Day 166: My name

I am well late with my 365ers inspired projects but here it is. Inspired by lauren who makes her name in different fashion every day: http://thetwinoaksplace.blogspot.com/. Check it out!

Day 149: Rose

One day at the time and I finished Rose too. I had to cut a new dress for her since the first one got all ugly from many times turning in and out. I had difficulties attaching limbs but finally managed so it looked neat:)

Day 148: Cherry

Tadaa...legs right way round and all. This is Cherry as she has little cherries attached to her hair.

Day 147: Rose and Cherry - part 2

Got my stuffing and started sewing...The first doll was so badly sewn that I had to take it all apart because I wasn't following the technique correctly. Dress part got so badly abused I cut it all off and left it at one side. So I made a start on the other doll, Cherry, it all went really well and I got all parts together as I should. The trick was to sew on arms and legs,fold them inside the doll and then turn the whole thing right way round. I did...and after all that I managed to sew both legs wrong way rounds..AAAAARGH!!!!! So I threw everything in the box and left.

Day 146: New dollies - Rose and Cherry

I got so fed up with drawing so I decided to get my trusted buddy  - the sewing machine and make something else. This pattern is from magazine Mollie Makes and it seemed simple, so I cut out all parts, made the hair and then run out of stuffing, easy-peasy, I thought, I'll carry on tomorrow. For sure I will finish this tomorrow...

Day 114: Wonder-Fox!

All that swea...I mean sewing payed of and I am really proud to present WONDER-FOX!! Like Wonder Woman just canine/feline (I always think of the fox as half-half animal).

I never buy expensive materials for my projects so this is a mix of one felt square, a scrap of velvet and a buttons from car boot sale. 

My worry is though, as charity shops are getting quite expensive, where am I going to source fabric next?

Day 110: A whole lot of parts

After several hours of sewing, patching, re-sewing and turning, I have a whole lot of little you parts and you will have to come back to see what they will become:)

Day 107: Another doglet

Another little doglet, this time with some pictures of process and some tips. 

1. Use a sponge to jab your toy on. It's easier to shape and you don't jab your fingers.  

2. For little things like ears and tail, take a piece of felt and thenn prefelt it a bit on the sponge, make sure you turn it and keep it wide, you don't want a ball. If you felt it to tightly, it will not stick on to the body. 

After you attach it to the body as well as you can take another thin piece and wrap it around that ear/tail and use it as 'glue' and also to shape your ear/tail. You might find that a part of the body sinks in if you stab too much on same place. Just take another piece of felt and add it but keep the piece thin and wide and use layers, don't bunch it up on same spot.

3.After I felted my doglet enough I used scissors to shape it's head a bit. Don't know if you are supposed to do that but it might help. Also I can imagine the quality of fleece used helps, mine is not great but it works. Hope you find this useful. I am no expert, this is my 3rd felted toy but if you wan't to ask any questions please do. 

FINALLY Day 100!!!

After a minor crisis and feeling a sorts of thing I decided to take the AA approach, one day at the time and continue with my blog. My aim is to try and relax with it and put on things I want to do rather then stressing about things I think I should do. So thank you all for kind words and support, it's nice to have friends.

To celebrate I decided to post my Krishna even though he is not finished, he needs some clothes and jewels so I will try and get that done this weekend so you can see him looking all glorious. This is my first male doll I made. I actually had a vague impression of wanting to make a yoga-doll and out came a Krishna. I really like him with his pink feet. My only worry is that blue will fade as I didn't follow the correct procedure of putting it on...

Anyway, happy 100th to me and all those creative souls that have broken that 100 :)

Day 98: More bags

I have a much tidier knitting bag now :) Super-pleased!

Day 79: Rock Llama

Today was the day I thought I would get ahead a little and maybe make two things...Before I spent half a day on FB. Anyway, I often make things I see, this little lady comes from Mollie Makes craft magazine. But even though I am making something using someone else's idea I try and put my own spin on it. Hence instead of pretty pastel colored fluffy llama I made a fuschia rock llama sporting an earring. Still very cute though.

While I was stitching away my husband went to the garden and made THIS!

I could have cheated there and just pretended I made that too, but that would be only flower arrangement I would have made so clearly suspicious. I can't put any flowers together. Please observe how it hangs over on one end to create a pretty spread :) 

And below is just a picture of my one-eyed cat Poppy, who is usually creamy white but from now until autumn rains will permanently be dirty grey due to her love of rolling in dirt :) Also she is not allowed on the bed when that dirty but they obey as long as I am in the room. As soon as I turn my back the rules are scratched out and we start from zero, me going no, no, no and they looking at me like I'm crazy...

Day 51: Hand-Made Book

It has been aaaages since I made a book, I used to make them quite often but then I just stopped. So here is one to revive old skills. A softbound fabric sketchbook, only about 10-15cm with 10 pages. Here is how to make it:

1. Cut out you fabric in desired shape and apply Bondaweb (it's a type of iron-on fabric straightener, keeps all edges from fraying and gives stability)

2. Hem all you edges.

3. Cut out a piece of pretty paper for inside of book, choose a sturdier paper. Glue it together ( i used spray glue).

4. Cut your white papers for pages and fold in the middle, one by one. 

5. Put everything together and run it through the sewing machine on straight stitch, make sure you tie knots on the ends so it doesn't unravel. 

6. Ta-daaaa! Give it to someone you love!

Day 46: Toy Mouse Part 2

Now mouse has a face and some trousers, believe it or not, it took me about hour and a half to figure out those trousers...i did have a pattern...Ambition was to create a small waitscoat as well but that will have to be tomorrow.

Day 38: Star-Dog

Star-dog was my project for day 38 but as I didn't save it properly, pictures disappeared and then we had to go away and I couldn't rectify the situation. Now we are back and here he is, all toothy and happy. I had starts on my mind that whole day and it reflected in the work.

Day 37: Cat for the girl

Liked making my art doll that much, I decided to give her a little friend; cat.

Day 35: Art-doll

Since I have been poorly for few days my making has been non-exsisting, fever and sewing machine are not best friends. Today, as I feel better and as my blog has been featured on http://makesomething365.blogspot.com/ yay!! I decided I am well enough to continue. I think I will just add these three days on and if it takes longer then a year to complete, so what...

Anyway, I went back into the studio and already felt that little devil called lazyness telling me that I was maybe feeling too tired and maybe not good enough and maybe I should go back to telly instead. Seeing right through that, I decided to make a clutch bag...yeah, if my fuzzy brain could put instructions together I would have made one. Instructions read as well as hieroglyphs so I abandoned that, instead I decided to make a doll. But not one of those complicated with all the joints and stuff but a one piece one.

This doll, who is still nameless is made in one piece following instructions by Mindy Lacefield, http://www.timssally.com/.

Basically instructions are as follows. Cut one piece of calico and draw a doll shape on it with soft pencil. Paint face with white acrylic and when dry use acrylics to paint in the features. Transfer shape of dress on to a tissue paper and cut out. Then glue scrap paper on top of the tissue paper. ( I used an old National Geographic) When dry, machine stitch paper dress on top of calico. When you are happy with your embellishments  add another piece of calico to be back of the doll, sew all around, I did not turn this doll so seams are visible. Leave one side open to stuff through or cut in the back.

When the doll gets stuffed it kind of changes appearance which I was a bit unexpected but fun... 

Day 18: Mystery Object Competition

Here we have a little mystery object, it is about 10 cm tall and not yet finished. It will be a very lovely beaded something. While I was creating it I thought it would be great to have a little competition. The winner gets this little thing and it will be very lovely, I promise!

Rules:
1. Guess what kind of creature this is and what is the purpose of the object? It does have practical use.
2. Post the answer on my blog as reply to this post. If you don't have a google account, it is easiest to post as anonymous but put your name in the main box!
3. Please share with all your friends!
4. Winner and the picture of the finished item is announced on Sunday 29th.
5. Good Luck!


Resolution of the competition:
my blog has only started so I didn't really have any takers. Closest one was my sister-in-law, Clare, guessing it was a bird broche. In fact it was an owl hair-clip. So I was about to gift it to Clare but then a situation came up so I gave it to Clare's daughter Jo, to cheer her up. I might try another competition soon.

Day 17: Stick-monk

This little doll is 3in (7cm) tall and my husband decided it looked as a little monk hence stick-monk. He is made of a cotton bud for head and some loose felt for hair and body is wire and masking tape. His clothes are felt as anything else would fall apart. I had to stitch his clothes directly onto the body because of size. 

Day 16: Feltie fox

A feltie fox today, back to foxes I'm afraid. My practice, at the moment, is to find simple designs and recreate them as one offs just to get my skills going. This is inspired by Savannah Caroll's design. Easy and cute.

Day 15: Clarephant

As the Little K piglet is winding it's merry way to Sweden I have had another request: to make a little elephant for Clare. So here he is, I made one yesterday but didn't think it through and it's not very good but this one is. Particularly pleased because I made the pattern myself :)