New Waldorf Type Doll

I've been waiting for months to share my newest Waldorf type 16.5 inch doll.  She's finally gone to my niece's 3 year old so she's no longer a secret!

I started sewing this doll last summer.  So I've had lots of time to create quite a wardrobe for her!  Below are the outfits that I sent with her.

Clockwise from top left:

Fleece jacket (her new person has a matching hoodie!), Birthday Party dress, summer sundress, and summer shortie PJs!  Her purple Mary Jane felt shoes are a new design for my dolls--my dolls usually get felt clogs.

I used an IKEA® bag clip as a hair barrette figuring it might be easier for young fingers and less likely a risk for accidentally swallowing!

I so hope this doll will be our family's little cutie's new BFF!

Here are two more outfits...Shhhh...These are still "secret sewing"!  But they were just too cute not to photograph while I still had to doll to model them!  (That's a pull-on set of mermaid fins in the lower left photo)!

Analogous Color Studies

This is the Summer of Analogous Colors!  The Proper Bostonian Quilter's guild's Summer Challenge is to make a quilt (or just a one block slab) using 3-5 analogous colors on the color wheels. (Analogous colors are right next to each other on the color wheel, holding hands as it were).  Using shades (the color plus black) and tints (the color plus white) are allowed but even so, sticking to just these 3-5 colors is a lot harder to do than it sounds. The brain really wants to add an accent color!

It was my job to present this year's Summer Challenge so I had to make up some blocks to see if this was even feasible!

Above are blocks with just 3 analogous colors--the most limiting, and therefore, the hardest to do.  The colors are Blue Green, Green and Yellow Green.  The yellow green grated on my nerves initially. But by the time I'd made about 5 blocks, I was able to let the yellow green have center stage instead of a tiny role in the background!

Here is another example using Yellow, Yellow Orange, Orange and Red Orange, 4 analogous colors.  This combination was a lot easier. Probably because these are the colors of citrus fruits which we see together all the time!

More analogous color studies will appear intermittently this summer!  Give this a try!  It's a lot of fun.

Tutorial: Cut-and-Sew Mermaid Skirt for a Child and a Doll Skirt

In my last post, I showed a child's Mermaid skirt and a Doll's coordinating fish skirt made from the Mermaid Skirt Cut-and-Sew Panel I designed that is for sale at Spoonflower.com.

Instructions for sewing the skirts are printed on the panel. Here is a short tutorial to show the steps of making the skirt.

NOTE: This design works best for children ages 4 to 10.  It can be made as small as a 3T size (maybe a 2T if you cut off the sandy bottom) and as large as a Child's size 12.  The smaller sizes will have quite full skirts and the larger sizes will less full.

Supplies: 
Scissors, sewing machine, matching blue thread (you might think you need tan thread for the hem, but once it's folded, you'll be stitching in the blue fabric), 3/4 inch elastic for the child's skirt and 1/2 inch elastic if you plan to make the coordinating doll's skirt.

Decide how long you want the child's skirt to be. Here's a helpful skirt length link from Craftershours if you don't have a skirt you can measure. (I looked at the original source for these charts but this information is no longer available there). 

1.  Cut the child's skirt the desired finished length PLUS 4 1/2 inches to allow for the elastic casing at the waist and the hem at the bottom of the skirt. Measure from the BOTTOM edge of the "sand" on the ocean flower.  Mark this length several places along the skirt panel, draw a straight line across the panel and cut out the skirt.  Trim off the un-printed white margins on the fabric.

          2.  Fold the fabric in half, right sides together to make the back seam of the skirt. Pin.  Stitch 1/2 inch seam.

          3.  At the top edge of the skirt, fold down the fabric, wrong sides together, 1/4 inch. Press. Then fold over again 1 1/4 inches to make the casing for the waist elastic.  Stitch close to edge of the fold, leaving a couple inches open at the back seam to insert the elastic in the casing.

      4.  At the bottom edge of the skirt, fold down the fabric, wrong sides together, 1/4 inch. Press. Then fold over again 1 inch to make the hem. Stitch close to the folded edge to hem the skirt.

      5.  Cut a piece of 3/4 inch elastic for the waist. Use with waist measurement PLUS to 2 inches.  (If you don't have the child available to measure, waist sizes can be found on line at mail order stores that sell children's clothes--for example Lands End will have this information).  Using a safety pin as a guide, run the elastic through the channel at the waist of the skirt. Make sure not to lose the far end of the elastic in the channel)!

      6.  Overlap the 2 ends of the elastic, taking care not to twist them.  Stitch them together using a zig-zag stitch.   Now stitch down the opening in the casing.

      7.  Great job!  Iron the skirt and have the child try it on!

For the doll's skirt:  Use the same directions to make the doll's skirt with these changes

•   Cut the fish doll skirt panel the desired skirt length PLUS 2 inches.
•   Since the doll's skirt uses 1/2 inch elastic, make the elastic channel at the waist 3/4 inches, rather than the 1 1/4 used for the child's skirt.
•   Cut the length of the elastic for the doll the measurement of the doll's waist. Don't add any extra. Dolls need a tight fit so the skirt doesn't slide off! 
•   The hem in the doll's skirt is made by making the first fold 1/4 inch as with the child's skirt and then folded again 1/2 inch.

The doll pictured here is a Bamboletta Cuddle Doll. Bamboletta sometimes has very cute Mermaid dolls for sale too!  Their Mermaid dolls were my inspiration for this Mermaid skirt design!

Hope the little girl in your life enjoys these coordinating skirts!

A Child's Mermaid Skirt, and a coordinating one for her doll!

Bamboletta Ltd., a wonderful company in Vancouver, Canada, makes beautiful handmade dolls. Recently they have had some Mermaids dolls! (Like all Mermaids, they are a bit elusive, and are not always available, but if you look at the available Cuddle Dolls on their site, sometimes you'll find one)! Here's my Bamboletta Mermaid--Sandy!  Isn't she fun?

Sandy--a Mermaid made by Bamboletta

Seeing the Mermaid dolls got me wondering what it would be like to find a pod* of Mermaids swimming together in the ocean!  So I decided to make that happen!

I designed a panel, printed by Spoonflower.com, that makes a cut-and-sew child's skirt with a coordinating skirt for her doll (or Mermaid doll)!  The doll's skirt only has fish on it since initially I imagined the skirt would only be worn by a Mermaid!  (She might need one if she were ever invited to a tea party)!

Here's a link to the Mermaid Skirt Panel available for purchase at Spoonflower.com.  The panel will make a skirt that can be sized for a child wearing size 3T to child's size 12 but is ideal for girls between ages 4 and 10.  The cutting and sewing instructions are printed on the panel. The skirt shown above is a 3T.  In skirt made for an older child, the Mermaids will be more a border print, with more blue ocean at near the waist line. 

The doll's skirt can be made to fit a doll between 9 and 18 inches.  Here are photos of Sandy and Tulip, a Bamboletta Cuddle Doll, wearing the doll skirt. (The pattern for Tulip's crop top is not included with the skirt panel).

To make one child skirt and one doll skirt, you need to purchase 1 yard, choosing a fabric that is 43 inches wide. (The design isn't designed to repeat in wider fabrics).  I recommend Kona® Cotton Ultra or Poplin Cotton Ultra, two of the fabric options offered by Spoonflower.com.  (I used Kona® Cotton Ultra for the skirts in these photos).

I'll post a tutorial with detailed instructions for making these skirts next Thursday! 

If you haven't done so already, click on over to Bamboletta website and take a look at their amazing dolls!  Each doll is unique and very special!  (Disclaimer: I have no financial/business affiliation with Bamboletta Ltd.  However, I am a customer and I love the dolls they make)!

*There is no "official" term for a group of mermaids!  "Pod" makes sense to me and an on-line search agrees it's a good option!  Other suggestions I found are a "gossip of mermaids", and "splash of mermaids."  Do you know of another collective name for a group of mermaids? Please share by leaving a comment!  Thanks!

Quilt Panel, my new Spoonflower design

Here's one of the new designs in my Spoonflower.com shop.  This is a quilt panel with my Storybook Houses design and a 3 inch wide border. It's not a cheater quilt because there aren't any printed stitch lines, but it is an easy quilt that could be completed in an afternoon if you suddenly need a baby present!

I quilted the quilt above with all straight line stitches and the wavy Bernina stitch #4. You don't looks need any fancy quilting skills to make this quilt look great!  However, if you have free motion quilting skills, it would also be lots of fun to stitch shingles, stones and siding designs on the houses!

There is coordinating fabric with an all-over house design with slight smaller houses that makes a great backing. I finished the quilt with a scrappy binding using pieces and pieces left over from binding other quilts. I love the look and I love using up the leftovers!

Because the quilt panel is just 35 inches wide and the fabric is 43 inches wide, there are 5 1/2 inches of extra yellow border color printed 1 yard of panel fabric.  This extra yellow fabric is just long enough so it could be cut at 2 1/2 x 35 inches for use as horizontal sashing between the rows of houses. That would make a quilt that is slightly rectangular rather than square a bit larger.

I made this quilt using the Ultra Kona® Cotton option available at Spoonflower.com. The Ultra Kona® is a fairly recent upgrade and it takes the dyes much better than the Kona® previously available.

This design was fun to draw and it was lots of fun to quilt. Hope you like it!!

Book Review: "Creative Paper Cutting" ed. Shufunotomo

I recently discovered "Creative Paper Cutting, basic techniques & fresh designs for stencils, mobiles, cards & more" published by Roost Books and edited by Shufunotomo.  It's not a new book--it was published in 2010, but I was so excited when I found it that I want to share this gem!

This book makes paper cutting easy. The examples are very doable. A child old enough to use sharp scissors can make many of the designs in the book.  Here's my version of the "Rabbits" design in the book. The bunny in the book only has one flower. I added a second flower, but it's their design.

Adaptation of "Rabbits" design in the book

The dancing girls at the top of this post are my original design as are the paired shamrocks below.

Paired shamrocks on a zine I designed using a tradition Celtic Prayer

The book has great instructions for making 6 sided snowflakes which is awesome! They are so much better than square snowflakes!

There are ideas for window decorations and mobiles.  There are several examples using patterns on recycled paper goods to make fabulous designs when they are cut into new shapes. There also suggestions for collages and instructions on making stencils.

The book has designs that can be copied and used to make the examples in the book.  I would have thought I couldn't make beautiful paper cuttings like these but I found that after looking at the book I felt confident enough to create my own designs. 

This is definitely a book worth having on in your library of craft books.

Roost Books, 2010

Mystery Star Sampler Quilt Completed

Here's my completed Star Sampler quilt made with the star blocks in the Proper Bostonian Quilters Guild 2017 Mystery Quilt. 

Instead of making the connector blocks in the pattern, I added the plus sign blocks. The mystery quilt blocks are set on point while I chose to make my straight. 

It was fun to make the nine different stars.  And I loved using this bright colors and the white negative space. It's a happy quilt!

Free motion star quilting in the white connecting blocks.

Mystery Quilt Star Blocks Sampler Nearing Completion

As a member of Proper Bostonian Quilters Guild, I've been participating in a year long Mystery Quilt project designed by one of our members. Each month we were given either 2 star blockspiece or connecting blocks to piece. A color palette wasn't specified so everyone's blocks look very different.  One friend is making a yellow baby-themed quilt and is using all low volume fabrics. It's fun to see everyone's choices.

Above are 6 of the 9 stars in the sampler. The pattern called for 8 inch finished block but wanting a larger quilt, I increased the block size to 12 inches unfinished. Enlarging the patterns was a good exercise in quilt math--it actually turned out to be a lot easier than I'd expected!

I decided to just make the star sampler blocks and assemble them without using the Mystery Quilt's connecting blocks. I've definitely gone off-track with this project!

The completed quilt (or just the completed quilt top) is due next week, at our last Spring meeting. I'll post my completed quilt after the "Big Reveal" at guild!

Improv Scrappy Block Project 2017 May Blocks

May blocks for my Improv Scrappy Block Project 2017.  This really sums up the month of May--the last daffodils in the beginning of the month and Memorial Day and the beginning of summer at the end!

The first block has my newest Spoonflower fabric/wrapping paper, Daffodil Trio. It's available at my Spoonflower.com shop. The preview of the design online look ragged except in the "Test Swatch" but it prints very well.  I actually think this design is probably best used as a wrapping paper though I do like the flowers peaking out of this block!

Doll Clothes!

I've been spending a lot of time recently drafting new patterns for doll clothes.  The more I do, the more sense it makes, the more I'm design challenges I'm willing to tackle and the more fun it gets.

One of the dolls I made is going on a cross country RV trip with her family this summer.  Clearly she's going to need some summer clothes!  This is a doll that is played with, so the clothes are functional, and meant to be used. 

Lucy Birch, my resident 9" Waldorf type baby doll, is the model for this summer wardrobe.

Left to right, top row: Fleece jacket, Cotton top and knit shorts, bathing suit, sundress (socks are my design too) and knit summer nightgown with some smocking. This should do...as long as it doesn't rain!

Improv Scrappy Block Project 2017 April Blocks

Here are the two blocks I made in April for my Improv Scrappy Block Project.  Now a quarter of the way through this project, it's clear that I'm headed in a modern direction, using quite a bit of Kona® white in the blocks. Looks like there are quite a few dogs, too!

Here's what I have so far.

Charity Quilt Challenge: Dalmations at the Firehouse

So what did I do with the fabrics donated to our guild to make a charity quilt I described in my last post?  I added some fabric with Dalmations with fire fighting equipment and used the red and black fabrics to make 5 little firehouses!  (I love the Dalmation in the kid's pedal fire engine toy truck)!

I put in the thin blue strips to break up dark fabrics and add interest.  Once I hung up the quilt I realized they looked like the poles the firefighters use to slide downstairs in a firehouse! I also added the strip of light blue Kona® cotton to the fabrics I was given. 

The back is the blue and tan leaf fabric which is the "sky" next to the roofs of the firehouses.

This quilt was a lot harder than I thought it would be.  These darker colors out out of my typical color palette and I struggled with to make this work.  I did a lot of un-sewing!! Initially I put in panels of the light blue and tan leaf fabric.  Those lighter panels pulled the eye away from everything else going on in the quilt. I wanted them to stay but when I took them out the quilt came together!

I used free motion quilting on this quilt.  There is a brick/block pattern in the "walls" of the firehouses, scallops like shingles on the black triangles next to the red peaks of the firehouses. There are some words quilted into the larger solid blocks, "firehouse", "puppies", "fire engine", mixed with some loops and meandering.

This quilt really was a challenge for me, but I'm really happy with the finished quilt.

Rising to a Charity Quilt Challenge

My local quilt guild was recently given a lovely donation of reproduction quilting cottons with the request that they be used to make charity quilts.  We make some quilts for women veterans but most of the quilts we donate are for children.

The head of our charity committee asked me how I'd use these fabrics for children's quilts. While not fabrics we would typically choose, I thought we could find a way to use them. Quilts with farm animals are the obvious choice.  I asked her to give me a random selection of fabrics to see what I could do with them.

At our next meeting, she handed me a large baggie of fabrics--lots of dark colors and a few light ones.  I took out the pastels which left me with the fabrics above.

Then I trolled my stash of novelty fabrics, looking for coordinating fabrics that a child would love...and I found something perfect. There isn't a farm animal in sight but I do think some little guy will be very happy.

Right now, the quilt is a work in progress!  The big reveal soon!!

Charm Square Baby Quilt with Dogs and Bright Colors, "Dogs + Sunshine"

A fellow Boston Modern Guild member gave me this "Dog Park" fabric designed by Sarah Frederking for Studio E fabrics. She said as soon as she saw it, she thought of me!  How great is that!!

Another friend, who also loves dogs, is having a baby soon.  They don't know if it's a boy or a girl so for her baby quilt needs to be gender neutral.  As soon as I saw this dog fabric, I knew they'd love it!

I cut the charm squares (5 x 5 inches patches) to match the colors in the doggie feature fabric. The patches of "Dog Park" fabric are in diagonal pairs, randomly placed in the quilt top.  I love how bright and cheerful this quilt is!

The quilting is stitch-in-the-ditch with a walking foot across the entire grid of blocks. Then I added 3 sections of diagonal stitching and two more sections of vertical stitching running between the top and middle diagonals. The added quilting gives this simple quilt an interesting texture, more visible in the photos since it's already be washed.

I used the "Dog Park" fabric for the backing of the quilt.  This makes it a fun, reversible baby quilt!

The back of "Dogs + Sunshine" showing the "Dog Park" fabric

I can't wait to see what my friend thinks of this quilt I made for her baby!

Improv Scrappy Block Project 2017 March Blocks

I didn't get any improv blocks sewn for my Improv Scrappy Block Project sewn in February.  But I made 4 improv blocks in March, so I'm back on course with my 2017 project. (April blocks to follow in a later post)!

Three of these blocks have scraps of fabrics I designed--the dogs and the concentric circles on the teal background-- which were digitally printed at Spoonflower.com. (These designs and others are available at my Spoonflower shop).

These colors make me happy!  They match the feel of March which is very early Spring/still really Winter in New England!

Wake Up the Earth--Squares of Hope

A guild friend of my invited me to join her in making a block for Squares of Hope for the banner that JP Knit & Stitch is creating.  The banner will be used in Jamaica Plain's annual "Wake up the Earth" celebration event which will be on May 6th this year. 

On one side of the JP Knit & Stitch banner the squares will be knit, crocheted or woven and the opposite side the block will be fabric--either a quilt block or an embroidery block. Each square should be 6 inches finished (fabric squares should be trimmed to measure 6 1/2 inches to allow for seams).  The block should "reflect a community value you wish to champion including (but certainly not limited to) environmental protection, arts education, social justice, and human rights."  It's fine if they are abstract.

I chose environmental protection. Amanda Jean Nyberg (crazymomquilts) has a quilt pattern, Bright Birch Trees, that I thought would make perfect block. Since this is Spring, I added appliqued leaves and embroidered French knots to her design.  It's a fun block to make!

Then I got an idea about a polar bear block. When I was a kid, I'd often try standing on a kick board in the pool. It didn't have enough buoyancy to keep me on the surface, so I'd sink.  So in my square above, poor Polar Bear is standing on a melting ice floe that isn't large enough keep him on the surface of the rising sea. Sad--and true.

JP Knit & Stitch is hosting Stitch Nights at their shop on April 21, 28 and May 5th for folks to work on these blocks. If you are sewing at home, they've asked to have blocks dropped off by April 29th since they need to sew them together!  Click the link above for all the details about making the squares, sewing days and the May 6th event.

Boston people:  Do you have an idea for your own Square of Hope?  Join in the fun! Post your block on social media using #WUTECraftactivism.  Happy Crafting!

Half Square Triangle Embroidered Mini Quilt Completed

I've completed up my Half Square Triangle Embroidered Mini Quilt. It finished at 12 1/2 x 13 inches.  I'm so happy with these embroidered flower designs which I found in Kazuko Aoki's book, The Embroidered Garden.

I really like the front of this little quilt. As I showed in my last post, some of the threads from the flower embroidery are hidden inside the the quilt. I wanted to use the flower stems as part of this little quilt's quilting. I used two stitches for the stems--the running stitch which has gaps between each stitch and the back stitch. The running stitch looks like quilting stitches on the back of the quilt. The back stitch really doesn't look good.

I'm not unhappy about the back since this is a quilt that will be used as a wall hanging.  But if I were doing it again, I'd just use a running stitch for all the flower stems.

Half Square Triangle Mini Quilt with Embroidered Flowers--WIP

I'm currently working on a Half Square Triangle (HST) mini quilt made with more left over triangles from another quilt made with the stitch and flip method of block construction.  These HSTs finish at 2 inches square.

I had a idea about embroidering flowers, peaking out in the white patches but hidden by the colored triangles. It was an interesting idea, but when I found the designs I wanted to embroider, it made more sense just to work on the surface.

I embroidered just the flowers through the top of the quilt and the batting, saving the stems to use as part of the quilting. That worked really well. The colored threads are buried in the back of the batting and so aren't visible on the front of the piece. Here's a look "behind the scenes" on the back of the batting.

I learned to embroider in school in second grade, so it's an established skill. But I decided to look around the internet to see if I could find some inspiration and new ideas. 

I discovered a beautiful book, The Embroidered Garden: Stitching Through the Seasons of a Flower Garden, by Kazuko Aoki.  This is such a lovely book. I highly recommend it if you are interested in embroidering flowers. All her embroidered pieces are together in the front half of the book, with detailed stitching instructions in the back of the book.

I drew my flowers, one at a time as I worked, with a fading marking pen, using her embroidery as a guild. I needed to redraw portions of some flowers because the pen faded faster than I could stitch! I used flowers from two of her Summer Garden pieces to make my design, but I didn't very stray far from her beautifully balanced floral compositions. My embroidery design clearly echoes hers.

I'm nearly done!  I'll show the completed mini quilt in my next post.

Pinwheel Modern Doll Quilt

This year the Proper Bostonian Quilters Guild has been working on a mystery quilt which is a sampler of star blocks.  There have been lots of stitch and flip patches in the blocks. Those stitch and flip units have "waste" triangle units which are really ready-made half square triangle blocks!

I decided to make those little triangles into a couple of doll quilts. Here is the first one. The little pinwheels finish at 2 inches square and the larger ones at 3 inches square.

It's quilted with Big Stitch Quilting using #8 Perle cotton thread and there are French knots in the pinwheels.  When I first started quilting and was using a lot of applique, I added details with embroidery. Now that embroidery is making a big come back, I can see using it, sparingly, to add a little pop to a quilt. I've been adding dots to lots of my drawings so I decided it would be fun to put some little dots in this doll quilt!

This is a little doll quilt--a size chosen to be used with my Baby Waldorf Doll. Doesn't Lucy Birch look comfy under the quilt?

I have enough left little half square triangles to make one more quilt about this size. The design is done and it's ready to sew, so I'll share it soon!

Waldorf Style Baby Doll Clothing

In my last post, I promised to show some of the clothing I've made for my 9 inch Waldorf Style Baby Doll.

Safety Note: There are buttons on some of these outfits. DO NOT USE BUTTONS on doll clothes used by children under age 3 due to risk of choking.

Here is Lucy Birch wearing a pink and white heart dress, with short sleeves, full skirt and a ribbon detail at her waist. She is wearing purple felt booties.  Sometimes I add ribbon ties to the booties, but these are simple pull on booties.

Here is Lucy Birch in her chicken-and-egg sun dress!  This outfit makes me giggle! I love everything about it!

Here she is wearing a leggings! This outfit was a Valentine's Day present for a young friend's baby doll.

Booties with ribbon ties!

Here's another of my baby dolls, all ready for bed, in her cotton knit polar bear nightgown! This was a first time I'd drafted a pattern with raglan sleeves. This pattern can easily be modified to make a summer baseball T-shirt.

And finally, here is Lucy Birch, out in the winter kale patch, wearing a warm corduroy dress with purple ric rac detail.

My next pattern drafting project will be designing pants and shorts for this baby doll.  I love making clothes for this 9 inch doll but they are more challenging to sew than the outfits I make for my larger 13-15 inch Waldorf style dolls.