Handmade Birthday Gift

I've been working non-stop on making doll clothing for my grand daughter's birthday... I'm glad to say... I've now got a huge stack of clothing finished. Hooray! It took a long time to make the patterns to fit these dolls before sewing the clothing. Just when I thought I had a pattern made that would fit the doll... I'd whip it up only to find it was either to big-- to tight--- or way to small. I wasted a lot of beautiful fabric in the process... live and learn right? This past weekend, I got two more animator dolls. The little cutie below is Anna. I got her and Tinkerbell (shown further down) for only $5.00 for the pair. I just can't resist their cute little faces~

I'm going to be taking my dolls to my grand daughter's birthday party... so of course, I had to make some birthday party hats to fit the dolls!I bought two dollar store guitars and crocheted some guitar straps for them.

I managed to whip up several pairs of shoes. Again, I couldn't find any patterns that would fit the Disney Animator dolls feet, so I had to make my own pattern. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.

I also crocheted some slippers, and some tall button up  boots. I love the bunny slippers...

I made fourteen t-shirts. They look large in the photo, but they are quite small.

Twelve pairs of pants....

Four baby-doll dresses with matching bloomers...

Seven sleeveless dresses with matching bloomers....
Two long dresses and five pair of shorts...

 I made another scarf, hat and gloves set....

 A leopard jacket and of course, Pom-poms...

 Here is everything I've made... so far... *wink*

To hold all of the clothing I've made, I purchased a large-ish basket with handles on the sides to hold it all. I loved it, but thought it looked a little stark... so I made a liner for it.

Then, I got an idea to make a mattress and pillow for the top of the baskets lid..... Then of course, I had to make a fitted sheet, pillow case and a matching blanket. Ah, much better. I pulled the fitted sheet over the lid of the basket so it looks like a mattress on top of a box spring. The basket is wide enough to hold two of these dolls laying side by side.

Here are my Disney Animator dolls... All of these dolls were rescued dolls. I can look past the dirt and over brushed hair to see the beauty in dolls.
I've only paid a grand total of $9.00 for all four of these dolls. After this party the clothing they are wearing will go to my grand daughter... so I'll have to whip up some new outfits for them to wear. Which should be easy peasy now that I have patterns that fit the dolls. Ah, who am I kidding, they will be laying around naked for weeks because *IT IS WARM OUTSIDE* woot-woot... I'm going outside to play. A.K.A. working in my pirate yard. Aaaarrrggghhhhh~
big hugs,

Owl be your Valentine

I'm still plugging away at sewing doll clothing for my grand daughter's doll.... I just about forgot about Valentines day coming up. I wanted to make my grand kids some Valentines for their classrooms.... I whipped up two class sets of owl containers that hold some candy and small toys for my grand kids classmates. I printed out "Owl be your Valentine" and stuck it to the front of each owl. The first 10 were so fun to make.... I thought they would whip up fast. I was wrong. It. Took. Forever. to get them finished.
Or maybe it just felt like that because I wanted to get back to my sewing machine! Here is one of the outfits I just finished.
I not only made the dress, but the Minnie Mouse ears...
bloomers, tights and matching shoes.
Merida approves.

 Taking her picture all the time has made her somewhat of a diva. She is now calling herself a model....

I have five more days left before I am going to be bundling up all of the doll clothing I've made and gift it to my grand daughter. Every day I ask my daughter, "Is she still playing with that doll?" Every day, I am relieved to hear, "Yes." Back to the sewing machine.

big hugs,

Crocheting some Cuteness

After spending hours and hours creating small doll clothing patterns I decided I needed to spend some time crocheting.... I was needing a sense of finishing something-- anything! so I thought some small crocheted winter gear was in order. I used a HDC stitch to create a fun fur trimmed hat.
I used the same stitch to create a scarf... I also made some mittens.

 I created the hat a little big so that it could fit over any fancy big hair the dolls might be sporting.

 Rapunzel has her hair in braids right now. While braiding her hair, I noticed it had a few bits cut off. I didn't realize this when her hair was a tangled mess. So, a trim on her hair is in order one of these days.

That was a fun diversion... now back to the sewing table... literally. *wink*
I've linked up to Janine's "Wool on Sunday's linky party."
big hugs,

Doll Clothing

I tried my hand using some of the free American Girl doll clothing patterns online to modify to fit the 15 inch Disney Animator dolls... it ta-was'nt easy.... blah. Either I made them to big or two small... or the patterns were to complicated and ended up frustrating me to the point that I gave up. BLAH! I wasted soooo much time fiddling around with those...poo. I finally had to just make my own patterns. I do best when I just wing it... why fight it right? With that said... here is some of the doll clothing I've made so far. Rapunzel is showing off a sleeveless summer dress with matching shoes...

 Merida has a short play dress on with matching bloomers, shoes and hair bow. Merida is my pattern doll and normally is butt-naked and is always at the ready to be draped with various fabrics and paper patterns.
 I've made a couple of outfits repurposing baby clothing. I think they turned out pretty cute! I have never sewn on stretchy fabric before and was pleased how it turned out. These outfits were made using two rompers, I think the size of the rompers were for a 3 to 6 month old baby.

 I'm calling these "pajamas" so of course, I had to make matching slippers. I've already given these outfits to my grand daughter for her dolls... the rest she will get on her birthday next month. (February)

All of the clothing I've made so far have openings in the back of each garment because over the head clothing wouldn't work for these dolls since the heads are over sized for their bodies. I would like to crochet a granny-square poncho... but I'll have to think on that some more to try to come up with a pattern that wraps around then snaps and isn't an over the head poncho.
I had better step up my game and start cranking out the doll clothing or else the large wardrobe of clothing I had imagined will end up a few dresses and a few pairs of shoes.

Focus... hmmm... is that a Joann's ad in the mail?
big hugs,

Elsa and Anna

My grandaughter got a Disney Elsa Animator doll for Christmas and has been smitten with her ever since. Have you seen them? Adorbs. She also got Elsa's sister Anna... both cute as a button.

To me, this is a big deal... she has never liked a doll before. She has a lot of dolls and Barbies, but has never toted them around or carried them with her into stores etc. I had asked Chloe if I could borrow one of her dolls over night so I could make some clothing patterns for them--- to which she replied, "No." Which is hysterical because she has never told me no before. I can always get her to say yes... I didn't even try. I'm convinced its love~

I went online to view all the Animator dolls to pick one for myself so I could have it at my house to use to fit clothing patterns to... and fell in love with what I thought was the Mulan doll... sigh... no, it was a Paola Reina Liu doll in her summer dress... but at $80 bucks... I just don't know how I can hit the "buy it now" button and not regret spending that kind of money--- on a doll. But I want it... swoon. Anyway-- back to the Disney dolls. I was determined to get one... I planned on going to the Disney store and shell out the almost $30 bucks for one-- but decided to hit a thrift store on the way. Wouldn't you know it? I found one! What? Yep. I introduce you to Merida. Her original price was $7.99 and it was half off day. When I got to the register the gal said, "That's to much for this doll." And said, "How about $2.00?" Well, of course I said, "Ok." I ended up bringing her home for $1.00-- it was half off day after all. *wink*

I love my little red headed sassy looking girl... albeit she is naked... it doesn't seem to bother her one bit. This past weekend I brought home a second Animator doll. Rapunzel. Rapunzel was a $2.00 find and came with her outfit and her pet lizard. She looks a little bit leery of Merida.... I'm sure they'll be fast friends soon.

 I have a huge tote bag of American girl doll clothing... and of course none of it fits the smaller 15" Animator dolls.... as you can see in the photo before. The American girl doll clothing is to big and baggy. The only thing that fit were the glasses... so for now, Elsa wears glasses.

I tried my hand at making a smaller jacket... "Success"... although, now I have to figure out how to make button holes.. so um, yep, its getting a belt for now.

I have BIG plans to make a lot of really cute outfits for my grand daughter to play with- with her new dolls. I am having a hard time finding small clothing patterns that will fit this size doll.  I've pinned a lot of doll clothing patterns on Pinterest... but they just don't seem to fit. I am determined to make some clothing patterns to fit these dolls! 

Although, I think this one likes to be naked... just sayin'

big hugs,

 

Love.

Last month I bought a super cute wooden "love" sign. I couldn't pass it up for a buck....

 

I knew when I saw it what I was going to do with it-- pull out the metal tape and an embossing folder and get to work. I have a HUGE assortment of embossing folders to choose from and yet I always pull out this one:

It is the best one to give a piece an overall nice cohesive look that hides the seams of the small pieces of metal tape that makes the overall design. Although, I'm thinking the next time I pull out the metal tape I should give another embossing folder a try....
Before adding the embossed metal tape I painted the backside and the sides with black paint to finish it off and it really makes the silver pop. I also wiped down the finished piece with some black paint to showcase the embossing. I lurve it... although, I probably won't hang it in my house. I do have several of these little metal "Love" pieces in my house. This one sits on my computer desk beside a photo of my bestie who passed away... She was 30 years older than me... and yet, I never-ever thought of her as old  -ever. She had a joyous spirit about her and she knew how to love. Maybe that is why I have her photo and the word "love" next to it. The word... and the definition next to it...

Yes, yes... I must get rid of that stack of decorating books. So, 1980's. *snort*
big hugs,