Harriet's rock outfit revealed

On Saturday morning I got up and worked on the microphone and stand.  Actually I made 2 of each, calculating the other as being a present for my cousin's daughter later.  My husband cut the dowel and the old wooden cotton reel (he was a bit unsure of cutting a 'museum piece' in half for this project, but I decided it wasn't particularly valuable!).  He drilled out the centre hole to fit the dowel and there was the basic microphone stand.  However the attachment on top to hold the microphone was the next problem, which I worked on during the morning.  I found a piece of plastic tube in his workshop from which I cut a narrow ring.  This ring I cut in half across the circle, to make 2 half circles.  In the middle of each half circle I drilled a hole for the short number 4 screw and drilled a hole in the top of each 12" long dowel for the screw.  I then screwed the half circle to the top of the dowel into the end grain.  I was using the pillar drill, and hadn't lost my drilling knack (I used to use that drill a lot in a previous job when working with my husband) and it was quite a pleasurable way to start a Saturday morning.

Back in the house I covered each half circle with some thin wadding, glued on with evostick.  Once this was dry I used some of the leftover silvery material from Peter's first skating outfit to cover the wadding, gluing it on in stages using Hi-tack glue.  The glue soaked through the very thin material very easily and it was tricky not getting my fingers rather than the material sticking to the dowel, however after allowing each stage to dry a bit, I was able to make progress with it.  Once the top was complete, it was a relatively simple matter to glue a long strip of the silvery material along the length of the dowel.

The top of the microphone stand
after I'd covered the plastic half circle with wadding

Each microphone was made out a 2" length of the same dowel.  At one end I glued a strip of wadding, then I covered it with a piece of the silvering material taken from the edge, where there was a 1 inch wide band of white material rather than the silver, so this made a good distinction between the padded microphone and the handle. Once this had dried, I used a short length of elastic sewn on at the end and at the other end of the handle to provide a means for the doll or the microphone stand to hold the microphone without dropping it.

The microphones at various stages,
and the base of the microphone stand (half cotton reel)

comparing the two home made microphone stands for Gotz dolls
with the smaller version for Groovy Girl dolls

Close up of the microphone on its stand

Later in the day my elder daughter returned from her music trip.  She brought back a few souveniors, one of which was a small guitar about the same size but a different style from the one I'd bought!  She was delighted with Harriet in her new outfit, but the green eyed monster emerged when my younger daughter saw her sister get a new outfit and instrument for her doll, and there was nothing for Samantha doll (who received a new outfit in May but no instrument).  So I've decided to make a similar rockstar outfit for Samantha (I had already planned to make one for one of the 3 dolls belonging to my cousin's daughter, for Christmas, and had bought a guitar for that purpose), so it looks like the pattern I made up based on the 'Hannah Rockstar' outfit, will be used again a couple of times.

Harriet in her version of the Rockstar outfit

Harriet rocks!