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.

Good Morning!

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Good morning and Happy Sunday, friends! I was up to see the first light of the day this morning. Although with these shorter days one doesn’t need to get up very early to see the first light of the day. I took this a little after 6am. I love being up before it is light, do you?

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Yesterday morning, however, I was up a bit later, and instead of the first light I caught the sun welcoming the day. It was a very frosty morning. The landscape looked as though sugar had been sprinkled upon it.

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When we start getting snow I start filling the bird feeder. This is the second fill which is almost gone. Hmm, maybe the squirrels could answer that question.

2019 fall squirrel feeder 0902 I have finally finished up this blue sweater dress ensemble. I would like Gina to model it, but she is wearing another that needs photographing, so that will have to wait a bit.

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Here are my three girls in the other sweater dress ensembles I’ve recently made. Don’t they look festive and warm?

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A couple of weeks ago, and while we had snow on the ground, I visited the Chicago Botanic Gardens. They were very busy setting up for Lightscape, so some places were roped off. I walked around the Dwarf Conifer Garden which is the perfect place when there is snow on the ground. It feels so very Christmasy.

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I also visited the greenhouses. I wanted to ‘feel summer’ again, and I did. The warmth and humidity in the tropical greenhouse felt so nice.

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Happy Thanksgiving to all my U.S. readers! Wishing you safe travels if you are traveling.

❤

Winter?Autumn? and WIPs

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Winter has bullied its way in, and pushed our beautiful autumnal season out! 😦

*sigh*

It doesn’t seem like our 7-inch snowfall on Halloween was a fluke either. The snow did melt (none too quick though–took a few days!), however, we are still colder than normal and the rooftops are dusted white once again this morning.

I took these pics the day after our big Halloween event!

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You can see autumn didn’t get to finish its ‘work’ this year.

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Even our front porch squirrels got Halloween snow dumped on them!

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So, anyway… Hello! On a positive note, with this weather comes more time to spend indoors and create, right? I’ve got lots of things in progress. (Probably too many, as my head is starting to feel a bit jumbled–better get some of these things moved to the ‘completed’ list.)

I showed you this dress as it was being knit. I finished it, blocked it, then tried it on my Little Darling. The sleeves were too long and a little too wide. 😦 I figured out where I wanted to decrease the sleeves, and then ripped back to that row. Two decreases and four rows less on each sleeve did the trick. It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be.

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I spent the day on Sunday sewing dresses for Gracie and Talyssa, my Kaye Wiggs MSD girls. I quickly realized that I am out of practice sewing for them–the first dress came out too tight around the waist–no room for the added bulk of a pair of snaps. If I add a bead and loop closure it could work, but going to put it aside for now.

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After this ‘fail’, and so I wouldn’t ruminate over it, I quickly made another and the second dress worked fine. Yay! It turns out my skirt width for the first dress was too wide and added too much bulk (with the gathers) to the waist.

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While in my studio sewing I snapped a few photos of my dolls and their ensembles that were pretty-ing up my view.

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Today I’ll probably do some knitting on the cardigan that will accompany the red snowflake dress and start weaving in ends on my three sweater dresses that are waiting to be completed.

I might also brave the cold and go out for an invigorating autumn, or I should say wintery, walk in my neighborhood. Also, a pot of homemade soup simmering on the stove would be perfect today.

How about you? What are your plans for the day?

❤

Thank you for stopping by!

Merry Halloween!

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Hello my friends, and Happy Halloween!

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However…, I must add that it looks like Christmas here in northern Illinois.

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It snowed last night, is still snowing, and will be snowing for trick-or-treating. The way it’s blowing around as it comes down makes it look like a little blizzard out there. I cannot remember a Halloween with snow. Trick-or-treating in a snowstorm seems like a novel experience. Maybe it will be fun for some–at least I hope so; we have lots of candy.

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It is beautiful, as all first snowfalls of the season are!

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Many trees still have leaves on their branches which are being weighed down by the wet snow! I hope they don’t break.

This is what Patience thinks of all the snow.

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To see more of this ensemble from 2013 click here for the blog post.

I plan to stay home today and sew! The dresses for the Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes are coming along. I worked many hours on them yesterday getting the pockets sewn on and the neckline ties made. All I have left to do to finish them is to sew up the back seams, stitch the neck casings/insert the ties, and stitch hems.

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I’d also like to get started sewing a Christmas dress for one of my girls today. Up to now my 2019 Christmas dresses have all been knitted sweater dresses. I just finished this blue one for the Little Darlings which is blocking. I changed up my sweater dress pattern slightly by nipping in the waist and rearranging the increases for the a-line skirt. I added thin mohair bands of ‘fur’ for all the edgings.

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