Tag Archives: knit

“Toasty Warm Holiday”

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It was quite a nippy morning when Millie and I had our photo shoot last week. Doesn’t she look toasty warm in her fuzzy hand made knitwear. She even has a little muff hand warmer, lucky girl.

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Did you have a muff hand warmer when you were young? I had one in white (most likely) rabbit fur when I was quite little. It had a little fox face on it which mesmerized me. To satisfy my curiosity, I went looking on ebay to see if I could find a muff like the one I remembered. This is what I found! I think I remembered correctly.

Millie’s muff is hand knit, and her bracelet is attached as the handle; it can dangle from her wrist.

Her dress is made with the same botanical holiday print as I recently used for Gracie’s “Holiday Botanicals” ensemble. Gracie’s was in a different colorway, a deep red background. You can see that one here. I think I like both colorways equally?

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Millie’s vintage-looking headband cap is extremely lacy looking and made to just covers the tips of her ears. A tiny bit of leaf embroidery and red tassels decorate the cap.

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The “light-as-a-feather” white mohair/silk sweater is embroidered with mirrored poinsettia motifs. The sleeves are more generously sized and give more of an outerwear look. The sweater closes with deep red glass pearls.

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Millie’s tiny gem of an ornament is made with an olivine AB bicone crystal and mother-of-pearl beads. A hand made red organza (matches dress sash) bow and hang tie is sewn onto a metal jewelry ring.

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I made Millie a teeny tiny white silk bow that I’ll include with the ensemble. It is too tiny for a clip or crocheted tie, so I attach it to her hair with a red tipped straight pin stuck parallel with the wig cap. The little bow in their hair reminds me of the actress, Rose Marie, (from the Dick Van Dyke show) that always wore a bow in her hair. BTW, Rose Marie is 93, and she has a Facebook page!

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This one-of-a-kind “Toasty Warm Holiday” ensemble made for Kaye Wigs “illies” or Millie, Tillie, Lillie (11″ BJDs) will be available November 16, 2016 at 7:00 pm CST, cindyricedesigns.com.

New Knitting Pattern For Amelia Thimble

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Your Amelia Thimble, and her friend Izzy, can now have all the dresses their little hearts’ desire. My knitting pattern for their a-line and party dress is now available on my website. Even if you don’t have these dolls these dresses make the cutest ornaments, miniatures, room box decorations, or simply hang them on branches in a vase. Let your imagination go wild! But be forewarned, they are addictive! For inspiration, here is the link to Amelia Thimble’s album on Flickr.

You’ll only need small bits of lace weight yarn to make these teeny tiny dresses. You can embellish them with embroidery, lace, ribbons. Have fun! Once you get going on them you can probably get all of your hand made gifts made in no time.

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In case you missed my first knitting pattern, Classic Cardigan, for Dianna Effner’s Little Darling dolls go here to check that one out.

Pattern is available as a pdf digital pattern; you’ll need a pdf reader application installed on your computer. Go to my website and click on the “Shop Patterns” tab.

Once you complete your Paypal payment, I will send the pattern as an attachment to your email address. Please make sure I have your correct email for sending the pattern to. There are no shipping charges and the pattern can be sent anywhere as long as you have an email address.

This pattern can be purchased on Ravelry.

Bit of News and “A Peek at Christmas”

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I’m wondering if you all have forgotten about my patterns that I promised to start writing! Definitely not! My first one is almost ready to be published. The pattern is written, but this morning I realized my cover photo may be too small pixel-wise, so I want to redo that. Also, there have been technical things that I needed “husband help” with. He needed to figure those things out when he wasn’t at work. New things always take time; it’s getting real close though. Thanks for being so patient with me!

I’ve been looking at my stack of Christmas fabrics for months now. I actually felt like starting to make something Christmas-y in August, but I held back. I didn’t want to skip making fall ensembles. But now, it is time to dive right into Christmas sewing!

My smiling Little Darling, Lucy, got the first ensemble for Christmas 2016! Lucky girl! I call this ensemble “A Peek at Christmas” because it is “just a bit” Christmas-y.

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This fabric is a lively red and green floral on a darker ivory ground. It is a cozy print, but not drab. My newest lace from England matched perfectly. I added it to the hemline for the green tights to peek through. A couple of red hand made bows at the hemline tie into the red waistline sash.

I felt this ensemble needed green tights, nothing else came close. For a whole day I worked on mixing and dyeing what I thought was the perfect shade of green. My fabric stayed in the dye bath for 1 1/2 hours; I stirred it every 15 minutes. Then, it stayed in the fix bath for another hour; I stirred that every 15 minutes too. The fabric came out uneven and, really too light. The next day, I kept my fingers crossed as I headed to the fabric store. Usually when I am looking for something in particular I don’t find it. Not only did I find the perfect green, I also found it in a different fabric; it’s a lighter weight Lycra® rayon blend; it has a bit of a sheen to it, so is a little bit dressy. And a bonus, it sewed up very nicely. Needless to say, this all made me very happy . . . and feeling lucky.

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For the sweater’s embroidery I used the same style of blossoms as on the fabric; I had tiny pearlized Delica beads that matched, so used those for the center of each blossom. Two shades of green and some burgundy bud flowers complete the mirrored embroidery. Mother-of-pearl beads in natural added the perfect touch for the buttons.

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A tinier version as what’s used for the sweater decorates the back of the dress as faux buttons.

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The last item I made to complete this ensemble was the crocheted drawstring bag. It is crocheted with the finest cotton thread in a color that matches the background of the fabric and the lace. For fun, I added a colorful and jingly dangle. Inside Lucy’s bag is her contribution the the Christmas tree, a bright red ornament!

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