Posted on by — 23 Comments

bye girls

The dolls are headed to the school auction this week. Here's the best picture I can get today. I'm in a photo-taking funk. Grey gloomy Winter keeps hanging on and with it, my lazy indifference sadly. But these girls are cheery. I need more bright colors in the house. We've been doing some redecorating/rearranging which is great for the mood. We tried to buy bright red glossy cabinets for a cupboard for the kitchen but they were out of stock. We got the white instead, which is nice, but has left me craving more color.

In other news, I'm embarking on a new project. The big joke around here is that it's in the same category as all my other projects… lots of work, no/little profit, haha! Can you guess what it is? It's not really blog/craft related, that's the clue. Oh and speaking of projects in that category, my book is out in paperback now. I just received a box of them at my doorstep on Friday. I love that they picked Evelyn inchworm for the cover and the pink spine is very cute. I'm a little less happy that they managed to print another edition without correcting the errata, but what can you do. Maybe some bright new pillows in the living room will solve that problem too, winky smile.

three elsa dolls

sixties mod doll

Posted on by — 6 Comments

mr. bear

This old fellow has come to live with us. Rescued from an estate sale. He joins two other bear friends from an estate sale. I need to be careful. 3 is a good number.

I'm trying to take photos of the 3 dolls I just finished. I am having zero camera luck and no energy to attack it. I need a new spot to take photos. Or a new season to take them in.

Also picking out fabrics for the March giveaway doll. Right now she has green hair planned. Too leprechauny? 

Posted on by — 11 Comments

all elise/elsa elf

My go-to doll pattern these days is my Elise and Elsa Elf pattern. All these dolls below are the same body and face, just with different yarn hair dos. Elise/Elsa just has bangs and a cap. If you want to add curly hair here’s are some how-tos I posted a few days ago.

The Land of Nod dolls are the same pattern too. This month’s giveaway doll was this pattern. And next month’s too, I already have her fabric picked out. Oh, and speaking of fabric, here’s the selvedge info on Miss February.

Pippi is this same pattern

pippi longstockings doll

As is Clara (how to do her hair is here)

clara doll from elsa pattern

And these gals I made for school auction last year

This dutch gal

dutch girl doll

my prototype for Fern

fern doll

Folky version

When you find something you like, you stick with it!

Posted on by — 5 Comments

Wee Wonderfuls in the Land of Nod catalog

This might be my most favorite game ever, hunting for Wee Wonderfuls dolls in the gorgeous Land of Nod catalogs. I can’t even tell you what a kick I get out of seeing the dolls in these gorgeous, adorable, sweet kids’ rooms set ups. I’ve been obsessed with the Land of Nod catalog since they switched over from a more straight-forward catalog shoot to this brilliant new format with the lived in, awesomely messy, real life looking styled kids rooms. (request a catalog here if you’re not getting it) I pore through this catalog like it’s the latest edition of Milk magazine. Like it’s one of those Paumes lifestyle books. It’s so so good. And now my toys are in there in the mix!

February’s catalog

I just love photos of kids playing with my toys. Those were my favorite shots in my book too. Like this 🙂

Winx hanging out in background

These baskets!! I need to go order one right now. And ha! Look what it just reminded me of.. I tried to make something like this and it was a flop. Now I can buy this super cool one. yay!

Fern again

wee wonderfuls dolls in land of nod catalog

And there are no w.w. here but I just love this photo. My kids so used to do this all the time. Line up all their toys. Cute!

land of nod catalog lined up toys

Posted on by — 7 Comments

doll hair how-to : loopy yarn hair

Boucle is a great yarn to use if you want your doll to have curly hair. And sewing it down in loops makes for a very fun full head of yarn hair. To do this hairdo, first I pinned and sewed short bags and a base of hair around her head.

doll hair covering head

Then I wrapped the yarn around cardstock and sewed down the middle. I try my best to keep it evenly spaced but it inevitably bunches up. It doesn’t make much of a difference.

Then I fold a bunch of times on the stitch line, tear apart the cardstock and remove and I have a strings of yarn loops to sew to my doll’s head for curls.

I pinned them in place, wrapping around the crown of the head. Now I need to go sew them down.