More Ideas for Easy Quilts using Homemade Pre-Cut Fabrics

The pre-cut Charity Quilt project I discussed in the last 2 posts was so much fun that I pulled out my stash of Christmas fabrics to make a another quilt. I made this one for my dog* but it will be an example to show at the Guild meeting when there is a discussion about ways to use the fabrics that were pre-cut this past summer.

This quilt was made with just 10 x 5 inch bricks and 5 inch squares. There are an equal number of each block in each row. There is a narrow strip of fabric at each end of the quilt to give it some definition.  The back has a large print Christmas pattern, so this quilt is actually reversible.

Reverse of quilt at top

*The Christmas quilt I use on my bed has a red Irish Chain with white blocks. I'm going to put this quilt son top of that quilt for my quilt-loving Lab-mix to sleep on!  Hopefully this little quilt will keep my quilt clean!

On a roll, I made one more quilt--this one doll size. An Etsy company sent me four 5 inch charm squares of space fabrics as a bonus to my fabric order.  Making a doll quilt seemed like a perfect way to use those squares plus some of the bits and pieces in my stash.  
 

Micah, a Bamboletta Cuddle Doll, with the Space Doll Quilt, 16 x 19 inches

I decided to cut the 5 inch space fabric squares in half and use 2.5 inch squares from my stash.  Good thought but....what works in algebra doesn't work in quilty math!  I didn't put 2 and 2 together until I had sewn all the strips of blocks for the quilt long to discover that they weren't the same length. Right:  in quilting a 2.5 square + 2.5 square = 4.25 x 2.5 block, not a 5 x 2.5 inch block!

It was too late to cut down the 2.5 x 5 inch blocks so I just added a bit of fabric on alternating ends of each row, making it a scrappy improv Space quilt. Problem solved, but I did have a good laugh....How long have I been quilting???  Long enough, but even an experienced quilter can get tripped up by not checking the math before cutting! 

Micah suggling under the Space Doll Quilt

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!

Drafting Doll Clothes

Do you have days when it feels like all your creative endeavors intersect?  This is one of those times!  

I made a knit dress for my toddler niece out of lovely knit fabric I had printed with "My Flower Garden" design at Spoonflower.com.  I gave her a Bamboletta baby doll for Christmas.  The good folks at Bamboletta.com dress their baby dolls in super cute sleeper suits.  But sometimes a girl just needs a dress!!  There aren't commercial patterns to fit these handmade baby dolls. So, I needed to make my own pattern.

During the summer I took Cal Patch's Master Pattern Drafting Work-Along on Creativebug.com.  I learned to draft a dress/tunic pattern and a skirt pattern. If it works for me, it should work for a doll too!

I took out Cal's measurement sheet and measured the doll.  Then I drafted a pattern for a T-shirt dress to match the one I made for my niece. 

Other than the Curve Ruler not working on such a small pattern, the drafting and the pattern worked beautifully!!  The dress went together perfectly!!

I got such a kick out of doing this project!!  The design on the fabric was mine, the pattern was mine and the doll's dress was my creation too!  Super fun!

Fabric Dolls--Episode Five. Bamboletta.com's Piccolina Girl Kit

At the beginning of February I ordered a doll kit from Bamboletta.com.  This January the good folks at Bamboletta started offering kits for their Piccolina dolls.  These dolls are 9 inches tall. They sell this size doll at craft fairs and events but not in their on-line shop. The site states the kits are intended for the "crafty, not crafty person."  January and February 2015 they offered the Piccolina Girl doll. With the Piccolina Girl kit I purchased, I had a choice of a couple skin colors, 3 hair colors, 3 eye colors, 2 lip colors and a choice of two different dresses. This month, March, they are offering a Mermaid!  (A post on Instagram this weekend stated that they will have the regular Piccolina dolls available again on their website this week. They are currently all sold out).

My Piccolina Girl kit arrived last week.  What a beautiful kit! The kit itself is a work of art! (See above)!   The kit includes a mostly completed doll body, the head ready but not yet attached to the body, yarn for hair, wool roving to stuff the torso and all the other supplies you need to finish the doll, including needles and thread. 

The kit has wonderful, very detailed, instruction manual with lots of great drawn illustrations.  On their website there are also 4 great videos for the kit.  Everything you need to know to make your doll is brilliantly explained!

The afternoon my kit arrived, I sat down after supper to read through the instruction booklet. Right. That lasted 5 minutes!  The instructions are so great that I felt totally comfortable doing the steps as I read them. Granted, this wasn't my first doll, but I not sure that made much of a difference.  I was still a bit nervous about getting this doll right.

One of the suggestions for tools in the kit booklet is have a pair of plier and a thimble. I'd say absolutely to both!  The wool in my doll's head was so tightly rolled (a good thing) that I really needed my needle nose pliers to get the needle to grab a bit of the wool in the head and back out to the torso when I was sewing the doll together.  I would also recommend getting a back-up set of long doll needles. (I found Dritz doll needles at my Joann's Fabric).  The 4 inch needle my the kit ended up so curved that I needed to switch it out for new, straight needle so I find the exit points I wanted when I embroidered the doll's face. 

Here's my doll with her head attached to her torso. She is wearing the underpants supplied in the kit.  

PIccolina Girl Kit, body assembled.

Arriving at the point of embroidering the face is one of the best places in this kit.  The booklet explains EXACTLY how to place the eyes and mouth, as well as giving detailed, illustrated, instructions for the embroidery itself.  But they also state that if you want to do your doll's face differently, to feel free to do so--they want this doll to be your doll. I really appreciated that comment in their instruction manual.  I used the green embroidery thread in the kit for my doll's eyes but mixed it with a deep blue thread.  The resulting 2 color mix is really subtle. 

I had been planning to do a step-by-step photo essay of embroidering the doll's face.  But I was having so much fun I totally forgot to take the pictures! (I think that was a good thing!)

Adding the hair is also fun too.  There is lots of yarn included in the kit!!  I added a about 12 strands of other colors of wool yarn.  I chose the blonde hair offered in the kit for my doll. I added a bit of orange yarn, a couple strands of brown and a couple of red. 

Here's Karen, my finished Piccolina Girl Kit Doll.  Look at her outside in yard in front of the snowbank!  She's got attitude! She wanted to stand, NOT sit!!, on the the doll chair!  Isn't she cute?

If you want to make a doll yourself, absolutely buy a Piccolina Kit from Bamboletta.com!  It's so much fun!  When you are done, you'll have a lovely new friend.  Her body is just the right size to hold in a hand.  The Piccolina is the perfect size doll to go places with a child.

I can't wait to see what special doll kit Bamboletta.com creates for April!

Fabric Dolls--Episode Four. Waldorf-type Dolls

Sometime in January I was doing handwork on a quilt and listening to one of Abby Glassenberg's WhileSheNaps.com podcasts.  The January 19, 2015  Episode #41 was with Christina Platt, the owner of Bamboletta.com.  When it was over, I went straight to my computer to see the Bamboletta dolls. 

These were the dolls I had always wanted when I was a little girl.  They have realistic faces with cotton knit bodies and wool stuffing. Christina's initial doll was based on a Waldorf (Steiner) type of doll.  She has since created her own patterns and her dolls have smiles,  Christina said in the podcast that she no longer thinks of them as Waldorf style dolls*. Bamboletta is a small company, really a cottage industry, in Canada. These folks make beautiful dolls. That first day I must have spent at least a half an hour looking at all the dolls they had for sale on their website. I kept going back and forth looking at each face. Christina embroiders all the faces herself, and each really is unique.  I finally purchased a Sitting Friend girl with red dreadlocks for hair. Much later I realized that the doll I got is one of the dolls posted with the information on WhileSheNaps.com about the podcast. Go take a look!

*Waldorf type dolls are used in Waldorf schools. The dolls are all natural, usually made with cotton knit bodies, washed wool roving for stuffing and with embroidered faces. The Waldorf dolls are made without much facial expression. This is done intentionally so that the doll can better reflect the feelings of the child playing with it. 

In January this year, Bamboletta started selling kits for their 9 inch Piccolina dolls. I purchased a kit for a Girl Doll at the beginning of February. They ship kits once a month--it's due to arrive this week. Christina says the kits are for the "crafty, not crafty type of person!"  The doll in the kit comes with pre-sewn body and clothes. It doesn't include a pattern for the doll. You get to embroider the face, add the hair and attach the head to the doll. 

Back in the 1970s and 80s when I was making dolls I'd wanted to try making a doll which was really 3 dimensional. Somehow I never found out about Waldorf dolls. There was no internet back then....  But looking at Waldorf doll resources on-line recently, I realized I'd had a copy of The Childrens' Year by Stephanie Cooper, Christine Fynes-Clinton and Marye Rowling (the 1986 edition) on my bookshelf.  This book has directions for making a Waldorf doll. I don't know if I just missed it or if I thought I wouldn't be able to find the supplies to make the doll.  (Remember, no internet)!

I just spent a couple weeks collecting books, patterns, perusing Pinterest and watching YouTube videos. I even watched some with Russian narration!  It didn't matter, just watching was informative!  I week ago I sat down to make my own Waldorf-type doll.  I wanted to do this before my Bamboletta kit arrived, before I had to chance to look inside a doll to see how the pros put one together. I wanted to be able to make a doll that was mine, not a copy.

I purchased the supplies to make the doll's body from Etsy shop Reggiesdolls. The hair for this doll came from my great local quilt/knitting store JP Knit & Stitch, with the colored strands of wool from Peace Fleece.

I had 4 books and 2 patterns as resources:  The Children's Year noted above, Growing Up sew liberated by Meg McElwee, Toymaking with Children by Freya Jaffke, Making Waldorf Dolls by Maricristin Sealey, a pattern for the 16 in Play doll from the Etsy shop TimbleGarden and Silver Penny's tutorial and pattern "Making a Waldorf-Style Doll: Tips and Techniques on Craftsy.com.

I culled ideas and techniques from all my sources but decided to use the pattern and great illustrated directions for the "little amigo cloth doll" in Growing Up sew liberated. Because my clothes patterns were mostly for 15 inch dolls, I made the doll slightly shorter than the pattern and made the torso straight rather than curved.  Here is the result:  "Blue-eye Becky". 

Becky's shirt is the pattern included in Growing Up sew liberated, her jumper is from McCall's Crafts Pattern M4338, the tights are from a pattern purchased from Reggiesdolls, her panties are a pattern from the lovely blog Frokenskicklig.com, from her post on April 14, 2013.  I made Becky's felt boots without a pattern,

This is a great doll.  If you want to make a Waldorf-type doll using a pattern I highly recommend the pattern in Growing Up sew liberated.

I really like this doll, but decided I wanted to change a few things. I wasn't able to create feet per the pattern instructions. I'd stuffed her legs too tight without leaving an allowance to fold up the feet. I also wanted a doll with more relaxed arms.  I had enough doll fabric (barely) to make another 15 inch doll.  So I decided to try again. 

This time I drew my own pattern.  I made arms with a slight curve which attach to the torso and legs with an outline which is a bit more anatomically correct and with formed feet that have soles.  Here's "Nellwyn."  Her name is an old English name which means "bright friend."

Her shirt and panties from the same patterns I used for Blue-eye Becky.  I designed her skirt and her MaryJane felt shoes. 

Nellwyn's head is a bit wobbly because I cut the head covering a little too short. Other than that, I'm really happy with her. Now that I have my own pattern for a Waldorf type doll that I like and which works for me, I can't wait to see the doll in the Bamboletta kit!  I'll do another doll post when I make the kit. 

It was really fun to make these 2 Waldorf type dolls. I really learned a lot.  Now that I have drawn a pattern of my own, I probably will make a doll from time to time. But the business of making dolls for sale?  I'm leaving that to the pros!!