Peter, of blogging fame, is apparently not content with collecting a small army of sewing machines, or an actual army of Ken dolls (all of whom look as if they’re ready for some sort of leisure-suited Armageddon). Nooo, now he’s gone and acquired a Patti Playpal doll. From a Manhattan thrift store. For the grand total of 15 dollars. (She’s even wearing her original pinafore!)
Does Peter have supernatural help in finding these things? Or a secret army of spies, ever-alert, walking the sidewalks and scouting the shops? Because the most exciting thing I ever found in a Manhattan thrift shop was a Sherlock-Holmes-style cape with moth holes and several buttons missing.
But I digress. Peter, meet Zoë. Admittedly, I didn’t score her from a consignment shop on an exotic island, but she’s just as useful for freaking out the spouse:
I did, however, make her myself. Or, rather, I designed and made her inner armature myself, modified her body, and assembled her limbs and head. (Without the armature, she’d have been relegated to life in an assistive device). Her skeleton is made of flexible plumbing tubing, which makes her less stable than Patti, but more posable.
Mr. Noile finds her creepy (and this from a guy who used to feed baby dolls to a giant preying mantis puppet! Talk about creep factor!). He was pleased to learn that Michael felt similarly about Patti. And no, I don’t sew for Zoë, but I do have a whole box of 1940s and 1950s children’s patterns in the attic, and, next to Patti, Zoë’s apparel looks awfully modern, doesn’t it? Maybe I should do something about that. There may not be enough eccentricity in the world already.
What? You say that I haven’t posted on this sewing blog since August, and then I write about a life-size doll? Yeah, what of it?
OK, I’m with your husband. An impressive achievement, but a *little* bit creepy.
Aww, Trena, I figure as long as she’s not wielding an ax, it’s all good! (I admit to being fortunate that Mr. Noile “gets” my engineering side, though.)
LOL. What *is* it with doll collecting? I missed that gene. As well as the machine collecting gene. 🙂 Now, FABRIC… Guilty!
Actually, I don’t collect dolls. I made Zoë because I was interested in her armature. The fabric collecting problem? Guilty! Oh, yes, very, very guilty!
OK, that doll is scary — and not just because she resembles Pia Zadora. She’s so lifelike!
Heh, heh. She really is. I took her to a store to buy shoes for her, and the clerk talked to her. She was in a stroller (no way I could have gotten shoes on her easily unless she was contained), but still. Even I was freaked out.
The Walmart greeter didn’t notice that she wasn’t alive, and just kept talking to her, but somehow that didn’t seem surprising.
Wow, you’re right about Pia Zadora. I wonder if that’s deliberate?