I’ve been working all week on little girls.

I posted a partial photo of these girls on Flickr last week. They were not right but I was happy enough with the direction they were going in.

I got the purple one on the right put together after numerous rejected leg designs. It is a battle to keep it simple and get it right. I liked her enough that I decided to try the pattern out in different fabrics. (I have been very scattered lately and not finishing any of them is one of the signs, but anyway… ) I’ve got a bunch cut out- one from linen, most from wool, felted and not felted , some knits and some woven.

I’ve got a pile of legs to work on- time for knees!

This doll design has a concealed button jointed hip. Good motion. The dolls in the top picture will get new legs like these.

Here is my scraps from today, and stuffing that I keep pulling out of the rejects-

btw- I did enter Mr. Kitty into the Softie Awards. I liked Miss Dot’s comment to think of it as participating instead of a contest. That made sense to me. Thanks everybody, I really appreciated your opinions.

Here she is, sitting in the kitchen. She is not done yet. Her wig is not finished, just pinned on. I’m thinking about a hat. There were a few other things in the bag that I haven’t used. I’m still thinking about them. I don’t have to use them but it would be fun to use it all…

I really struggled to get the center opening of the vest and the cross-over of the coat to match up. I put lace around the collar but it doesn’t really show here.

the coat button- it was part of my bag.

The vest and the lining of the coat-

sleeves and lace at the wrist-

Here she is with my hand which may give you some scale. Also, little buttons on the sweater.

One of the challenges was how to make the layers close, without having too much bulkiness in the center with buttons, snaps, overlaps, etc. I decided to butt the edges of the sweater and make loop buttonholes. Same with the vest, except I used hooks.

Here are the shoes-

Since I’m not quite sure what else I want to do and I have another project pressing, I’ve started on something else… But really, I will try to finish this and not get completely distracted!

I am doing another paper bag themed project- this one with my doll club. The idea for this one was that each person who wanted to participate would put a selection of materials into an opaque paper bag- a fat quarter, trims, buttons, whatever. Then, all the closed bags were shuffled up and redistributed. The idea was to get people inspired and excited about something new. Not that I need inspiration… I’ve got a huge long line of ideas I haven’t gotten to yet, but I wanted to participate anyway. I am finally getting to work on it (doll club is Thursday and I’ve had the bag since November!). I am using this project as a way of dressing some of my poor naked dolls- see New Years resolutions.

This is what I got in my bag- oops, I photographed the wrong side of the large floral fabric. There is also a beautiful button that somehow got misplaced before I started taking pictures.

Here you can see the doll I’m using- I took off her hair- it really gets in the way while I’m working. I’ll glue it on at the end.

and that is the right side of the fabric- it is beautiful. I was very lucky with my bag- thanks Jenifer!

and one more photo- I’ve got the pants mostly done. You can see the dotty waistband in the 2nd photo. The sweater and socks was what the doll was wearing before I started. I’ll have to decide about those. I have one sleeve on- very fancy, 2 fabrics because … I didn’t have enough fabric to make the sleeves so I improvised. I’ve got the lining chosen (the hard part), cut and sewed. Now I need to go put in the other sleeve and put the lining in. The girl probably won’t be finished by Thursday, but she will be a lot closer to being finished. Yeah!

And, thank you, thank you to everyone who has bought my cards! All the orders have been mailed so you should be getting them soon!