Brúni

I first decided to make him when I found some wool scraps - saved from garment production waste - at my local ReClaim It. I decided to use this pattern by Prairie Crocus Studio and followed thier instructions to make the body.

Because I was working with a limited ammount of fabric, I wasn't able to fit the pattern in the reccomended position according to the stretch. This ended up making him even taller and lankier than the original pattern intended, but it adds to the character. He was simply sewn and stuffed like any other plush, with the addition of a wire skeleton and some complicated thread sculpting to achieve his realism and flexibility.

His hair was fun to make, and I may repeat the process to take pictures of in the future. I took yarn and wound it back and forth around two pencils in a figure-8 shape. Every 4-6 stitches I would take a needle and thread and tie together the bundle right along the middle where the yarn crossed. This gave me a long strand of little loops, which was easy to then sew right to the back of his head.

I decided to hold off on the face until I could get a better idea of the character, and started drafting the clothes. Referencing images of viking clothing and several free patterns uploaded online for historical cosplayers, I sketched out some basic shapes based on the doll's measurements. These were also made from the scrap wool fabric I had bought. The pants have a simple drawstring at the top to hold them up.

The fur trim I already had, though I had to cut the already think strip into even thinner strips for it to fit, and nearly ran out. Using friendship bracelet patterns, I wove him a simple belt with chevron designs to incorporate some cool colors in there.

After the structure of the clothes were finished, it was time to add the details. I researched celtic and viking embroidery to find something complicated enough to fill in the space nicely, but still simple enough it could be sized down reasonably. I decided on this "X" pattern, which has a free-floating knot-like design woven through the stitches. If you look closely you can see, the silver "X"s are stitched in but the orange threads only attach at the beginning and end of each section.

Though I practised on some scrap wool first, this still took multiple tries as I didn't originally realize how crucial it was to get those original "X" stitches overlapped correctly. I replicated the design along the bottom hem and the cuffs, and went with a much smaller pattern along the neckline. Embroidered designs and beadwork had always been part of his design, and I was excited to add beads to the finished embroidery. The small leaf accents I'm not sure what they were originally intended to be, but by bending them in half they had enough of a point to stay in place once sewn.

Back to the face. While the original doll pattern had painted faces, I knew 1) that I was working with wool, which would make painting almost impossible, and 2) that it wasn't the look I was going for. I wanted him to feel like a very old doll, made around the time the character is from, and after some research went with this very simple design. I think it captures his calm melencholy very well. The red bumps (his hives - he has a chronic autoimmune disorder) are made from french knots. I had waited until his clothes were finished to see how much was covered.

The boots referenced a pattern for real-life boots in a similar style. I had debated making them with leather, but in the end went with felt to make things easier on myself. And still not entirely historically inaccurate. Underneath, his feet are wrapped in strips of fabric and sewn loosely in place, I didn't feel like making socks no one would see. The boots are embroidered similarly to the tunic, I wanted to keep the whole thing looking cohesive, and sewn up with embroidery thread. This does make them a bit of a pain to remove, but I don't plan on doing that, and his pants can be switched out by only loosening the tops.

His final additions were the acessories. It has a metal clasp in the back, hidden by more of those metal leaves. The satchel is made from faux leather and took a deceptively long time to sew together with all the beading on the edges. The clasp is just a hole cut in the top, with another leaf trinket to thread through and hold it closed. It has two holes on the back which the belt threads through.

Now for what I've been avoiding: the cape. His original design has a thick cloak, which I planned to make but as you can see, didn't end up in the finished piece (so far). However, I've decided to document it regardless. The first issue came when I didn't have enough fabric for the length I had been planning, as mentioned I had been working with entirely scraps.

I decided to cut it as big as I could anyway, and add on some fur at the bottom for more length. Here comes issue #2, I ran out of the shorter fur I used for the front edge and had to go back into my supplies for the rest. The fur I found was longer, and comes with these subtle tufts of longer fur in a slighly ivory tone. I used it anyway. Inside the fur is a wire, which allows the cape to be pose-able and replicate weight and movement. At this point my only mistake was continuing to move workward and sink more time into a piece I wasn't a big fan of.

I researched and found a woven celtic knot pattern I decided to re-creat out of strands of woven beads. I believe for this wort of thing you're supposed to start with pre-stranded beads, I did not.

Next I wanted to design a wing-shaped decal for the back. In his lore, his cape is covered with thousands of beads that can separate and transform to form wings made of the individual pieces working in tandem. I sketched up some celtic designs based on older, more-fluid art, and used paper as a guide to make a loosely stitched outline.

Once transfered to the fabric, I went over my lines with chain-stitch embroidery.

Unable to find any beads that I liked for a suitable price, I decided to go with sequins I already had, that was issue number 3. While They overlap quite nicely, they have an unavoidable modern look that I couldn't shake. So, halfway through the sequins, I finally shelved the thing. Not literally, in fact it hangs on my wall in its half-finished state. It still looks nice, but hopefully someway I can find the fabric, beads, and motivation to re-make it. I have a very specific idea of how the beads should look.