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.

I was inspired by those cute little party dresses with the poofy feather skirts that you see everywhere these days. I didn’t want to use feathers though for tiny Amelia. This super kid mohair lace weight yarn seemed like it might give the effect I wanted and it did knit in garter stitch. I had matching bamboo and mohair in white and pink so made a party dress out of each. I love how frilly and delicate these dresses are. They are the perfect winter party dresses.

I kept the embroidery colors as delicate as possible while still looking colorful. The little lazy daisy bow adds tiny waistline embellishment.

I felt these dresses were much too fancy for a knit hat so I made embroidered knit headbands to finish off her party ready look. Sweet Amelia Thimble told me that she feels so pretty modeling these dresses. I told her she is always pretty, inside and out.

For more information on these dresses please visit my website, Cindy Rice Designs.

Wilde Imagination’s Patience and Amelia Thimble dolls are here to show you their brand new sister set that I just completed for them. I used this corduroy print once last year making an outfit for Helen Kish’s Bethany doll and loved working with these colors so much that I decided to use it again for Patience. Of course if Patience gets a new outfit then Amelia gets a coordinating set too. The embroidery on this set is a different stitch for me. Because the flowers are pastel on a darker yarn I had to make them more solid so they would show up nicely. I put a lazy daisy stitch around straight stitches and was very happy with the end result. Does anyone know if this stitch has a name?

To see more pictures and for more information on these outfits, please visit cindyricedesigns.com.