this morning-
and later in the afternoon-
Good thing I have a LOT of pins! This took me basically all day. I now have to sew everything down plus fancy them up with embroidery. I want to have them all done by the end of the week. We shall see.
Over the weekend my neighbor was clearing out some stuff. I grabbed (begged for) this box-
There is silk bias tape- I have never seen that before!
Don’t forget to leave a comment to join the Give-Away!
I think the book looks amazing and feels good too. There is a great range of projects including 3 needle-felted animals. I enjoyed reading the other artists’ bios and advise. I found it interesting to see similar advise from several different artists- for example that you don’t have to start with a whole new pattern for every new doll- work off of something that you know you like and have been successful with. Yes! One slight critique- the book mentions the international artists involved, but I couldn’t find anywhere in the book that mentions where the artists’ come from- that left me wondering!
About my section-
a confession- I am so self-conscious about what I said that I only finally read my section last night because I knew I was going to write this. I want to be sure you know, the tattooed man pattern that I did for this book is a modified pattern. It is smaller than the ones I make and sell. Also, the legs are cut and sewed as one piece. Here is a comparison-
I will admit it- I am a control freak about my work. It was really hard to let someone else take control of my patterns. I am hoping that people will be able to follow the directions and photo steps. It was nearly impossible for me to envision writing a pattern for any of my dolls that would end up being a 4 page spread. If you’ve bought any of my patterns you know I am more of a 20 page kind of explainer. The writer took what I wrote and rewrote it to fit the style of the book. That lead to a few odd directions such as to use spray glue as part of the process. I can adamantly say that I would never use spray glue on a doll or even in my studio. But, whatever, eh?!
The other pattern is a sweater baby. I used to make these and here and here are some photos in my flickr stream. I made 2 for the book, but they only included one- here they both are-
The pattern in the book is slightly smaller than my originals.
Now, go leave a comment on the give-away post and maybe you will win a free copy!
I mentioned it way back here. And it is now available here!
We Make Dolls is available! It has been more than a year since I sent in my contributions for this book- and now I have a copy in my hands. Two copies actually, so I am going to give one away. Add a comment to this post by Friday, June 1 (midnight eastern time) and I will use a random number generator to pick the winner. One entry per person and all that.
I love the promo poster-
There we all are!
Here is a video that shows all the projects-
I am going to write a separate post with my thoughts on the book. This one is getting way too long!
note- give-away is now closed.
Here is my new guy!
I have been designing him in my head for about a year now. Crazy, eh? Yep, it often takes that long between initial idea and something finally getting made.
You can’t see in the pics, but the pants not only have white stripes, there is also red stripes in that navy background.
I’ve got 3 more cut out and I will be making up some more of these very well decorated fellows.
I think they are brothers but maybe just great friends. They have the same tattoos but switched, back and front.
I love these fabrics but found it a challenge to figure out how to use them. I think combining them worked out pretty well!
revisiting an old friend (design).
Hope everyone had a great weekend! It was gorgeous here in Boston.
Look, look, Look! I won this gorgeous moth when Mister Finch celebrated his 2nd blog birthday- Lucky me! I am so thrilled!!!
His work is amazing and I’ve been stalking his Etsy shop for a while, looking for the perfect piece (usually what I want has just sold). This is the best though! I am going to find the right spot in my studio to hang it up. Then I can get back to his shop and start to shop again- I think my moth might need a friend.
And, I finished up this owl.
I was in the mood for a quick project and this owl body was already sewn and stuffed.
Of course I can make any project more complicated by spending hours picking through my fabrics!
Yesterday I went to the Antique and Vintage Textile Show in Sturbridge, MA. It is about an hour drive from my house and well worth it. There are some amazing things to see- it is like a museum but you can touch everything. Somehow I forgot to bring my camera- oops! If you want to go, there is another show in July and also September. May and September are the big shows, July is a lot quieter.
I had fun looking at amazing antique toile fabrics- the originals that most of what I use is reproduced from. I bought buttons. I hadn’t planned on focusing on that, but I never seem to know until I get there!
I am most excited about these-
I can’t wait to put them on a fox’s jacket!
Today was spent doing a lot of this and that. This morning I collected a pile of dolls and sewed on signature tags and wrote up and attached their hang tags. It is a boring job but it is good to get it out of the way. I often leave it until the last minute before going to a show and that is only one of the many ways I can make myself crazy. Anyway, all done now.
more of the skeleton fabric but this time in black.
He has long sideburns.
2 pirate pals.
This is the what my son is doing in England- so amazing!
Big News! I will be in San Francisco at the Renegade Market on July 21 and 22. I’m so excited and I hope to see you there!
I’ve had a crazy week that somehow shattered my focus. I seem to be going in all directions and am trying to force myself back on track. I need to focus on finishing all the pieces I’ve started!
Isn’t this amazing skeleton toile? I thought it needed to be a pirate.
I lightened up this photo so you can see the design of the fabric. It started out black and white and I over-dyed it with blue.
