Dolls and Daydreams

Meet Leilani. She's my new little Pasifika doll and I think she's quite lovely (and wonderfully easy to make). I made her on Monday using a pattern by Sarah Hanson of Dolls and Daydreams.

Sarah is the very clever (and high energy!) lady behind the blog Dolls and Daydreams and the organising force behind Dolly Donations. Despite being really quite pregnant, she has been creating some wonderful dolly and toy patterns recently for sale in her Etsy shop. There are some truly scrumptious ones in there and if this little lady is anything to go by, I know I will be back for more. Just look at these patterns.

Those little mushroom babies are high on my list of wants. I just have to get through that pile of 'to dos' I created when I went to the Spotlight sale yesterday first.

Anniversary day

It was Auckland Anniversary weekend this last weekend which meant an extra day's holiday for us yesterday. I love long weekends. There's always so much to do around the house on normal weekends, that we don't often get the chance to have a family outing. Do you find that or do you make a real effort to have a trip somewhere with the family every weekend?

 Getting out of the house at a reasonable time seems to be our main problem at weekends. The girls are at an age where they are happy to potter until we get up which means that by the time Richard and I get up and have had a cup of coffee, it's close to 10am and by the time we've done some gardening and other jobs around the house, the day is gone. We managed to get out of the house in time for the Anniversary Day Tugboat race yesterday morning which really made the weekend special. We all picked a boat and walked around the top of North Head following to see who would win.

Eloise insisted on taking her baby doll, Jasmine, with her to see the race. I made her a dolly sling (using Amanda Blake Soule's tutorial in her book Handmade Home ) a while ago and that sling gets so much use from both girls it's fantastic. So much easier than lugging a doll's pram up a steep hill!!

We got back from our tug boat race excursion with plenty of time to do our jobs and it's really making me think that we should be making more of an effort to get up earlier and out of the house so we can make the most of our weekends. What do you think?

Tiny Doll Carrier Tutorial (pic heavy)

(Please ask permission before using any photos from my blog)

I bought my daughters some tiny dolls the other day as a little treat for being so good all week. They begged for the carrier that went with them but there was no way I was going to pay the nearly $30 for each bag when I knew I could make something similar at home. I took photos while I made the little dolly carriers so you can make one too.

The bag is more like a little folder with pockets inside. The idea is the baby dolls can have their nappies changed on the soft pink quilted fabric on the right and all their little bottles and accessories can be kept in the pockets. There's  little ribbon to tie the carry cot or baby doll to.

So here's how you make it. What you need is:

1 piece quilted fabric

1 piece printed cotton fabric

both 37cm x 23cm

2 pieces printed cotton 15cm x 9cm (closure)

1 piece printed cotton 12cm x 40cm (handle)

1 piece printed cotton 26cm x 9cm (for pockets)

1" square velcro.

1 narrow ribbon 25cm long

Instructions:

• Cut out all the fabric pieces. Put the 2 bag pieces together. Fold them again so the fabric is in quarters and gently round off the corners on one side. Open out. You should have two oval shapes.
• Round off one edge of the bag closure pieces of fabric. Stitch the two pieces together, leaving the short straight edge open. Clip curves and turn right sides out. Press and stitch one half of the velcro to the curved end.

• Fold the handle strip in half lenghways and press. Open it out and fold the two long edges into the centre and press again. Fold the two folded edges together so they meet. Press and stitch close to the long edge.
• To make the pockets, fold over the top edge of the pocket strip twice, as if to hem it. Stitch. Cut the strip into three pieces. 1 x 10.5cm and 2 x 7.5cm. Cut 2cm off the bottom of the two smaller pieces so they measure 7.5cm x 7cm (or you can just make the pockets whatever size suits the toy you are making for.

• Fold in the two side edges and the bottom edge of each pocket and press. Mark the centre of the inside piece of your bag with a pin. Pin the pockets and ribbon in place to the left of the centre mark and stitch.

• Pin the handle to the centre top of the bag so the raw edges overlap the raw edges of the bag. Do the same with the closure piece and stitch them both in place close to the edge.

• Now you need to attach the second piece of velcro. With wrong sides together, put the quilted piece together with the outer cotton piece and fold in half as if you are closing the bag. Fold the closure over the outside and marke where the velcro piece should go. Stitch the velcro to the outer cotton piece only in the marked position.
• Put both pieces right sides together, tucking the handle and closure inside, and pin. Stitch all the way around, leaving a 8cm opening for turning. Clip curves and turn right sides out. Poke all the edges out with your fingers or a chopstick. Pin the opening closed.

• Stitch close to the edge all the way around, catching and closing the turning opening.
• You're all done. Go and make a little girl very happy!

There's no reason why you couldn't make a similar bag for a little boy to carry his cars or other treasures around in. Iron stiff interfacing on to the inner piece of fabric rather than using quilted fabric.

Let me know how you get on or if you have any problems with my instructions.

Dolly Drive

I popped in to Jennie's blog earlier today and she was talking about a lovely lady called Sarah who is organising a second Dolly Donation drive to go to children in Haiti. They are in particular need of boy dolls so I decided to make a couple to send over. She mentioned that soccer is a very popular passtime amongst the boys of Haiti so I googled the Haitian National soccer team.

Source

And here is one of my almost finished dolls.

He still needs some shorts and I'm toying (excuse the pun) with the idea of writing Haiti with a fabric marker on his front but I'm scared of wrecking him.  What do you think? Shall I risk it?

I know you want to join in with this worthy cause too so why not visit the Dolly Donations blog and get all the info? There's a free pattern on the blog that's designed to use scraps. I've used my own pattern. The deadline isn't until 1st November so you have plenty of time to make one or two and get them over to America. So if you can sew, there is no excuse

Dolly heaven

I went op shopping (thrift or charity shopping for you non-kiwis out there) on Tuesday. I got some wondeful stuff including about 3 metres of pink flesh coloured stockinette fabric perfect for making dollies. I went on a hunt last night for some online inspiration and came across these amazingly gorgeous free patterns.

Baby Bows

Dolly Hugs

These beautiful felt dolls by Mimi Kirchner over at Purl Bee

This Waldorf/Steiner typed doll from good old Martha

and of course these fabulous instructions on how to make a Waldorf doll which I will definately have to try.

Echoes of a Dream

Good job there's a lot of fabric to play with!

New Friends

I am a very happy girl. I got to spend most of the day sewing yesterday. My girls were great at playing together all day (I discovered after a short but scarey period of quietness that they had painted themselves with felt tip pen but aside from that they were GREAT and let me sew!).

I'm thrilled to introduce you to my new little friends. These gorgeous creatures, designed by Bit of Whimsy Dolls, will be appearing on my stall at the next Devonport Craft Market.

I love them. They are beautifully designed and I loved picking gorgeous fabrics for their bodys. They are all totally baby friendly so look out for them on 14th Feb.

Cupcakes and dolls

This week, I've been indulging my girly side.

I made the cupcakes for my brother in law's birthday party last night. Yum!

My beautiful assistant.

I had so much fun making these dolls. They're for my stall at the

Michael Park School fair in Ellerslie tomorrow.

Come along tomorrow if you get the chance.

Skin of my teeth

Just about to go and pack my car for Kraftbomb but couldn't resist including a pic of my latest stall additions.

Doll design by http://www.ohsewdollin.etsy.com/

See you there!

Kraftbomb tomorrow!

Kraftbomb tomorrow and I'm rather excited! It was too sunny today to

stay inside and craft so we went here instead:

Kare Kare beach ... just stunning.

The beach was wonderful and the last minute dinner invitation from friends was even better.

It may well be a late night for me though. I have a couple more

of these new dollies to finish off before bed.

Hope to see you tomorrow.

Kraftbomb. Grey Lynn Community Centre, 510 Richmond Rd. 11am-2pm.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Our beautiful youngest daughter, Eloise, turned 3 today. I can't believe that those 3 years have gone so quickly. She is such a wonderful child. So easy to be around, so quick with a smile and so happy. Today was a quiet family day as her party is on Saturday but I still wanted to make it special for her. I've been working on a birthday bunting which will hopefully become part of our family's birthday tradition. Here's a sneak preview but it isn't quite finished yet. But it will be by Saturday (party day)!

I made her a chocolate cake to share with family and her Godmother who can't make it on Saturday.

Can you tell she is quite keen on Dora? Her lovely godmother Melanie bought her a sleepy time Dora which was a huge hit.

Melanie also brought some gorgeous cupcakes so Eloise got to blow out 2 lots of birthday candles today!

Yum! Chocolate!

She got a Sleeping Beauty dress from us which I didn't make.

and a dolly called Rosie which I did.

Eloise asked me to make her a dolly called Rosie to share her birthday cake. How could I resist? She is my first attempt at soft sculpture and I love the way she turned out. She has white lacy undies, lace topped party socks, Pink and yellow felt shoes and a party dress with icecreams all over it. I really did enjoy making her but I may well have palpatations when Eloise tries to feed her chocolate cake. I don't think that curly hair would survive a trip through the washing machine! I will post more pics of her and the bunting when I get the chance to take them.