New banner on Etsy

My wonderful spouse has made me a new banner for my Etsy shop. We're working on getting it up and running again. It's been awhile since I've used it.

I am trying out a new pattern tomorrow. I will post the details later when I do an update of my progress.

Lessons learned

This round of doll making has been very educational for me. I've learned that carefully lining up seams and/or arms is easier than ripping out a seam. I've also learned that I need to iron flat my seams. This is especially true if I am joining a light fabric with a dark one. Not doing this causes a weird shadow effect under the light fabric. One of my dolls looks like she has five'o'clock shadow. Also, I am learning to do things in steps. Before I had Reghan I could devote blocks of time to completing a doll. Now I have to be able to stop and then pick up again whenever I get a chance.

I'm almost done. I just need to add legs to them and then take pictures.

Update

My wonderful husband has made me a banner for my blog. I am in the process of making six dolls. There are body parts everywhere. I'll post pictures once they're completed.

Pattern Tweaking

I've been tweaking my pattern.  I've made the doll's head and body wider, added a thumb, and gave her feet.

Two New Dolls

I  shrunk the rag doll pattern that I had been working with and made two new dolls.

I think they're cute.  They're sisters, lol.  I stuffed these from the bottom of the body.  Not sure if I'm going to do it the same way next time because it was hard to turn the fabric at the bottom and attach the legs. Overall I like them, I just have a couple of things that I think I should do differently next time.  

Update

I tried to put together a Black Apple doll but ran into sone snags.  The directions call for pinning the arms and legs into the middle of the doll and then sewing  the front and back of the doll together right sides together.  After that you turn the doll inside out.  Seems simple but when I turned my doll one of her legs fell out and one of the arms was only partially attached.  Rather than try the pattern again I went back to my drawing board and came up with a couple of new patterns.  

This is my first attempt.  I didn't like her proportions.  Her arms and legs were too long and her torso was too short.  I also tried to stuff her from the top of her head.  After I finished stuffing her when I went to sew her up, her head ended up too flat.

Here is my second attempt.  I tried to stuff her from the base of her neck.  Worked better than stuffing from the top but still not great.  I'm going to try a different method next time.

Black Apple Experiment

I've cut out my fabric and am getting ready to stitch together my Black Apple Doll.  She's terribly cute.  I used silk for her legs and some upholstery fabric that I had been hoarding for her body.  Her hair is felt and her arms and face are muslin.  Once I get her together I'm thinking about making her some shoes and maybe a scarf or collar.

New Project

After my stupendous fail yesterday, I spent time surfing the net and finally decided to try a free pattern that I found for a Black Apple Doll.  It's a design by Emily Martin for a really cute little rag doll with felt hair.  I'm going to work through it tomorrow before going back to working on my own pattern.  I'm hoping that it will give me some insight into working out some of the kinks.

Fail, lol

I've been tinkering with my new patterns.  So far, nothing I'm willing to post pictures of.  I'm going to do some research and give it another go tomorrow.  I think that I'm trying to combine too many steps.  For example I think that I should have sewed the felt to the head before I sewed the body parts together instead of trying to sew it all together in one step.  And this is the first time that I tried to sew the arms in before sewing the body together and I majorly goofed it.  But tomorrow is another day and I can start fresh.

Slow Weekend

I didn't get much new done this weekend.  I did work on some new rag doll patterns.  I'm going to try them out this week with some more felt hair ideas.  I need to work on organizing and cleaning my studio.  It's a chaotic mess.  I've actually been having to work at the dining room table, lol.  I have done a bunch of research on organization and storage and am hoping that I can come up with something that will work for me.  I'll be sure and post pictures of my progress this week.

New Hair for the Rag Doll

I am trying various ways to add felt hair to my rag doll.  It is harder than I thought, lol.  I sewed a felt wig that slipped over her head but I didn't finish tacking it down because I'm not pleased with how it turned out.  I'm going to give it another go after doing some more research.  Although, I'm beginning to think it would have been easier if I had added the hair before I sewed the head together.  Below is a pict.

Picture of the New and Improved Rag Doll

Below is the newest version of my rag doll.  I took a picture of her next to the first version.  I like this version.  There is only a couple of things I might have changed. I am considering adding stitching at the knee line so her knees bend.  I also might not do the stitching across the top of her arms or at least next time I'll trace a guideline instead of just eyeing it so that they actually match.  What do you think?

The lesson that I've learned in this experience is it's easier to adjust if you make things too long than if you make them too short.

Quick Post on Rag Doll Redo cont.

I've had a super awful headache for the last two days but I still managed to sew up my newest rag doll pattern.  She's in the wash right now.  Next step, dryer and then stuffing and picture taking.  After that another dose of my headache meds and I'm off to bed.  Tomorrow I'm going to work on adding her hair.  I really want to give her felt hair but I've never attempted it before.  I need to do some more research to see exactly how.

Rag Doll Redo

I sewed and stuffed my new rag doll pattern.  I like her head and her arms. Not sure about the torso and legs. The torso seems too short.  I think her feet may be too big and I need to shorten her calves and move her knees down.  So back to the drawing board. I'm posting a pict below.

Pattern Making

I decided to rework my rag doll pattern.  This is an original pattern that I created a couple of years ago when I first started making dolls.  I wanted to try and make something smaller, cuter and cuddlier.  I've redrawn the pattern pieces and so the next step is to actually sew them and see how she looks.  If she doesn't turn out right, I'll keep tinkering until I get her right.  In the past, I've always used yarn for my rag dolls' hair.  I am wanting to try and use felt this time.

I've also gotten everything ready to start on Sherry Goshon's Sweet Pea pattern.

Returning to old projects

I had a doll that I had started towards the beginning of my pregnancy and never finished.  Since Reghan is four months old I figured now would be a good time to finish her.  All of the body parts were sewn already but only the body, head and one leg were stuffed.  I stuffed the rest of the body parts and found that one of the arm seams was split.  It looks like the fabric is too frayed to be repairable.  I'm not that happy with the rest of the doll either so I'm thinking of scrapping her and starting a totally new project.

I've got a Sherry Goshon pattern for a doll called Sweet Pea.  I think I'm going to give her a go.  She's 36 inches tall, so I shrunk the pattern to 75%.  Haven't decided what fabric to use but I'm lending toward trying the craft velour again.  This time I'm going to try the non-fuzzy side.

Wide Eyed Wendy Blues

After I got the baby down for the night, I resumed working on Wendy.  I painted her face and attached it to her body.  This was my first time working with craft velour.  There are parts of the fabric that I liked and parts that I disliked.  I liked the give and stretch of the fabric.  It seemed to stuff smoother for me than other fabrics that I've used.  For example, I didn't have any problems with "cellulite" with the velour.  The one drawback I found is that the fabric was too nubby for me to draw or paint on.  I'm considering doing another doll using the reverse side of the fabric.

I'm posting a picture of my progress so far.  Once I've gotten her hair and clothes done, I'll post again.

The husband says that she looks like a Slitheen from Dr. Who, lol.

First Post

I wanted a place where I could blog about my artistic endeavors, especially my doll making adventures.  I plan on documenting my experiences; as well as, reviewing patterns and art supplies.

I'm in the middle of working on Judi Ward's Wide Eyed Wendy pattern.  I'm using craft velour for the first time.  I've gotten the arms, legs, and body sewn, stuffed and put together.  She has a really cute shape. Next I have to work on her face.  I've tried to outline the features using a pencil but it didn't seem to take very well because of the nubbiness of the fabric.  My goal is to finish her before the end of the week.