Category Archives: Crafty Stuff

rope market bag

27/12/2018 2:41 pm \ 7 Comments \

< So this is embarrassing… I made this bag in October… last year!  It has sat up in my laundry, only awaiting the handles; and the following draft post has been sitting forlornly in my drafts folder ALL THAT TIME.  But no more!  I finished the handles last month, polished up the draft post and just bunged in some pictures and bammo…  DONE!  Finally! >

hehe, anyone who knows me knows that I don’t make bags very often… it’s the one luxury I BUY! but I saw this tutorial by Amy over at Heather’s blog Closet Case patterns and just thought it was super chic and cute!! Coincidentally, when I pinned it I found that a few years previously I had also pinned a similar tutorial written by Erica over at honestlywtf.com! Guess it was a sign… for me to get on and DO it!

 

I’ve been carrying my shopping in generic carry bags rather than plastic shopping bags even before the placky-bag bag came in, because I’m such a bag snob, hehe, and while I do have a quite a lot of perfectly serviceable plain ones stashed in the boot of my car I decided I wanted a nicer one for when I wanted to look more classy-like in the supermarket.  Probably just because I wanted to give this awesome tutorial a go more than anything else, to be honest…

I bought 3 bundles of this cotton rope/cord from Bunnings and just had at it… my first fold is 20cm, and I started sloping the sides after just 10 rounds, because I wanted my bag to be wide, but flattish.  The longer your first fold, the wider the bag, widthwise, and the more rounds you stitch before sloping the sides up, the “fatter” your bag will be.  My bag itself is two whole bundles of 25m, and then I decided I wanted leather handles rather than rope ones…. I had a small scrap of deep chocolate brown leather from when my friend V was cleaning out her stash.  I punched the holes for the stitching using the leather tool I bought from Skinhuset in Copenhagen during our visit there a few years ago, and handstitched using a leather needle and deep chocolate brown Gutermann’s upholstery thread.

 

I also wanted some little internal pockets inside the bag; one side has a zipped one for keys and the other has an open,  more accessible one for my phone… these are made from a stiff, cream-coloured cotton broadcloth, actually the same stuff I used to make my rag-doll Sally… and I just zig-zagged them down inside the bag.  Because there’s all the mad crazy zig-zagging going on on the outside of the bag already, you don’t really notice a little bit of extra zig-zagging for the pocket attachments.  The perfectly matching “rustic” chocolate-brown zip came from an old pair of jeans that I previously cut up for another project…

so that’s it!  I really really love it, and think it will come in handy not just for shopping, but just for anything and everything, really.  So far I’ve used it precisely once, when I took it to my local Australian Sewing Guild meeting, to hold my sewing stuff.  It worked!

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the bumper Christmas edition

26/12/2018 3:19 pm \ 10 Comments \

So, every Christmas I like to make a small mountain of stuff for my loved ones; this year was a smaller mountain than previously, mostly because I embarked upon a sorta epic making-adventure of a more selfish variety, ahem … but more about that particular project in a future post!  But I did still manage to make some bits and pieces for others!  btw, I was too busy to take any photos on the day, woops!  but I’m hoping to get some modelled shots here sometime soon  🙂

Items 1-5; it’s always difficult to think of something for the boys, something “useful”, because boys are never just about the pretty things like girls are. Also, because I actually prefer practical and useful myself too, always.  I recently discovered elbe sewing patterns through instagram, and noticed that she had very kindly made a free pattern available; the Sorrento bucket hat.  Freeeee!  So generous! and I thought it would be fabulous for my guys who do wear hats all the time. Craig, for one, who has been wearing the same sad shabby hat for about a decade now, ahem. Yes, since I make stuff it has indeed been a point of embarrassment, hehe  ;D  A hat also seemed like the perfect gift for Cassie’s man D, notoriously difficult to buy/make for.  He loves fishing with a passion and was apparently in need of a new fishing hat, according to Cassie.  Great timing!

Tim’s hat

I had to measure everyone’s heads… awkward! but well, I guess everyone’s used to my strange stealth-measuring attacks by now!  Cassie helped me out by stealth-measuring D’s head… she said she did it while he was sleeping which made me laugh to imagine that!  Fortunately he says it fits him perfectly!

D’s hat…

The boys’ hats are all made from Spotlight’s cotton drill, it’s hard to find fabrics that are both masculine and interesting, but luckily Spotlight currently has these camouflage prints in a wide range of colours. SO AMAZINGLY LUCKY!!!

Craig’s hat…

I opted to interface the brims with medium weight fusible interfacing, and they are all fully lined; Cassie’s with a stiff white cotton, the drills I used for Craig’s and Tim’s both have an olive-ish cast to them so I used an olive poplin from my stash for them, and Sam’s and D’s are both more blue-ish so for them I cut up the trouser legs off an old pair of Sam’s navy blue work trousers.  It was exactly the right shade of navy blue, and also a really nice weight for lining a hat.

Sam’s hat…

And I found this old label in my notions basket! the very last one! leftover from when I used to sew their names in their school uniforms! I had a little giggle putting this in, and Sam too when he saw it in there on Christmas morning.

Cassie’s hat…

I also made one for Cassie using some of the leftover fabric from her Christmas dress for this year…  more on that later!  Cassie’s floral linen is very lightweight compared to the cotton drill that I used for the boys’ hats, so I fully interfaced all the pieces in this one, including the lining, with medium weight fusible interfacing.

This is a free pattern so obviously you can’t complain, and I’m not! because this is a fantastic little pattern! However one thing I want to note for if I ever use this the future… the pattern specifies 30cm for fabric and 30cm for lining. Yes, this is technically correct; but personally I prefer for the brim lining of a hat to be of the same fabric as the shell, because you can see it while you’re wearing it. So if you’re cutting out all 4 brim pieces from the outer fabric, 30cm is enough, but just barely! and only if you throw all grainline specs out the window and are super vigilant about miserly pattern placement! I did make sure to cut the band pieces on grain though, I think you have to for the hat to look nice.  If you want to cut the brim plus brim lining pieces all on grain then you’d need at least 40cm, or 50cm to be safe

I made all my paper pattern pieces full size, which I HIGHLY recommend; because when you are cutting out fiddly little pieces like these on the fold, and in multiples; then they rarely come out identical to each other.

Best thing; everyone seemed to love their hats! I might even get around to making one for myself one day 🙂

Items; 6-7; I was going to make hats for Tim’s fiance Kelly and for Sam’s lady L too, but when it came time for choosing prints for them, well I chickened out!  There were loads of gorgeous prints in Spotlight, pretty, feminine and cute and probably lots that they’d love, but well, you know, choosing a print for another girl is quite a personal thing, and I was nervous they wouldn’t like my choice. Eventually I hit on the idea of making a reusable shopping bag for them.  Yes, these are in a print too, that I chose, but a bag is definitely “safer”!

During the last year, it became illegal for supermarkets here to give out single-use shopping bags, and now everyone has to remember to take their own shopping bags for their groceries… of course there are lots of branded reusable shopping bags you can get but everyone likes a cute one to hang up in their kitchen, yes? Kelly and Tim have recently done up their kitchen and btw, it looks AMAZING!!! it’s all dramatically jarrah, black/white, stainless steel, and grey blue; and they also have a lot of indoor plants there. So I chose the above fabric for Kelly’s.

For L; well she loves baking, and she loves cute stuff, so when I saw this bright and fun doughnut print I knew instantly it was perfect for her!  

I made my own pattern, based upon the measurements of the little bag holders in Coles checkout stations. My own experience is that the stitched-on-strap style of handle is a weak point in shopping bags, the first thing to go; so I designed the bags to have cut on handles, and to be reinforced with a facing.  It is a bit of a fabric hog to cut it out like this, but I’m thinking it will prove to be a much stronger and robust design than separately cut and stitched on straps. 

  I found some pieces of stiff plastic film to line the bottoms of the bags, and for the groceries to sit on.

Item 8; Cassie specifically requested that I make a dress for her this year, and we went to Fabulous Fabrics together to look at fabrics. They had this divine pink hydrangea print in a cotton sateen, and Cassie wistfully fingered it and mentioned she would love this if it was in linen. We looked at a few other prints and she pointed out a few others, which I tucked away in my head for the future, mwahaha. But just imagine my joy when I went back in to actually buy something for her, and saw they had actually JUST got the hydrangea print in, IN LINEN! PERFECTO!

For the patten, I cut up an old favourite little tunic dress, that she had discarded a long time ago; it is a simple but very pretty little T-shirt style, with a high rounded neckline finished with bias binding, raglan sleeves folded up at the hem, and a centre back zip, and I always thought she looked gorgeous in it. The new dress did seem a tad short when I’d finished it, but otherwise I was very pleased with it. Then she tried it on on Christmas morning, and it was Super Short!  Turns out 26yr old Cassie likes to wear her dresses a little longer than 18 yr old Cassie did, haha. who knew?!  😉  Anyway, fortunately I had extra fabric, even after making her matching bucket hat, so I extended it with an extra piece attached underneath the hemline. This is a technique I’ve used on several of my own dresses in the past, I do think it makes for an interesting hemline detail, even if you don’t need to add length.  To make it look more like “intentional design detail” rather than “whoops, need to add length because it’s scandalously SHORT” I folded and stitched a series of tucks, and love how this looks!  A hidden bonus is that this adds some weight to the hemline… and I think linen dresses can often benefit from a little extra weightiness at the bottom.

Items 9-2000, might be overshooting the mark but just roughly guess-timating there; so I also like to make something both useful and fun for my extended family members, and this usually ends up being an edible something … this year it was gingerbread pussycats! So of course we have our own three darling little fluffykins, and I hit on the bright idea of icing the gingerbread puddycats to symbolise The Girls.

I’d made huge batches so this took quite a long time, but turned out pretty cute I think! The kids were tickled pink!

My recipe is adapted from a free recipe from Taste.com, and my own lemon icing is a sort of hybrid royal icing/ regular icing. Sophie has green eyes, so I painstakingly picked out the green cachous from a multicoloured jar. I couldn’t get black food colouring! so settled for dark purple-y/blue for Sophie, and sky blue for Zoe, who is a greyish blue point with blue eyes. Zoe was by far the fiddliest pussy cat to recreate!

Mischka is a mischievous fuzzy wuzzy ginger striped pussy with amber eyes, so I tried to capture her cute and perky nature with a riotous striped icing.

It’s funny; everyone immediately said, “but what about Clara?” and there were lots of jokes as to why she was excluded from the fun but of course the real answer is perfectly simple… I don’t have a dog-shaped cookie cutter! Maybe next time, haha.

I buy these airtight thingies to give them away in,  see, practical and useful are my middle names!  Each one perfectly fitted 16 gingerpussies.

So, I blog very very rarely about the meals I make; but this year Craig and I decided to cater for the entire extended family lunch, which is a BIG undertaking. We ambitiously planned for a rather (for us) long and involved menu and I’m so proud of us for pulling it off that I thought I’d share … we made all the various dressings and everything!

the makings of maple carrots…

pumpkin and couscous salad…

German-style potato salad…

BBQ asparagus, zucchini and snow pea salad…

veggie rosti with smoked trout; we doubled this recipe and made one with the smoked trout and the second one with smoked salmon

peach and raspberry trifle…

and cherry and nougat semifreddo

the recipes are all from the free Coles cooking magazine that they put out every month. Fair dinkum, this is hands down my favourite source of recipes at the moment… I love it!  We also had a ham that I forgot to take a picture of, and Vintage Cellars had high-end champagne going for half price so I bought a dozen of these… honesty, it all felt very special and went so well, we had such fun, and we were so chuffed everybody at our party had such a gorgeously happy day too!

So that was Christmas this year!! it felt rather epic and stressful all month leading up to it, but now it’s the morning after, and I’m feeling peaceful and relaxed with a happy post-party glow, the house is clean and back to normal; and most of all I am SO GLAD that I did go to the effort of making as lovely a day as I could for all my amazing family. It’s always SO worth it 🙂  Until next time!

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the Kimberley doll pattern

13/11/2018 9:32 pm \ 9 Comments \

For anyone who liked my dolls and maybe wished to make one for themselves…Cassie and I have made a pattern!

The Kimberley doll pattern is available to buy in our shop right now, just in time for Christmas making!  You can get it as an instantly downloadable pdf and there are also a limited number of paper patterns.  This is the same pattern I developed to make my recent seasonal set of four; the Mses Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn … I enjoyed making them all so much! and am so happy they’ve been liked so much too  🙂

Included is the rag doll pattern, naturally; and her full wardrobe…  I know when I was a kiddy the most enjoyable thing about playing with my dolls was dressing them in a variety of clothes; the more the better! and my favourite dolls all had lots and lots of clothes which I delighted in changing out regularly.  This is why I strived to give the Kimberley doll plenty of outfit options!  All pieces included in the seasonal girls’ sets are here; the “winter” turtleneck tunic dress and a pair of jersey leggings, and the knitting pattern for her chevron-patterned beanie with pompom; a twirly summer wrap dress, lace knickers, and raglan sleeved mini dress, which so far I have chosen to make in stretch sequinned fabric as a cocktail dress for “my” girls.  Additional patterns included are for her zippered duffle bag, and also for the dust bag that is designed to hold her and all her belongings when she is not being played with.

I also include instructions for giving the doll a full head of yarn hair and an embroidered face.  The example I used for the pattern is basically the same face that I have given all my dolls, but I would like to point out that how you do the face for your own doll is a very personal decision and you can, and should! use your own artistic license and go with whatever takes your fancy!   Something  interesting I’ve found is that the smallest, tiniest variations; a slant to a mouth, wider-set eyes, offset or asymmetrical eyebrows, can affect a facial expression quite a lot.  And hair! that’s a whole other story too…  🙂

Some of the technical deets:

The Kimberley doll stands 43cm (17″) high.  Most of her clothes can actually be made from scraps and small bits and pieces of fabric, but following is a complete list of requirements should you buying new:

The Kimberley doll is named for the Kimberley region of Western Australia, following our theme of naming our patterns after places in Western Australia.  Well, we already had “Perth” and so decided this would be a nice theme to keep up and we have so many beautiful places here in Western Australia that are obviously very dear to our hearts.  Though we were partly influenced by the thought it would be nice to have a girl’s name for a doll pattern too, so very fortunately we do have one girl’s name in the state!  The colours of the Kimberley rocks are what I was going for in the background colour of the pattern cover.  I was pretty thrilled when Cassie recognised this straight away without my having to explain it, hehe…

It’s so weird; for many years I never suspected I would have become interested in making dolls, it’s not “serious” like making clothing for yourself or anyone else for that matter, and for a long time I’ve been quite serious about my sewing and devoting myself to making a full and proper wardrobe.  But well, doll-making has been such a nice diversion, just something purely whimsical, you know?  I hope it gives a little bit of frivolous enjoyment to others too!

By the way; selling of completed handmade dolls made using this pattern is permitted provided design credit is given to Carolyn & Cassie Pattern Co.pinterestmail

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Ms Autumn

06/11/2018 10:35 pm \ 14 Comments \

Ciao, le belle signore!!  I am soooooo happy to introduce Ms Autumn! the fourth and final doll in my little set of four seasonal girlies…

I’m rather rapt with this young lady… her colour scheme is fab – u – lous!!! and very much right up my alley.  Well, I suppose since I identify as an autumn girl myself, so yeah!  This rich warm collection of tomato red, gold, rusty orange, teal blue, forest green is totally one I would choose for myself… well haha, obviously I’ve chosen all the girl’s colour schemes myself, but well you know what I mean!  I’ve so much enjoyed choosing all the girl’s colours to co-ordinate nicely and I thoroughly loved choosing this one too

Like her friends, Ms Autumn has a range of clothes to choose from, so she is ready and prepared for ANY situation:

a winter ensemble with leggings, a tunic dress and knitted beanie… I gave her a kangaroo pocket on her tunic! because it’s rather lovely to have a warm kangaroo pocket you can stow your hands in to keep them warm in winter…

… little lace knickers, embroidered with a tiny, rich orange-y red rosebud…

a twirly summer dress… I only had the tiniest portion of this gorgeous rusty orange/gold print, and was so glad I managed to squeeze the little dress from out of it, because I think it’s just absolutely perfect for her!

… a sequinned cocktail dress, naturally in bright sunshine-y gold!  This particular fabric is a little sheer so I lined it with cream coloured jersey knit.  Well, modesty is a virtue, si?

Want to hear something a bit funny… ?  I think my favourite favourite thing about her entiiiiiire ensemble is actually this little necklace?!

Up until now I’ve ade the girls’ necklaces using a simple, single loop of wire.  I had some gold wire for Ms Autumn, but frustratingly it was just a little too flimsy to use by itself.  This stumped me for a little bit… should I use one of the other coloured wires I had? but I really had my heart set on gold.  Finally I thought about making a twisted gold necklace.  It took me a few attempts of painstakingly careful twisting to get the twist nice and even all the way along! but finally I had a necklace I was satisfied with.  The little catch closure was little tricky, but I’m in love with how it worked out in the end!  Though I thought the little necklace was pretty cute by itself, it looked just a touch spare without a pendant, so I decided at the last minute to add a gold-apricot pearl to nestle against her décolletage…

She also a zippered forest green duffle bag, which is roomy enough to store all her things, should she wish to go off for a weekend trip, or something, and need all her stuff.

… and her dust bag, in a deep raspberry shade which also goes quite nicely with all her things, imo

peekaboo!

Ms Autumn is available for purchase here in our shop right now…

My friend Meggipeg asked me recently… isn’t it hard to part with “my” girls?  and yes, it’s little bit scary! but it really does make me truly happy to think they are going to homes where they can be played with; and Ms Autumn may be the last in this set, however I’m still enjoying myself so I haven’t ruled out making more? hmmm, I’ll see how I go, got so much on my plate at the mo…!

Also I guess it’s probably pretty obvious by now; all the girls, Ms’ Winter, Spring, Summer, and Ms Autumn here too, and all their wardrobes are of course made with the same patterns, one that Cassie and I have been working hard at developing as a new pattern to put in our shop!  It’s going to be available very very soon… stay tuned!

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Ms Summer

16/10/2018 2:15 pm \ 13 Comments \

Well, hello there gorgeous!   I’m thrilled to introduce Ms Summer to the world!  the latest in my small set of seasonal girlies…

I hand-dyed natural calico with a small army of different iDyes to get Ms Summer’s lovely cocoa-toned skin tone, however her luxuriant mane of tawny hair came ready-dyed in this wonderful range of browns/charcoal/tan and the occasional touches of chestnut… and can I just say I over-the-top love her hair!! and actually would kill to have a crazy multicoloured mane like this myself…

I have hair envy!!!!

Like her friends, she comes with a whole lot of lovely clothes, to keep her comfortable and suitably attired for all seasons.

For summer, she has this pretty little wrap dress… one can never have too many stripes in one’s wardrobe.. oui? and the blue-and-white sets off her baby blues rather nicely too, I reckon.  Also I rather like the way the stripes lie which way (but loose) all over her dress  🙂

For winter, she has a turtleneck sweater in millennial pink – eeee! sah trendyyyyy! – with an attached denim miniskirt, also a pair of light periwinkle tights, and a hand knitted beanie in shades of slightly variegated lavender/mauve.

 

I have to say, I’m particularly enamoured of her little denim skirt… probably because when I was a teen I practically lived in little denim skirts myself.  Teenaged me would no doubt have pounced on the pink turtleneck too, to be honest  😉

Of course she has cute little lace knickers too, with an embroidered rosebud on the front…

… and if she wishes to attend a soiree, or even just for strolling on the beach should such a thing take her fancy, she has a sequinned cocktail dress in a shade to perfectly highlight and set off her cornflower blue eyes.

… which she can accessorise with her classic pearl drop necklace…

… AND she has a jaunty emerald green duffle bag.. with pockets!! to carry all her kit  🙂

Ms Summer is currently listed over in our shop… 🙂

Not pictured above, but like all my dollies she also comes with a lavender tote bag that she and all her things can be safely stored in, when she’s not being played with.

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a knitting project bag

13/10/2018 11:11 pm \ 9 Comments \

It’s sometimes quite difficult to think of gifts for Mum because she will say, without fail; please DON’T GET ME ANYTHING FOR MY BIRTHDAY.  But… I have to think of something!!!  Besides the fact that she’d probably be little bit upset if I actually did give her nothing, haha  😉

Mum is always knitting, and she’s still particularly keen on knitting socks… whenever she comes up to stay she brings her knitting, usually stuffed in some flimsy plastic shopping bag; and works on it pretty solidly, at all hours of the day or night.  And inevitably, she will ask to borrow my scissors and a wool needle… btw, I don’t mind at all hunting these things out for her, but really it would be so much better if she had them with her and at hand already.

Lightbulb moment… Mum was in urgent need of a knitting project bag!!

It’s only recently I even became aware that knitting project bags were a thing, after I discovered a few knitting podcasts on youtube… where knitting project bags are an absolute must have!  I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that my own knitting bag is just a daggy old, small shop tote thing, that shops put your purchases into… it can be seen in this post here.  It’s not very good, and Mum’s isn’t any better.

I perused Le Stash, and my hand fell on some lovely garden-green raw silk, mainly because I knew I had a matching zip in my zip stash already too.  The green silk turned out to be a pair of trousers, that Mum herself had originally give to me to use for fabric sometime.  She’d originally bought them in Italy, while on holiday, and got many years of good use out of them.  It occurred to me I could make a really good little project bag, utilising the trousers’ existing welt pockets and waistband…  bonus that this lovely fabric is boomeranging its way back to Mum in a new, and newly useful form.  Full circle! I selected some brushed tartan cotton for the bags’s lining, and inserted a new zip underneath the waistband facing inside, along with a wrist strap, so she can have the bag hanging from her wrist and still knit from it.  I think the really interesting thing about the bag though is the accessories; I added three little tabs inside, two with swivel clips, to which I attached a pair of scissors, and a pack of wool needles, and the third has a D-ring to which I’ve sewn a tape measure.  I left the original back welt pockets intact on the outside (above), so she can tuck small extra things into those pockets, things she might not want to go rattling around the inside of the bag.

I think she will have everything she needs!

I wrote a little tutorial, in case anyone reading this wishes to have a go at a similar refashion for themselves.  It’s a very useful thing for a knitter, whether for yourself or a gift for someone else, it’s easy and kinda fun to make, and I think it turned out quite cute too! In fact I would really like one for myself!

I used:

a pair of trousers with a waistband,
piece of brushed cotton for lining (around 52cm x 25cm),
stiff interfacing (52cm x 25cm)
30cm zip
2x 13mm swivel clips
1x 20mm D-ring

Extra accessories to finish; a tape measure, pair of scissors, pack of wool needles

To start with, unpick the side seams of your trousers, and cut out the seat.  Cut the waistband off at the side seams too, allowing the same seam allowance as the side seams.  Note; I then trimmed down my piece to about 52cm x 25cm (inc waistband) which made a bag with a finished measurement of approximately 20x20cm, and with a base of 20cmx8cm.

If your trousers have welt, or other pockets, that’s a bonus!  Cut a piece of lining fabric the same size and shape, using the trouser piece as a template.  If the fabric is on the floppy side, apply stiff fusible interfacing to the lining, and if your interfacing is anything like as unreliable as mine, it’s a good idea to stitch/quilt the interfacing and lining together to be sure they stay together as one layer.

Unpick and open out the lower edge of the waistband facing, and stitch up the side seams, including the waistband and waistband facing, in one continuous seam.  Stitch the lower bottom seam.  Likewise, stitch the side seam/s and bottom seam of the lining.

Determine the desired width of the bag bottom… this should be at least equivalent to, or even a bit wider than the bag opening.  I made mine 20cm.  Measure this length along the bottom edge of the bag, centred so that the excess on each side is the same.   Bring the side seam and bottom edge seam to meet, right sides together, and pin.  Determine the side edges of the base of the bag, by marking two straight lines at the end points of the bag base, perpendicular to the bottom seam.  (shown on the bag lining, below) Measure each carefully to ensure they are going to be the same length, if there are differences then adjust and re-mark until they  are equivalent.  Mine are 8cm long from pin to pin.

Stitch.  Construct the lining bag to be exactly the same.  Trim off the corners.  Pin the bag and bag lining together along the bottom side edges, wrong sides together, and stitch together along the previous stitching, ie. the short side edges of the base of the bag.

Turn the bag right sides out, so the lining bag sits inside the outer bag, attached at the base but not yet attached at the top.  You can optionally stitch the bag and bag lining together along the long bottom seam as well, however I found this to be quite fiddly…

Make the wrist strap and tabs for the bag’s accessories to hang off…  my
dimensions are:

strip 1: 8cm x 37cm
strip 2: 4cm x 10cm

Construct each as follows: fold strips in half lengthwise and press, open out and fold both raw edges in to meet the pressed centre line, press.  Fold the strip in half along the first fold line and press, topstitch close to each long edge of the strip.

Cut the narrower strip in half, giving two 5cm strips. Thread each through the closed top of a swivel clip, and baste raw edges together.   Cut 5cm off one end of the first, wider strip for the tape measure tab, thread this piece through a D-ring, baste.  Stitch the tape measure onto the D-clip.  The remainder of the wider strip will be used for the wrist strap.

Bag: open up the remainder of the waistband facing away from the waistband.  Pin the ends of the wrist strap to the waist band facing adjacent to either side of one side seam, baste in position close to the raw edge.  Take the zip, and pin each side of the zip to the waistband facing, aligning the top and bottom ends of the zip with the side seams of the bag, and ensuring the opening end of the zip is adjacent to the wrist strap, and with wrist straps folded back against the waistband facing; topstitch zips in place, stitching over the wrist straps.  Leave a gap of 1.5cm each side at the bottom end of the zip to enable the end to sit on the outside.  Trim the zip, leaving a 2-3cm tail.  Cut a small square of fabric and use it to wrap and enclose the trimmed bottom edge of the zip; fold, pin, and stitch it in place.

Open the zip; take the three previously made tabs with swivel clips and D-ring attached and pin them around the top of the lining bag, raw edges even, right sides together, and with the swivel clips/D-ring hanging down inside the lining bag.  Fold down the waistband facing enclosing the raw edge of the lining bag and top edges of the accessories tabs inside the old waistband.  Pin waistband facing back to its old position on the original waistband of the trousers.  Ensure the upper ends of the zip tape are tucked up inside the waistband, also check you are happy with the position of the tabs with swivel clips/D-ring before stitching the old waistband facing back in place.  This can be a little fiddly around the top and lower edge of the zip, but just take care and stitch as far as possible.

The final step is to clip a small packet of wool needles and pair of scissors to the swivel clips.

Aaaand, done!!!  Now, I really really want to make one for myself too!

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Ms Spring

04/09/2018 6:17 pm \ 13 Comments \

The latest addition to my little set of seasonal dolls is finished! Please say g’day to Ms Spring!

Ms Spring is, obviously, a spring-y kind of a girly; she is actually made from the exact same ivory calico as her sister Ms Winter but has light coffee-coloured skin thanks to a long hot soaking in a cup of strong coffee.  Not Ms Spring herself, of course, but her fabric prior to her making!  She has green/blue eyes, and tawny golden blonde hair.  I’m super pleased with her hair!  It started out life pale grey in colour; Morris & Sons Empire 4ply, 100% Australian merino “French Grey”, and I dyed it in a yellow/orange dye solution, the same dye-bath that I used for this jacket.  I wanted the colour to be a bit blotchy and two-tone, because natural hair IS is a bit variegated in colour so that’s a more realistic look…. so dunked the completely dry wool straight into the bath and just minimally swirled it about, just a little bit.  I’m so so happy with the pretty range of warm golden yellows I got!  I also really adore her side-swept fringe ‘do…

Up top, she is wearing her cocktail dress; a blush pink sequinned number which is in my humble opinion, the most divine shade of pink ever invented!!  How much would I like a dress for myself in this colour?? SOOOOOOOOO much!  I know, I know, I should just make one.  Sadly though my actual life involves zero need for a pretty pink sequinned dress, so I’m just going to settle for making one for this young lady instead  😉

Her matching necklace is all pink; pink jewellery wire, with a pink-y apricot pearl bead.

on Wednesdays we wear pink….

Her summer dress is a checked yellow rayon, beautifully drape-y…  this fabric is a little fray-y, so I went to the effort of a narrow rolled hem.  So fancy!

Really though – really – my personal piece de resistance for this dolly has been her winter outfit… this turned out rather chic, if I say so myself!!   I’d made the denim blue leggings, and knitted her little blue beanie… and then just couldn’t settle on a good colour/look for her turtleneck sweater dress.  I actually made three other rejected candidates, prior to this one!  None of them were just right, too dull, or too bright – it’s really important to me that all the pieces in my dolly’s wardrobes tone together really beautifully and have a lovely and harmonious overall colour scheme.  I love this dolly’s colour scheme; it’s soft and sorta cheerfully pretty in a muted way, a bit stronger than pastel but definitely not bright.  I just couldn’t settle upon a fabric/colour that fitted my vision.  Then I made this ivory sweater dress, which is nice, but still not quiiiiite right, and finally I hit upon the idea of adding embroidery to the yoke, to make it look a bit like a fair isle sweater.  Well, that’s what I think, anyway!  And it all clicked into place!  It has blue -the same blue as her beanie -, the orange is the same wool as her hair, except I soaked it in the dye bath for a lot longer to just get a stronger colour – and grassy yellow/green.  Now, it’s perfect, I think!

And of course she has a duffle bag! to carry all her stuff!  It is made of wide-wale corduroy, that I dyed also to get this shade of caramel brown, and it has a pocket both front and back too.  Goodness knows what she is going to put in those pockets, but as we all know, a girl can never have too many pockets, no?!

Oh! of course she has underwear too… a pair of lacey boy-leg briefs, with an embroidered yellow rose on the front, so you can tell the front from the back.

you can see her light, coffee-coloured skin shade better in this picture, I think  🙂

Here she is, with everything!

But wait, not quite everything!  There’s more!  Lastly, just one more thing… when I sent Ms Winter off, I made at the very last minute a drawstring carry bag, with an inset tulle window, so she can see out… this can store her and all her clothes and possessions in one place, for when she’s not being played with, or out on display or whatever.  So, of course I had to make one for Ms Spring too, in a shade of spring-y turquoise that fits nicely in with her particular colour scheme.

She is currently listed for sale over in our shop  🙂

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Ms Winter

12/08/2018 9:36 pm \ 8 Comments \

O hello, dahlings!

This is Ms Winter.   So very pleased to meet you!

Her first name?  well, what is in a name?  Is a name, “just a name”, or does it mean something?  We all know someone who makes us think, “well she certainly doesn’t look like a “Carolyn”, I’ve always thought she looks just like a ____  “(fill in the blank)  When I was making this young lady, I did not intend to give her a name myself, in fact I purposely tried to avoid thinking of one.  Howeeeeeever, the same as when I made my Sally doll, I couldn’t help it but a name did pop into my head in those quiet zen moments as I was working on her.  So, in that respect, she actually does have a name; a quiet maker-born name… but first things first, let me start at the beginning.

I really enjoyed making my first doll Sally, which is why I decided to make this other… she is quite similar but actually quite different too in many little but significant ways.  I used the patterns in “the Making of a Rag Doll” by Jess Brown for Sally; whereas I drew up my own new patterns for this girl and for all her clothes.  The new girl is taller, has a smaller head and is quite the lanky skinny-minnie compared to the pear-shaped Sally.

She has pale skin, blue eyes and a thick long mane of charcoal-black merino hair… technically “beluga” hair, actually the wool leftover from these hand-knitted gloves, as well as from the heels and toes for nearly all my hand-knitted socks.  Just like Sally, her hair fully covers her scalp and can be styled a little.

I started out thinking of her as a Winter girl, thus her colouring; and was just going to make the above winter outfit for her… black merino tights,  a black and white striped sweater dress (leftover from this little top) and a knitted beanie (leftovers from these arm warmers)  The pattern for the beanie is adapted from that free one from the tiny sparks website, designed for preemie babies.  I’ve previously used it when I made a bunch of little preemie outfits.  And I added a pompom.

But of course, the minute I’d finished her winter outfit I couldn’t resist making a summer outfit for her too;  an elegant and ladylike wrap dress – le dernier-cris!! – in a swishy, prettily floral rayon.

Having two outfits made me realise, of course she was going to be getting undressed every now and then…. which can only mean one thing; underwear.  Even dolls deserve pretty underthings! so I made a little pair of lace boy-leg knickers for her too.  I embroidered a tiny rosebud with flanking leaves on the front,  just because.

And then I thought… all these very casual clothes: what if this glamorous young lady wants to sashay out after dark?  Every girl needs a chic little sparkly number for a special occasion, yes?  So I whipped up a hot-pink, sequinned, raglan sleeved sheath; in a mini-length in order to show off her enviably long slim legs; and for a finishing touch, added a matching jewelled necklace to nestle at that alabaster throat.  Oo lala!

But, all these clothes? How is a girl to get from A to B with all this lot?  Not to worry! she has a lovely cherry red duffle bag with a black strap to sling over her shoulder, as she dashes through traffic twixt office and taxi, taxi and theatre.  Just like all the cool girls.

Just a note to be real here; the duffle is actually empty in the below picture… she has a tendency to topple over when it’s packed full with her wardrobe!

Oh, her name?  Well, that’s for me to know and for you to find out!  Anyone who likes to “pin” will be able to find her name easily enough… !  There now, that’s a clue!

This is the first girl in a small seasonal set that I am planning to make, and sell in our shop.

Later edit; I made little raspberry coloured drawstring carry bag, with an inset tulle window so that she can see out… this can store her and all her stuff for when she’s not out and about  🙂

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