Kitty Cat Lunch/Snack Bag

Here is another new design. I created this snack bag for Savannah's School snack time. It is hand embroidered, and lightly insulated. It's the perfect size for a banana or a small lunch.

Now available on Etsy

I will be making more in different colors hopefully by this weekend.

Fox Dress

After a fine tuning the pattern, the "Fox" dress is for sale. Visit MapleShadeLane on Etsy to purchase or just to check it out. Visit, share, like...

You know, it doesn't have to be a fox. There was a discussion at our Christmas celebration that it could also be other cute little critters.

A new model! Welcome Tenney

 I will be adding more soon, I have some ideas about other dress styles.
What are you getting when you order on of my products? A quality more durable item than some competitors. I have purchased 18" Doll clothes from large chain stores only to have them disintegrate into shreds, we aren't even rough on our stuff. My dresses are lined, and finished to prevent fraying and the fabric is slightly thicker and better quality.

My Felt Dolls for Christmas

I have been wanting to make more of these felt dolls and had the perfect excuse. These went along with the American Girl Doll dresses from the last post.

The doll design and some of the accessories and clothing is from the book My Felt Doll by Shelley Downes. But I also added some of my own ideas.

I could not decide on a dress design that I liked so I made one for this doll out of fabric instead of felt. 

I prefer to sew the dress, shoes and some accessories to the doll so the tiny pieces don't get lost.

This one below was the dress, headband and shoes for the fairy doll. I added a unicorn horn to the headband and changed the flower pattern slightly and for the shoes I embroidered the unicorn eyes.

I found the best yarn for her hair, I don't even know who it was by but it was on the clearance rack at A.C Moore, I will have to go back and see if I can find it in different colors. It does fray more so if you use this yarn you will have to secure the ends.

18" Doll Dresses

Merry Christmas to all!

I had so much fun creating these new dresses for 2 of my niece's dolls. I was so happy to hear that they had been wanting one of my handmade dresses. I based them off of their favorite (unicorns and foxes)

Isn't the quilt in the background perfect? My mom just finished that for our new master bedroom. It goes perfectly with the wall color and decor.

Christmas Stocking for Dolls

New Items in the Shop

Dolls need Christmas stockings too.

Felt hair clips for child and doll.

My Felt Doll Cont...

Some of the things I've been up to lately.

Savannah's "new" dresser. We have an old house with tiny rooms, so since Savannah was born we have had shelves in her closet for all of her clothes. It's been messy. We got this old used dresser a long time ago, it was an ugly brown color and I pained it yellow when Nolan was born. "Only a poor man can afford cheap paint" as my grandpa said. Well, it peeled. When I decided to use it for Savannah, I thought I would get the paint off with paint remover, 2 coats later, no deal. I bought myself a black and decker palm sander (best gift ever) it took 2 hours and I was ready to paint.

My go to paints lately have been Minwax polyshades classic black satin and Behr Acrylate white. I put these on all my furniture and the white is amazing for trim and high temp steam radiators.

She picked out the handles from Hobby Lobby. They are awesome, just not the color I was hoping for since we will be painting her room soon. (more drop ceiling work)

I have also been spackling and sanding the ceilings in my living and dining rooms, what a pain (seriously) almost done, then those rooms can finally be painted.

The Felt Doll pattern comes with a bear and Savannah just couldn't wait until I made it. So here she is. I custom made the dress. I had to pin it to the doll as well as glue the slippers to the doll because my children are little monsters. Nolan was already caught ripping out her hair.

This is a quilt I have been working on for a while, it is very challenging for me. The pieces are tiny and for someone who hasn't really had any experience in this area it's complicated. It is the Fancy Forrest Quilt. I have done the Bunnies, and the hedgehogs and I have to finish these owls before I can start anything new because once you stop with these it's hard to pick them back up, you kinda get into a rhythm and its easy to lose the pieces and forget which piece goes to which block.

I have a lot of things I want to do before Christmas so time to get to work.

My Felt Doll

My family got me the Book My Felt Doll for my birthday. It is such a wonderful book with easy patterns and instructions. I really wasn't going to start making a doll until I finished a few other things but Savannah and I just couldn't wait.

The hardest part is gathering all the supplies. You will want to have many different colors embroidery thread and many different pieces and colors of felt. I found 100% wool felt at Joann's. The book states that this is a good felt to use. But the Joann quality is not worth it. It smells like a sheep, I had to replace a leg and there is a small hole in her head because the weave of the felt is not tight, it also has a fuzzy texture. I would not recommend. The smaller sheets of eco felt seemed to work fine for the clothing.

This is the Bedtime doll from the book. I made some slight changes to the pajamas, and Savannah picked the hair. She is supposed to have a bear, but I haven't finished that part yet. (more felt colors needed)