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)

Bible Covers

I have been slowly adding to my collection of Bible Covers. I made one for my mom with this red and white fabric but created a cuffed pocket instead of the zippered pocket. This cover is a medium/large size.

I needed a different size to make my mom's cover so I had to make a test cover with the new dimensions. This one is also for sale in my easy shop.

take a look.

Other than that I have been working on my Fancy Forrest Quilt, and the Snowmen A to Zzzz hand embroidered quilt. 

My summer has been super busy with both kids home and naps are a thing of the past.

18" Doll Easter Baskets

First I need to Give Credit to My aunt Roxanne for suggesting I make these. I just couldn't get it out of my head. 

I love making bags and purses and I love making things with Sculpey clay. I used to make for for my dollhouse dolls with Sculpey when I was little (I might still have some at my mom's house) Then I was making Christmas ornaments for a while and I am so happy I kept my box of clay and it doesn't dry up, YAY!

Alright, so I took an idea from a book my aunt just sent me of a beach bag for dolls. This is totally my own pattern I just used the approximate size from the pattern. 

I have a few more in the works but as is the norm lately I just don't get a lot of time in my sewing room. 

Samantha is my 5 year old daughter's doll that I borrow as a model. In return she usually gets to keep my prototypes. Tough deal right?

Samantha's outfit today is American girl.

You can purchase items in my Etsy Shop

New Items in the Shop

First,  I can't tell you how good it feels to have made a real sale. The Easter Dress is SOLD!!!

I have added 2 new dresses to the Shop. I know my shop is kinda all over the place but lately I have had so many ideas and I'm not good about putting them on paper. I just have to make it or it won't get done.

This one below is a dress I had started a while ago but never finished the straps or hem because I just couldn't decide what I wanted. It is a size 3t and the fabric was one I just could not pass up. The bunnies are so cute.

 Here is a slightly closer look at the back. I took the straps to the back, fed them through 2 loops and made the bow. I love this look.

 I added this peplum top a few weeks ago but I didn't have pants to go with it. I made these cute leggings out of an old pair that Savannah had outgrown.

Easter Dress for 18" Doll

Samantha is modeling a beautiful vintage style Easter dress. Now for sale on Etsy Click here. It is a new design and the dress features a removable bow, lace cuffed sleeves and lined bodice. The lace and the buttons are actually vintage. I cut the dress slightly shorter so her bloomers peek out just a bit to give it that vintage look. As usual the dress is machine washable on gentle and is made to last.

18" doll Dress for Valentine's Day

I got a book on drafting patterns for kids clothes for Christmas and I wanted to make Savannah a Valentine's dress. I had this fabric leftover from a skirt I made her last year. I made her doll a matching dress and I even had enough fabric leftover to make one more doll dress. The doll dress is for sale in my Easy shop Here.

And big surprise here, she is asking for a Wellie Wisher for her birthday this year. Just when I figure out how to make clothes for the 18" doll.

Bible Cover

After a not so great experience with finding a Bible cover for my dad for Christmas my mom asked me to make one.  I found a couple styles that I liked, measured the bible and made my own. This mustache one was the practice cover. I can't tell you how much I struggled with the zipper end facings especially since it is fully lined. This cover is for sale on my Etsy shop and on eBay. It is for an 11 1/2" X 8" X 2" Bible or specifically the MacArthur Study Bible Large Print.

This is the second cover (the one I made for my dad) my mom supplied the fabric. I had a much easier time with the zipper end facings this time and it went so much quicker.