Shabby Chic Hearts

I know better than to get into the serious part of making dolls when everyone is home on a weekend. For me the serious part is their faces. So much of their personality is conveyed through their expressions. I wanted, needed, to play in the studio so I opted instead for making some fun shabby chic hearts with my vintage stash of laces, buttons, pearls and silk ribbons that I already have out of storage right now for the dolls I am working on. I made 3 of them. I seem to be making items in multiples of three lately, what's up with that? I think they turned out kinda cute. I have them listed on my Etsy shop but if they don't sell, I will happily hang them from my antique Victorian window that I have on the wall in my home. They look gorgeous there don't you think?

Lazy Days of Summer

Whoever coined that phrase obviously didn't have children. The last few weeks of summer are always so crazy busy for me. School shopping, things that have been put off all summer long because there is always tomorrow to get around to it, getting everyone back on some sort of schedule, etc..  However, for the sake of my sanity I have managed to sneak in a little time in my studio when everyone else was alseep.

 I was fortunate enough to have the most incredible Kate Erbach pattern shared with me. I was so awed when I first saw it that I immediately put the doll I was working on aside to play with this pattern. For me that is really saying something since I try not to have more than one type of doll going on at the same time. I love Kate's patterns, they are so easy to follow and turn out gorgeous. I'll try to find a link to the one I am working with now and post it here. It is so easy that a beginning doll maker could whip out a doll with no problems.

I have a packet of word charms that I have been saving thinking they would make a nice addition somehow to a doll. I've had them awhile since the perfect doll for them hadn't come around yet. When I received the "Treasure Keeper" pattern I was so excited because this was the doll I had been waiting for. I have 5 charms so ultimately I would like to do 5 theme dolls with them. They are:  ~~Peace~~  ~~Hope~~  ~~Love~~  ~~Dream~~  ~~Believe~~

I am currently working on 3 dolls. I think I will call them "Inspiration Dolls"  I'll share with you the progress I have made on them so far.


I wanted to make these dolls with all vintage lace and trims. With the antique textiles being so fragile I needed a solid cotton fabric for their base. This chaotic looking pile of lace is actually the layout of laces waiting to be fused to the cotton. Hard to believe a beautiful doll will emerge from this isn't it?

Here is the body of the doll all cut out, lace fused to it and the antique mother of pearl buttons sewn on. I almost forgot to put the buttons on before I sewed the front and back together. Yikes, that would have been a nightmare to add later!

Front and back sewn together on two of the dolls. They are finally starting to resemble something here.

One of them stuffed, two waiting in the wings. Wow, these gals take a HUGE amount of stuffing in them. I like to wait until I have all of my parts sewn and ready to stuff, then I will pick a good Netflix movie and spend the evening with Hubby watching movies and stuffing dolls.  He tolerates it unless I get a little wild with the fiberfill and it starts to migrate to his half of the sofa. Hmmph, he has no sense of humor in walking around looking like a giant lint ball from the dryer.








They still need heads and their wings, then they will REALLY take on a personality but here is what I have so far. I'm actually quite pleased with them.


~~LOVE~~

 This doll is ~~LOVE~~ I still have all the pins in her until I am certain I have her positioned where I want her arms. I am not entirely satisfied with her sleeves and I think I'll end up changing them somehow. Her heart is distressed red velvet, I do like it but I'm not sure if it will stay or not. What I really want is vintage pink velvet but I don't have the right shade. If I go brunette with her hair the red will look fine. Otherwise I think it is going to be way to bold for her personality.




~~Believe~~

This doll is ~~Believe~~ Her arms are not at all positioned yet. I will angle them outwards and she will be holding a floral swag of ribbon roses. (At least that is the plan at this point, dolls have been known to demand things other than what was planned.) I'm not sure if she will have sleeves or not. I'm kinda liking the sleeveless look with her.




~~Hope~~

This doll is ~~Hope~~ I am totally in love with her. I think she is my favorite at this point in time. She reminds me of a victorian bride.

The kids will all be back in school on Tuesday and I will hopefully be able to spend a little more time in my studio working after that. I'll keep you updated on their progress as I go.

My Weirdness

 I love material so much that sometimes I just take it off my shelves and look at all of the gorgeous colors and patterns in it. Yeah, I am major weird that way. but at least it's a healthy weird (if there is such a thing as healthy weird) I think it goes back to my love of any medium of art and of colors.

 I was doing a little back to school shopping for the kids yesterday and got to the Crayon section. I couldn't help but open one of the boxes and look at all of those gorgeous colors, and the smell of a box of new crayons! Imediately in my head I was right back in one of those tiny little desks on the first day of school with my new box of crayons and a big sheet of white paper in front of me thinking "what do I want to create?" the possibilities.............  By the way, the smell of a new tub of Playdough does the same thing for me.  Like I mentioned earlier, I'm just weird that way.

Shhh, don't tell my kids but I bought a box just for me,and as you can see I've used them already too! I snuck out in the back yard and colored when they thought I was hanging clothes, so they left me alone in fear of being put to work. I played with my crayons sketching the landscape in total bliss for a full 20 minutes until the phone rang. Reality checks, Hate them!!!!

Oh, if you are going to buy a box for yourself. Splurge and get the real thing CRAYOLA. I felt guilty and bought the generic brand, Yuck, they are almost all wax and no pigment. I ended up scraping off layers of wax with my fingernail trying to get to the paper.

New Things to Play With

I have been taking a little break from the usual type of dolls I make to try some new things. I found the cutest pattern online for a pincushion doll from doll artist Kate Erbach. She has several patterns that she has designed that are incredibly fun and I just had to try them out. When I contacted her to ask if I could sell a couple of the dolls I made in my Etsy store she told me yes!!! AND she kindly sent me a couple more patterns. YEAAAA! It is like Christmas in July. I am sensing a need to take a trip to the fabric store in my near future. I was impressed with how well written and easy to follow the patterns were, you seriously need to check them out here at Dollmaker's Journey. I've made two pincushion dolls so far but the problem is that now I have fallen in love with them and I'm not so sure I want to put them in my Etsy shop after all. Sigh.... They need a Hoarders show for doll makers, I could star in it!

So many fabrics to choose from, I think I'll have to make more so I don't have to decide which ones are my favorites.

These dolls really sewed up pretty quickly and easily.

I love the shape of the body. It looks like a gorgeous pear. I think I might make up some of the body shapes just to display in a bowl on an end table in my house. They are so cool.

I love these sandals! My 8 year old thinks I need to make some for her play dolls. They are easy enough to make I think I'll teach her how to do it instead. About 200+ sandals later I might regret that decision but at least it will keep her busy for awhile. She's suffering from the late summer, "I'm bored"

The only thing I really struggled with on these gals was their faces.I wanted their faces bright and bold. I also knew that they might actually get used for their intended purpose of pin cushions so I needed something that would hold up a little better to handling than colored pencils would. I dusted off my fabric art markers that I haven't really used since I took a class with Elinor Peace Baily several years ago. I learned doll face creating using markers but honestly, they are a bit intimidating to me in their permanency. One little OOPS, and you could be re doing the entire head. I am so used to working in colored pencils that it really made me freeze up. I think this was a good thing for me to realize, I try not to ever get settled into a rut of always using the same medium for my art or creating the same type of dolls, hence these pincushion dolls.