Author Archives: Cindy Rice

About Cindy Rice

My wonderful husband, my beautiful daughter, and I live in northeastern Illinois with our two sweet chihuahua boys. For as long as I can remember I have loved dolls and making things. I got my first Barbie when I was only three years old! My mom sewed for my Barbie dolls and taught me how to use her sewing machine when I was only seven. I cannot believe she let me near that needle, but she did. Not having enough money for my clothes habit in high school and college led me to start sewing all of my own clothes. There were so many fabric stores around back then and fabric was so inexpensive. I would wait for the 99 cent pattern sale and go crazy. Sewing for myself continued well into my 30’s. (I even made my wedding gown and bridesmaid dresses.) Shortly after I got married I left my full time graphic design position and started designing cross stitch patterns. I called my company “The Lilac Studio” and sold my botanical patterns at trade shows, through distributors which sold to retail shops, and mail order. My most popular pattern, “A Bouquet of Pansies” sold 5000 copies and won a J&P Coats Golden Needle Award! I was also featured in various cross stitch magazines and designed special projects for the magazines. When my daughter was born I didn’t have the time needed to cross stitch and design patterns all day long so I let my pattern design business slip away. And then I started discovering dolls again and I now had an excuse to start buying them. The only problem was that they were for my daughter and not for me. I soon discovered all of the adult collectors out there and decided I would be one of them. I started small at first, collecting Mattel Kelly dolls. Soon I collected over 100 Kelly dolls! After Kelly, I discovered Helen Kish’s Riley and Tonner’s Ann Estelle. I have since learned to knit doll sweaters and love an excuse to knit so most of my doll outfits include a sweater and/or hat. I love creating miniature outfits for dolls and enjoy sharing them with others. Currently I create doll ensembles for Ruby Red Fashion Friends, Kish Bethany, Dianna Effner's Little Darlings, Wilde Imagination's teeny tiny Amelia, Kaye Wiggs BJD, Boneka 10", Linda Macario's Penny.

It’s Sugar’s Turn

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It’s been a while since Sugar has had something new and she is super happy that it is her turn.

In case you are not familiar with this doll, Sugar is a BJD from Fairyland. She is almost 4-1/2″ tall, so she is quite tiny.

Sugar isn’t much taller than teeny tiny Amelia, but she is so much easier to pose. For instance, both of them are standing in a metal wagon and since Sugar has little magnets embedded into her feet she sticks (even while wearing these Kelly doll shoes) to the wagon. Even if the wagon wasn’t metal she still poses so much easier. Sugar is less kicky than Amelia and seems to stay when she is posed. Miss Amelia LOVES to sit in my hand to model and tends to throw herself on the floor if I don’t oblige her. LOL I have never had any tantrums with Sugar.

Sugar’s dress is almost as tiny as Amelia Thimble’s dress.

My Pukipuki dress is in the middle. For more information on purchasing this dress/hat set, please visit my “Available for Sale” page at cindyricedesigns.com .

A “Bitsy Pumpkin Patch”

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I know that I’ve been talking Christmas, Christmas, Christmas all week. Let’s get back to reality for a bit…

Here’s the first of my teeny tiny dress/hat sets. This one is made just for Wilde Imagination’s Amelia Thimble and Izzy dolls.

I knit this dress and hat out of lace weight merino/silk yarn that I dyed to a light pumpkin color. I added five bullion stitched pumpkins, tiny brown stems, lazy daisy green leaves, some blades of grass, and yellow blossoms along the hemline (Amelia has a little corsage blossom on her left shoulder too). For a different look, this hat is a bit “less deep” than the other two in the series and sits more atop the head. Like the others, it has a fuzzy mohair stem, crocheted leaf, and curly tendrils.

“When are we visiting the pumpkin patch?”, asks Amelia.

Time for a rest… this modeling business is hard work!

The “Bitsy Pumpkin Patch” dress/hat set (the dress on the right) is now available for sale on my website, click on the “Available for Sale” page when you get there. (The middle dress, for Pukipuki, and the Amelia Thimble dress on the left will be available in the coming days.)

Oh, I did get some sewing done yesterday. I now have my first Christmas dress made along with the sweater and hat. Now, for the fun and creative part–adding the finishing touches and making everything “just so”.

Bye for now! Thanks for reading.

Hope you had a great day!

This and That…

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My tiny pumpkin dresses are all finished. There are two for Amelia Thimble and Izzy, and one for Fairyland’s Pukipuki. I still have to write website pages for them. They will probably be available for sale one at a time, so stay tuned.

Talyssa got her bangs cut yesterday. I was looking at photos of her on Pinterest (I’m not sure who to credit with the photo) and was captivated by this photo of her with bangs. I think it makes her look a lot younger, and cuter.

Who likes spiders? I like that they are good for the garden, but I find them creepy, to say the least. I looked out the window yesterday evening and in the middle of a 3′ x 3′ (at least) web sat this HUGE spider. After I took the photos, I went back out with a ruler, he was gone. I am guessing him to be about an inch long, the biggest that I’ve ever seen. Anyone know what kind of spider this is? My daughter and husband couldn’t believe how close I had to get to him to take this picture; I didn’t have a zoom lens on my camera, so he was about a foot away from the camera!

September is National Sewing Month and the only things that I have sewn this month are three pair of tights! Sew… I am going to sew today! I need a dress to go with the Christmas sweater and hat that I have been working on.

Bye for now! Hope you have a great day!