Ruby

About a week ago I felt like doing something more original than just stitching someone else's design. So I decided to invent another little doll. I have a book of knitted dolls by Claire Garland, but all the dolls in the book are large. The book has some interesting techniques so I started there in hopes of making a small knitted doll. I worked on it a bit each evening. Each night, when I stopped for the day, I thought it was time to forget the whole project. I didn't know where it was going, and I was getting very frustrated. But when I woke each morning, I had new ideas and continued on. Yesterday, I finally completed this little cutie, and I am exceptionally pleased with her. She kind of invented herself. I had no idea that this was what she would look like. She is free-standing, and I didn't expect that either. She just stood up by herself. I guess the dress acts as a base.

She's named after an old friend of mine who has a head of beautiful long curly red hair. I didn't start out to make a Ruby doll.. that's just where the experiments took me.

Very difficult to get the pictures to match her true colors. I started with an indoor photo:



But Ruby demanded to go outside and show off her dress and new handbag:

It's a yin-yang thing

Presenting the final heart in the series. Another design by Kirsten



The hearts have all been sent to Michigan to be given to the sweet little girls that sent me the thank you notes for the Halloween tags.

And now for something completely different. I was lucky enough to win a contest on Ranae's blog for the classic Voodoo Boy chart by Haberdashery designs. I've always wanted to stitch this little guy. I really didn't want to use Aida, but I didn't have the right color fabric on hand in any other weave and I also wanted to start stitching him the minute the chart showed up. He's going to be living in Miami so I thought I'd crochet him a jaunty hat to wear on his trip (and this may be the first time I've ever used the word 'jaunty'). It's done in a multi-colored sock yarn. The hat design came from a book of instructions for crocheted home accessories. The hat is meant to be an egg cozy! And of course I added a couple of pins since a self-respecting Voodoo boy should never be without them.



The backing is pretty purple mottled hand-dyed fabric. I sewed him up by machine and I hate doing the final slip stitching by hand, so instead, I sewed a buttonhole in the center back just to use for turning. Then I sewed the 'Little Helper' label over the buttonhole to close him after stuffing. And a few sequins added for fun.

Flower Power

I've been experimenting with little crocheted flowers to use as embellishments, and I was looking for a way to use them after I made a bunch. So I made a little 'Flower Power' doll.

The bottom white flower and middle pink flower are actually buttons covered in crochet.
Instructions are here. I left some without beads in the center because I just love that magic circle starting technique. The book I bought a while ago on crocheted dolls uses embroidery on crocheted shapes for faces a lot, so I thought I'd try that out also. Then I just fooled around with pearl cotton chain loops for the hair.

The Divine Miss M

Saturday, I received a doll from my partner, Sherry, in the Stitchin' Fingers Show Biz Doll Swap. The doll is an adorable Bette Midler. I think Sherry really captured the essence of Bette. This picture doesn't do her justice. This is a very sparkly doll. Gold lame bodice, sparkly gold belt, sparkly pink disks on sparkly blue skirt overlaying a black net underskirt. I just love her.

Be afraid, be very afraid....

The October monthly challenge in the Cloth Doll Group on Stitchin' Fingers is a Halloween-themed doll. I really wanted to crochet a little witch hat, but I wasn't inspired to do a witch doll otherwise. I think I have a kind of witch, ghoul, goblin, ghost combo here. Took a pile of photos, but none really looks like the real thing. I have a feeling I changed a setting on my camera for the worse and now can't get it back to 'regular'.

Not quite like a virgin...

I had two partners in the Show Business doll swap due to a little mix-up in the registration process. As host, I didn't want anyone to be left out so I picked up the slack and made a second doll. This one went to Sherry and she just let me know the sassy little Madonna arrived. I had a hard time getting the camera to cooperate for this photo. But I was pretty pleased with the 'arty' style face.



Here's the inspiration:

Back to the 60's

My partner just received the 'Cher' doll I made for her in the Show Business doll swap on Stitchin' Fingers. I decided to go with the early Sonny and Cher days look. I hope the bell bottoms don't look too much like a mermaid's tail!

They can't all be Ariel...

I finally got around to stitching one of the Jill Oxton Voluptuous Mermaids. My camera and monitor seem to want to show her in blues, but she's really in purple. Purple fabric from Enchanted Fabrics and purples in the body and head piece. Plus little gold beads as trim.





And yesterday, I received my fob for the EMS Initial Scissors Fob Exchange. It came from Antonella in Italy. She used an 'A' from an alphabet by Frimousse That was a perfect choice.

Angelina-Lara Croft

Spent way too much mental energy on the Angelina Jolie doll. Finally, I decided to just do it and accept whatever resulted. She's way skinnier than I planned, but after all, Angelina is very skinny in real life so I guess it's appropriate. I had great fun with the pink embroidered gun. I had a pair of cap pistols with 'pearl' handles as a kid (imagine the whining I had to do to get my Mom to buy me those!) so I added the beads in memory of those guns.

There has been a lot of talk about what to do with thread clippings (aka 'orts') on blogs recently. Well, Angelina's insides are all made of clippings. Probably a year's worth!

At least now I can move on to thinking about other things in my spare time! But Miek, you promised me a Brad Pitt doll if I did an Angelina. If you do the Brad Pitt one, I'll send you the Angelina as a mate.

Hello, Norma Jean

Marilyn Monroe was the quintessential sex symbol movie star when I was growing up. Every other blond bombshell was just a cheap imitation. So I figured I would try my hand at making another imitation, cheap or otherwise. This
classic photo of Marilyn from the "Seven Year Itch" was my inspiration.

Another view:


And this little graphic gave me a start as well:


I drew the face freehand in more or less the style of the graphic. Came out more like Madonna trying to be Marilyn than Marilyn herself.

The hair was done in crocheted chain loops: *(chain 12, slip stitch in the 10th chain from the hook)* repeat. Then I just scrunched it up and sewed it on around the face. Now she morphed a bit into Medusa.

I crocheted the bra bullets (more Madonna) from a pattern for a Barbie doll halter top. And the skirt came from the ruffle on a pattern for a Barbie doll gown.

And here she is:

Marjannie

Here is my first collaborative doll. The face, hair and felted hat were done by Marja. The lace collar, body, hanger and beaded tail were done by me. I've just heard that Marjannie will be featured in the next issue of Crazy Lady Doll Quarterly.

Rehab progress

My first bikini doll has now safely arrived at the Swedish rehab clinic. She is being cared for by a loving family and I'm sure they will set her on a proper course. Here is the photo of her. She wants to be a stripper when she grows up, but hopefully she'll realize the folly of that pursuit with time.



Sandra, the Dotee doll is named after the woman who invented them. Her name is 'Dot' and here is her blog. She has a tutorial for making the basic doll and she even sells kits to make them at her etsi shop.

Bikini Babe

My partner for the Dotee doll swap on Stitchin Fingers just let me know she received the little doll I made for her so I can show a picture here. I used two colors of pink floss and un-cut Turkey work for the hair. I played around with a variety of crochet motifs and edgings to invent the little bikini. She was my second attempt at this. The first one I tried has been sent to a Swedish rehab clinic in hopes that she will straighten up and fly right.

Doll faces

I joined a Cloth Dolls group on Stitchin' Fingers for fun after doing all of this experimentation with comfort dolls. Some of the ladies there do wonderful embroidered faces on their Dotee dolls so I thought I'd practice a little to see how to do it. Here are my doodles:



For the first two, I traced faces from a magazine ad using tracing paper. I pinned the paper to the felt and back-stitched through both the paper and the felt. Then I tore the felt away. For the bottom one, I just drew a face free hand onto the felt with a pencil and stitched over it.

I'll work on this some more. Doesn't take much time and when I get something I like, I'll incorporate into a doll.