Izzy and Lucy

The dolls are finally finished: dresses, boots and all.

They have been such a fun project, but incredibly time consuming.

Lets just say I have the greatest respect for all the wonderful doll makers out there.

So many hours of sewing and deciding on fabrics ect,

but most importantly trying to create a doll that a child will fall in love with

and want to play with over and over again.

I am now dreaming up other outfit for these girls:

knitted cardigans

smocked top

chambray pants...

and the list goes on!

boots

Izzy and Lucy got a new pair of leather boots last night.

Sewing leather is not as easy as it looks.

They couldn't have been done without my trust walking foot on the machine!

Loving the softness of the leather.

Loving the colours.

pretty faces

Thanks for all your encouragement with the dolls!

They have come along quite nicely are are now just about finished.

I couldn't wait for them to be finished before I showed the girls,

they absolutely love them and gave them names straight away.

Say hello to Izzy (formerly know as Sara, then Judy), Maeve's doll (of course).

 and Lucy, Grace's doll.

I found it so hard finding the right wool for their hair and choosing the colours for their facial features.

But in the end I am happy with how they turned out.

I wasnt sure about the colour of Lucy's hair, and was ready to redo her hair the same as Izzy's.

But as soon as I showed her to Grace, she fell in love and wouldn't let me change a thing.

The dolls are made made from a natural linen,

filled with wool stuffing.

Their hair is mohair.

We have been away for Easter (photo's are from mum and dad's house).

I finished off most of the sewing there, including their dresses yesterday.

I will update with more photos soon.

Now all that's left is to sew their leather boots!

Some of you asked about the pattern for the dolls:

Mum made a kit doll for my sister (back in the 90's?) and the girls just love to play with her when we go to visit.
Mum still had the pattern pieces (without instructions) so I based the dolls on that. 

I am glad they love their new dolls as much as the original!

This is the original doll Mum made. 

Sorry about the dark photos, but we left at night and I didnt get around to day light photos.

 Check out those puffed sleeves!

The girls love her dress, so I copied the pattern for that too.

Will be back with more photos soon...

1am

Excuse the bad lighting in the photo's... it is only 1am.

I have entered the wonderful world of doll making which is surprisingly fun,

but incredibly (crazily) time consuming.

We have a birthday coming up, and I thought leaving myself a week to make these would be ample time.

However I am coming to terms with the fact that the dolls may be bald.

They do have the prettiest of petticoats and bloomers, that must count for something?

I am still trying to work out why I spent tonight making their underwear when I should have finished embroidering their faces and giving them hair. 

I never seem to be able to complete a task in logical order.

And incase you are feeling peckish at this hour of the morning,

here is a photo of the birthday cupcakes that went into school today yesterday.

I managed to overdose on butter cream icing, and spent the day feeling rather poorly.

Lets hope I can make it to bed before the next hour passes.

markets

We've had a bit of a lazy Saturday.
Managed to venture out late morning to check out some local handmade markets for kids which was a lot of fun.
They were the Billycart Markets.
Its always nice to have a chat to the stall holders talk about handmade.
I would love to have my own stall one day, but with three little one's that idea may just have to go on hold.
 My life is chaotic enough as is!
 

My friend Rachel was there with her stall Art Wish, selling beautifully painted reward charts for kids.
I also met Sophie from Barefoot Babies with her stunning range of children's clothing.
And I was totally inspired by the beautiful handmade horses by Calamity Bolt.
Each horse was so unique and beautifully detailed.

The girls also held their own markets on our coffee table this morning.
Beautiful artworks, handmade paper toys, paper baby blankets etc, were all on sale.
They spent well over an hour preparing stock!

How do you like the picture of the dog on the rainbow lead in the middle?
Its totally killing me with cuteness!
Might have to turn this one into an embroidery so I can enjoy it for years to come.

They spend hours drawing, cutting and sticky taping things together daily.
Grace's cutting skills are nothing short of impressive.
It means I constantly have confetti like debris strewn throughout the house (and not to mention the mash of paper pulp I keep pulling off the roof of Jude's mouth) but it is all so worth it.

If the day ever did come where I was able to have my own stall,
I know I would have two very keen helpers who would want to sell their own wares,
and probably out do their mother!

recycled dino shirt :: mini tutorial

So, I know this is not exactly the best thing I have ever made...but I thought I would share the idea of how I made it with you.

The two different fabrics are both from old t-shirts. The dino print one is a newborn sized shirt that belonged to Jude, and the green was a shirt of mine. 

 

If you are interested in making one, grab your favorite tee pattern and two old shirts, then follow along!
(If you were after a picture heavy tutorial, I apologise in advance. This is a bit of a hack job).

Cut your two shirts open down the side seams.

Place your shirt front and back pattern pieces on the larger shirt lining up the bottom of the pattern with the hem of the shirt.
This way you wont have to hem your shirt when your done (I like it , I like it!).

Then lay the sleeve pattern pieces along the bottom hem of the smaller shirt, and cut.

Sew your shirt up according to pattern direction and add some ribbing for the neckband.
The onesie tutorial will help you out if you are unsure about binding/ribbing.

Then bar tack your seams to one side (to the back looks best) on the sleeve edges, and at the bottom of the side seams on body.

So... not exactly rocket science.

But you do get a kick out of recycling two un-used shirts, and not having to bother with heming or binding edges (apart from neck).
It's amazing how much time that saves!

Enough time in fact to add a few cute patches on the front...

The dinosaurs were cut from left over fabric.

Cut a circular cardboard template to the size you want your patches (mine were 3 different sizes).

Cut your fabric 1cm wider all around than the template.

Stitch around the edge of fabric circles with a large straight stitch, then gather the circle to fit around the cardboard.
Give it a good steam iron to press into shape. Pull out your cardboard.
Add some iron on adhesive to back of patch if you like.
Something like Vliesofix, heat and bond...or equivalent.

Iron patches onto garment. Top stitch around edges to finish.

And there you have it! 

One fun recycled (or is it upcycled??) tee with super cute button patches.

today

 

Todays objective:

• To find the floor in the sewing room (I kid you not)
• relocate all the fabrics, sewing supplies and sewing machines strewn throughout the house, to their rightful place
• claim back the dining table to be used for what it was designed for. Yes, we are all a tad sick of eating our dinner surrounded by piles of my stuff!
• by the end of the day, having a room I can actually sew in

 And to achieve all this with a crawling babe underfoot (yes, the boy can crawl!), will be nothing short of impresive.

Wish me luck!

 ['mousie' is a childhood friend of mine. Trust me, her picture is much prettier than my sewing room right now. Isn't she cute!]

tie tee

Check out this little shirt!

I found the tutorial on Saltwater kids via 'Celebrate the boy' on Made, and knew I had to make one for my boy. 
You could make so many fun variations with this simple pattern.
I am thinking a few long sleeved ones for winter would be really cute too.

The t-shirt pattern is one from Ottobre 3/08.

wordless weekend

 

 

just for fun

A few weeks back when I was tossing up ideas for the baby boy's onesie, I came up with this logo of 'the boy', which my brother helped me to polish up- thanks Tim! To cut a long story short, I decided to go with the striped onesie instead. Then later I thought some of you might like it to use it. Maybe its more your style, bold and out there rather than subtle and sweet?

  
So here's the PDF if you want to have a play!

You can stencil it with freezer paper (Dana's tutorial here). Or,  I have even reversed the images on the second page of PDF so it can be printed onto Iron on Transfer paper, cut out and ironed directly onto garment. 

I found that ironing it onto stretch wasn't the best idea, the imaged seemed to crack a little as the fabric stretched. So, one solution might be ironing it onto plain white woven fabric, then stitching it to the garment. Or you can try the reverse applique technique (which is what I've done on this outfit... don't look too close, very rough!).

don't you just want to squeeze the boy!

 

ok ok, enough of the photo's mum. My eyes are blinded by the light!

And a side note for those of you that live in Australia:

I have found that Spotlight now sells Freezer Paper for stenciling at the cutting counter. You can buy it by the meter, instead of having to purchase the whole roll which is just brilliant if you are only wanting to do one or two stencils!