Clothes for Dolly

A few weeks ago I took my grandchildren to a scout auction at the church. One of the items up for bid was a baby doll with an assortment of handmade doll clothes and blankets. Celestra, who is two, spotted the doll from across the room and squealed, "Baby!" We were outbid. Knowing a baby doll would be a hit, we decided that is what we would get her for Christmas. We bought this darling baby doll and I have been busy making clothes for it using a pattern that I had when her mother was her age.

Fire Flowers

Aleta at OSU showed us another flower tutorial. I tried it out this morning and here is what I came up with. To see close-ups, click on the photo and then arrow back to return to my blog.


This one looks like a nest with eggs. Practice on scraps before you burn your circles so that you know how the different fabrics will react to the heat. I burned the edges of each circle with a candle. Go outside. You never know what might happen. Some fabrics require you to actually touch the flame. Others, like tulle, require only the heat above the flame.


These were easily done. A little tedious maybe. The most challenging part was tying off the fiber centers. My fabric colors are mostly pink, one peach, two yellow, two green. One of the yellows has little droplets that add a nice touch. Once you have everything assembled, scrunch the flowers in your hand - you will like it.


I used a bead just larger than seed beads for my centers. I know how difficult seed beads can be to thread on a needle and didn't want the bother. I am very happy with how these came out.


This last photo of the flower in my hand gives you an idea of the size. I cut my circles approximately the sizes the tutorial recommended. (Not sure why it came up sideways!) When you singe the edges, the circles naturally become smaller. Be aware of this before you start if you have a specific finished size in mind. In the end, the bottom green circle was a little bigger than I liked so I just tucked it up with the threaded needle after I added the beads. This actually gave it more depth.

Fabric Roses

Tara at OSU posted a link for a fabric rose tutorial. These require sewing and ironing. I tried it out this afternoon and this is what I made.





One instruction missing from the tutorial is that when you make the first set of pleats, you must leave 1/4" free on each long edge. If you don't allow for this, you will stitch the pleats together and the rose will not 'balloon' out the way you want it to. These will make pretty embellishments for a scrapbook page.

Patches

Allen's pants had a big hole in the knee. I asked him if he liked them that way or if he wanted Nana to fix them. He wanted them fixed. Together we dug through my basked of scraps and picked out some fabric pieces. He wanted all three on his pants. This patch reminds me of layering patterned paper on a layout, but the stitches are real - not rubons!