Monthly Archives: September 2015

Fabric, Fabric, and More Fabric

Within the past few weeks I have gotten (I don’t know how many) multiple deliveries of fabric. (I don’t even remember all of the sites that I have ordered from as I keep finding more and more online stores with cute fabric.) Anyway, I’ve been looking at this ever increasing pile of yummy colors and cute prints knowing that it will be a while until I am able to start using them, but I wanted to show them to you now anyway because they are too pretty not to share.

As always, there are a few here that I am not sure about, a few that I am super excited about, and the in betweens that will work just fine and perhaps even surprise me with the end result.

It can be hard buying fabric online because it is a guessing game as to if it will work for doll clothes or not. Luckily, 1/2 yard of fabric isn’t too expensive, so if it doesn’t work for doll sewing it might work for a quilt or other project in the future.

Here are a couple of things that I do when shopping for fabric online. To assess the scale of a particular fabric, I enlarge the swatch on my screen to actual size. On my Macbook I hold down the command key and use two fingers to swipe up on the track pad until I reach the desired size. (If I go too far I simply swipe my fingers downward.) Usually there is a ruler laying alongside the swatch, the swatch size is noted, or a size is given for one of the motifs. Having a little ruler handy helps here. Sometimes I will hold the doll up to the screen to get an even better feel for the scale of the fabric. If I am unsure of the color or would like to see more photos of the print I will go to the manufacturer’s website, Facebook page, or look up the designer. Most designers have their own social media sites these days (blogs, Facebook, Instagram, website) and you can see alternate photos of their fabric collection.

Here are a few photos from some of my new fabrics.

Can you tell that I LOVE fabric? My motto (and this is why I have too much) is that if you fall in love with a certain fabric don’t hesitate because it will all be gone in no time. And, probably the biggest reason of all as to why I have too much fabric is that I always try to get free shipping. Who wants to pay for shipping when that cost could go for more fabric, right? LOL

Hope you enjoyed the newest additions to my ever expanding fabric stash.

If you have any online fabric shopping tips that you’d like to share, please do, I’d love to hear them.

Bye for today!

A Happy Fall & Memories for a Special Person’s Birthday

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Happy Fall to everyone! Yes, it’s here even though it still feels like summer here in northern Illinois. I wonder does it look like fall anywhere? Here it is still very lush and green due to all of the rain we’ve gotten recently. With the exception of a few leaves here and there, I cannot find any golden, reddish, or orange hued trees yet.

My Grandma was one of the most special people in my life. It would have been her 103rd birthday today. She’s been gone 8 years and I still miss her as much as ever. She was only 48 years old when I was born and we always lived close by, so we spent lots and lots of time with her and my grandpa; I have tons of wonderful memories of her.

I looked for photos of her and I together and sadly there are very few. I think it was because she was always preparing meals and taking care of everyone; she hardly ever sat down. Here’s one of her helping me eat soup. She was always making soup and to this day I love soup and make it more than anything else.

She had a little garden in the back of their two flat in a Chicago suburb where they lived in the 1960s. When I got older she would send me out to her lettuce patch to pick leaf lettuce for dinner. I still use her vinegar and oil dressing recipe for my salads. This is her recipe from so long ago. I keep it in the refrigerator and use as needed. The olive oil gets solidified in the frig, but 30 seconds in the microwave makes it pourable again.

Vinegar and Oil Salad Dressing

2 oz. apple cider vinegar

2 oz. olive oil

4 oz. water

1 t. garlic powder

1 t. salt

a sweetener, my Grandma used Sweet and Low, but I use 15 drops of Stevia.

Shake up everything in a salad dressing shaker or jar and pour on salad as desired.

Oh, I just thought of this story she told me a few years before she passed. She NEVER ever had a doll! Do you believe it? Well, I couldn’t believe it, so for her next birthday I hand painted a round wooden box to look like a cake and placed some Kelly dolls inside dressed in the types of outfits I was making at the time. She was so happy and displayed the little dolls on a shelf in her apartment. She always supported my creative passions.

Happy Birthday Grandma and I miss you SO MUCH!

Love you, Grandma! ❤ ❤ ❤

Thanks so much for reading along and sharing a few of my memories of my Grandma. Who do you have from your childhood who was extra special in your life?

Christmas Ensembles from Years Past

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Last week I showed you my Christmas ensembles from 2014. I was able to finish quite a few last year, but not as many as I would like to complete this year; after all they are the my favorite holiday themed ensembles to create.

So, last year wasn’t bad, but this is what happens when I don’t start early enough, plan ahead, have a goal, etc. You get the picture. These are from 2012 and 2013 with most being made for Amelia Thimble, so are tiny and much quicker to make. I plan on doing much better this year!

Patience got her one and only (so far) fun Christmas set in 2013.

I made two Christmas ensembles for Kish Bethany in 2012. This first one is more formal than the one my blonde Bethany is wearing. I think that this was probably the first sweater I made out of the mohair/silk lace yarn that I use so much now.

This was the second outfit that I made for my then new (2013) Pukipuki Sugar doll from Fairyland. I was tickled pink at how the jingle bell stayed on her hand due to the tiny magnets embedded in her palms.

And Amelia Thimble got a dress to match Sugar’s.

In 2013, I discovered that taking photos in front of our Christmas tree looked rather pretty, don’t you think?

This dress for Amelia was meant to look like she was wearing a wrapped present in unique Christmas colors. I took my color inspiration from the tiny wrapped present props.

Here’s another made with a unique Christmas color palette and embroidered with red and pink poinsettias.

And another in blue with holly and pink Christmas roses.

The green dress for Amelia was made to be a Christmas tree with tiny embroidered ornaments on it. I even painstakingly embroidered tiny gold loops so that the ornaments could hang from the ribbon garland. By the way, it is not fun at all to embroider with metallic thread. I’ve never used it again, that is how much “fun” it is.

I’ve always loved pink poinsettias!

As you can see, I made lots of Christmas sets for Amelia Thimble.

Doesn’t that snowy background look lovely? Well, maybe not yet…

Bye for now, and thank you so much for reading along with me and looking at the Christmas photos of my past work. No wonder Amelia Thimble is a spoiled little thing!

Oh, and enjoy the last official day of summer!!!