My Weblog

New mag

Cotton & Paint winter edition

With the emphasis on soft and snuggly.

Felt bird

Slippers..

with optional flowers/ pom-poms.

Cat purse

Nice bag

Hodge-codge pin cushion. In Molly's world, a hedgehog was originally called a hodge-codge, then it was a hedge-codge, and then one day she learned how to pronounce it correctly - that was a sad day in this house. :  ( 

Beaded snowflake mobile.

Cute book cover.

Paper arts. This is just a paper cone that's been attacked by the cute virus.

Hello reindeers, see you in a few weeks !

Finally, some nice christmas card ideas.

Is this card Christmassy though ? Or is it a new year card ? Maybe next year is Year of the Hodge-codge ?

If you want to buy this, you can get it at Amazon jp here , or on e-bay here and here.

I'll be back on friday with the with the baby boots pattern and some shop news.

:  )

Eeek.

I'm not sure if this post will reach you today, I'm having mouse problems. Computer mouse problems that is, not the eeek eeek squeaky kind - the cats deal with the squeaky kind. : (

Anyway, the mouse just stops working. For no reason at all.  My answer to any computer problem is to re-boot- which eventually worked this morning, but obviously it needs looking into. I tried going into the microsoft troubleshooting site, and what I read may as well have been written in some sort of ancient language. IT DIDN'T MAKE ANY SENSE. Not even one little bit of it.

Pure gobble de gook.

I stared at the screen pretending to read it for a while, and then went away and made a coffee, and then came back and stared some more and it still didn't make any sense. I mean they assume I know what a usb port is ? What the buggering hell is a usb port ???

So I've done what any sensible person should do - I've given up. Hopefully the mouse will keep going til one of the men come home, it's not very often I'll admit to it, but men can be quite useful sometimes.

This weeks wip

Soon to be purses. Which will be going into my shop -watch this space . :  )

See how dark it is here in the UK, the lights are all on and it's 11am, hence the bad photo. Bah.

Well, the computer angels must be watching over me because the mouse has kept going so far, all I have to do now is wish you a lovely weekend and hit the save button...

Byeeeeeeee !

What shall I do today ?

Look at some ..

Christmas  cute  ?          

Or just your usual everyday cute ?

Then again, maybe I should do some housework instead ?

Like * that's * gonna happen.

Ummmmm....

I can't think of anything to say. Not a sausage.

We have head colds, and even if I could think of anything to say- it would probably be even more rubbish--ier (?) than the stuff that normally falls out of my mouth anyway. So I'll just show you Beetle.

He's made from a lovely tufted mohair that I trimmed back too much around his eyes, and then had to insert contrasting mohair circles to hide his eye area baldness. Poor Beetle, he's ended up looking like I feel.

Fuzzy and spaced out.

Ruby's dress

I'm dreadfully sorry for the crappy pictures, but my scanner isn't working. I'm not sure it ever did, in fact it probably just needs plugging in, or switching on, or something - who knows ? Certainly not me.

Anyway, one crappy quality photo....

I'll zoom in a bit, if that makes it easier to read ?

This is a 'stitch- around' pattern, so cut out your paper pattern pieces, but NOT your fabric yet.

To avoid any nasty teeny tiny hems I've made the dress reversible, so you will need two squares of fabric cut large enough to accommodate your pattern pieces plus hem allowances .

Put your fabrics right side together and pin on the pattern pieces.

Now machine stitch close to the edge of your pattern where indicated. Don't forget to leave the side opening for turning, and don't stitch around the neckline on both pieces.

Without removing the paper pattern, and leaving a small hem all around your stitching, cut out your two pattern pieces. Not the neck bits though, the neck bits come next -

For both the collar and the dress, cut out the necklines ( which shouldn't be stitched yet) without leaving any seam allowance.

Turn the collar the right way round, press, and topstitch all around if desired,

and now sandwich it in between the two layers of your dress.

Pin, baste, and machine stitch together.

Now, turn your dress the right way round, and slip stitch the turning gap closed.

Fold in half, to match A to A, B to B, etc ...

So it looks like this.

Starting at the bottom hem, slip stitch the side seams, picking up only the top layer of fabric - in this case the orange fabric..

Once you've reached the sleeve hem, turn inside out and repeat, this time just stitching through your other fabric. This will give a nice neat seam on both sides.

At this point, the dress could easily be made into a coat instead, just leave the gap for turning on the bottom hem so it's not visible. ( I wouldn't mind a coat like this meself actually ).

But if you still want a dress, just stitch the back seams in the same way, leaving a large enough opening to fit your dollie thru'

Attach buttons and sew little loops to fit, and then add whatever buttons and bows that take your fancy.

Dah, dah !

Ruby won't model for us today

She says she's too shy.

Back on friday. Bye-bye.

xxx

Ruby says

and so do I. Thank you SO much for your lovely comments.  : )

Ruby is very much a work in progress, there are things that went wrong with her that I managed to hide when taking the photos. I used quite an open weave linen for her face and body, and it frayed like crazy - so maybe that wasn't such a good idea, and her feet and her hair were a *challenge* to put it mildly. I need to do a little more work on the design and then I'll be making a few to put up for sale.  Maybe a red-head with freckles ? - I love little red-haired children. : )

My best bit of advice with toy design, is probably to get your hands on as many vintage books as you can. They are a great source of inspiration, I have a whole stack of them. By studying the basic techniques, you can adapt them to achieve the sort of look you're after. And then it's trial and error, trial and error, and trial and error again.

This recent e-bay purchase is rapidly becoming one of my favourites...

ISBN 0 671 25403 0

there are some very cute dollies in here

This doll is a cutie, and look at her wonderful clothes - pyjamas even !

There are also some great animals in here

Love that racoon.

This too, is a very good book - the very first soft toy book I bought. (a fair few years ago. Cough cough).

with lots of hints and tips on toy/doll design. ISBN 0 85532 540 2

There are interesting internet dolly patterns here and here, or try typing 'free doll pattern' into your search engine and you should be kept busy for days : )

I will put up a tutorial for Ruby's dress next week - most likely on weds , because you are all so lovely, and if I find any more helpful dolly making hints, I will let you know.

In the meantime I hope everyone has a lovely weekend , and thank you once again.

: )

x x x