Dolly All Done

Over the weekend, Darcy and I were invited to a birthday party for my good friend Susan's little girl, Ava. It was Ava's 3rd birthday, so I wanted to give her something extra special. The first plan was to go to Target and pick out a toy that I thought might appeal to her, but decided to make her something instead.

After brainstorming, I settled on making The Black Apple doll, pattern found here. I have been wanting to do this pattern since I saw Emily's appearance on the Martha Stewart show last year. I'm still pretty new to making dolls and softies, and this is a great pattern for beginners like me.

Knowing me, I just had to incorporate some sort of fancy pants stitching on the doll, and what better place to showcase stitches than the hair! I love stitching hair.

*Dearest Readers: Please don't unsubscribe to my blog after seeing the not so pretty pictures of my project. My camera is officially dead to me, so I had to use my phone to take pictures of this awesome project. Don't judge me.*

So on with the hair! This added a little bit of extra work time to the doll, but I really like how it turned out.

Time to sew and stuff!

When I looked at the pictures above online, I kept getting ideas of more details that I wanted to add. (The details are the best part, you know.) I did add a little skirt to my doll's body, giving it little pleats and topped it with the black lace. I've had those sparkly buttons in my collection for a few years, and I think this was the perfect project for them. See honey? It does make sense for me to horde a bunch of craft stuff for years at a time!!

After adding more details, like a black peter pan collar, fancy mary janes, and pigtails, and finally embroidering her face, she was finished!





I was so nervous about doing her little face, because I loved everything else so much. I guess that's why I put it off as the very last thing. I decided the safest and best option was to use the Cute Little Heads pattern. (So glad I did.) I just picked one of the faces in the pattern pack, and cut out each facial feature separately and placed them accordingly on the doll's face. I wondered if I needed to enlarge the features a bit, but honestly, I think it worked with the size they are.

The birthday girl and her Mama loved the doll, so I was very happy.

Darcy loved the doll too, and kept asking if she could snuggle her. I felt bad limiting her snuggle time with "Dolly", (that's what Darcy kept calling her) so I promised I would make one for her too. Her birthday is in October, so that gives me a little bit of time. But since Darcy is more of an animal lover, I'm thinking I will make her the Molly Monkey doll! Isn't she adorable?

I also have plans for a Little Red Riding Hood doll brewing in my head. Oh the cuteness!

xoxo
Amy

Chi Chi Love

My good friend Laura told me that last weekend was her Grandma's birthday. Grandma loves chihuahuas, so I had the perfect project for her.

I know I've used the Chi Chi Fever patterns several times before, but I always enjoy recreating the design. Plus, I haven't made a pillow in a long time, so there.



Honestly, I love the way this turned out. I didn't expect to fall in love with it as much as I did. After embroidering the basic design of the dog and the hearts, I cut it out in the shape of an oval, and attached it to the fabric. (The fabric is an Alexander Henry print called "Calyx".)

I didn't have any fusible webbing, and going to the store wasn't an option at the time, so I just pinned it in place. Yes, I was worried about the fray factor, but luckily didn't have an issue. I put the fabric in the hoop, and anchored the image in place with a green split stitch all along the border. One just wasn't enough, so I added another round of green split stitch, giving it a nice cameo effect.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I also added a piece of quilt batting in between the embroidery and the fabric, to give it a slightly quilted look, and also to hide my travel stitches a bit.

It was looking nice after adding the double rounds of split stitch, but it still needed more. So I started freehanding the stitches in white, and added the sequins for the final, but perfect touch. Isn't she purdy?

Hugs & Stitches,
Amy

The Stag

I stitched this beautiful design a couple of weeks ago, and wanted to share it with you today.






I've had these patterns for a while now, and I'm not really sure why it took me so long to embroider this particular design. I'm glad I did though, because it's one of my favorites.

Want to make your own stag? Invite the Forest Friends to your place and cozy it up.

TGIF,
Amy

Afternoon Forecast

Darcy calls this design, "Smiling Thunder."

This design came from the Julie West artist series, found here.

I stitched this last week while babysitting my niece and nephew. They came over and stayed with us every day last week. My niece is 11, soon to be 12 this weekend, and my nephew is 8. They both came armed with laptops, and the burning desire to play an online game called Perfect World.

I had never heard of this game before, but it consumed them both like little techno zombies. Some days they had to actually share a laptop, making their time limit 2 hours of play time, then they had to surrender the game to the other kid, and the time trade would continue all day. (This was the rule set by their parents, not me.)

On one of the days I asked my niece if she would like to learn to embroider for her 2 hours of "boredom." She said she would, so I gathered my patterns and let her look through them. She picked out the Julie West pack, and picked out the rain cloud design above as her choice. I decided to embroider the same design, because I thought that would make things a little bit easier for her.

She caught on very quickly, seeing how I kept things simple and only showed her the back stitch.
Luckily, our embroidery lesson happened during Darcy's naptime, so we didn't have any interruptions, and she finished her piece just minutes before it was her turn to get back on the computer.

Unfortunately, the little toot packed hers away in to her backpack before I had a chance to take a picture of her final creation. She seemed to enjoy herself and said, "This could be addicting!" only 10 minutes after we started. I laughed and said, "You are so right about that."

For more inspiring images of little ones learning the way of the stitch, be sure to check out Sublime Stitching's photo set of MakerKids: StitchingKids 2009.

Hugs & Stitches,
Aunt Amy

Who's Cute?

Another cute onesie I made for my new baby girl. This sweet pattern is from the Sublime Stitching Baby Bib Kit.

Be sure to check out Claudia's cute pug embroidery for more inspiration!