Playing house in the anime world

After obtaining the authorization, Aiko Gojo finally started making dolls.

Since long hair is more difficult to style, she first did Kuroko Tetsuya and Akashi Seijuro's.

In order to design a shape first, she did not make the doll directly, but instead sewed a relatively flat doll out of non-woven fabric.

Because it is made directly from cloth and there is no cotton stuffed inside, one can more intuitively feel whether the doll shape she designed is reasonable and whether it fits her own characteristics.

The non-woven dolls are relatively small, and she plans to sew all the non-woven dolls used for making boards onto the canvas, and then make a non-woven "painting", and finally put it into the picture frame. This will be a very cute decorative painting.

If you make a few more, you can give them to everyone in the basketball club as gifts.

After making the pattern with non-woven fabric, the next step is to start making the round and furry doll filled with cotton.

But before that, some accessories must be prepared first

“How should we design the eyes?” Aiko Gojo listed the most common ways to design eyes for dolls.

Some use buttons instead, some use eye-shaped plastic buttons, some use fabric to make the shape of an eye and sew it on, or directly use thread to sew an eye shape.

If I use buttons instead, the style of painting always feels a bit weird.

It was difficult to find a color that met her requirements for sewing a plastic button that looked like an eye. If she ordered it custom-made, they would only accept large orders, not small orders like hers.

If it's made of cloth, it just doesn't look good enough.

Sewing directly is too difficult and easy to fail.

"How about trying to paint those white buttons yourself?" Kanae Kocho has been making dolls with Aiko Gojo.

But she prefers making clothes for dolls and braiding their hair.

"This is a great idea!" Chiba Niyuu threw the excess fabric cut by Gojo Aiko into the trash can nearby while eating an apple.

Don't ask, the answer is that he is just bored.

"Kuroko-kun's eyes... are blue... round... and very innocent..." Gojo Aiko began to try hard to recall what Kuroko Tetsuya's eyes looked like.

"The eyes on this kind of doll don't need to be drawn very specifically, right? Just like the cartoon characters in comics or cartoons, simply draw a blue circle, and then draw the difference between the eyeball and the white of the eye, and add some highlights at most. That should be enough, right?" Chiba Ninoyu took a look at the small and very miniature doll in Gojo Aiko's hand. It originally had a kawaii style, so the eyes could be made a little kawaii.

"Let me try..." Aiko Gojo found a white round button and painted it blue with acrylic paint.

"This blue... seems a little too dark." After finishing drawing the pig, Aiko Gojo realized that the color was wrong.

So she started mixing the colors again. If it was too dark, she would add some white paint to make it lighter.

After adjusting the color, I took a white button and painted it again. Simply painting the entire round button blue actually gave it an eye-catching look.

She first drew one with pupils, which felt a bit strange. Then she drew one without pupils, but after clicking on the highlights, she found that this one was not bad, with a silly and cute feeling.

"How about this? It's simple, easy to draw, and pretty cute." Kanae Kotobukiya leaned over to take a look at the eyes after they were installed. Although they were a little dull, they were also very cute.

"Then let's start making dolls!" Aiko Gojo did not choose to make clothes first because she had not yet decided what kind of clothes to make.

Originally, she was planning to make Kuroko Tetsuya wearing a jersey, but since Kuroko Tetsuya has not officially joined the second or first army and is currently in the third army, he does not have a formal jersey yet, so she doesn't know what kind of jersey to design for him.

If I just make school uniforms, it would be a bit too boring.

So let’s make the doll itself first.

The dolls made by Aiko Gojo are only the size of an adult's palm and are the kind that can be held in one hand.

The doll's body and limbs are made relatively simply, just a long round shape, without details such as fingers and joints.

Compared to the head, the body is relatively easy to make, and the size of the head needs to match the body. If it is too big, it will become a big-headed doll, and if it is too small, it will look very weird.

After determining a suitable size, it is time to start styling your hair.

At first, Aiko Gojo wanted to use colorful balls of yarn or silk threads to stick on the head to simulate hair, but that would make the hairstyle very messy, and if it wasn't fixed with hairspray or something, it would be impossible to create each person's unique hairstyle.

It is also difficult to decide on the amount of hair. If too many hairs are attached, they will become frizzy, and if too few hairs are attached, you will look bald.

So in the end she chose to use a stiffer piece of fabric to cut out the outline of the hairstyle and then sew it to her head.

This one is more technically demanding, and really tests your ability to simplify complex hairstyles in real life.

After all, hair is made up of strands. In real life, many people's hairstyles are frizzy or have a lot of unruly hair, but it is impossible to create such details on dolls. We can only simplify it and use simple outlines to replace complex hairstyles.

It also takes skill to sew the cloth onto the doll's head. If the seam lines are too obvious, it will look ugly. Moreover, the doll's head is round, not flat, so it is even more difficult to sew the hairstyle on.

After working with Kocho Kanae for several weeks, Gojo Aiko finally succeeded in making a realistic-looking cute version of Kuroko Tetsuya doll!

But... I still haven't decided what design the doll's clothes should be like!

"How about... instead of making everyday clothes, we make some special designs?" suggested Kanae Kocho.

After all, it is a bit difficult to simplify the clothes that we wear every day into a cute version, but what if the clothes themselves are the type that are often put on dolls?