hair since Merida!

Pros of Mohair: looks like real hair! very soft and pettable.

Cons of Mohair: I don’t know whether it was just me being an idiot, but the tutorial I used made it sound so easy,just gluing hair to the wig cap and then styling. HAH! I ended up with a bald wigcap and very hairy fingers, having managed to glue most of Mini-Simcoe’s hair to my hands.

Mohair is also expensive. I paid about £10 for something like 20grams of the stuff. Which I then had to peel off my fingers into the bin to a snarling internal monologue of ‘FML’. Something to practice with, but given how expensive it was - eh. Can’t afford to waste £50.00 on something that will mostly end up in my bin.

2) Fabric

This worked out pretty well on 9-inch Mini-Simcoe! I used some reddish brown linen fabric scraps that I previously made a short jacket out of.

Pros of Fabric

It was using what I had, easy to sew to the little muslin stiffened wig cap, and could be made into curls around a pencil with hairspray! In this case, it worked like a dream and I was very happy with it.

Cons of Fabric

This wasn’t actually a con in this case, because as you can see in the picture above, it looks a little like loose hair - but the fabric frayed like mad. This isn’t a problem for 9 inch figures, but anything smaller and the proportion isn’t right. I tried this with mini Anna and it looked like tentacles were attacking her head.Argh. Not a good look.

3) Yarn

Which leads me to option 3! Plain old wool yarn. I wasn’t sure how this would look at first, especially on mini-Anna, but unravelling the thick strand gives you lots of little bits to work with, and makes it loook more realistic. Mini-Anna was my first go, but I think she worked out rather well:

It’s also working out really well now I’ve tried a few more tricks and techniques out on my current BIG FEBRUARY SURPRISE PROJECT, more of which soon.

Pros of Yarn

It’s affordable, yay! Cotton yarn works super well for hair, and there’s so many different varieties you can play around with different textures, just like for real hair

You can style it really easily into ringlets by knitting, spritzing your knitting with PVA glue, and then unravelling your work. You get perfect little corkscrew curls, which made me very happy for the February Project. In fact, there aren’t really any cons to yarn except when it comes to sewing it to the wig cap.

Cons of Yarn

This is definitely something you need to have a thimble for. Attempting to sew without it gave me hardened fingertips like leather, pinpricks and a desire to put off making wigs for as long as possible. Doesn’t help that the wig cap has to be coated in glue to keep the shape of the doll’s head, so the resulting cap is like sewing through roofing felt.

Fleece:

Fleece is great for short-haired male characters, especially that very soft stuff! You just shape it and stick it on. Wig angst? Solved!I gave up my original idea of having a removable white wig for mini-Hewlett due to bleeding fingertips and calluses from Mini-Anna's It would work on a larger figure, but a tiny five-inch like Hewlett ? Uh-uh. So, compromise. The major has lovely soft black fleecy hair, and he's actually quite pettable. I'll have to give him a little black beret for Astronomy Date accessorising . Maybe even a miniature telescope.... so sorry, @calamity-bean! The godawful season 1 wig never happened on mini-Hewlett...