Thursday, January 26, 2012

Sylvanian wedding dress tutorial

Maddy received a parcel in the post today. It was a vintage wedding car for her Sylvanian toys. She bought it second hand from Trade Me with her birthday money but couldn't afford to get any more of the wedding set so I thought I would have a go at making a little wedding outfit for her.



I found a set of free patterns for clothes here . They are in Japanese but there are pictures so you can pretty much guess what to do if you have a bit of sewing experience. For the wedding dress, I used the gathered dress pattern which is second from the bottom. Click on that picture. You'll see 3 lines of text underneath it which probably appear in Japanese script on an enabled computer but look like a bunch of symbols on mine. Click on the first one and you'll get the pattern. The second one has the instructions and pictures. If you are just making a plain dress, follow the pictures and you'll see what to do.

To make the wedding dress, I used an old baby t-shirt but you could use any white t-shirt. The benefit of using an old t-shirt is that you don't have to do any hemming because it's t-shirt fabric which doesn't fray and you can also use the bottom of the shirt or even the sleeve to make the bottom hem. This is a really good thing to do because it makes the skirt stick out a bit. Cut out the 2 pieces. The skirt should be about 4cm wide by 19cm long (I've made it a bit wider than the pattern so it's a full-length dress). Stitch 2 rows of 1cm wide lace along the length of the skirt and then stitch one row of lace around the neck. Stitch the two underarm sections on the top as shown in the Japanese pattern picture. Gather the top of the skirt and pin it to the bodice section and then stitch it in place. Try it on  your Sylvanian to make sure it fits (there should be some lap over on the back. Fold one side of the back over by a tiny amount (just enough to get it under your needle. Attach 2 long skinny bits of velcro to the back and you have your wedding dress.

To make the veil, take a piece of the same lace you used on the dress and wrap it around your Sylvanian's head to get the right size. Add about 0.5cm on the length of the lace to lap over at the back (you'll add velcro in a moment). Now take a wider piece of lace or about 8x8cm of net/tulle and fold it over concertina style at one end. Stitch the folded end to the skinnier lace at one end so that it will be at the back of the Sylvanian's head when it's attached. Now attatch velcro to either end of your skinny lace with the veil attachment and you are good to go with your bridal headdress.

For the bouquet, I totally cheated and I really don't recommend you do what I did if it's going to be played with by children. What I recommend you do is to hand stitch 3 ribbon roses onto a small piece of elastic so that it can be looped over the toy's hand. What I did was to pin 3 ribbon roses onto a safety pin and loop that over the toy's hand. That's because I'm lazy and because I needed to get off the sewing machine and go and make the kid's some lunch! The safer version will be made later when I have less hungry children and more time.

I've got to figure out how to make something for the groom to wear now. Hm, I wonder if the Mr would notice if I used one of his black t-shirts to make a jacket....

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Matchy matchy

A new job and too many commitments have meant a lot of quietness from me on this blog over the last few months. I decided over Christmas to take a break from selling at markets for about 6 months to give me more time to focus on jobs around the house and doing the sewing projects I want to do but never have time for.

This is one of those projects. I found the tutorial for the dress here. It's for a smaller child than Eloise so I used the bodice of one of her other dresses as a template for upsizing the dress. It's looking a little wrinkled as she's worn it for 3 days this week (*insert happy mummy sigh here*). I ended up cutting off some of the skirt as I made it too long and then saw that this could be one of those happy mistakes as the offcut was exactly the right length for Eloise's doll Mandy. I used an existing doll dress to get roughly the right size for the bodice, used the offcut for the skirt as I mentioned (you only need half of the full circle of patchwork pieces for a dolly skirt) and now Eloise and Mandy can be matchy matchy.
So cute!

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Big smile

Knitted Dan is sitting in my lounge with an enormous smile on his face. You know the main reason why. The boys won! Yes!

There are other reasons. He has Richie McCaw's signature right next to him for a start AND he's hoping very hard that the real DC is going to sign him too before he goes up for auction on Trade Me next week to raise money for Christchurch. Keep your fingers crossed on the signature from the real DC!

We'll be auctioning off some other fantastic Woolly Walkalong pieces for Christchurch at the same time. I'll let you know more soon!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Poor Dan

Yes, I know you are probably sick of hearing about Dan Carter and his groin injury but I'm still gutted, not least because I'm going to miss my 5 and 7 year olds yelling "It's our Dan!!!" everytime they see him play. My knitted version was looking very sorry for himself this morning too. All the wet weather (and I suspect a few 'helpful' people) had him looking very bedraggled.

Photo SaskiaN Designs

I took him off the wharf this morning to do some repairs and couldn't resist a few adjustments. I would have loved to knit him a sexy nurse to rest his head on but no time.
Knitted Dan is all repaired now. I hope the real one is fighting fit soon too.
We love you Dan!

Monday, September 26, 2011

Dan's back

I've just realised that I've been very slack in letting non-Facebookers know that knitted Dan is back. He was stolen from the wharf just over a week ago (poor Eloise burst into tears when she heard he had gone). Being the practical sort, I knitted another Dan. He's been back on the wharf since Friday night, complete with a chain through his middle to avoid any further pinchings.


Whilst I was attaching him, I got chatting to one of the cleaning ladies who works at the wharf. She had developed quite an attachment to our knitted tagging and had been holding on to bits and pieces that had fallen (or pulled) off because she didn't know who to contact about replacing them.I was thrilled to discover she had Elmo's missing arm and the missing owl so both got reattached whilst I was down there. Eloise was so pleased to have both arms back on Elmo and Maddy loved seeing the little owls having a hug.


 If you haven't been to see the Wooly Walkalong yet, it'll be up (hopefully) for the duration of the World Cup. Fingers crossed Dan stays for the rest of that time!

Dan's STILL our man. Replacement Dan on the wharf on Friday night, complete with padlock and chain.


Sunday, September 25, 2011

New Job

I'm sure I could happily fill all the extra child free time I've got now that Eloise has gone to school but the things I do to fill that time won't generally allow us to fix the roof and paint the ceiling! I've been looking for a job since Eloise started school in August. I've been so lucky to be at home with my girls all this time. It's really important to me that I'm still home for them when they get home from school everyday and as many of you know, it's not easy to find part time work in school hours let alone work that you will enjoy. I was thrilled when I say that Parnell Farmers' Market was looking for a new Market Manager. It ticks every box on my wishlist and I was thrilled to be offered the job. I've just finished my first week as the new manager of Parnell Farmers Market and it's been fantastic. Yesterday was my first market day and the weather couldn't have been more perfect.


Pukeko Bakery
All the stallholders were wonderfully welcoming to me. 


Clevedon Proteas
 I met quite a few regular customers too. Everyone was happy to have a chat. Baskets were laden with goodies (I had to force myself not to go and buy everything I wanted. So many scrummy things)
Miranda Farm Shop
 Look at these lemons. Aren't they beautiful? There were so many lovely yellows and oranges on the stalls. Citrus fruits, yellow tulips, baby  carrots, pumpkins.



Heirloom Organix
I know some of these beautiful organic seedlings are going to end up in our veggie garden before long.

NZ Cheeseman
So many scrummy cheeses. Mmmm.

Cake Concepts
The kids love these sausages in blankets. Those pasties are definately on my lunch list for future markets.

Bethany Flowers
 The sights and smells at the market were heavenly. Managing the market means I have to get up at 5.15am on Saturdays now but seriously, how could I mind that when I get to enjoy these beautiful sights?

I love how these gorgeous veggies were displayed. They sold out within a few hours.

Sunset Eggs
These eggs come from very happy chickens. The NZSPCA regularly audits them to make sure they are truly free range. Happy chickens make me happy.

The Farm Gate
I got home from my morning at the market to discover that Maddy had learned to ride her bike and had made it all the way around the block on her own. Happy days! She is just so pleased with herself. Don't you love it when your kids are proud of themselves? I'm sorry that I missed that moment but I'm so glad that I can do a job that I enjoy and still be there to pick them up from school at 3pm and  hear all about what they've done at school that day (bad and good). If you think you'd enjoy coming down to the Parnell Farmers' Market, it's on every Saturday from 8am-12pm in the Jubilee Building car park at 545 Parnell Road, Parnell between the library and museum. I'll still be running the Devonport Craft Market and Cotton Kiwi. The next Devonport Craft Market is on Sunday 2nd October (next Sunday). Hope to see you there!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Dan-napped

My knitted Dan Carter was pinched from the Devonport on Friday night :o(

Photo Knitty Graffity
Believe it or not, it made National news and was even listed on the Yahoo homepage.
Replacement Dan is well on his way to being knitted and will hopefully be up on the wharf by Friday or Saturday.

I'm writing the pattern down as I knit him this time instead of just making it up as I go along. I am planning on selling the pattern to raise money for Christchurch. Any volunteers to pattern test for me? I've got one but I think a couple extras would be good. You'd need to be happy using double pointed needles and a quick knitter because I'd like to get the pattern up for sale asap. Leave a comment below if you are keen or email me. If you fancy donating the Dan you knit to be auctioned off then let me know that too

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