Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Here She Is..

finally finished.
It has been difficult working on her without my daughter noticing. It was so much easier when she was younger. I've done a little here and there and now she is finally finished. With fall coming up I felt she needed a sweater which I knit out of Patons Classic Wool.  I've knitted scarves and hats in the past and I have crocheted many baby sweaters but this is my first attempt at knitted sweater. I decided to make it up as I went, which means there was plenty of taking out and redoing. I used a stockinette stitch for the whole sweater only reversing the direction at the collar to give the stitch a different look.
I crocheted her shoes out of the same yarn as the sweater. I just love Mary Jane's!
Now Patience will just have to wait patiently until the birthday celebration :)

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Patience

I recently saw some pictures of Waldorf dolls and knew I would have to try and make one. My daughter had said she wanted a doll with sunset hair, blue eyes and freckles for her birthday. So I thought here is my opportunity to give it a shot.
















I bought the Eco Wool and Organic Cotton Interlock from Weir Doll Supply http://www.weirdolls.com/ . The hair is Malabrigo Rios in Sunset it is a Pure Merino Superwash that I bought at my local yarn shop.

I found directions for making the head online
http://thesilverpenny.homestead.com/freeprojectdollheaddirections.html  and drew a pattern for the body.



Maybe I should have bought a pattern for my first time? I think the body is a little long for the legs, I will adjust it for the next one. I wanted the body soft and huggable but I think I might add more stuffing next time. Also she won't sit up on her own without leaning against something so I may stitch the bottom differently next time.

 For her hair I made a wig cap Beth Webber has great directions at http://www.flickr.com/photos/29184580@N04/sets/72157619529864003/ But instead of hooking the thread I did something like this at starry sheep http://starrysheep.com/crafty/?p=103 wrapped the yarn around a book but before of cutting it I ran a thread across the top forward and back. After cutting it I laid it across the head where I wanted it and stitched the hair on the part line. I think I used 4 layers. It was a whole skein of yarn aprox. 210 yards.





Her dress is a cotton calico and the trim is bleached muslin. The pattern I modified from The Mary Frances Sewing Book by Jane Eayre Fryer.  I found out about this book on By Bido's blog http://bybido.blogspot.com/2011/02/mary-frances-sewing.html  . I was hoping my daughter could use this doll for the clothes in this book. But I made the doll a little to chubby. I think if I just redraw the patterns she can still follow the direction in the book.  It is such a great story and beautiful illustrations, I would own this book even if I didn't have a child at home.
Here is Patience in her dress. I still need to make shoes, a sweater and of course panties. (It will be the first thing she will check for.) Luckily, I still have a month to go.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Peacock Thread

Yea, my thread is here!
This is size 50 and 20 crochet thread that was hand dyed. The colour is Royalty and I purchased it from Lady Shuttle Maker on Etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop/LadyShuttleMaker


Here are 3 of the small feathers made up. This is a great quality thread, very fun to work with.







Mr. Peacock is going to have to wait a bit for the rest of his feathers. My daughters birthday is coming up and I have a new project. I will be posting more about it soon!