Ta-da! Here it is, our fabulous Couture Contest exhibition at Royal/T. The two top shelves show the runners up (top 10), in the centre you can see Louise’s first prize doll and the bottom shelves show numbers 10-20 which were ‘highly commended’.

The dolls will be on display at Royal/T until January 18th. We’ll have close-ups of the top twenty dolls in the projects section soon along with a little profile of their creators.

The time has come for us to announce the winner of our Couture Contest.

We’ve had such fun with this project and we were so touched by both the quantity and quality of entries. In the end we had just over 100 bundles of brilliance arrive at Momiji HQ – they came from all over the globe, from people of different ages and backgrounds. Some entrants were fashion and textile students, some were from folks who love crafting as a hobby while others were diehard Momiji fans who were dedicated enough to get their sewing machines out and create their dream doll. We want to thank all of you so so much.

Initially when we launched the contest we decided that the top 10 dolls would be displayed at Royal/T in LA, but when Susan who owns the art space saw them all she couldn’t resist extending the exhibition so that she could show the top 20.

The judging took place on November 16th. Each judge awarded points to their top 20 dolls and then we calculated the places according to which dolls had the most points.

So....the moment you’ve all been waiting for...the winner is Louise Evans with her beautiful doll, Choux Choux. The judges loved her Marie Antoinette style and her towering felt wig.

Here’s a little profile about Louise and how she made her Momiji doll...

Your name 
Felt Mistress AKA Louise Evans
 
 Your doll’s name 
Choux Choux
 
Your home town
Wrexham
 
What was the inspiration for the design of your doll?
Besides the obvious nod to 18th Century  corseted bodices, panniered skirts, Marie Antoinette and big powdered wigs (I would so like to wear my hair like that for a day) I loved the opportunity to combine the two sides of my "sewing life" 1) The making of bespoke wedding dresses and 2) Soft plush character sculptures and plush toys. I have received a lot of strange comments  over the years from people who can't understand how I can enjoy both things, they always assume I prefer one to the other but it would be strange for me to give up either as sometimes I'm in a dress mood and sometimes I want to work on a smaller scale and produce a character plush. It's all sewing, which I love! So the Momiji competition was the ideal project for me. I kept getting emails from friends saying "this is so you" with a link to the Momiji website. Not only was I making a character plush but she was wearing a corseted silk dress!

What materials and techniques did you use to make your doll?
She was made using silk, felt, fleece, ribbon, rickrack braiding, buttons and beads (some of which came from my  Nana's button box which I used to play with as a child ) The hair was made of rouleau looping made from grey fleece and arranged on the felt doll shape in curls and then hand sewn  in place. The skirt and bodice was made in dupion silk (remnants from a wedding dress I had made a few years ago) and decorated with ribbon, braid and beads. The felt and fleece is made from recycled plastic bottles. I like to use found or recycled things as much as possible it's nice to give them a second "life".

What do you do for a living?
I make bespoke wedding dresses.
 
 Where is your favourite place?
Can't pick one place so I've narrowed it down to three :
On the Yurikamome line going over Rainbow bridge in Tokyo (after dark).
The studio that I share with Jonathan Edwards. Door shut, music on, surrounded with fabric and normally an organised mess!
Natural History Museum New York.
 
Tell us an interesting fact (or secret!) about yourself
A sewing machine needle broke and went into my eyeball and I still have a red dot on the white of my eye marking the spot!

Ouch..!

And now to announce the top ten places followed by our highly commended entries which take us up to 20. All of the dolls listed below, along with Louise’s are on display from today at Royal/T and will be there until January 18th. (You’ll see there are quite a few joint places as some dolls scored an equal amount of points)

The top 10

Choux Choux by Louise Evans 1st
Joy by Karen Syms 2nd
Sky by Katie Weselby 3rd
Delight by Helena Stamulak 4th
Evie by Rachel Doyle 5th
Ai by Yukiko Otsu 6th
Wilma Birdhouse by Nicola Summer-Smith = 7th
Evie by Danielle Hanson = 7th
Kitsune by Nadine Henderson 9th
Gretchen by Jennifer Zoellner = 10th
Maya by Penny Nuttall = 10th

Highly Commended

Sew Momiji by Corinne Hockley = 12th
Doodles by Isobel Edwards = 12th
Lilly by Debby Hawkins = 14th
Connie by Hannah Beattie = 14th
Beauty by Helena Stamulak 16th
Penelope Wanabe by Sarah Wells = 17th
Space Dolly by Veronica Rowlands = 17th
Sophie by Danielle Hanson 19th
Lilian by Anna Blåfield 20th

We’ll be updating our project section soon with more details of our top ten and highly commended dolls so you can have a good look at them all! Thanks again to everyone involved. If you’re in LA be sure to get yourself down to Royal/T so you can see all the dolls and if you go today (Sunday 20th December) they’re holding a special Momiji High Tea in their beautiful cafe in our honour! We can’t think of a more delicious way to round the whole thing off.

Hello folks,

Apologies for the prolonged silence. We’re working on something a little bit special that seems to be taking up every waking minute right now…but it’ll all be worth it in the end. More news on that soon.

Now on to an important announcement about new dolls. You may have noticed that your local Momiji retailer has welcomed in two new dolls; Little Star and Party Girl.

These two little beauties are now available in our shop. Sorry it’s taken a while for them to be available here – they got snapped up by Momiji shops around the world straight away and we’ve been waiting for more to arrive.

The Christmas lights have been put up in our village today so we reckon that means we’re officially allowed to start getting excited about the festive season. This year we’re very happy to announce our Christmassy collection.

Our little carol singer, Bubble has arrived. Check out her snazzy bauble tin

We’re all shook-up (groan) over this year’s snow globe....

Wrap it all up in style with our pretty glossy tape....

Our Christmas cards come in a cellophane wrapped pack of 10. There are 3 types of pack to choose from, each containing 5 different designs with 2 of each design in a pack. As we did last year, we’re incorporating a charity donation for the Christmas cards to Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF).

Finally, our web-exclusive doll for 2009, Blushes. She’s only available right here, through us and there are only 1000 in the world! Each one is hand numbered, you’re going to have to be quick off the mark to get your hands on one of these.

Hope all this excitement makes up for our quiet spell.

Sending lots of November love to you all.

x

Feeling touchy-feely? Good stuff; here are three new Momiji to tickle your fancy.

Make way for Tiger, Tulip and Pea, three fuzzy friends packed in inflated bags complete with jelly tags.

This trio bursts with rainbow cheer. We’ve clothed each doll in an irresistible flock coating for fuzzy fun.

They were created by Momiji favourite Joanna Zhou who had this to say:

“Flock-It dolls were a chance to explore cute minimalism. Just like friendship trios, Pea, Tiger and Tulip are similar yet uniquely different!”

Wise words.

The dolls are available this very minute in the shop

Can you handle any more excitement? Steady yourselves; we’ve got big news.

Three brand new Momiji; allow us to introduce Coco, Poppet & Dancing Girl.

Dreaming of Paris, romance and Champagne; Coco (above) is a fashion icon. She’s got style all sewn up.

Dancing Girl knows where the party’s at; she’s dressed up and ready to skip wherever the night takes her.

Poppet is looking for adventure. Her bags are packed and she’s ready to go.

Click through to the shop to get yours.

And that’s not all. We’ve got new mugs too. Choose your favourite doll and your favourite colour then put the kettle on.

Click here for a closer look.

This week we’ve been told off. The members of the Momiji Group on Facebook spotted the brand new collection by Joanna Zhou and left a few stern words about the fact that we hadn’t got round to posting details of it yet. Sorry everyone! All that snow slowed us down.

This little trio are inspired by the kooky world of Cosplay. Originating on the streets of Tokyo, Cosplay is created by fans of manga, anime or video games who dress up as their favourite characters. Allow us to introduce Polo, Ruby and Donut. They come in dinky boxes, inside each one you’ll find a little postcard from a different area of Tokyo.

So now you’re up to date. Thanks to everyone for the reminder.

Love Momiji x

In April we announced Yota Sampasneethumrong as the winner of the 2008 momiji design competition. His collection is inspired by the great British tradition of afternoon tea. Yummy!

We are now pleased to announce that Franco is busy making Cuppa T, Dippy D and Bakey C and we have a sneak preview for you…

The dolls are limited edition and will be available for £25 each from Selfridges in September.

If you want to get your hands on this tasty trio email your name and contact details to smiles@momijishop.com and we’ll put you on the pre-order list!

Danny & Sandy, Carrie & Big, Mulder & Scully, Elizabeth Bennett & Mr Darcy, Spike & Blu!

Some things were just meant to be together.

They’re one of the greatest love stories of all time. These two go together like ra-ma la-ma la-ma ka ding a da ding de dong…

And now we must bring you the news that we’ll never make another Spike or Blu again. Yep, once they’re gone, they’re gone forever.

We can’t bear the thought of them being apart so we’re giving you the chance to get these guys together for a special price.