New Easter Peg Doll

I came up with a new design for my peg dolls, just in time for Easter.  Meet the Easter gnome, who loves Easter so much she dresses up like the Easter bunny.
I needle felted the nest and eggs from roving and I have been trying out new embroidery stitches.  Recently, I went to the library and checked out about 10 books on embroidery and crewel.  Generally, what I found is there is a short basic set of stitches with a lot of variations to make them look different. 

 

 

Lastly, here is a photo of one of my lovebug peg dolls.  The heart felt is from an experiment with alcohol inks. 

Wool Felt Doll

I have finals to grade (homestretch), but I wanted to do a quick post on a felt doll I made as a gift before I completely forgot.  I bought the pattern from Gingermelon's etsy shop.  The doll is made from the pocket pixie pattern.  This is the 2nd pattern I have bought, and it is just as adorable as the first.

Except for the embroidered face, she is 100% wool felt.  The pretty glittery multicolored wool yarn I bought at Artfest 2012--sorry I don't remember the vender's name.  The hair is needle felted on, and I really liked how easy it was and how well it turned out.  I'm waiting to see how it holds up with gentle toddler play.

My Little Boos from GingerMelon's Pattern

I made these two cute little Boo's from a pattern I purchased from Gingermelon's etsy shop.  The kids love them and are asking for more.  I know I could have probably created something similar, but with a to-do list taller than me, I decided to take a break from creating my own patterns.  I have admired Shelly's dolls and creatures since first seeing them in in Stuffed magazine, so I thought it was fitting to support her creativity and give mine a break by purchasing her pattern.  Her instructions were clear and the end results speak for themselves.

I used 100% wool felt.  The only change I made was to create the eyes with felt and embroidery floss instead of using safety eyes.  I love how the arms move a bit--I will have to use the same technique on some of my other projects.

 

Some More Dolls in Progress

Here are two more dolls in progress.  I created the pattern, cut out doubled muslin and cotton fabric and machine and hand stitched these two little lovelies.  I  painted the eyes last night.  I decided to keep the focus on the eyes and make the mouth and nose very simple.  For me this harkens to the Waldorf ideal a bit, where their dolls have neutral, primitive faces to engage the imagination.  The eyes go beyond primitive here, and certainly indicate personality, but I don't think that's a bad thing, in this case. 

I think these dolls must be friends, even though they have very different personalities.  Originally I was making one doll as a birthday present for a little girl I know, and then I figured I'd make two.  I'm torn now, as I'm thinking I'd like to send them in to see if they might get published in Stuffed or Prims.  I might just have to make some more with the same pattern.

I'll post more pictures when they have hair and clothes :).

 

 

Batman Doll

So my son informed me a couple of weeks ago that he felt like I was making all these dolls for my daughter and he wanted a doll too. Keeping in mind that he has a very expensive Bamboletta doll he never plays with (no worries, Bamboletta lovers, my daughter has appropriated him), as well as an elf doll I made for him that he ignores, I wasn't exactly jumping for the opportunity to make him one. However, he was very specific in wanting a Batman doll and gave me all sorts of details for how the doll was to look. I figured if he was that interested in the planning that he might actually appreciate the end result, especially since Batman is his current favorite superhero. Really, how different is a doll from an action figure, with the exception of scale (which is why I tend to chuckle when people are adamant about not letting/encouraging their boys to play with "dolls").

 

I went ahead a drew out a pattern and received the nod of approval. Here is the doll prior to adding the details.  I'm mid-way through painting and I still need to make the cape and utility belt (with removable batarangs, of course).

Let's hope the excitement stays and this doll doesn't suffer the same fate as the last few.

Want to see the finished doll?  Check out the blog post here: 

DIY Magic Wand

So here is another gift I made for my daughter for her birthday. Sorry the pictures aren't the best. The most time consuming part was painting the wood dowel; the rest was easy. I knotted the ribbon in the middle, then separated into three different sections. I sewed over the ribbon while attaching the two pieces of felt together (leaving a space free to insert the dowel). Then I stuffed the star with fiberfill and used fabric glue to attach it to the dowel. So far the glue is holding. On the dowel, since I used a coat of glitter paint, I went over it again with acrylic medium to make sure the glitter doesn't travel off the wand.