allsorts

Woof woof

What happened to June? Apparently I spent most of it either sick or in stitches. This "pupkin" is for a fun secret project. So don't tell, okay?

Oops! There she goes!

Cheers,

Jenny

Happy face

Thanks for the suggestions (and encouragement) about how to do my doll's face.  I ended up painting a very simple smiling face, and it was so much easier than I expected.  Easier than embroidery for me, because I have lots more experience painting than I do embroidering. I also added some pigtails, a skirt, some ribbon trim and hair bows.  And little felt shoes...

I was really surprised at how much personality adding all these things gave her.  And I love how she has lots more of a rag doll vibe going on now.

Once I find I proper box, off she'll go to Eren, who is taking all the dolls made for the Craft Hope Project down to Nicaragua. And hopefully then she will bring a smile to a little girl's face!

Cheers,

Jenny

Hello doll face

Today I made some headway on my doll for the Craft Hope project. After some hmmm-ing around with my own pattern ideas, I got nervous and decided to first try out this pattern Emily of the black apple shared on the Martha Stewart Show. Its my first attempt at a proper machine-stitched cloth doll. I've made felt dolls, but those were hand-sewn, whip stitched around the outside edge. This is new territory for me. So far so good, but now I'm at the part where the instructions read: paint face. Nothing more, just paint face. Help! Anyone familiar with painting on fabric? I know what I want to paint, I just don't know what kind of paints, how to sketch it on there, or how to go about it at all. Any tips or hints would be very much appreciated.

Feeling pitifully clueless,

Jenny

More maids have arrived from the Far East!

Deciding that I wanted to make some dolls for the Craft Hope project gave me just the kick in the pants I needed to finish set three of the Pretty Maids embroidery patterns. They're available in the shop right now!

So here they are... Qiao, from China, Padma from India, Giang from Vietnam, Lelei from Polynesia, and Keiko from Japan. Just like the first sets, they're delivered in the form of a printable PDF booklet which is sent via email. For the moment, I am only offering the patterns in sets, but maybe at some point I'll offer them individually again. We'll see. I'm still trying to sort out the whole listing thing on etsy. Confusing.

It was a challenge to limit the group to five, as there are so many incredible costumes from around the Pacific Rim. Sets one and two were both from European countries, so I might just linger in the east for the next set.. or maybe venture on to South America, or maybe Africa... I hope you're not getting sick of them, but I just can't stop!

Now its time for some doll-making... ;o)

Jenny

Seeds of hope, one stitch at a time

Just read on Loobylu about Craft Hope, which has begun its second project, collecting handmade dolls to send to the children at the Casa Bernabe Orphanage in Nicaragua. What a worthwhile and wonderful endeavor!

I've got a pile of new books with adorable doll patterns in them, and this is just the impetus I need to stitch one up! Maybe I could use one of the many free online patterns gathered at One Crafty Place just for this project. OR.... I could design my own pattern! I've made some dolls from scratch with no pattern, but never actually created a proper reusable doll pattern. That sounds kind of fun!

There's a Craft Hope flickr pool where you can see the dolls that have already been completed as well as previous projects, or you can even join the Craft Hope group on facebook if you like. If you're interested in participating you can sign up at Craft Hope. They will need the dolls by June 13th, so I'd better start stitching!

Cheers,

Jenny

Here comes the bride... and the groom!

The Wedding Embroidery Set is in the shop! You probably can tell, it is kind of a variation of my Pretty Maids dolls... just with arms that bend... and with guys.  ;o)

This one has so many elements, I had to put it into two pdf's. One is the general scoop, ideas for various combinations and so forth, and the other one is all of the patterns to be used for tracing.

My favorite part is the extra bits - floral garland, bells, doves, etc. They can be combined to make lots of different designs. I really hope you get as much enjoyment out of stitching up this set as I did designing it!

Now I'm off to do a quick tidy up... my dad and stepmom are arriving any minute! Yikes!

Cheers,

Jenny

On the drawing board

Ah, this lovely Spring weather and flowers abloom make me think of weddings...

So I started sketching up a new embroidery pattern.  Coming soon!

Cheers,

Jenny

My creative space - a peek into my drawers

Well, not my drawers, just one drawer, the shallow one in my fabric buffet (I have taken a shine to calling it that). Sorry about the blah photo, I'm not sure what the problem is, but I can't take a photo worth beans lately.  Well, you get the general idea.  The drawer is just deep enough for my art bin o' floss and a pink plastic divided thingie that once held my grandmother's costume jewelry and now holds sewing whatnots.

On top are some fq's that I picked up a couple of weeks ago at the Dallas quilt show, and Romsdol, an adorable folkster doll I snagged from the weewonderfuls etsy shop!  She's such a charmer!

So, that's my Creative Space peek for this week!  See more creative spaces here.

Cheers!

Jenny

Bounding Bunnypins - a Freebie for Friday!

Happy Friday! Wow, you guys outdid yourselves on the comments about my cleaned-up studio! I don't think I've ever had that many comments on one post before. Thanks!!! All those warm fuzzies made the effort seem a lot more worthwhile.

So here is a little something in return! I made up this little "bunnypin" and thought it would make a nice freebie pattern to share. It is really teensy, less than 3" across, but it looks very cute pinned to a sweater or a lapel.

They stitch up really quickly, so you could end up with a whole herd (flock?) of bunnies bounding across your Easter outfit. Or maybe tuck one into an Easter basket, very sweet.

Click here to download the Bounding Bunnypin pdf pattern*.

How to make your Bunnypin: (sorry about the wordiness, I'm not great at this part)

Out of felt, cut two of the bunny shape and one of the flower. With matching thread, whip stitch the edges of the bunny pieces together, starting where the front leg meets the head. Stitch around the front legs, then stop and push a tiny bit if polyfluff into each leg with a skewer. Then continue around the back legs and then stuff those and also the body. Then stitch around the ears, stuff those, and then finally around the nose, adding fluff before tying off where you started. Don't overstuff, just enough to be slightly poofy. Tie some thin ribbon around the bunny's neck, knotting at the back. Then using embroidery floss, bring your needle from the back of the bunny, coming up through the ribbon and the center of the flower, keeping a couple of inches of floss hanging out the back. Loop the floss around the needle and poke it back into the flower at the same spot, making a french knot. Draw the needle out the back, tie the ends of the floss together, pulling tight, and snip the excess. If you like, you can add a pin-back, but its really not necessary since you can just safety-pin it easily fom the back of whatever you are going to pin it to.

Enjoy making your bunnypins!

Cheers,

Jenny

*note - I am doing something a little different this time. Because I'm seeing more examples of people lifting and adapting copyrighted images, this is a password-protected file. So it can be opened and printed only with Adobe Reader or Acrobat, it cannot be opened with a graphics program like Photoshop. If you don't have Reader you can download it for free here.

My creative space

This is for Kirsty's My Creative Space Wednesday... at long last, some new photos of my studio! They are not great photos mind you, the light in here is very uncooperative in the afternoons. It blasts into the two westerly windows so I usually have to close the shutters by 3:00 or so. But, today the room is as clean and the most organized it has ever been, so I thought I should document it.

My favorite part is the Liatorp buffet from Ikea that stores my fabric and tons of other supplies, and quite stylishly. Before, I had ugly white shelving. Boy was I glad to see that go! Someday I hope to replace the Scandia pine shelving and desks, too. I can't even bring my self to show you a photo of that wall. Yuck.

Ugh, I didn't realize how bad these photos are until now.  I need a better lens for my camera, and maybe learning how to use it wouldn't hurt!

The three red frames hold fantastic papercut prints from Elsa Mora, and Ro brought me the lanterns from Singapore. Right now the floor has horrible old berber carpet on it, but that will change as soon as I figure out what I want to replace it with. The worktable is a huge old map desk. I covered the top with oilcloth and painted the base. I keep tons more stuff in Ikea boxes that fit perfectly underneath. I have three of those blue buckets that I use for trash and recycling. My felt is organized by color in the white stacking bins to the right of the worktable.

So that's it! My creative space!

Cheers,

Jenny