$2 shop doll

a friend at work asked me to make some clothes for a little doll that she had bought at the $2 shop.  She was a little ceramic doll.  I made a little fur coat and a little red tunic dress, in this cute fabric with pandas on it.  On another note, we have bought a house and hope to move in about 3 weeks time.  I hate moving, but will be nice to have our own place, we have been renting for about six months and is getting a little cramped.

 I would love a coat like this, looks nice and warm, which today would be good.  It has got a mite chilly in NZ this week.

 I'm not sure what she thought about the outfits, but I hope she liked them.

I would also love a dress like this, at this scale of fabric design.  This came from a piece of fabric I bought at the op-shop in Hackney, London about 15 years ago.  It is so pretty that i find it impossible to do anything with it, but store it away.

silphe sky dollie

My husband and oldest daughter went camping and rock climbing a couple of weekends ago, and me and the little one stayed at home and looked after the dog.  Her choice of activity was to make dolls, so she made one, and as I had been trying to get my doll pattern sorted out properly ( usually I am using a  pattern that I haven't quite finalised and bodging it up so it fits properly) I made one using some of my spoonflower test swatches of sky and trees and  such like.  So she is called Silphe like a sky nymph.

She's got green hair.

  and little lace up boots

  and a little tree/sky mirror dress.

My daughter made a really sweet little doll called Lilly, and she made her a hospital gown to wear (?)

every doll should have one.

side-show dollies all sewn-up

I have spent some time sewing up my cut and sew dollies that I had printed out at Spoonflower.  My daughters and I spent an evening painting the B&W one and her clothes and then I did a little embroidery on her also.  I was planning on really changing her a lot, but then my daughter said she would like her, and so it was all quite mild mannered after all.  below, B&W left, coloured right

 I love how they have sewn up and that they always look different from what I expect, it's always a nice surprise.  This is them in their undies.

 above, I sewed up their skirts with added lace and used black ric-rac for the tops straps.

above, wearing a dress made from the background fabric.

This the painted version of the B&W doll.

dollie day

My husband has taken the kids camping for the weekend and left me at home with the dog.  I had a 12km run this morning with friends, I took the dog to the beach where she ran around, chasing dogs chasing balls, ran away from dogs and had a fun time.  For the rest of the day I have done not very much but eat mash potato and dahl and look on the blog world at dollies.  Madness really, but I couldn't stop myself.  All these pretty dolls and amazing clothes.  I have an image in my head of people with little tiny sewing machines making these outfits, 'cause I have no idea how they sew such tiny detailed stuff with a normal machine.  It makes me feel a bit clumsy when I think about the doll clothes I make. (note to self "must try harder")

 I love this top, this was found on cherry soda as were the next four photos.  They are creepily real some of these dolls, but beautiful!

 lily's

 and this

 and this

This lady at cherry soda has a lot of dolls and clothes and I rather fancy the shoes too.  I want!

I am an outsider to the word of doll, but apparently you can change the eye colour and get people to repaint the faces and make new scalps/hair for your doll. Amazing. there is another world going on out there that I never knew about.  The doll people do seem to get a lot of colds though, I don't know why.  I am interested if any one has any ideas.

dollie no. 2

And the next dollie finally finished for Sophie.

above before stuffing and hair, with friend.

 above black tutu and rock chic t-shirt, painted in silver fabric paint.

 Purple pinafore with heart buttons (cute).

and a fabby ball dress, and I made a silver firemans trousers bag to put her clothes in.

school gala hankies

I love school gala time of year, I usually manage to grab some more clothes for my wardrobe and find some bits of material for my stash.

there was a bag of cool little hankies which are perfect for dolly clothes. 

this will look so cute as a little dress. 

I also managed to get a nice wool tank top for my husband (I like him in a tank top), and a cashmere jumper for me, it is so soft, and a nice wool blanket.  Oo and two directors chairs for the garden.  Hooray, good haul and all for under $40!

dress material.

My sister printed this black and white material, about twenty years ago or more using a lino-cut made and designed by an amazing friend of ours.  An artist, and printer of furnishing fabrics, mother of five boys, wife of a sculptor.  She died at the grand age of ninety-three, although she was ageless, in 2006, just after we moved to NZ, and I was very pleased to have been lucky enough to have known her and her family and to have spent time visiting their home full of interesting sculptures ( her husband was sculptor George Kennethson) paintings, seed pods, fabric and furniture, much of it home made.  A world away from the street outside.    

My sister printed this on an old sheet, all very frugal, and made a skirt I think.  And years later still has some of the material under her bed in a box (  and my husband thinks I am a horder).  Luckily for me as I could then steal it for a little dress.  Maybe I could have ironed it first. 

 This print was I think one of hers, but it might have been her husbands, not sure, it was on her funeral service programme

 And this is her, and I haven't done her justice, there is so much I could say about her, but I do not have the words, just thoughts and memories and feelings in my head.

bunny rabbit dress

I had some cards printed this week, which was quite exciting, they are some designs I made up for a business card logo for some of my dollys.  They came out very pretty, although why some-one would send a card with "eat my sweet dust" on it I'm not sure, does it sound offensive?  

This will be the last dolly for a while, I have fulfilled my quota.  I thought a long-haul flight would be a good place for dolly face sewing but it would be tricky without the scissors, my teeth would get worn down chewing through all that thread. 

A birthday present, she has overalls and a bag to put her clothes in

a power puff t-shirt

I love this dress, it is so cute with its little bunny rabbit scootering around the town 

and another gold lame` dress was required, I have enough material for one more of these, which will have to be an in house one for sharing I think, it has been quite popular.