We're back in business

So I'm learning the hard way that not all document readers are created equal :-) Of course, for crochet patterns it is not an issue, but with a sewing pattern it is quite important that what you print out is scaled properly.

To that end, the Prairie Flowers doll pattern is back on the site with these recommendations when printing out the pattern:

First, use Adobe's Acrobat Reader (free) to view and print the patterns. If you do not have this reader, you can get it here (you will need to know the operating system you are using on your computer):

http://get.adobe.com/reader/otherversions/

And next, when you get ready to print the pattern, on the Print page you must set the "Page Scaling" (about the middle of the page) to NONE. This will allow the pattern to be printed out just as I drew it. If this is not the default, change it to NONE, otherwise you will get a small, blank border around the pattern that will change the scaling of the pattern pieces.

I hope this hasn't screwed anyone up. I'm getting ready to test this on both Windows and Mac operating systems (I use Linux, which I doubt many of you are using). I don't expect there to be any problems, but you never know with computers...

Back to the drawing board

This will be a quick post. When I created the PDF file for the Prairie Flowers cloth doll pattern, the pattern became distorted. I only found this out as I was creating the clothing patterns. Not sure if this is occurring when I export the file to PDF, or when I print it out with my document viewer.

At any rate, I've removed the pattern from the site for now in order to get it 'right.' If you have copied it already, I would not use the pattern and wait until I have the corrected pattern up and available. It won't take long...the pattern is fine until it gets turned into a PDF, so if nothing else I will make it available as a Word document.

I'm so sorry if any of you have already started making the doll. The pattern would still make a cute doll, she just wouldn't be quite the right size for her clothes :-(

Prairie Flowers, an original cloth doll

Last spring I designed a cloth doll I called Prairie Flowers. She is a simple cloth doll, 11 1/2 inches tall, made from 100% woven cotton material. Above is Lillian, one of the dolls I made a year ago.

I've come back to these cloth dolls, to make the pattern available, and to see what kind of different looks can be achieved with this cloth doll pattern.

The pattern for the doll is located here:

Prairie Flowers Doll Pattern

A picture tutorial for making the doll is located here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29184580@N04/sets/72157623903215816/

The pattern for the doll is a 'template' that is traced onto freezer paper (available here: http://www.dollmakersjourney.com/supplies.html, near the bottom of the page). Trace the pattern to the non-shiny side of the freezer paper, cut out, and iron the pattern to the fabric. The edge of the template is the sewing line, so make sure to leave plenty of space between pattern pieces for the seam allowance.






After the pattern pieces have been sewn and turned, stuff the pieces with your favorite stuffing material. I've mentioned this before, but the best way to stuff a cloth doll is to lightly dampen the pieces with a mist of water. Work the material in your hands after it is dampened, and stuff the body firmly. Dampening the material will help to eliminate wrinkles when you stuff.






It is also VERY important to pay attention to the stretch of your fabric, and how you lay the pattern pieces on the material. These two bodies were made from the same pattern piece; but one was laid on the fabric with the stretch along the length of the body, and the other with the stretch running from side to side. The pattern pieces are marked how they should be placed. Before ironing them on, stretch your material along the grain and across it to determine which way the maximum stretch runs.

After all the parts are nicely stuffed, it is time to make the face, and perhaps add a touch of embroidery to the neckline of the doll. The tutorial shows a way to make the faces you see here; they are a combination of paint (for the iris and pupil of the eye), embroidery (mouth, nose, eyebrows, and iris), and crayon, to blush the cheeks. It is easier to do this and the embroidery before the limbs are attached to the doll.


Two new Prairie Flowers :-) I called them this because of the flowers embroidered around the neckline.

An Awesome Opportunity

My family and I had the awesome opportunity to hear Kevin Ford, pilot of STS-128, talk about his adventure aboard the space shuttle Discovery.

Their mission launched last August, 2009 to the International Space Station and took 15,000 lbs of supplies, experiments, and equipment, and performed three space walks. They also took Nicole Stott to the ISS as a space station crewmember, and returned Tim Kopra.

Kevin was informative, funny, and gracious. It was terrific.

Thanks to my brother-in-law Roger for the pictures. I'm the wannabe with the braid :-)

Adorable Annies by De Powell

A friend on the 'Friends of Cloth Dolls' message board shared a link to these adorable Annie patterns a few months ago. In addition to crocheting, I also love to make cloth dolls, and De Powells Annies have snagged my heart. I've been working on the pattern 'Goody, Goody, Gumdrop,' which makes two Annies, a 10" and a 12".


Here are the body pieces for the 10" and 12" doll all stuffed and closed up. A great tip for stuffing a doll like this nice and smooth, with no wrinkles, is to spray the cloth with water from a simple spray bottle, before stuffing. Work the misted water into the fiber of the cloth, especially around the neck and head, then stuff. Keep the body slightly damp (not soaked), and stuff hard. You'll be amazed at how much better your stuffed doll body will look. Gail Wilson shared this tip on her website.




Here are the girls with their painted and embroidered faces, and all the limbs assembled :-)







And here we have very simple wigs. De uses a very simple wigging technique. If you want more hair coverage on the back of the head, you can just make a crochet chain a few chains long and hook your hair strands into this. Stitch it down to the back of the head and pull up the ponytails. Either way is very cute.






With bows in our hair, and our pretty matching bloomers. The clothing patterns for these dolls are very simple, but work up very nice.




And here are the completed dolls, all ready to warm the heart of a child, regardless of her age :-)

A change of pace

I had the good fortune to be able to take a dollmaking class from Gail Wilson a couple of weeks ago. The doll we made was a cloth bodied doll with papier mache head, arms, and legs, inspired by Jane Austen. The papier mache pieces were poured and cast by Gail. We students got to paint the papier mache pieces, including the face detailing, and assemble and dress the doll.

Oh yes, there was also a wonderful wide brimmed bonnet that Gail showed us how to make from needlepoint canvas. Truly creative and the perfect touch for Jane.


It was a wonderful class. We worked from 10:oo am until 5:3opm, with a break for a delicious lunch served at the class. By the end of the day I think all of us had painted a lovely doll. Assembly was left as an excersize for the student at home :-) The bodies had been pre-sewn, so all that needed to be done was stuff the body and attach the head plate, arms and legs.





Instead of sewing for my doll, I decided to crochet her a sweet set of underwear and camisole, and a Regency gown, and trim her bonnet with crochet lace.

Here is Jane in her crochet underwear. I almost hate to put a dress over it all :-)







Closeup of Jane's crochet trimmed bonnet and crochet camisole. You may recognize the style of the camisole, I love the way the side-to-side crochet fits the body, especially when worked in the back loops only.




And finally, Jane in her Regency gown. It took a little while to crochet this, using size 20 crochet cotton and a size 8 steel hook. It amazes me that with Gail's guidance a person who is paint-brush challenged (like me) can produce a very credible painted doll. Gail has a way of inspiring confidence in the most timid :-) She is a natural teacher and a wonderfully gifted dollmaker. It was a great class.

To find out all of the neat things that Gail is up to, visit her web site at:

https://www.gailwilsondesigns.com/index.html

A quick post

Someone asked how much yarn it takes to make one of the Free Spirit dolls, both the original 12 inch doll and the seven inch Mini.

I can get at least two of the larger dolls out of a 3 oz skein of worsted weight yarn, and three mini's out of the same.

Hope this information is helpful, and enjoy the crochet :-)

My BJD Doppleganger

I don't know how many of you have been bitten by the ABJD (Asian Ball Jointed doll) bug, but I have. These dolls are made of resin, and have joints in the ankles, knees, hips, wrists, elbow, shoulder, and neck. They are amazingly pose-able, and the joints also make them surprisingly easy to dress.

The lovely BJD above is 16 cm (6.3 inches) tall, which is shorter than the Mini Free Spirit. Since what I really love doing is making dolls, I wanted to make a doll about the same size; at least, the same body dimensions as the BJD (her name is Sidney, by the way). The crochet doll next to Sidney is a Little Mini (her name is Violet); she was crocheted with sportweight yarn (Patons Astra) and a size C crochet hook. She's a little taller than Sidney, but her torso, legs, and arms are closely the same size.



This is Sidney in her lacy Camisole and Pantaloons. They were made from the Mini Free Spirit pattern, but I used a finer thread, (size 20 crochet cotton, instead of size 10), and a smaller hook (size 8 steel hook)








This is Sidney's crochet doppleganger, Violet, wearing the same Camisole and Pantaloons. So, Little Mini can wear clothing made from the Mini Free Spirit pattern using the finer thread and smaller hook. I also love her elf ears :-)





A trousseau of clothing made for Sidney, and shared with Violet.

Mini Nature Spirits

I was playing around on Wikipedia the other day, and came across this entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_legendary_creatures

It is a list of names of legendary creatures, from all different cultures; Asian, American Indian, European, you get the idea. It also gave me the idea to use the Mini Free Spirit pattern as a base for a collection of Nature Spirits, or in this case, Mini Nature Spirits :-)




Some of the modifications are very simple, like changing the ears to Elf ears or using a different shape and color for the eye surround, like these two. In warm colors is the Fire Spirit, Phoenix, from the Phoenician firebird, and in green is the Tree Spirit Canotila, from the Lakota (American Indian). I also love the effect of beads, so these two have beaded faces and beading on their clothing.








Other modifications take a little longer. These are not hard, but they are a bit more involved. Meet Melusine the Mermaid (from Medieval England) and Adhene the Centaur (from the Island of Man). In both of these cases, the Mini Free Spirit body was crocheted without the legs, and the Mermaid tail or Centaur body crocheted separately and then sewn or crocheted to the body.

I have created a pattern that has these modifications to the mini Free Spirit pattern as a series of separate changes, so you might want to use the Centaur ears and make a Cat person, or use Elf ears for a Mermaid and so on. The pattern is here, and also on the left sidebar of the blog page under the Mini Free Spirit patterns:

Mini Nature Spirits Pattern: 

This PDF has more pictures in it, so it is a bit larger than most.

Enjoy the crochet!