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.

“You Are My Sunshine”

3 Replies

My sweet and sunny Talyssa is here to show you her new springtime outfit and I’m hoping that she is bringing the sunshine with her too. We can never have too much sunshine, can we?

My Talyssa is a fair skinned Kaye Wiggs doll and I must say that these colors look beautiful on her. As soon as I put this piece of fabric next to her face I knew that this print would be for her. She looks the best in warm and bright colors. Oh, what a cutie pie she is!I made Talyssa a little basket where she can put the tiny blossoms that she finds while out and about. It’s no secret that my dolls love to collect flowers, is it?

Her light and airy crocheted hat keeps the bright sun out of her eyes.

While I was taking these pictures of her I was reminded of Anne of Green Gables.

For more information on Talyssa’s “You Are My Sunshine” ensemble please visit my “Available for Sale” page on cindyricedesigns.com .

On Making Sweater Dresses

7 Replies

Oh, how I wish I were a faster knitter! My favorite things to make for dolls are sweater dresses and out of all of the pieces I knit, sew, and crochet they take the longest. So, so many stitches, and the finer the gauge the more stitches that are needed to complete the dress.

I could probably knit 3-4 sweaters in the time it takes to knit ONE dress, oh, but I LOVE them so. Who knows why! A beautiful doll in a hand knit and embroidered dress is the sweetest sight to me.

This bamboo dress I just made for the Little Darlings is knit on smaller needles than what I normally use for my bamboo sweaters. I thought it would need a tighter gauge to keep all of these stitches in shape. Anyway, it took “a while” to knit so I quickly counted up my stitches, 10,000+. That’s a lot of knitting!

Once I had (finally) finished knitting the sweater dress it wasn’t time to celebrate even though I felt that I should. I had a blank canvas staring at me. Unlike embroidering a sweater to coordinate with a dress I had nothing to go on, only my imagination and a lot of real estate. Where to put the embroidery? What colors to use? I was tempted to procrastinate as I wasn’t really sure where to start. But, no, nothing gets done then, except maybe a lot of snacking and who needs that?

Start with what you know has become my mantra whenever I feel like a little procrastination and snacking is in order. I knew I wanted pink roses centered on the front bodice so I embroidered those on first. After embroidering the pink roses under the neckline, the rest of the design and color palette came together quickly. 🙂 It’s funny how the hardest part is starting something where the end result is unknown.

For more information, on Gina’s “Springtime Roses” ensemble please visit my “Available for Sale” page on cindyricedesigns.com .

“Sunshine Day” for the Little Darlings

6 Replies

Since sunshiny days are so difficult to find this spring, I made a new ensemble for the Little Darlings that is filled with the warmth of yellows and pinks. It’s sure to brighten your day as it did mine while I was making this set.

The photo below highlights how delicate my mohair/silk lace sweaters are. It is especially difficult to embroider on such an open knit as the embroidery threads easily show through to the front of the sweater.

(The lemon yellow/pink roses remind me of strawberry lemonade.)

I had the perfect colors of bicone crystals in my stash (thanks to my sister’s bead destashing last summer) to use for the bracelet; pastel blue, yellow, and pink match perfectly and add a bit of sparkle. I also found a pastel yellow Swarovski crystal butterfly that matched the bicone crystals and used it for the end of the purse’s dangle. Since there isn’t a heart on the bracelet I sewed a pink heart to the inside of the purse to show that this ensemble was made with love.