From little things...big things Bloom. Making Peg Dolls - the book tour continues!

This post brings me such delight. Two years ago, maybe a little more, I recieved a comment on this blog which read something along the lines of "I have an idea. Please email me". The author of that comment was Margaret Bloom of we bloom here, her idea was a swap, a peg doll swap. In the months that followed I made a firm and treasured friend and my house slowly but surely became home to dozens of tiny peg dolls...

In the years since, our family collection of tiny peg dolls has grown beyond the walls of the little doll house they first populated. They now peek out of bookshelves, stand tall on windowsills and dance upon tables. I find them in baskets and tiny boxes, in pockets and bags... in the bathroom and in beds. They never fail to make me smile.

And then, one day Margaret told me she was writing a book. A book to be filled with the little people and sprites, gnomes and creatures that were filling her house too! Over what felt like an eternity she fed me with little morsels and pictures that made me croon. I can't remember a time I was so restless with anticipation.

From the very beginning my favourite was the Michaelmas dragon; I can't explain why but I LOVE it. For me there was no question, it was going to be the first doll I made when I had my hands on the book.

And then it arrived :) The book feels great in my hands. It is weighty and bursting with colour and cuteness! There are step by step instructions to make over 60 different dolls - dolls for every season, dolls for festivals, story telling and sheer sweetness. Patterns made to follow exactly or inspire new ideas. Doodle pages and painting tips, snippets of stories to make you want to read more. All things to make you smile.

I am so gratified to be part of Margaret's Making Peg Dolls blog tour (tho it is very likely I would have sulked and refused to answer emails if she had not invited me). I hope to do her creativity and cleverness credit with this little story crafted from a few wooden peg dolls, a bit of paint, felt, silk and just a little twist on the patterns in her book.

Tell me a story - The Paper Bag Princess

 by Robert Munsch & Michael Martchenko

Once there was a beautiful princess (Elizabeth). She lived in a castle and had expensive princess clothes. She was going to marry a prince named Ronald.

Unfortunately, a dragon smashed her castle, burnt all her clothes with his fiery breath, and carried off Prince Ronald.

Elizabeth decided to chase the dragon and get Ronald back. She looked everywhere for something to wear but the only thing she could find that was not burnt, was a paper bag. So she put on the paper bag and followed the dragon....

 

...Finally Elizabeth came to a cave with a large door that had a huge knocker on it. She took hold of the knocker and banged on the door. The dragon stuck his nose out of the door and said. 'Well a princess! I love to eat princesses.....'

Elizabeth is a resourceful and clever princess and the dragon is a bit of a flaunt - 'is it true, said Elizabeth, 'that you can burn up ten forests with your fiery breath?' 'Oh yes,' said the dragon....

At this point I must abandon my story telling because I don't want to ruin the middle or the ending! It was not my intention that you would read this post and immediately sucumb to the overwhelming desire to buy two books - just one! The Paper Bag Princess has a most fabulous and unconventional ending and can be found free and well loved on the shelves of your local library. Making Peg Dolls by Margaret Bloom on the other hand is so new it is nowhere near a library shelf and will be so well love by you and yours, you would never want to return it anyway!

You can get your very own copy from one of these places -

• Amazon
• The Book Depository
• Barnes & Noble
• Waldorf Books
• Powell's
• Booktopia

You can get more sneak peeks and treats by browsing the official blog tour -


February 4th:  The Crafty Crow
February 5th:  The Magic Onions
February 6th:  The Toymaker
February 7th:  Clean
February 8th:  Anna Branford
February 11th:  Red Bird Crafts
February 12th:  Art is a Way
February 13th:  Softearth's World
February 14th:  Chocolate Eyes
February 15th:  Rhythm and Rhyme
February 18th:  Wild Faerie Caps
February 19th:  Sacred Dirt
 

 

Almost time... turn your volume up and whistle along

At the end of the month you could have your very own copy! Want one? Have a little look here

Pyjama Party

A week or two ago the big girl's piano teacher had piles of quality clothes all over her music room, she said she was clearing cupboard space and was asking just $2 an item. We found four beautiful little cardigans that fit nicely, a pretty skirt and a pair of funky PJs.. think we spent $12.

Now the big girl is not as long in the leg as a ladies size extra small and the shirt from the PJ's was never going to fit (besides a t-shirt is much more comfy to wear to bed than a shirt) so I hemmed the pants for her - draw string waist so no problem there.

I grabbed a pair of PJ pants from the wee one's drawer and set about making a matching sister pair.

I think it took less than an hour from inception to done. No hems either because I used the bottom of the shirt for the bottom of the pants!

They are cute yes?

When the pants were done, I still had two sleeves of fabric left... hmmmm

A bedtime sleeping companion of 10 years deserves a new pair of PJs every now and then too don't you think? (I made some for the wee one's doll too but she won't get the doll or its pants til her birthday)

The making of a belly button (a tutorial)

I give all the dolls I make a belly button. Perhaps it is the midwife in me; a belly button makes it someone's baby - a remnant of the maternal link...

Belly buttons are scar tissue, an indentation (innie) or protrustion (outie), made where the umbilical cord broke away from the abdomen. The size and shape of a belly button has nothing to do with clamping, tying, cutting or not - it is what it is. It is not genetic and you can't blame the midwife.

To make a little button for your baby doll you will need a small piece of scrap body fabric a couple of inches long and less than an inch wide, sharp scissors and a needle and thread. You doll should be stuffed but preferably without its head yet on (Tho I have done it when the doll is complete, it can be a bit fiddlier tis all).

Along the long side, fold the fabric into thirds and begin whip stitching the sides so that it kind of makes a flat tube.

When you have stitched about an inch, roll (scroll) the tube so your stitches are on the inside and whip stitch the bottom to hold it in place.

Keep rolling and stitching til you get it the size and shape you want then snip off the excess fabric on a diagonal and carefull fold in the raw edges and neatly stitch in place.

Then try it on for size and pick your position.

To start with, secure your spot on the abdomen with a couple of stitches (I don't cut my threads between the making of and the placing on so it is pretty secure) and then secure the belly button by working around in ladder stitch three or four times.

First through the lower edge of the button

and then through the skin of the abdomen.

You can be sure that inquisitive fingers will pull at and play with the belly button so be sure it is on tight! To finish I like to pull it and make a bit of an indent. To do that I come up through the center of the button and then back down into the abdomen stuffing. Now depending on the length of your thread and your preference you can either come down and out somewhere in the groin or up through the neck hole - either way make sure you catch plenty of stuffing and then turn around and go back where you came out and back into the belly button.

Tie it off really securely, make three knots, and then bury your thread into the body somewhere before snipping off.

She doesn't look so cute headless, and armless but I tell you she has a VERY cute bottom!

Angels and acorns and other pretty things for Christmas

These were my final swap offerings for 2011; each has arrived safely in its new home so I am not ruining any surprises.

We Bloom Here hosted a little angel swap; I was pretty pleased with my little creations and didn't really want to post them... but well what would I do with three baby angels floating on little clouds with sliver linings?

I collected the feathers for their wings, over a few mornings from the down of my Lavender Aracuna left amongst the hay under her nightly perch.

cute little belly buttons, yes?

My partners were Fruits of the Heart; she blogged her creations here

 Little Gnomes Home who made a sweet little peg doll angel and a felted star

The third is a non-blogger and her parcel is still traveling.

And way back even longer ago Natural Suburbia hosted a Christmas ornament swap.

These were my decorative offerings ~

 and in return I received about a dozen of the most perfect little acorn nests - I love them! My partner was a non blogger but her name is Shannon and she is a bit clever.

Making dolls with friends

I have kinda skipped out of craft group; still in touch by email but haven't gone along on a Wednesday all term. I was ready for a change, it had stopped being fun and was becoming a chore ~ a clear sign to move on.

A couple of friends from playgroup ask if I would help guide them in the creation of a doll each for their daughter's third birthdays - just a week apart in early October "Sure, that could be fun".

Neither of them are sewers or crafters and both were pretty anxious but also very keen. Monday nights were put aside and my very good friend Tanya of Love Bytes Photography gave us a beautiful space in her studio to hold our doll making evenings.

If you have ever made a doll, fluffling out wool to form a head, think back to your first time...remember what all that wool looked like?

Making a head, especially the first time, is hard work and it is nice to have friends along for encouragement - look how pleased these two look when they had all that wool compacted nicely into their stockings.

 What started as two quicky grew to six keen doll makers plus me... so I shut the door; we were running out of comfy couch space!

The first two finished their dolls with a few days breathing space before their daughter's respective birthdays - I think they were both very pleased with themselves - their dolls are beautiful, full of love and very much loved by their new mummies.

Daisy was 'born' first

and a few days later Simonie made her appearance

I hope to show you pictures of the other women's dolls I have 'midwifed' - they are in a mad race to the finish line as birthdays and Christmas loom large.

While standing at the ready to help I made a couple of dolls myself... They were quite an experiment, big dolls with tails, aka Mermaids.

First I hand dyed some cotton velour and then drew a couple of tail patterns to fit the body patterns I already had. I also hand dyed their hair...so they are well and truely hand made!

I was just putting the finishing touches to the one above when A friend announced "she is mine". Her daughter's birthday was at the very end of last month and she declared her a perfect gift; she named her Isabelle.

I made the second mermaid with a straight rather than curved tail and I gave her a nose because I have been wanting to experiment more with noses since the little winter icicle gnomes.

 

She is for sale in the local Steiner inspired toy shop Nature Play (also online and facebook) if you are interested.

Wednesday Craft Group ~ Lady Spring

Look who's here it's Lady Spring

Lady Spring, Lady Spring.

Look who's here it's Lady Spring

Lady Spring is here.

Come and dance said Lady Spring

Lady Spring, Lady Spring.

Come and dance said Lady Spring

We're off to dance and sing.

by Vicky Kearney                                           

I have wanted to make one of these sweet little fleece standing dolls for such a long time. I bought the book Making Magical Fairy-tale Puppets last year sometime but just never seemed to get round to it.

Then Penny just went ahead and made one, two, three for herself and brought this one along to show us.

We were all suitably impressed with her cleverness and decided next craft group we were all going to have a go at making one too (she promised to offer guidance, tho instisted it would be the blind leading the blind).

They are so simple (well apart from getting the head right which is a bit fiddly) no sewing required. Everyone got at least one finished in the couple of hours, even with wee ones wiggling on hips and knees. I may have cheated a bit, my Lady Spring doubles as Snow White in the off season....

The one with the yellow dress, was a blending of talents ~ Vicky, our Steiner playgroup leader is having a birthday this weekend ...she now has a Lady Spring, to dance and sing.

It is not too late to join in my pincishion swap ~ I seriously considered sticking a few pins into Lady Spring to illustrate the point but then thought better of it, some things should just not be made into pincushions.