Tiny Dolls

A few weeks ago I showed you some tiny clothes I was embroidering...

And I've now got the final product to show you!

As I mentioned before this doll is taken from the book Felt Wee Folk.  This is my first project from the book but I doubt it will be my last!  I love embroidering on wool felt and it was such fun to play clothing designer as I sewed.  The body is made from embroidery floss wrapped pipe cleaners.  This doll wasn't my first attempt at pipe cleaner dolls.  Many years ago I made lots, and sold some under the name "Laura's Lassies".  I started with basic dolls...

And then started making them as dancers!  These ones are based on costumes from one of the dance shows I was in.

Here are some more balletic ones.

There are lots more too, I'll have to see if I can find pictures of the costumes these are based on.  Would you be interested in seeing?

Mass Producing

With my first craft show coming up in five weeks most of my crafting time is devoted to making things for the show.  Mass production style.  This is how my bed looked after making lots of rainbow cards and waiting for the glitter glue to dry!

After they were dry I packaged them up with twine (there are kraft coloured envelopes in the bundle too although you can't see them here).  I plan to tie on a tag, which is why the ends are so long right now.

And then I stacked them all in a box.  It makes me happy to see them all there, waiting to be sold!

Something Big

In my post about New Things I've done lately I purposely left one out.  Maybe because I hadn't done it yet, maybe because I still wasn't sure I would.  But now I'm ready to share...

I'm going to sell my crafts at a real, live craft show!

Yep, I'm a bit scared about it!  But really, what's the worst that can happen?  I sell nothing (though that seems highly unlikely, I'm sure I have a friend or two who would drop by and take pity on me) or I sell everything and am left with an empty table 2 hours into the show.  Neither are horrible situations to be in.  I've told myself to suck it up and take the plunge.


So why did I decide to do a craft show?  One of my goals this year was to re-open my Etsy shop.  Since I love crafting it seemed to make sense to sell a few things on the side and make a little money from my hobby.  Only I can't get really motivated to do the whole Etsy thing.  There are photos to take (and they better be good!), descriptions to write, postage to figure out, labels to create and all that time sitting in front of a screen listing your items.  And no deadline to do it by.  I'm the kind of person who really needs a deadline to get motivated for, otherwise it's a lot of "some day" going on.  So a craft show sounded like a good idea: make a bunch of stuff by a certain date and spend time setting up and managing the table rather then in front of the computer & camera.  Yep, sounds like a good idea in theory, stay tuned to hear how the reality turns out!

The show is April 30 so between now and then I'd better kick my crafting into high gear so I have enough stock to fill my 8 x 10 space. 

If you happen to be in the area I'd love for you to come by and say hi!  Here's the flyer with show details:

Finished : Sampler Scarf

So the scarf that I started knitting in February is done!  Less then 2 months - not bad I'd say!  I picked the yarn to match the hat (that I didn't make) that I'm wearing in the picture. 

I'm calling it my sampler scarf because that's what it is - a sample of different stripes and blocks of colours.  I did make the ends match but the middle is a free for all.

And now it's almost spring (hooray!) but I have a feeling I'll have a couple chances to wear this before putting it away for the summer.

Some Things New

Over the last few days I've tried some new things.  The motivation for this was largely my 29@29 list I wrote on (and for a few weeks after) my last birthday.  I didn't share it here... partly because I finished writing it so long after my birthday and partly because some of the things are just silly and, I don't know why, it feels very personal, too personal to put up for everyone to see.  I have to say though that having goals written down, with an due date, are highly motivating!  

The first thing I tried was a knit & chat night at my local yarn store.  This picture is care of their website and doesn't reflect the current window display of green yarn or the actual interior of the store where the knit & chat occurred so you'll have to use your imagination a bit!  It turned out to be a great experience.  Firstly, a chance to knit without interruptions (other then eating cookies someone had brought I mean), secondly, a great group of ladies with lots of knitting knowledge and fun conversation.  Definitely something I would like to try again!  Cross off  go to a knit & chat from the list.

The second thing I tried was rock climbing.  Indoors, at a local climbing gym.  Again I forgot my camera so you'll have to make do with this picture from their website.  Rock climbing is pretty hard (which I was expecting).  My arms were tired after about 2 climbs!  I was able to climb the first three levels of  routes (? is that the term) but got stuck on the 4th.  A challenge for next time I guess!  (Yes, I would go back.)  Cross try something new off the list.

 

I love how these two new things are such opposites yet represent me fairly well.  To elaborate, over the last 8 days, as well as the above mentioned activities, I attended a bike show, went to a learning session on early childhood numeracy skills and went to the ballet.  Now I don't want you to think I'm always that busy but I find I go in spurts of crazy busy weeks and then weeks where nothing much goes on.

There's another New Thing I'd like to share with you, but I haven't committed to it 100% yet.  I'll let you know when I do.  How about you, have you done any New Things recently?

On my Desk

I seem to have a bunch of projects on the go right now.  This is what my desk looks like as a result!

One of the projects is making little dolls from the instructions in this book.  I'd ordered the felt before Christmas but hadn't gotten around do making anything (non-Christmassy) with it till now.  I forgot how enjoyable embroidering on wool felt is.  Very theraputic!

Not that I'm rushing along at great speed but the dolls will have to be headless until I can get to Michaels or some such and buy the right size beads.  Good excuse to visit a craft store though!

More Learning at Sewing Class

This week marked the end of the sewing classes that came with my sewing machine.  After the first lesson which discussed basic sewing we went on to experiment with embroidery, including twin needle sewing (very exciting!).  It was nice to have the chance to experiment with all the different stitches on my machine, something I wouldn't sit down and do on my own so it was rather nice to have the time (and direction) to try.

The next class focused on quilting, something I've never tried before, so again nice to have the guided opportunity to try. This is my first attempt at freehand quilting.  I think I might need to add "sew a quilt" to my crafty to do list.

With the feed dogs down you can do other free hand things too, like write your name!

Part of the series also introduced the many attachments you can get to make sewing various things easier.  Mostly feet: invisible zipper foot, straight stitch foot, gathering foot, piping foot, rufflers, hemming sets, etc. etc.  All very amazing but I also realized you don't need all these fancy feet, most things can be accomplished with a regular or zipper foot.  It might take a bit more time & fiddling but definitely do-able.

I really learn a lot at these classes (and must down put my notes in some sort of order so I can refer to them later).  If you have the opportunity to take a class & learn about your machine I highly recommend it!

Kirigami Challenge - Week 4

Today is March 1st which means my February kirigami challenge is over.  It was fun but I'll confess I'm pretty happy that now I don't need to remember to find the time to cut something every day!  Here's my last week of designs.

Day 21:

hmmm... really can't find anything to say about this design...moving right along!

Day 22:
I was trying to add some scallop-y edges to this.  It worked out except where I was too close to the edge and you see the flat parts.

Day 23: 
This was supposed to be much bigger but I chopped off those essential folds so I ended up doing a small design.  I like the geometric-ness of this piece!

Day 24:
I love how a little flower showed up in the middle - completely unintentionally!

Day 25: 
I think this design would look smashing with the holes coloured in like stained glass!  Maybe tissue paper or glued down and watercoloured.

Day 26: 
Lots of curves, kinda reminds me of worms or something.

Day 27: 
I love cutting stars, I added a little star in the centre for fun.

Day 28: 
I really like the peaks on this one.  And the colour!  Nice way to end my month-long challenge.

Now what do I do with all these cutouts?  Suggestions?