Work-Related Project #1

 

I woke up one morning with a vague lead on the one childhood doll I've been idly trying to find, and in the process of half-awake-ly scrolling through ebay...happened on this little guy in the listings.

The thumbnail is the best way to present this, because at this size he's an entire mood.  Of course I had to share this with the chat at work, and then send pictures (as one does when someone in the team is doll-phobic in the please-send-pictures kind of way).  And since he also made them giggle, and made several more appearances that day, I dared them to make me buy him and turn him into a boss baby.  The rest is history.

He's a 1988 Newborn Welcome Home doll by Playmates, and I clearly didn't pay enough attention to the description, because I fully expected him to be at least 12 inches long.  He's an 8-incher, actually.  This is Li'l Ike, namesake of the one guy on the team who was afraid of dolls but was 100% behind this idea.

He came with that fabulous puffy coat, which is fashion doll sized and someday I'll find out where it comes from, and a simple diaper which was probably original.  Both items and Ike himself got a bath.  Ike then spent a few days wrapped up in a yellow washcloth (and hated it), and when I finally got my sewing stuff together...a prototype dress shirt (and hated that as well, even more).  But I finally got everything settled from the move and spread all his bits and pieces out on the kitchen island.

Fabric hot glue is my new love, by the way.  The shirt, pants and dress jacket are all the usual Fashion Doll Stylist Kenswear, tweaked to fit Ike better.  The shoes are from a doll shoe pattern I'd found ages ago, with craft foam soles and painted details.  The newspaper is a collection of several I got from Printmini, printed on parchment paper, and folded.  The cup is LOL Surprise, and the pen comes from a dollhouse stationery set I think I grabbed either at Michaels or Hobby Lobby.

It's a little slapdash - I did almost all of this on Thanksgiving Day while avoiding showing up at David's kitchen warzone as long as possible.  He looks better from a distance, but I will also note he looks infinitely happier in his little business suit than he ever did before.  Li'l Ike's found his place in the world after 35 years.