Two new friends for baby

Meet the two new softies that I recently made my future baby girl.  Both were made from free patterns that I found online.

The doll pattern is by Emily Martin of The Black Apple.  I’ve admired Emily’s work for some time and first learned about her through my favorite craft podcast CraftSanity (check out Episode 75).  Emily even demonstrated how to make this doll on the Martha Stewart Show and you can still find the pattern, tutorial and video on the Martha Stewart site.  For my own doll I made a couple of adjustments.  Instead of painting on the facial features I embroidered them and I also added some pigtails.

I’m really happy with how she turned out, but I do admit that the pattern was a little challenging to use.  It was a free pattern after all, so I’m not complaining, but if I were to make this doll again I would re-draw the head and body pattern pieces with a seam allowance.  There are no seam allowances in this pattern.  Emily addresses this briefly on the video and suggests tracing the arm or leg right onto the fabric than stitching on the line before cutting it out.  Well, this works great when dealing with the small arms and legs.  But when it comes to putting the whole doll together at the end I would have had an easier time lining things up had there been a seam allowance given.

The owl was created from a free pattern by Ruth over on Hammer & Thread.  The pattern along with the tutorial was very easy to understand and follow, so my owl came together much more easily than the doll, that is until I got to attaching the tail section.  To be fair, Ruth clearly warns that this is the most challenging part of the project and she isn’t lying!

So if you’re looking for a softie project I would suggest that you put these two on your to do list.  They are cute little items that can be enjoyed by children and adults alike.  And although I really enjoy creating my own patterns and designs, I am a newbie when it comes to sewing three dimensional items like this, and I feel that following patterns can be enough of a challenge in this area.

Thank you for stopping by.  Happy crafting!

This post has been linked to:
Sew Cute Tuesday (6.5.12) on Creative Itch

Small Doll Project Complete

It really feels good to finish a project the day after starting it.  All too often I start something then just cast it aside with every intention of finishing it and then it never happens.  Does this ever happen to you?  You know the feeling, you get to a certain point and then your crafting ADD kicks in and it’s off to the next thing.

This little doll is so cute with her bright blue hair.  Now that she’s finished I can work on making some additional outfits if I get really ambitions.  But let me warn you; those tiny tiny hems are tricky!  I always loved the handmade Barbie Doll clothes my mom and grandma made for me, but now I have a whole new appriciation for them!

Here she is wearing just her little dress from the front and back…

And in this picture you can see her little bitty underpants…

To complete the outfit, I made her a crochet beanie hat and a pair of brown boots.

It was a fun project to learn some new techniques and practice my sewing skills.  If you’ve made a project recently that made you push your already existing skills or prompted you to learn some new ones I’d love to see it.  Just go to zween’s Facebook page and post a picture on my wall.

Work in Progress; small doll

Last week I picked up the book Palm-Size Softies at our local library and today I decided to make the “many characters” doll on page 28.  I haven’t gotten too far yet, but I like where it is going.

After starting this project I realized that following a pattern from a book like this is a lot like cooking; you read the directions and materials list over before you get started just like you may read a new recipe with an ingredients list from a cookbook.  Since you are using a cookbook you’ve probably never made the dish before, but you’re excited to try it.  Maybe you discover that you need a lot of ingredients, then you realize that you don’t have one or more of the ingredients which makes you become hesitant to make the dish after all..but then you never really get around to it again.  Do you see where I’m going with this?

So today I decided not to let a lack of ingredients get in my way from making something fun.

The best part about this project is that since all of the pieces are so small, the littlest bits of fabric will do.  Though these pictures don’t show it, the best part about this doll is all of her different outfits you can make for her.  I can’t wait until I get to that part!

So, what’s been on your back burner that you’ve been putting off because you don’t have the perfect materials needed for your project?  Just get in there and mix it up a bit and I bet you’ll end up even prouder of your creation than if you followed the directions to a T.

Happy crafting!