The January Softies Gallery is up- what fun! It’s wonderful to see what everyone did for “Vintage Catwalk”. Wow, 130 entries.
Yearly Archives: 2005
on to other projects
I got bombed this morning by trackback spam. After erasing more then 50 trackbacks (and they kept coming in as I was erasing), I had Ben turn off the trackback option.
I’ve done some work on these ladies-
I am finding it frustrating though- I am not pleased with the proportions, or the faces ,,, for now they are sitting on the window sill, watching me do other things. I went down to the grocery store before dinner and I loved seeing them in the window when I came back.
I have pulled out my patterns again.
This project is once again being led by doll hair thoughts/ ideas (like Autumn). I bought a piece of cashmere goat skin. It is very straight, long hair. I am itching to make a doll with this hair. I’ve got to figure out how to dye it successfully. I want black.
I’ve been spending some time looking at the Volks Super Dollfie dolls. There was a lot of photos in the January 2005 issue of Haute Doll magazine… a magazine I’ve never bought before- not my usual area of interest- it says on the cover- Haute Doll, the magazine for dolls who love to shop. Funny.
Kitty #4
Here she is- Kitty # 4
She is 16″ tall and made of mohair. I made her a little red crocheted hat- these hats were really fun to make-
and here is the whole litter-
and a close-up of their faces.
This is the last of making kitties for a while. These have been lots of fun to work on. Thanks Claire for this great inspiration. I can’t wait to see all the entries for The Month of Softies, when they are posted at the end of the month.
About the kitties-each one is slightly different. Four different noses and 3 different leg designs. I didn’t spend any money making these. They were completely made out of stuff I already have- Yes! Making the hats is the one thing that will probably carry over to my other doll-making.
making a mohair cat- #4
I am finishing up kitty #4. She is a black and white kitty, knitted with mohair. This turned out to be harder then the other ones. I couldn’t see my stitches and that made keeping track of what I was doing very difficult. On the other hard, it hides any mistakes!
I first tried to follow the same basic pattern as the other kitties. Unfortunately, knitting in a white nose just wasn’t working out. The white mohair I had was thinner then the black.
I took this out and decided to knit a separate piece that would become the sewed on nose. I finished up everything else and when I stood her up, I had a serious case of mushy feet. The black mohair knitted up into a great (for this purpose) dense fabric. The white was too soft, especially for feet.
Off with the feet! I cut them off, picked up the stitches and reknit them.
Much better!
I found perfect button eyes for her- after much searching through my button stash. I forgot I had these. My stash is mostly single buttons, which rarely turn out to be useful. Now that I look at the picture though, I think I need to adjust the eye placement a bit… something looks skewed to me. Tomorrow I will post pictures of her dressed. I made another little crocheted hat and it is drying right now after starching and blocking.
what am I doing here…
Snowstorms leave me feeling very unsettled. We ended up with 30″ of snow after the weekend storm and now it is snowing again. It has been all day. There’s nowhere to shovel the snow.
Here is my main workspace, now that I am out of the attic until warm weather returns. That is kitty #4 in the pile- Black and white mohair. Last night my family asked me- what is it with the cats? I guess it’s time to get back to people dolls.
I brought the paints down and worked a bit on these. I had to repair some love bites that my alive kitty made. Apparently doll hands are a delicacy.
Everybody looks better with hair.
Cat #3 – Grey
She’s finished! She’s 13 1/2 inches high. I even made a hat. It is crocheted. Here it is being blocked- I had a hard time figuring out how. I starched it too.
This is the back. I used snaps instead of making actual button holes.
Side view-
and a face and hat close-up-
kitty #3 progress
Try number 3. The yarn I used was recycled from something and I decided to wash and block it when I got done with the head, body, legs part.
Then I attached the arms and tail and stuffed it-
I have been using black stuffing for these last two darker colored kitties. I did more shaping on the legs for a more realistic(?) look. Now for facial features and clothes.
other winter related stuff
The resident house cats are finding winter to be very boring in the house. Mango thought he’d take a taste of some of my doll hands. Luckily I was sitting right there when he gave it a try, so not too much damage. Actually, maybe he was trying to tell me that I wasn’t paying enough attention to him.
This is what my garden gnomes do in the winter-
They become weather gnomes!
Blizzard in Boston
Hey, the snow really came! This is out our backdoor.
We live right up the street from the grocery store and every time there is a prediction of a snowstorm, chaos ensues. Yesterday our street was busier then the day before Thanksgiving. The store’s parking lot was full and people were parked all the way up the street. It’s funny really. Many times the storms amount to nothing. This time the forecasters were right! We’ve got at least 20 inches and lots of drifting. It is too high to clear it with the snowblower.
kitty #2
Here she is, all dressed. Well, she probably needs a bow or a hat, but I’ll wait until I find the perfect thing. Isn’t this fabric just exactly right?! I only had a little bit, but managed to make the dress-
It has been very cold for the last week. That and a $50 increase in our electric bill, which I can only imagine came from using my space heater in December, has inspired me to move out of the attic and downstairs to Eleanor’s room, now that she is back at college.
So far today, it has meant a lot of running upstairs to find buttons or thread in the colors I need.