I am trying to crank out goodies for the various seasonal things I am doing. These past few days have been busy making houses in between clearing off beds for the ones that are going to be coming home.
This one has the prettiest cup-
My biggest challenge is finding decent tea cups at the thrift shop. Not so easy when my price limit is $2! Luckily, some of my friends know what I use in my work and drop off goody bags.
I hope you’ve all checked out Salley’s blog!
getting the pattern finished and posted deserved a treat. Yum!
And here was my desk around midday today.
So many projects!
Hurray! The pattern is listed!
An explanation of the name- which I asked for opinions about a few posts ago… I am of the school that feels that people like to pick their own name. But, the pattern needed some kind of label. My kids went to a wonderful nursery school where everyone called each other “friends”- instead of children, kids, boys and girls, hey you… They would say- will all the friends line up to go outside now. Like that. I always loved it. So, here is a friend!
Here is the description from the Etsy listing-
Make your own friend Kitty- an eco-friendly girl or boy doll made from a felted wool sweater. Clothing instructions included. Finished doll is approximately 15″ tall (depends on the fabric used).
This PDF pattern is 23 page and includes full size pattern pieces for the kitty, written instructions and step-by-step color photographs. It also includes notes on working with recycled clothing.
This sewing project is suitable for an advanced beginner- It uses the sewing machine, some hand sewing and basic embroidery. The clothing instructions involve some simple math.
Supplies needed for this project include- a felted wool sweater, stuffing, embroidery floss and bits of felt, basic sewing supplies like needle and thread.
Upon purchase, instructions for downloading the pattern will be emailed within 24 hours. I will send it to your etsy email address unless I am instructed otherwise in the note to seller.
This pattern is for home use only. This pattern is copyrighted and cannot be re-sold, reproduced or shared without permission.
This pattern is in Adobe pdf format.
Thank so much to Marianne for making the first one!
I am almost done with the pattern. I am trying to get decent photos, tweaking the wording, page order, general look of the thing. I guess it is time to show some of these cuties since that seems to be the way I declare them finished . I showed the first model way back at the beginning of October– wow, it is kind of shocking how long it takes me to do this.
This is the sweetest, softest one. She is made from a cabled wool/angora blend sweater. The cables sort of disappeared when I felted the sweater.
I get hung up on the dumbest things. Should I name the kitty or just name the pattern “Kitty”? If I give a boy and girl kitty name, will that set a precedent for future pattern naming? Flower names, tree names, food, historic, my personal favorite names, names hopelessly out of fashion? It is overwhelming! Opinions wanted please- is it better to give the doll a name or leave it plainly descriptive?
Some group shots-
fabrics used- 1. heavy coat wool 2.wool/angora knit 3.boiled wool knit 4.wool/angora knit 5. linen 6.wool/angora knit.
Bye bye!
I’ve been following the Hand Embroidery Network and they have a Stitch A Day feature. It is inspiring me to try some new stitches. I pulled out all my embroidery books and have been paging through them. Trying out new things on my Tiny Worlds.
Sometimes it seems to be impossible to get the light and/or color right when I photograph my work. This one is the closest to showing all the colors correctly-
I will be putting these 2 plus one more tiny world into my shop over the weekend at some point.
Fall! The last things blooming in my garden- chrysanthemums and dahlias. I love how all the blossoms on the mums are facing in one direction.
Walk in the neighborhood. It is surprising what you see when the leaves start to go.
And my class on Saturday- so much fun! There were 5 of us all together.
This is the Haunted house!
And here is the table with all the felt and wool-
The market on Sunday was canceled- we were having a nor’easter here in Boston- wind, rain, cold… I was not sorry to miss standing under a tent from 7am to after 4pm. And then it snowed! It was the right call. Still, I’m left feeling a little deflated- all the anticipation and hope that comes as I prepare for a show. The next show I am scheduled to do is the South End Holiday Fair– Dec. 12 and 13.
Saturday-
I’ve been working on samples and parts for the tiny world class. This is the latest finished one.
And Sunday-
I’ll be here– rain or shine. And the forecast is rain-Â Nor’easter actually. Yep, long underwear and wool socks ahead!
Ben is away and the house is quiet.
I am enjoying the morning light in the new studio room. And playing with fall colors.
After another trip to the thrift store that failed to produce any more wool in the right color for doll skin, I decided it was time to try dyeing some. Have you ever noticed that if you go to the thrift store, looking for something in particular, you can never find it. I try for the open-minded approach but at this point, most of the great bargains are just going to cause storage problems when I get home. I look for wool skin tones and stripes. I don’t find them but somehow still come home with a bag… ahem, see above.
So, time to do some dyeing. I love it when all the dye goes into the fabric and the water turns clear- there is something very satisfying about that somehow. Lookin’ good!
Little house in the woods.
I am feeling pretty good after my latest rearrange. This is my desk with the purl girls (from the trip) moving forward. The space is beginning to feel functional.
I’ve been haunted by this post about some very organized floss. Looks dreamy, doesn’t it.
Somewhere in the middle of this rambling post from 2 years ago, is a description of how I was organizing my floss. Every time I needed a color, I ended up pulling everything out of the bag and spreading it all out- time consuming and messy. Time to try something new.
So, first I went to my local art store and bought one box (Artbin Prism 6) to try. Yes, I liked it. I bought another at Joanns with my 40% off coupon. Okay, I was convince that this might work for me. Then, I went to the Joanns online, where the boxes were on sale, and bought the rest that I needed. Yesterday morning the boxes arrived and I organized all my floss- so much fun!
They are not as neat and pretty as the boxes in the original post, but that is probably a reflection of my life in general.
I like this organizing system for several reasons-
My ADHD needs clear storage. That is a given.
I can divide the colors up into small divisions so I don’t have to sort through so many skeins to find what I want.
I like my floss how it comes- as a skein. I will wind it onto a card or empty spool only when it has become hopelessly tangled. The skeins fit perfectly in these boxes.
I can keep the unused cut threads (those pieces with 4 strands or oops, I-guess-this-is-the-wrong-color pieces) together with the rest of the same colors.
These boxes fit very nicely into my desk drawer.
Okay, that was fun. There is something so incredibly satisfying about doing a job like this. One tiny part of my life is now neat, organized and in control- Hurray!