From Links I Love

A slight break from dollmaking. Aren't these little guys the cutest? They are from a free pattern made available from the Roman Sock blog:

http://littlegreen.typepad.com/romansock/project_amigurami/

She has other really sweet ami patterns; her frogs are calling (or is it croaking?) to me to make them :-)

Five Easy Pieces

Here are five easy mix-and-match wardrobe pieces for the Free Spirit Amigurumi doll. This doll is a free PDF download from this site; scroll down a bit to find her. A fun wardrobe can be made from these patterns, and lots of other clothing ideas can spring from these. You could use either the tunic or T-shirt pattern for a dress bodice; shorten the pants for capri's or shorts; the sky's the limit. Have fun making these cute outfits for your doll :-)


Victorian boots for the Free Spirit Amigurumi doll. Made from size 10 crochet cotton and a size 5 or 6 steel hook

Victorian Boots





Short sleeve T-shirt for Free Spirit Amigurumi doll. Made from size 10 crochet cotton and a size 5 or 6 steel hook

T-Shirt





Simple skirts for Free Spirit Amigurumi doll. Made from size 10 crochet cotton and size 5 or 6 steel hook.

Simple Skirts





Long tunic for Free Spirit Amigurumi doll. Made from size 10 crochet cotton and size 5 or 6 steel hook

Long Tunic





Flare pants for the Free Spirit Amigurumi doll. They are made from size 10 crochet cotton and a size 5 or 6 steel hook.

Flare Pants

New Girl on the Block

Meet Gwyneth! Made by the very talented Kate Erbach from the Free Spirit pattern. She is dressed in cotton fabric with a darling felt jacket. Don't you love her hair?! And check out those shoes.

How wonderful to see what other dollmakers can do with a basic pattern. Kate's doll is just great, and I'm delighted to see the pattern come to life for someone else.

Confessions of a fiber junky

I don't think I'm a yarn snob. My all time favorite yarn for making doll bodies remains Red Heart Super Saver or Classic worsted weight yarn. It is easy to crochet tightly, makes a strong fabric and creates great three dimensional shapes. It wears like iron, and is easy on the pocket book. An eight ounce skein of Super Saver will make four Free Spirit dolls, so at $2.50/skein, that is only 63 cents a doll. What a bargain!

For hair, however, I must confess I love wool. And when I get a little extra pocket change, that is my yarn of choice for any and all doll hair. Recently I found a luscious wool/tencel blend at my local yarn shop. It is made by Berroco and is called Lustra. It is 50% Peruvian wool and 50% Tencel, in a single ply (which I love the look of for hair). It will make lovely shiny hair with that wonderful wool tactile feel. I can hardly wait to use it! Below are four colors that I couldn't resist. At $9.00 for a 3.5 oz skein, it isn't cheap, but will probably make two or three wigs, and since we saved so much money on the body yarn, a little splurge on hair is okay :-)





More yarns that I love for hair are shown here; another Berroco yarn called Peruvia, which is a 100% Peruvian single ply wool. An Alpaca/wool blend; a kid mohair/silk blend lace weight, which is too fine to use by itself but blends wonderfully with anything to add highlights and 'hairy-ness.' Also included here is a mohair yarn, which is the best for yarn hair that closely mimics real hair.

A trip to your local yarn shop, if you are fortunate enough to have one close, will yield a gold mine of possible yarns for hair. There are also many places on the internet to get good yarn hair. A Child's Dream Come True is one of my favorites for mohair and single ply wool (they carry Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride, very similar to the Berroco Peruvia).

A hat and Bag for Free Spirit

Here is a very simple pattern for a skull cap and bag for Free Spirit. They are made from worsted weight cotton and a size F hook.

Skull cap and bag

Enjoy!

Basic Clothing for Free Spirit

The first clothing patterns I'm going to upload for the Free Spirit Amigurumi doll are for two different bodices and underwear. With these basic patterns, you can make tops, pants, dresses, just about anything. The two bodice patterns have instructions for making combinations (a type of underwear that combines the top and bottom, hence the name).

Side to side bodice pattern



Link bodice pattern






Underwear pattern

These garments are all made with size 10 crochet thread and a size 5 or 6 steel hook. Enjoy making these outfits, and coming up with designs of your own :-)

Free Spirit Amigurumi Doll Pattern

One of the things I've really wanted to do with this blog is to share some of my crochet doll patterns with other dollmakers and crocheters. Now that I've figured out how to link to a PDF file, I have the pattern available for my Free Spirit Amigurumi doll available.

Free Spirit Amigurumi Doll Pattern

This is a free pattern, you may make as many as you like and even sell them. I would ask that if you do sell them, you include my name as the designer of the pattern. This pattern is for the doll only. Soon, I will have available clothing patterns for her as well. The pattern is for this doll:


I also have some picture tutorials to go with this doll, since the PDF file only has the photo of the completed doll. The tutorials are located here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29184580@N04/collections/72157621892764268/

I would be happy for feedback, since I am the only one proofreading the instructions, and I hope you enjoy making this doll. She is simple, cute, and a lot of fun :-)

Making Eyes at You

I just discovered how easy and fun it is to paint your own eyes! I purchased several packages of 12mm clear eyes from CR's Crafts, and used acrylic paint that I had on hand.

I even painted dots in one pair of eyes :-) I'm not at all adept with a paint brush, but if you use a very small brush and a small amount of paint, it is easy to paint your own eyes.

My thanks to Michelle at Suncatcher Eyes for her tips on how to paint your own.

I've been working on a crochet doll design inspired by the doll Blythe. For those of you unfamiliar with Blythe, here is a flickr link to lots of photos of this rediscovered darling:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/blythe_unlimited/

It has taken several tweaks to get the pattern to my satisfaction. The picture below shows from left to right three iterations of this design. Jasmine with burgundy hair was my first attempt. Sophia in the center has better looking legs and a more defined body, but I thought she was too skinny. BleuBelle is the final iteration; her head is a bit bigger and she has a slightly fuller body. After I've proofread this pattern (that is, made a few by carefully following my own instructions) and I figure out how to link to a PDF file, I will make this pattern available here.
I also plan to create a number of outfits for this doll, an example of which is this '60's look with bell bottoms and tunic top. Since I don't own a Blythe, the dimensions of my doll are probably not the same, but then, this is a doll inspired by Blythe, but not meant to be a crochet copy.