Baby Lulu - 2013 Baby Doll Challenge

Here is the doll I made for the annual cloth baby doll challenge. Her name is Baby Lulu.

Baby Lulu is a sweet baby but already a bit mischievous. Her hair is totally out of control but she has sweet dimples. She loves her new blue gingham dress that matches her eyes.

Lulu is soft sculpted of craft velour with tibetan lamb's wool hair. I made her dress, hair bow and diaper but bought her white tights.

She is adapted from Judi Ward's "Dionne" doll pattern.

Baby Lulu didn't place in the contest but she is one of my favorite baby dolls that I've made.

Here is a link to the contest:
2013 Cloth Baby Doll Challenge

Billy the Snowman - from felted sweater

Last fall there was a discussion on an online cloth doll group (focd) about making dolls out of felted wool sweaters. I decided to try this. So I went to Goodwill and found a child's sweater with a label that said lambswool and a large homemade bulky knit sweater that had no label but I was sure it was wool. I bought both sweaters, washed them in hot water and dried them in the dryer. Both sweaters felted nicely and the large sweater shrunk so much that it was the same size as the child's sweater.

Well life and the holidays got in the way so I put the sweaters away and just this week got out the sweaters. I cut out a snowman from the bulky knit sweater and because it was so thick I broke a needle on my serger and bent one on my sewing machine so I hand-sewed him. I kept the left-over pieces of felted wool to make little pincushions. I've cut a horse out of the gray sweater and am hand sewing it also because I liked hand sewing the snowman.

I really like the snowman and he will be a good Christmas decoration this year since he didn't make it last year. I made him from "Slushy the Snowman" pattern from FunkyFriendsFactory.com - my husband thinks he looks like a penguin because of the carrot nose...

The Soldier with the Green Whiskers

My  doll for the Oz Book Challenge at Doll Street Dreamers is finally on his way to Ohio. He will be a part of an Oz display at the AFICC (artistic figures in cloth and clay) convention in Cincinnati at the end of the month.

I chose to make "The Soldier with the Green Whiskers" from the Oz series of books written by L. Frank Baum. The first book "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was published in 1900 and was such a success that Mr. Baum wrote 14 books in the series. The 1939 movie with Judy Garland is based on  incidents in the first Oz book. There was actually a successful Oz musical in 1902 that played Broadway in 1903/1904. In addition the successful productions  The Wiz and Wicked are set in Oz. There have been several other Oz movies including one by the Muppets. A new movie is out now which I haven't seen but reportedly takes place before Dorothy comes to Oz. The book series is fun to read, family-friendly, and all of the books are available in free/inexpensive ebook formats.

The Soldier with Green Whiskers is mentioned in several of the books. He is called by name, Omby Amby, in the book, Ozma of Oz but in later books he is again called the Soldier with Green Whiskers.. He doesn't load his gun for fear of accidents and once asked intruders to wait for him to find his powder and shot.

I loosely based my doll on the illustration to the left by W.W. Denslow from the first Oz book. I adapted the doll pattern "A Dude for All Seasons" by Bonnie B. Lewis and Mary Ann Kaahanui.

I started the doll while we were visiting my parents and Mike's mother in St. George, Utah. I sewed and stuffed the doll and designed and sewed his uniform while there. When we got home I lined and embellished the jacket and when I put it on him it no longer fit so he got "doll lipo" with a back incision and stuffing removal. He was then sutured back together with a much slimmer profile. It is so much easier and probably less painful for cloth people vs human people.

We (my husband and I) found a long blond wig that I sprayed with green hairspray but the green got on everything so that hair was banished and he has a shorter beard now made from a St. Patrick's Day wig we found. In the books his beard reached the ground but I like this one. I also painted his glasses green but they hid his face so now he has green-glittered glasses. In the book everyone has green-tinted glasses locked on them when they enter the Emerald City of Oz so that everything looks green.

I had fun making the musket also. I ordered a civil war replica musket from ebay but it was too small since the doll is 20 inches tall. So we bought a tiny-diameter brass tube, some balsa wood and chain.

I cut it out, painted and stained it, glued on the barrel then cut up the chain to make a trigger and such. It turned out cute but I don't have a close up picture.

I had the most trouble with his gloves. I had to make them big enough to go over his fingers but when they were on they looked like Mickey Mouse hands. I took tucks and glued but they are still not what I'd hoped to make.

I enjoyed making this doll. As always I am happy that he is finished and in the mail/UPS. And I am happy to be a part of this online doll club and hope my offering is okay since there are many professional dollmakers in this organization. -cba

2012 Gypsy Challenge Doll

This year's Gypsy Challenge Doll is finally on the way to Houston. This year I made a dragon for the first time and my gypsy, Lady Cascadia is riding the dragon. The dragon, Myrrlyn is charmed with a special necklace that Lady Cascadia was able to get on him somehow.
This was a hard project with several setbacks. We've been out of town so I only had a few weeks to finish. The first doll I made was too large to ride the dragon. So I made a smaller doll which was harder to style. At first I made the dragon with a green lamé stomach/contrast but even with a medium iron-on interfacing the lamé came apart at some of the seams when I stuffed it. So I took the dragon apart and remade it with a knit contrast fabric. If I use lamé again I will use one-inch seams instead of 1/4 inch.

The doll and her dragon turned out well. I really enjoyed making the dragon. I think I will make a few more since I bought fabric for dragons last year and never did that project.  (And, yes, that is a run in the fabric under his ear.)

Here are my granddaughters, Emily and Josie, holding the dolls so you can see the size of the dolls...

My Evergreen State Fair dolls

The past week is a blur to me. I cut out two dolls on Monday and turned them in to the fair at noon today. (I thought I had another week since the fair doesn't start until August 23rd.) I'm slow (in lots of ways) but the dolls came into being in less than a week... I didn't take pictures since I was still finishing the dolls on the way but the fair people let me come back and take a picture of the dolls in the display cases before the judging.
This is "DeWinna Takes Home the Blue". She is for a special fair theme category... 

And this is my doll for the cloth doll contest at the fair:
She is "Marshane of Mars". Marshane is greeting the Mars Rover, Curiosity. 

2012 Hoffman Challenge doll

I finally finished this year's Hoffman Challenge doll and she is on her way to Colorado. The fabric this year was difficult because of the 4 inch flowers which don't scale well with dolls that have to be under 20 inches tall. I was planning to make a bridesmaid in a purple flowered dress trying to catch the bouquet. But the doll decided that she was a beauty queen... So here is Miss Lavender USA - 2012.

I don't know if I used enough of the challenge fabric. I made three different sized tubes of the fabric then used the tubes to make ribbon roses.

I used the large roses for her bouquet, the medium around the base of the doll and the tiny ones above her bustle.

I mostly used Arley Berryhill's "Gwendolyn the Glamour Witch" pattern but also used Patti Medaris Culea's "Penny Cassandrea" pattern with my own modifications. I thought making a stump doll would be easier but it was hard to stuff smoothly and get the lumps out. I'm glad a had a stash of Buffalo Snow stuffing in the attic because she needed a lot.
I bought some HoloShimmer Sulky thread at the Sew Expo in Puyallup this year that matched the challenge fabric but I used it for her jewelry instead of embellishments.

Miss Lavender USA is now on her way to Colorado. Here is a photo of Michael holding her outside the UPS store:

2012 Cloth Baby Doll Challenge

This year for the baby doll challenge I made four little babies from Judi Ward's "Tiny Baby Doll" pattern found here: http://judisdolls.com/wendy/littlebaby.pdf. I was planning to make Judi's "Dionne" quints dolls because my mother had a Dionne doll when she was a child but mislaid the pattern. When I realized I had very little time to finish I made the little dolls thinking they'd be quicker and although it didn't take as long to sew and stuff them after needle-sculpting the faces, hands, toes, knees and elbows of four dolls I'm not sure I saved any time. Their toes are really cute. And I needle-felted their hair with little tufts of angora from Travis's pygora goats.
I knew I had very little chance of votes but I had fun and wrote a little story about them...

The Rhubarb Kids - 

Rubee, Ruthee, Rudee and Rufus

This year I have had the busiest spring ever!! A month ago I went out to the greenhouse and what do you think I found? Four Rhubarb Babies!!! Right in the middle of our not-so-pretty rhubarb plant. I'm sure that you are like me and have always wanted to find garden babies but I'll bet no one has ever told you what a lot of work they are. They are so tiny and cute and adorable, but... I have been changing diapers, making teeny clothes, juicing rhubarb (that was a surprise), watching for cats, and so much more. So far the babies have stayed in the rhubarb but I had to make Rudee a hat the other day because he'd sunburned his face somehow. I'm sure this summer will be full of even more work and surprises. (Look up garden babies on the internet and you'll see just what I am going through). LOL

And, no we didn't place in the challenge but I had a lot of fun and have some really cute little dolls that are now living among the thread on the spool holder in the my sewing room.