Milly and Connie, New Doll Pattern

 Gosh, I have been so busy and I am sorry it has taken over a month for a new post.  I have had a lot of wedding work, which is very unusual for this time of year and I have been working on a new doll pattern.This is Milly and her sister Connie, I have wanted to try for a more up to date girl for a while and I felt that she needed a slimmer profile and longer length.  She has a very slim waist, (not like me) but a very large bottom, (just like me).  I liked the idea of a simple face with all embroidered detail, rather than a painted face as I usually do.  She has french knot and straight stitched eyes, embroidered eye lashes and brows and a very pert little felt mouth held by two co- ordinating straight stitches.  I like Jess Brown's girls but after several attempts I find sadly I just cannot work that loose and so she is still quite tight, with finely finished details. I greatly admire Jess Brown's style, they are so relaxed.  Her hair is still wool tops as I cannot find anything better to fit my style, I have given her a shorter neater bob and I have ideas for dolls with plaits and with differing hair.  I have only made two and they are still a work in progress but they are fun to make and offer endless variety in dress and styling.  I hope you like them.

Anna and Alina, First Dolls of the New Year

Can I wish everyone a very happy, peaceful and successful New Year.  We have just had a lovely family Christmas and I am getting ready for an exciting 2014.  Already had an enquiry for Valentine's Day!  These little girls are my first dolls of the New Year.  Anna is twelve inches tall and is stuffed firmly, she has a hand painted face, with hand embroidered eyelashes and eyebrows.  Her hair is hand styled and stitched in coordinating wool tops.  She is dressed in winter blues and greys and she wears ribbons and hand stitching.  She has a little hand stitched and embellished heart on her tummy.  Alina is eight inches tall and like her sister is dressed and embellished in winter blues, greys and ribbons.  They sit nicely together and will make lovely companions for a bed or a comfy chair.  Love the fabrics, they were a gift for Christmas and come form the Tilda range.  I've used them once before and would recommend them to all.  They are quite expensive but come in a great range of colours and coordinating patterns.

Winter Greys

Having had a very busy few weeks with Christmas orders, which is always great, I have spent a few days chilling out, reading and just sitting back.  I can only do that for so long so I started drawing the trees that look so imposing in the wood to the back of our little house.  The hues and changing tones of greys and blacks are just lovely this time of year.  I had all these pencil and charcoal drawings of overlapping and intertwining branches and I decided to change my perspective and got a metal rular and a scalpel and chopped the drawings into 5cm square mini drawings.  I then, with no reference to my original source selected one mini drawing and made a small hand and machine embroidery taken directly from the reduced image. I find the randomness of the finished embroidery and the small sample drawing rather endearing.  It relies on simply differing texture and strong line.  I painted gouache in greys and blacks onto some quaker cloth and then began to work randomly with the machine reflecting the texture in the drawing.  I made some 'machine made cord' for the strong vertical, I enjoy making them and they always add a sense of dimension when used in any work. I hand couched them on to the piece and then worked other hand stitches into the machine stitch, mainly fly stitch. I also used some wool thread I had dyed using alkanet.  This gives you a wonderful grey to black range nothing like any commercially bought thread. I really enjoyed making the embroidery, such a change from what I had done lately and I feel it really reflects some of the winter grey days we have been having here in Lancashire.  I would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and hope that it is a peaceful and successful New Year for everyone.  Best wishes.

Ida, a doll in navy blue and rabbit

This is Ida, she is little girl, she stands twelve inches tall and is made from tea dyed calico to my own pattern.  Her face is hand painted with acrylic and pencil crayon and then embroidered eye brows and eye lashes are stitched.  Her hair is made of soft fawn wool tops which is hand stitched and styled.  She has a wistful face, with one eye brow slightly raised as if she has just remembered something sweet and funny.  Her checkered legs and the heart she holds are made from a lovely fabric by fairtradefabric.co.uk, always well worth a look for plains, stripes and checks.  All cotton and all fair trade sourced. I bought the fabric for her dress at the Quilting Show at the NEC from a Japanese lady, all her fabrics were japanese and were quite, quite different in weight, style and weave from regular cotton lawns you see in the UK.  I particularly like the rabbits.  Her knickers and underskirt were made from my Uncle Jim's recycled walking shirt.  It's a really robust fabric, wonderful to work with and brings a handsome texture to her undergarments, I would have liked another metre of the fabric or an extra shirt it was so good to work.  But hey ho, you work with what you've got.  I hope you like her, she has real character and would make a lovely companion.

 

 

 

Esther, a tubby little rag doll for grown ups

This is Esther, she is a lovely tubby lady who stands 14 inches tall and who uses the last of my V&A fabric and the last of Aunty Irene's blouse!  She has a hand painted face and hand embroidered details and I love her blue hair, which is hand stitched and styled wool tops.  I am finding these tubby ladies very popular and thoroughly enjoy making them, from their curly hair to their little leather shoes.  I think they offer something other than pencil slim  and that is welcome. A little round lady ousing hearth and home.  I hope that all my girls are warm and companiable and that they bring a smile to your face.

Maud, a rag doll for grown ups

Maud is a tall girl, she is 16 inches tall and is dressed in new fabric from the V&A collection and from a blouse belonging to my Aunty Irene!  She carries a little heart and as always has little leather shoes.  I tried something different with her hair, she has plaits and a little head scarf, it gives her a country girl look.  I like the idea of a rag doll for grown ups, I mean that is what they are, but I had never thought to put so succinctly. I very happily sold my first doll on Folksy and that is how the lady who bought her, described her.  So here is Maud, a rag doll for grown ups.    

New Stitches Sampler

Having made the new little russian dolls and using different stitches I have been trying to think of different ways to make a sampler.  This was one solution I have found.  I sponge printed little blocks of colour onto quaker cloth and then using tonal threads I tried out some stitches that I wouldn't normally use on a sampler. Some of the stitches I tried included Velvet Stitch, Bullion Knots, Picots and Buttonhole Bars.  I particularly liked the Buttonhole Bars and the Brick Stitch, all the stitches could be used in many ways and thinking about how to use them is a challenge. I want to use more stitches in my work, I want to use the interesting textures that they make in a creative way. I don't think a sampler has to be just a band sampler or a victorian style sampler I think it can be different and I would like to find new ways to do this.   

Velvet Stitch

Bullion Knots

    

Buttonhole Bars

Woven Picots