I think these guys are going to look fantastic on my table at Renegade!
My favorite flowers in the back of our house are getting devoured by Winter Moth larvae. The trees are also, but I don’t take that so personally. The tree peony managed a few pathetic blossoms and now, my favorite rose, Abraham Darby, it looking completely mutilated. Bummer.
I have never figured out how to successfully photograph red-on-red. These photos all show this tiki with a much more orange tone than he is in life. The main red background color is a dark red- not at all a Coke red.
It has been a long while and I’m back in the mood for tikis. I think I made the last one in January 2008.
I am thinking that I will make the tiki pattern this summer. I’ve tried 3 different faces- I will have to decide which one I like best.
It is fun to be working on wool applique after making all the little fox clothes. Mixing it up keeps it all fun for me.
A view from the top-
And the garden is reaching explosion level! I love poppies-
and the allium-
Both the poppies and the allium have self-seeded into all kinds of wonderful places around the garden. And this is just the beginning of the season!
I get requests for some indication of scale for my dolls. I find it is more difficult than you’d think. Having a person in the photo helps a lot.
I just don’t often have a photographable person around. Peter left yesterday to spend the summer working in Ithaca, NY. I hope we can visit him some time while he is there.
Here are all the foxes, waiting to get their labels.
This is the last fox for now. Is it unkind for me to tell you how much fun I had making him? Yep. I really got into all the details on this one.
First, there is his brief case.
I usually put little trinkets into the bags and don’t show you but this is too much fun. Thanks Melissa for encouraging me to make some tiny little books.
It clips onto his paw-
And, a pipe.
I was walking home from the library yesterday, thinking about how my little fox professor needed a pipe and how was I going to make one? Then, I got it- Make it on a pin!
An inside peek-
and a close-up of his pin-on tie-
Toni, in the comments for the first Professor, suggested leather elbow patches… Well, of course he needs leather elbow patches!
And here he is!
Love Him!
I am busy getting ready for Renegade Brooklyn in just a few short weeks. Because of that, I will not be posting much to my Etsy shop until mid-June.
My favorite color combination, once again- red and green.
She has a removable bow and a spiderweb shawl.
I love this face!
I put a hook on the basket and stitches a loop on her hand. I did the same for this one. Now they can carry their baskets properly.
One more fox to finish and then onto the next thing.
It is not feeling at all summery around here yet. It has been cold and rainy this week. The one plus to that is the dogwoods are staying so beautiful! I think dogwood is one of my favorite flowers and they seemed especially nice this year- our reward for all that snow last winter.
But this little fox is dressed for summer. Her dress is made from the Heather Ross Far, Far Away fabric of cotton double gauze. It is such a sweet fabric and is just the right weight for this scale.
Her little felt flower is sewed on a pin so it can come off or move to another place on her outfit.
This is a profile- I knew you wanted to see.
We had great fun at my doll club yesterday- we made dorset buttons.
The pink one is mine- slightly off centered. The multi-colored wool one was made by Jean who was sitting next to me.
We used this tutorial by the amazing Sister Diane!
I thought I had some of these type of handmade buttons in my collection but I couldn’t find any. Of course that doesn’t mean I don’t have them somewhere! I did find these buttons though-
The white button on the top right-hand side is the closest. It is made on a ring. The other button look like they were crocheted and they were all made on those forms in the middle of the pic. The top form looks like it is made of bone. The two lower ones are wood. Here are some close-ups-
If you are interested in making some yourself, I just googled “dorset buttons” to try to get some kind of history and discovered many tutorials.
I tried to make this be more of an attache case than a messenger bag. Top stitching the tiny felt parts was a challenge. I discovered that if I iron them onto freezer paper, the top stitching goes smoothly- no felt getting sucked into the feed dogs. After the stitching, I picked off the paper.
Here is the inside look. The coat closes with a snap and has a decorative button on the outside. The bowtie is sewed onto a little safety pin so it can come off too.
I love how she turned out, but honestly, that dress was a REAL challenge!
Her dress is green wool with some ribbon I’ve been saving forever. And some cotton rick rack.
She has a wool shawl made from an Eileen Fisher sweater, found at the thrift store a long while ago. It is an amazing woven pattern knit and it didn’t shrink at all so it has been waiting a long time to find it’s place.
She has a very fuzzy (wool/angora blend) nose.
I felt she needed a basket, even though she doesn’t have hands to hold it. It will stay if I slip it onto her arm, but at a funny angle. You can see it in the first photo.
Her apron is made from a vintage (or maybe antique) handkerchief. I originally made the ties out of the top of the hankie but the fabric is weak and when I tried to tie the bow, it shred- so sad! I replaced them with a newer, stronger piece of white cotton lawn.
I like dolls whose clothes can be taken off. These clothes could theoretically come off but it takes a bit of doll acrobatics. So I left everything in place for the photos.
