Spring Cleaning

Ok, I definitely need to do some Spring cleaning around the house. Don't know if I'll actually get around to it or not, but at least I acknowledge the fact that it needs to be done. ... It's still the thought that counts, right?

Well, at least I'm going to try and get my craft room cleaned-up. I need space to make more stuff!

To try and accomplish my task, I'm having a Spring Cleaning Sale at my etsy shop, www.fun4me.etsy.com. During Spring 2010, I'm offering free shipping to the US!

I currently have over 20 dolls/plush that need a loving home!

As a bonus for also checking out my blog, I'll give you back 15% of the cost of your purchase. Just type in BLOG15 in the "Message to Seller" box when you checkout. I'll refund you (thru PayPal)15% of the purchase price.

Stop by, browse, shop, tell a friend, tweet, whatever!

www.fun4me.etsy.com

Wee Ones - Free Pattern and Tutorial

Another free pattern to download! These are my "Wee Ones". They are just under 4" tall when done.

These little dolls are super fast and easy to make and are a great teether for babies and a fun little toy for toddlers and small children.

I had a good time making them. I even made more than one (which is quite something for me).

Here's what you need to do to get the pattern: 1. Click on one of the below pattern pics to have it display larger; 2. Save it to your computer; 3. Print the picture to full size*, which is 8.5" wide by 11" tall; 4. Repeat with the second pic; 5. Make your own gaggle of Wee Ones!

*For this particular pattern, it is important that the pattern pieces be printed to scale with no sizing. You may know of a better way to do this, but this is how I know to print them full size: 1. Open a Word document (or whatever your word processing software is) that is 8.5"x11"; 2. Insert the picture; 3. Format the picture to be "In Front of Text"; 4. Resize the picture to cover the entire page; 5. Print the document from Word. Like I said, you may know of an easier way to do it, but that's what I've found that works.

Enjoy!

Pocket Baby Dolls

These little dolls were a creation that came about thru an exercise of simplicity. I wanted to make a fun little doll that was super easy to sew up and different from any of my other creations.

I've seen other handmade dolls with these cute little cheeks - I knew I wanted that feature. I wanted hair, but not felt, I've done that already and wanted to try something new. I also thought that if the arms and legs were made from the same pattern piece as the body, that would make finishing the doll even easier and faster. So, putting all that together, I came up with my Pocket Baby Doll pattern.

Now remember, these were supposed to be super easy - and they started out that way. ... I had a naked little baby doll that was essentially two pieces of fabric sewn together and some yarn for hair. Well, they aren't all that cute naked, so I decided that clothing was essential.

This was my first time to "design" a doll dress. I kept it simple. And I hope you'll agree, it made a huge difference!

I did spend quite a bit of time considering whether or not I had made the right decision to give them rectangle-ish heads, but I figured, "Why not?". I was looking for different when I started out, right?

I'm happy with the way my experiment turned out. They're still easy to make and still unique to the collection of dolls and patterns I've come up with so far.

If you'd like to make your own, you can find the pattern listed as "Pocket Baby Doll Pattern" in my etsy shop. http://www.fun4me.etsy.com/

Kooky Koko

Have you seen those sweet little amigurumi dolls wearing animal costumes? I'm in love with the ones on http://www.owlishly.etsy.com/.

I used to make all kinds of amigurumi (it's a lot of fun) - then I switched to sewing, I started making my own patterns and my yarn collection has gone untouched since. So, still being in love with these dolls wearing animal costumes, I really wanted to come up with a pattern and make my own.

This kooky doll, Koko, is what I came up with. Now, she doesn't have the same type of charm as those that originally inspired me, but she's my own take on the concept. First of all, she's asymmetrical in just about every way you can imagine (which was intentional). I never could decide if she should have a kitty tail or not - and since I couldn't figure out a way to attach one (short of just stitching it to the outside of her little bottom) - I went with the no tail option.

Koko fits into the first draft category for me - I'm considering the pattern a work in progress with future versions to follow. I'm open for suggestions if you have something. I'm thinking that maybe her kitty ears need some tweaking and that the felt piece for her face needs to be flipped to the opposite angle ... I don't know. I'll have to work on her some more. Unfortunately for my kooky kitties-to-be I came up with another pattern or two that I wanted to make. (And it seems that I have a thing for being fickle when it comes to which pattern I'm going to finish up.)

So, my kooky little Koko is left waiting for more friends who love wearing a kitty costume as much as she does. :)

Socks, Socks and More Socks

I had so much fun making my Fun & Funky Sock Dolls that every time I went to the store, I would look to see what kind of socks they had that would make a cute doll. Well, I bought several pairs of socks in those days. I had a stack of them actually. One of the biggest contributing factors was that my first sock doll pattern only used one sock. - So not only did I have pairs of socks lying around, I had several single socks left over from using just the one to make a doll.

The problem was that I was done making dolls from my first pattern. And I'm the type of person who, when I'm done with something, I'm done with it. So, there was no going back to make more of the same dolls out of the stack of socks I had accumulated.

I knew I had to come up with something else to do with socks just to justify having bought so many.

Well, I tossed around several ideas of animals and dolls that I could try to make a new sock pattern for. What I came up with was to make a sleepy & awake sock doll. I'd seen this type of doll made before - just not from socks.

I figured that all I had to do was to give a sock two heels and I'd have the two faces - one asleep and one awake. It took some imagining, but I came up with a plan to cut the heel from one sock and attach it to another sock to create the look that I was going for.

It turned out to not be quite as complicated as I was giving myself credit for, but nonetheless, I had my sleepy and awake doll made out of socks. I gave them two different hair styles and two different dress styles and voila, all done.

These dolls were fun to make and still had the benefit of being all hand stitching - which for some reason seems to be relaxing for me. If you'd like to give them a try, you can find them in my etsy store http://www.fun4me.etsy.com/ listed as Sleepy/Awake Sock Dolls Tutorial.

Fun & Funky Socks

Through my hours spent browsing etsy, I came across the cutest pattern for a Sock Kitty from http://www.cuddlet.etsy.com/. I bought the pattern and immediately made three different sock kitties. They were so much fun to make that I decided to give it a go at making my own style of doll from socks. What I came up with is now known as my Fun & Funky Sock Dolls Tutorial.

I had a lot of fun creating the pattern for these dolls and coming up with crazy new hairdo's for each one. They are super easy to sew up and I really enjoyed creating different faces to give each one her own personality.

Part of what I liked so much about making them was that they are all hand-sewn, so I wasn't in the back room sewing all evening. Instead I was sitting in the living room with my family enjoying their company while also getting to do something that was fun for me.