Home Again!

My first blog in my new home, back in Tasmania.  Can't believe we've been back nearly 4 months, feels like we never left!  We've had the inside painted, putting up gates to keep Darcy in and getting new blinds made, so not much dolly making, but I'm trying to get back into a routine.

In the meantime, I'm now on Facebook - it's going to help me keep in contact with the family and friends back on the mainland and let them see what I've been making.  If you're on FB I'd love to be your friend - it's like the old days of pen pals - remember those??

I'm going to post next weekend with what I've been making, but until then here's a little taste.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

I know it's a bit early but I won't get a chance later as I'm busy getting ready for my move back to Tasmania, so sorry it's been a while since my last post.

We have to be out of the house by 14 December and so I've been packing and trying to catch up with long lost Sydney friends - dolly making has been way down the list of things to do!!

Well spend Christmas and New Year here with family before driving down to Melbourne to catch the ferry to Devonport.

Anyway, this will be my last post till I'm in my new home in January so wishing all of you a wonderful Christmas full of love and of course the best presents ..... and ..... the best start to 2013.

Three Heads - Part 2 - Painted

Snow Day!!

It's spring here BUT we had a magical winter snow day.  It doesn't really snow here just the occassional sprinkle of sleet which is the tail end of snow that gets blown towards us from the west.

So Friday was an amazing once in 10 years event when our mountain became covered in snow.  This cold blast was blown up from the Antartic and managed to turn even parts of Queensland slightly white.

These are just a couple of the photos my husband took of the house and garden.  It was a trully beautiful morning - it started about 6am and then by 2.00pm the sun came out and by 5.00pm most of it was gone. But snow fights did happen and snowmen were made!!

Three Heads and Two Ideas

 

Last Christmas I made little stars from fabric and then appliqued faces onto them.  I painted quite a few of these faces and thought I'd make some more for this year for presents ....... I had forgotten how cute they look. 

They gave me an idea for a teddy bear using the painted faces, but I have 3 paperclay heads I'm working on - one for a Queen Anne style doll and the other two were just question marks.  I decided to cut the shoulder plate off the larger head and plan to use it for another teddy bear idea and which ever head I don't use for the Queen Anne will also become teddy bear-ed ........... so watch this space......... I'm just a little excited and hoping my ideas will equal reality!!!

Nearly Headless Noddy

Emergency surgery will be performed in the next few days on my little boy's toys.  As you can see Noddy toy is looking more like a giant cloth Pez dispenser (there's an idea for a toy.......) and poor Garfield toy has lost an eye.

They are well and trully loved and have been operated on before but for minor maulings only.

Noddy's head will be re-attached with only a slight scar along the neck and Garfield will need an eye patch ........................ but all of this will happen as soon as I can get Darcy away from them.....he loves them very much and every time I go to pick them up he thinks it's play time and grabs them from me.  (That's his little nose in the corner of the first photo - he's getting ready!!)

I'm going to have needle and thread ready for when he's having one of his power naps!!

Don't ya just love that smile?

Teddy Bear and Cat Making 101

It's been a while since the last time I drew up my own pattern for a teddy bear and I must confess that attempt left me a little embarrassed. But knowing that I needed a cat to complete Sophia so she matched the photo I used for the Maida challenge and wanting to create Baby Bear to complete Goldilocks I searched the net and found two teddy bear makers whose work I just love.

They are Sharie from Sreetzbears (http://sreetzbears.blogspot.com.au/) and Vivianne Galli (http://vivianne-galli.blogspot.com.au/).  I just love their naive, old fashioned feel so I bought a couple of their patterns and taking some tips I drew up the patterns for Puss and Baby Bear.

Whilst the tips were very helpful it was still a long process for me as dolly making comes a little easier ................. but practice makes perfect so I do intend to make more in the future.  Puss was probably the most challenging as making the gusset for the belly area left me scratching my heard – trying to pin here and pin there didn’t work – it took me ages to work that out – but in the end all I did was flatten out a little the body halves which I had sewn together and then drew an outline of where the edges touched the paper – easy!!

Heads mean gussets through the middle so how do you do this??  Well, I ended up drawing the side head panel and then using a piece of string and marker – running the string along the edge of head I drew up a gusset – measuring to points along the head where I wanted the gusset to match the muzzle and at other points around the head.  The only other question was how wide did I want the gusset – wide for a baby bear shape or really high forehead (again like a baby bear shape).  I chose the wide version as this is what came first (i’ll try the high forehead next time).

Puss’ mohair was already dyed when I purchased it but Baby Bear was a white sassy mohair which I hand dyed using Sharie’s technique.  Very satisfying if you love working with paints.

Anyway hope you like the end results – I must say after several months of trial and lots of error I am very happy with how they both turned out.  Both couples will be listed on my Etsy if you’d like to see more pictures (and sorry about the blurry ones!)