I have remade many, many old dolls into fairies, angels, witches, and zombies. I can’t help it, I see a doll that needs a makeover and I’m itching to start gluing things all over her and giving her a new look.
St Nick, here, is my latest and my biggest. And while he might not be a fairy, he is a jolly old elf.
He was at a garage sale where everything was a dollar.
(Including a dining room table with six chairs. Seriously, every single item was $1. The same day, I was at a sale where everything was 50 cents. You just gotta love garage sailing, you never know what you’ll find. Even if it is something you do not need. I’m very proud of myself for not coming home with a dining room set.)
He caught my eye, because I knew he deserved better than a felt suit. Poor guy. I’m sure he was fine as is, but he was not living up to his full potential.
I had no idea what was lurking beneath, or how I was going to redo him, so I just started pulling him apart and taking it as I found it.
My best surprise was that under the fake fur covers, he had nice boots. All they needed was a shine in the form of some high gloss spray paint.
His rubber face needed paint too, and a lot of it. I primed that first thing, to let it dry while I worked on other elements.
There, that new face is better!
The painting part was easy, but the clothing? That gave me some issues, I am not a seamstress. And the heavy, cut velvet fabric (it used to be my old sofa’s slipcover) was pretty thick. I envisioned many broken needles if I attempted getting the sewing machine out.
So, first I tried staples, and discovered that they sorta worked. At least a couple could hold material in place while the glue dried. So with a combo of hot glue and The Ultimate, I started sticking the fabric to the plastic and gluing seams in the clothes. Since I wasn’t using a needle and thread, I carefully cut the velvet to make sure that finished edges made up my hemmed areas.
But then, I started to fret about the pants. His previous britches were real pants, with an elastic waist. As I tried to figure out how to replicate that, I realized that he was not going to be pulling them off and on, and I did not need anything that complicated.
So I made two legs out of rectangles glued them to his thighs.
While they already had a finished edge from the hem of the slipcover, I still covered that with fur. Because, well, dur, Santa! Of course his trousers are fur trimmed.
And not just any old, fake fur this time. I used strips cut from a vintage, white mink pillow.
Next, I covered up my most hideous glued together seams with trim and old lace, then added more mink in appropriate places. I did not have quite enough to go around the bottom of his jacket, like a traditional Santa suit, but did what I could and made it go as far as I could by using thin strips.
I knew that my husband had the world’s rattiest belt in his closet, one that should’ve been thrown away years ago. It was practically in shreds. I cut the buckle off, glued it together where I could, peeled off the worst straggles and spray painted it like the boots.
The buckle is an antique, mother of pearl one that I slid in place and glued on. But first, I tucked a couple handfuls of stuffing under the jacket. I thought this guy was looking too slim.
Originally, Santa had a bag of badly wrapped gifts (more felt) and cheapo plastic garland. No kid wants that delivered down the chimney.
So I lined the bag with a pretty doily and added a fluffy teddy and an old doll (she had no legs, and was scheduled to become a zombie, I’m sure she prefers this life).
The bag is glued, stapled and pinned into place, and the rope to it is glued to his mitten.
I left the mittens as is, they are the only part that did not get a makeover.
His too shiny glasses got a little tarnish with paint and I made his beard, mustache, and eyebrows from curly locks goat hair.
The hat is pretty simple, it’s from another fabric, but with a similar look, and is also trimmed in mink and glued together.
All in, it took me almost five hours on a day that I should’ve been working on something else. But I could not help myself, it had to be done. And everything I used was stuff that was repurposed and hanging around in the studio.
And speaking of hanging around in the studio, I have nowhere to put this guy til Christmas. I have a feeling he will become my loyal companion while I work out there.
