sister dolls

Hello, friends!

 

Just popping in on this stormy Thursday to share a couple of little pretties with you.

 

These lovelies just went to the daughters of my cousin, Addysen and Aubrey.  They are two of THE CUTEST girls I've EVER seen, so I was tickled to get to make a couple of mini doll versions of them for Easter.

Blond hair with blue eyes and brown hair with brown eyes.  As different as can be, but if you could see them in person you'd know immediately that they're sisters.

Built-in BFFs.  :)

An attempt at dollmaking

A few weeks ago I got the itch to make something.  This happens to me a lot.  Sometimes I get the urge to make something specific, sometimes I want to use a certain material, sometimes I just want to make something for a certain person, and sometimes it's all of the above.

 

I wanted to make handmade Christmas gifts for my best friend's children, so I had to come up with what I could make for two boys (ages 8 and 6) and two girls (ages 4 and almost 2).  The idea for the boys ended up being easier than I thought- marshmallow shooters!  Seriously, if you have kids (boys or girls) aged 5 and up, they'll love 'em!  Check out Pinterest.  There are tutorials everywhere!

 

As for the girls, I knew I wanted to make something girly that both would like, and something I could do some hand sewing on.  That was the itch I needed to scratch.  I wanted to stitch by hand.

 

The thought of making a couple of dolls for them made me so happy!  I browsed the Internet until I decided on the look I liked, then made up some paper patterns.  This took a little trial and error, then I had fun choosing fabrics. 

 

This little gal was my first attempt.  And yes, I made her with red hair and blue eyes on purpose.  :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since this was my first doll, I hadn't gotten the assembly really figured out.  I stuffed the head and limbs, stuffed the dress, then pinned everything in place and hand stitched them closed.  I didn't mind that, but I didn't like how floppy this made her head. 

 

A friend of mine asked if I'd be willing to make her two little girls a pair of dollies, so when I started on those I changed my approach.  This time the assembly took more thought and there was far less hand stitching.  I struggled quite a bit on a few parts and realized that my pattern pieces weren't quite working this time (i.e. adding pig tails made it almost impossible to turn the head right side out through that skinny neck!)  Ugh.

 

They did turn out pretty cute, though. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These two gals are the ones I ended up sending to my best buddy's girlies (as a surprise).  Again, LOTS of struggles on these.  I think I made the redheaded doll twice and she still didn't turn out quite right.  Oh well.

 

 

 

Clearly I'm new to this.  The dolls are all a bit wonky, and I still haven't worked out the kinks in my pattern pieces, but the particular itch I had has been sufficiently scratched.  And now both of my sweet friends' sweet girls have little look-alike dollies made by me.  That sure makes me happy!

Tiny felt envelope

We had an exciting event take place at our house today- this young man lost his first tooth!


It was only a few minutes before it came out that I even realized it had gotten so wiggly, and that behind it a grown up one was peeking through, ready to take its rightful place up front. (That seems to be the trend with my kids.)

Of course he would need a safe place to keep that precious little gem until the Tooth Fairy makes her visit, so I postponed some furniture painting in order to do a little bit of sewing this afternoon. Instead of a tooth pillow like I'd made for big sister a couple of years ago, I decided on an envelope for my guy.

Here's what I did, in case you'd like to make one, too. (This may not be the correct way to make an envelope, but I was too lazy to look it up so I just kind of did what I thought would work. I'm sure there are tons of other better tutorials out there that you could use if this one doesn't make enough sense!)

Start with a 4"x4" square of felt. (You can adjust the size if you want it bigger or smaller.)


Round off two opposite corners (if you want).


Fold in the two remaining pointed corners so they're touching.


(I forgot to take photos when I did this for the bottom of the envelope, so let's pretend the photos below are actually of the bottom and not the top. But you'll do the same thing for the top as well.)

Fold the bottom rounded corner up and over the two touching corners. You'll notice that the folds at the top are a little bulky and unsightly.


Press those folds flat with your finger to create creases in the felt.


Snip along the creases.

I highlighted my cuts with green below to help you see it better, though your cuts will actually be a 90 degree angle.


Here's what your square will look like when it's unfolded. (See those 90 degree cuts?)


Fold your side corners back in...


... and your bottom corner up over those...


...and secure them together with pins.


Using some embroidery floss, sew the sides and bottom together using a simple running stitch.





Starting at the inner corner of one of the sides, make a running stitch that goes along the upper edge of the side, then over the top flap and down the top edge of the other side. (That sounds complicated. Just look at the pictures and you'll see what I mean.)


Almost done!


If you want to embellish your envelope you certainly can. How cute would a tiny embroidered tooth be on that top flap? I chose to add my little guy's initial.

And don't forget to add some sort of closure. A snap would be great, but I didn't have any handy so I stitched on a tiny button and just cut a small slit in the top flap for it to go through.
Press your envelope with a nice hot iron to get the creases to stay put.

Now hand it over to its new owner and watch their excitement as they bury it under their pillow in anticipation of that first magical visit from the Tooth Fairy!

(Then pray she doesn't forget...)

Teacher Gifts: Button Monogram on Canvas

My kids got out of school for winter break on Friday, and sometime on Tuesday I realized that I hadn't come up with anything for their teachers' gifts yet. Pinterest to the rescue!! I knew I wanted something personal, handmade, easy, inexpensive and (preferably) non-edible.

When I came upon this photo, I knew what our project was going to be. I mean, how stinkin' cute is this framed button monogram?

After searching around town for some inexpensive white frames with mats and coming up empty, I opted to go with plain white canvases instead. I picked up a 2-pack at Hobby Lobby for about $6 (but used my 40% off coupon to get them for even cheaper).

I already had a pretty good stash of buttons, but just in case I also bought a couple of packs of assorted colorful buttons at Joann and some colorful brads at Hobby Lobby.

Using simple, thick fonts, I printed my kids' teachers' initials and used the trusty pencil-on-the-back-of-the-paper technique to trace the outline onto each canvas.

From there the kids and I pretty much followed Jen's tutorial for filling in the letters with buttons, brads and snaps, starting with big buttons first and working our way down to the tiny fillers.

I had them use plain old white glue on each button and they stayed on perfectly once they dried. For the brads, I ended up clipping off the prongs on the back with wire cutters and gluing them on because I didn't want to fool with trying to poke them through the canvas.

Didn't they turn out great? This is my 5-year-old's masterpiece (with some help from Mom with the tiny ones).

And here is my 8-year-old's work of art.

I loved that they did most of the work themselves, and they loved having creative control to choose the shapes, sizes and colors of materials that they wanted to use and configuring them how they saw fit.
And I'm pretty sure their teachers loved them, too!

Cute just doesn't quite cover it.

Nothing new from me today, but I HAD to link to this post by Corinne that I just saw on her blog, so September.

Can you believe the insane amount of cuteness that's oozing from this set of hoops??!



Look at the little chains connecting the three. I. COULD. DIE.

Seriously, I just cannot get over the utter adorableness. LOVE!


You'll find the free pattern for this darling fellow on her blog.

I embroidered him a while back but haven't tried adding the patchwork to the sides yet. In my opinion, it just brings the sweetness level way, way up!

Tooth pillow

My six-year-old has a dentist appointment today that we'd both hoped wouldn't be necessary. But she's got two reluctant baby teeth that just won't vacate the premises for the impatient adult teeth that have already come through.

So after more than two months of wiggling, jiggling, pushing and pulling with no success, the dentist has recommended extraction. *sigh*

She's VERY nervous and just the thought of this visit brings her to tears. So last night I tried to come up with a little gift that I could give her to help to ease her anxiety a little.

I've seen these all over Blog Land and just had to make one myself. It's a safe little place to put those precious baby teeth in anticipation of a visit from the Tooth Fairy.

Complete with a heart-shaped pocket for the safe keeping of teeth & money.

Hopefully this will increase the excitement level while decreasing the panic and dread. HOPEFULLY.

LOTS of little projects

Man, this summer is really slipping by, isn't it? I mean, August is next week, for crying out loud! Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Between vacation, shoe-making, swimming lessons, etc., there hasn't been much spare time for blogging. But, I did make time for crafting, especially before our recent 2 1/2 week long vacation! Lemme show you what I've been up to.

The kiddos got some patriotic wear out of a couple of their plain old tees and some polka dot fabric.

The little one got a hat since he spent most of the 4th snuggled to Mommy in a wrap.

By the way, you'll notice a theme with most of these- applique! I went a little applique crazy, I admit. But it's such a great way to personalize and snazz up something that's otherwise very bland and personality-less. Anyway, we got lots of use from these little totes. They were cheapy canvas bags from the craft store that I just added the kids' initials to. They were great for putting a change of clothes and pj's in for overnight stays, taking to the Independence Day parade to hold their loot, and carrying treasures found on nature walks (plus they're washable, which is always a good thing with my kids).

These little neck pillows quickly became a must after reading this post over on Make it and Love it. I only wish I'd made them fatter and stuffed them tighter. None the less, they got used and loved, as promised!

While prowling a thrift store right before our trip, I came upon a stack of these small white boards for $1 each. I went home without them at first, then went back for 2 after I'd figured out a way to use them in the car.

I added loops of elastic to each side using my staple gun, plus a good cleaning and some paint in the color of each child's choice and they quickly became removeable trays! They served well as a hard surface for coloring and drawing, driving toy cars over, and keeping snacks from falling to the floor. I did not, however, choose to let them be used for their original purpose, because white board markers are crazy messy in the hands of my children.

Still, they were quite functional.

This idea came from my Dad. He makes these pouches to hold the ammo (which he also makes) for his old guns. I made up these little pouches when we got home from our trip to help my kids keep their newly acquired rock collections safe. Each was made using the bottom of a pair of Pyper's overalls which I had recently turned into capris. I sewed up the raw edge, stitched the corners crosswise to make a fuller bottom then snipped holes in the hem (now at the top) and added a drawstring. The beads are there to help pull the string and keep it from disappearing into the holes. Dad's pouches are much more butch than these. No embroidery, no sissy strings with beads. Just jeans and some very manly rope. But I think he'd approve of these, too.

And finally, meet TO7. That's right. Tee-Oh-Seven. This doll belongs to my 3 year old son. It was originally given to my daughter when said son was born, so she'd have a baby to take care of while Mommy took care of her new brother. About a year ago or so Hakan decided he really liked this dolly and claimed it as his own, giving it a random alpha-numeric name that only he could think of.

Since Hakan's adoption of this doll, its little cloth body has remained naked and looking kind of genderless. After dubbing it a "he", I finally decided to make the poor thing some clothes. He is, afterall, a favorite among my son's little friends. Some brown knit from my stash made for a perfect tee, and some leftover denim from a shortened skirt was just right for a pair of elastic-waist shorts.
Add a little applique (of course!) and TO7 is now fully dressed and looking suitable to be my little boy's!

Hakan is very happy with TO7's new duds.

And quite frankly, so am I. :)