Dolly Dress a Day

Hooray!

I've done it!  ...I've finally finished making and even wrapped all my daughters Birthday presents ready for the weekend!  This is the second of two gifts I've been working on for my soon to be two year old daughter. (Wow, where have the last two years gone?!)

 

Meet Matilda;

 

 

How do you do?  Oops where are my clothes?!

 

The doll is based on a pattern from a book called, Wee Wonderfuls: 24 Dolls to Sew and Love, by Hillary Lang.  (I have just discovered she also has an awesome blog: http://www.weewonderfuls.com/ check it out!) 

 

I kept the doll pattern the same as in the book, using cotton instead of felt for the body, simply because the only felt I had that was large enough was totally the wrong colour (bright pink felt makes for one sunburnt looking doll!)  Also keeping the legs skin coloured rather than patterned as in the book...  This was because I wanted to change the dress pattern for the doll.  The original doll had a fixed dress and I wanted to make the dress removable and make several dresses, to help expand on play themes.

 

So far I have managed to make Matilda three outfits...

 

 

A floaty, casual day dress. 

(Check out the actual fully functioning patch pocket with cupcake detail- so cute!  The little cupcake, which I bought here, was the insipration for the whole doll really.)

 

 

A smart evening dress.

 

 

And a boom boom pow, beach dress!  (Couldn't resist adding the pom pom trim!)

 

 

The dress in the book was made from two pieces of fabric the same size, sewn together, then the neckline gathered once on the doll and then the bottom was sewn up either side of the legs.  I simply made the back panel slightly wider (allowing for two extra seams) and split it into two pieces, with a small piece of velcro for fastening.  I then did a simple running stitch along the neckline, pulled threads to gather material to desired length, tied off ends and hand stitched neat trims along the top edge.

 

If I were to make another dress, I would probably make the arm holes slightly larger, as I think my daughter will need help to thread the arms through the sleeves.  I got quite whizzy by the time I was on the third dress, but left it there as I am feeling quite poorly now after having had a cold, followed by too much sunshine at the weekend and terrible heat exhastion and now a terrible chesty cough.  I could really do with a rest... does this mean I can start a new project this evening?!

 

...I have also finished my latest crochet blanket, but need to give my bedroom a good tidy before taking photos of the finished item for my blog.  This has left me at a complete loss of what to do with any spare time I would have previously spent crocheting.  I have no "go-to" project, that I can pick up and put down when I have a spare 15 minutes. 

 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and fit in a little making with all the sunshine. Happy summer everyone!

Soft sandwiches & felty fillings

I have been rather quiet this past week.  The reason for that is that my daughters second birthday is fast approaching.  As always I have bitten off more than I can chew with the making of presents (along with shopping, party food, my partners Birthday also this week, possibly two Birthday cakes, I feel quite stressed!)  When will I learn to start making sooner and not make things so complicated?! (probably never as I like to be busy and with me, the more complicated the better... no sympathy here then!)

 

This is the first of two toys I've been making her.  Some of her favourite toys are her plastic food things, so I wanted to add and expand on this play by making a soft sandwich.  I am hoping it will encourage more interactive play, talking about fillings, choosing different combinations, stacking the layers and probably a lot of bringing mummy different sandwiches.

 

 

I have seen some toys similar to this available that are made from wood, but when I saw the price I was like, HOW MUCH?!  Present buying gets so expensive and I refuse to spend loads on something I know full well I can make from bits and pieces in my stash.  While my kid is young and I can get away with it, I will!  I don't really see how such small hands are supposed to pick up a chunky wooden sandwich anyway, without it falling to pieces... leading to frustrated toddler tantrum! 

 

I really enjoyed working with the felt for a change (with the exception of the bread being cotton, the slice of ham was made from pink corduroy and the egg yolks a piece of nylon.)  It was nice easy sewing and the simple embroidery details were also fun to do.

 

 

The felt was limiting only in the fact that it is impossible to make sandwich fillings such as tuna and egg mayonnaise... I think however it is probably impossible to make these with anything other than actual tuna or egg!

 

 

I didn't use any patterns when making this project, as it was all fairly 2D, so everything was drawn out freehand.  This project was all hand sewn, with the exception of a quick whizz around the sewing machine on the cucumber and tomato, before hand stitching them... As I'm typing this, I realised I still have a little making to do as I've forgotten to make lettuce, DOH!

 

 

Chicken salad sandwich? ...Don't mind if I do!

 

 

A giant Scooby-Snack also looks quite good!

 

I am also working on a second present for my daughter this week, which is a doll with (hopefully) two or more dresses.  I have all the pattern pieces cut out so far, so fingers crossed I get it put together in time!  What have you been making?  I would love hear about your current projects.

 

Giant Doilies...

...Become Lubly Squishy Cushions

 

Just a quick post from me today, as I have spent the last two hours making two slices of cucumber.  (Alrighty then!) ...and much of last night was spent making a slice of ham from fabric.  Did you know it is actually much easier to make fabric look like cheese than it is ham?!  You learn something new every day!

 

...My daughters second Birthday is fast approaching and I am in present making mode!  Hopefully I will have some nice pictures later in the week, where it will all become a little clearer.

 

For now, here are a few pictures of the giant doily cushions I've been working on:

 

 

For some reason this doily seemed to take twice as long to attach to the backing fabric.  I wanted to take my time and do it by hand, to make sure it was on securely and in case I change my mind somewhere down the line and want to take it off again.  I also find that running doilies through the sewing machine can kind of drag the doily and distort the overall shape and appearance.  Not so important maybe with a small doily, if its a millimetre out here and there, but when you add all those millimetres up and scale up the doily, that is potential wonky doily disaster!

 

 

 

 

 

This is the back of the blue doily cushion (I forgot to take a picture of the back of the other one oops!)  I've finished the backs with buttons, as I get fed up with basic envelope cushions opening every time someone leans on them. 

 

 

So, this is how my sofa is looking now... just a couple more cushions to make for the left of the sofa.  (Really hard to photograph a corner sofa well, without getting all other crap in the room in shot.)

 

If you're paying attention, you might notice in the photo above the tree fabric I got recently for my Birthday.

 

So really two cushions is three cushions...

 

 

The blue crochet flowers were some random ones I made when wanting to crochet a flower blanket.  I quickly changed my mind though as I really struggled with the pattern and decided that there just weren't enough hours in the day to complete it (each flower took as long as eight squares to make.)

 

OK so my quick post today was not so quick hey?! Lolzer!!

Crochet Lucky Dip!

I have been working away like a maniac, the last few days to share this with you:

 

 

That's right, after many weeks of crochet... well, some weeks more than others...  Some weeks a whole lot more and some weeks, really not a lot!  Anyway, i have FINALLY completed my last square.  That is 378 squares in total!  <Insert fan fair here>

 

 

I have coveted this blanket design for so long.  Since issue three of Mollie Makes magazine in fact, where I first drooled at this bedspread, in designer-maker Lisa Stickley's Clapham flat (www.lisastickleylondon.com)  And Mollie Makes I do believe is almost two, so that is quite some time!

 

 

 

So when I happened upon a similar looking design in an old magazine from the 70's, I was delighted and set to work...

 

 

While I was crocheting away, I added a handful of mixed coloured squares simply because I was getting bored:

 

Being careful to make sure than none looked like a nipple...  After reading of the horror story of one crocheter whom I follow on Facebook, who spent an afternoon crocheting two lovely circular cushions for her sofa, to be ridiculed by her teenage children because they looked like boobies.  Never crochet anything circular or sausage shaped in pink or flesh colour!

 

 

I spent any free time over the last couple of days sewing in all the ends of about the last 150 squares.  All I can say is, I'm so glad I didn't leave the sewing in of all the squares til the end or I may have actually gone mad!

 

 

Oh crochet how I love you so, and how I hate you also in the same breath....

Look at me, I'm a crochet machine....

Don't look at me, I want to shut you away in a cupboard and not continue....

You make me want to do a happy dance...

Oh crochet how you drive me to insanity at times...

Yet when you are complete, you will look so shweet upon my bed....

Oh crochet I will not let you get the better of me!

 

(See what this project has done to me!)

So now I have come to that part of granny square blanket making, where the whole thing needs to be joined together.  This is the main reason I have moved the square making up a gear.  The weather is starting to get warmer now, and I'm really not sure it is possible to sit with a woollen blanket on your lap piecing the whole thing together, whilst sweating like a pig, no matter how much you want to complete it!

 

 

In an effort to keep my sanity I am breaking trend with all my OCD ways and will not be laying out and planning out my design before I start the assemblage.  I have stuck all the squares in a huge laundry bag and will be using the lucky dip method.  Oh my word, this is not like me at all!  I wanted to try a different way of working, because over thinking it can often be quite hard work and ends up a bit of a headache.  It is really quite liberating to be working in this way!  And of course, if I did pull out, say four of the same colour in a row, I could have a sneaky reshuffle and re pick!

 

Are you working on any crochet projects at the moment?  I would love to hear what you are making!