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 :)

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.

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!