Gnome? my husband asked. Wizard? my daughter asked. No, just a cute pointy hat. Knit with this gorgeous sock yarn and size 2 DPNs.
It’s been years and years since I’ve tackled a full sized quilt. I can’t really remember what sent me down this recent quilting rabbithole, I think mostly a need to get away from the doomscrolling. I bought two bundles from laundry basket quilts, scrappy light and dark and started playing around, piecing together some stars for pillow. Then I decided to take the rest and see what I could make. I landed on a flying geese pattern (wandering nomad) that I found on the art gallery fabrics site and started making blocks sort of haphazard. I realized a little late in the game I wanted it to ombre but was able to basically pull it off. Phoebe claimed it about halfway through the process and then helped me with block assembly. She cut and pressed for me as I sewed. So much fun to work on it together! So it turned out really great. It’s on her bed now and I’m so encouraged I’m jumping into another big quilt, for Christmas.
I made a new Kit-Kat doll from my Make-Along Animals pattern and did a little tik-tok video while I did it. Which is a little harder to do now that Phoebe has abandoned me for school. Since I’m having all the quilty feels these days I decided to make a sort of patchwork version of Kit-Kat. Kitty is made up of 3 fabrics. Normally I do a solid for the body, a print for the head gusset and another solid for the ears. This time I did all prints, one for main body, another for gusset, tips of feet and tail and a third for ears and paws. I love how she turned out. I still need to make her a little dress or overalls but honestly she works as she is and I may just put her out on the sofa with my new patchwork pillows. I’ve always wanted to do the dolls as decor not just playthings because we don’t always have little ones to sew for and that shouldn’t stop us from sewing ourselves cute new friends.
Any yarn can be used to make hair for a handmade cloth doll like the Make-Along dolls… bulky, dk, sport… wool, acrylic, roving, mohair. Whatever you like to achieve the look you’re going for. It’s also fun to use a few different yarns together. Here I used two very similar shades of a golden yellow and it gives her a great full head of sunny blonde hair.
For this doll I pulled the yarn from both balls at the same time and strung them together. For this weight of yarn, dk, I would probably do two strands at the same time even if using just one yarn so that it would take less passes to get the fuller look. Complete instructions on how to do yarn hair are included in the Make-Along doll sewing pattern.
I like my crafting experiments to be low risk. Dying fabric with natural ingredients fits that bill. I’m not going to accidentally stain my counters, no gloves needed, I can use my regular cookware for most of it. And I don’t need dramatic results or for my fabric to be colorfast. I never wash doll clothes because my samples are not getting played with and if it fades thats ok. There’s really no risk of the dyed fabric coming off on my cloth doll bodies, so far. So I love it! It’s fun and random (the way I’m doing it) and very pioneery which I love.
So far I’ve tried dried marigolds and avocado pit. This is the dried marigolds below simmering in the pot. I dyed a bath of fabric but didn’t love the results, too just tan so I dyed them again. I used less heat, kept it on super low and I pretreated the fabric by soaking it in aluminum acetate to be the mordant and wow, that brought the yellow. (before pic is below and after pic is at top) I also did a piece of Monaco cross stitch fabric and a piece of white wool (no mordant) and they came out a really pretty light yellow. The prints and the linen top came out dark yellow and I really like the result. Except on that plaid, it was a bust.
Dying with an avocado pit was super easy and I have no idea what I did, other than leave it soaking/simmering for hours. I used this vintage floral fabric and it turned a lovely light warm pink.
I made this sweet dress for Chloe from the fabric. I also dyed some Monaco with the avocado and love how it turned out as well.
Next I’m going to try onion skins and then madder root. If you have any other suggestions I’d love to hear them. Or a good book on the subject?
Kit, Chloe and Louise are refreshed and ready to go for 2020. I made this pattern back in 2008 and I’ve always loved these spunky girls. They were originally offered as a printed pattern booklet and I had a bio questionnaire listed for each of them on the cover. My favorite question was what WB heroine do you most relate with, Louise’s was Rory Gilmore, Chloe’s Veronica Mars and Kit’s was Buffy! 😂They were aged 9-10 and were sort of my spin on a current day, handmade American Girl type doll. The Make-Along dolls fit better in that spot now so for the redesign I’ve reimagined Kit, Chloe and Louise as younger girls, 5-6 and made them a new wardrobe of super cute little girls fashions. The have a new body shape that is a little more squishy and huggable and have more of a waldorf baby doll vibe going.
I hope you like them. I’m crying inside a little that Phoebe is nearly a teen and I can’t tuck them in under the blankets with her, but I’m so happy to be sending these cuties out into the world. I just love the new outfits. Again, crying a little when I see cute little girl clothes that I have no reason to buy so I channeled that into these new additions. I think my favorite is the playsuit.
Or maybe the pinafore! Shoot I like them all. The gingham top is modeled after a top I made Phoebe when she was a toddler. As is Chloe’s hair 🥰
I love to make my Kit, Chloe and Louise dolls squishy and soft. I think of them as my baby dolls. They’re chubby and toddler like with wide cheerful faces and they give great hugs. The stiffer, more tightly woven your fabric is the less it will give and it will give more structure to your shapes. And that will totally work for this doll design too. It will make the dolls a little easier to dress and a little less squishy. I’ve found this fabric is great if you want to give your doll a little more squish. It’s from Joanns and it’s called Sew Classics Linen Like Hopsack fabric. It is 55% linen ad 45% rayon. It has a textured nubby appearance which I love. It stuffs really easily, I never have any lumps. (Here’s a link in my amazon shop to stuffing I use.)
The keyword in that fabric name is Hopsack. They have other fabric in the Linen & Linen Look collection that are 100% linen, not the blends and those would still be great for doll bodies but is not the fabric I’m using here.
So what I’ve sussed out is that it is pretty much always available, at least in last couple years, but they have different colors available. So right now they have Papyrus (sort of a neutral tan), Natural (very light ivory) and Potting Soil (dark brown). The dolls above are Natural and a brown that they don’t have in the store right now, maybe it was called Nutmeg?? It is lighter than the Potting Soil. I will update post when I see it back in the store. If anyone sees anything different at their Joanns let me know in the comments.
Hope this is helpful! Let me know below if you have any questions.
A captivating gang of 24 huggable, lovable creatures to sew—from classics like Margot, a topsy-turvy doll, and the button-jointed teddy bear Bjorn Bjornson, to irresistible Evelyn, a wool felt inchworm decked out in mod glasses and a kerchief, and Koji, a fiercely cute spiked softie monster. There’s something for everyone here—from kids to grown-ups and from beginning sewers to advanced dollmakers. Published by STC Craft, August, 2010.
