Crafty Sheep

My dearest readers,

I’m having a bit of a problem. I’ve finally taken up my knitting needles again and have been working on Mima’s wardrobe a bit. Not a problem as such, but here it is: I don’t quite know what to think of the combination tunic-trousers-cardi. Don’t get me wrong; I love the cardi. I knitted it especially for Mima. But now that the trousers & tunic combination is almost ready, I’m having second thoughts. So – this is where you come in.

With the cardi:

Or without:

What do you think? First one to answer gets a felt strawberry (just kidding!)

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I must be the slowest (I was going to write sewer, but that just didn’t sound… right ) seamstress on earth. It took me one whole morning to complete a strawberry! And I’ve been slaving away at a donut all evening today… Phew.

Yes, you guessed it, December in  August. And at the rate I’m going, it’s a good thing I’m starting early this year, or I’ll never ever get those December presents ready in time! We’re planning on gifting the little ones a play kitchen (which still *ahem* has to be built as well, unless we decide to be lazy cowards and get the IKEA one), and while I’ve been squirreling away various objects over the course of this year (kitchen utensils, a cake stand, the sweetest  porcelain polka dotted tea set), what has been sadly lacking so far is food. Which will be remedied in due time. One hopes.

I’m back to my stitching now, but I’ll leave you with a link to a VERY useful tutorial on making a neat blanket stitch, essential for slow sewers seamstresses.

Futuregirl’s Hand Sew Felt Using Blanket Stitch Tutorial.

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I think I am going crazy – I distinctly remember seeing two new comments last night, but this morning, they’re not there anymore. So – Karina and Juliane, my apologies! I think my weblog was hungry and ate them? Very strange, this… *scratches head*

Anyway, to answer your question Karina, I don’t sell patterns or kits, I’m afraid. But seeing as you’re hunting dollmaking supplies in Australia, you may want to get in touch with Little Jenny Wren, a dollmaker who’s in Australia as well. She may be able to point you in the right direction!

And Juliane – thank you! I’d be honoured if you used my tutorial for your classes! Please let me know if there’s anything that’s unclear or unlogical. I think I just thought of an inconsistency between the two tutorials this morning – need to check and will report on it here.

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A couple of people have told me they had problems covering the back of their doll’s head when using my tutorial, and since I remember having the exact same problem when I first started making this kind of hair, I thought I’d clarify!

I haven’t got my original model Lina here at the moment, since she’s still hanging out at my friend Stefanie’s house, probably drinking Summer cocktails and thoroughly enjoying herself!

Fortunately, Mina offered to take her place. Thank you Mina!

The trick with getting the back of the head covered is to add enough yarn as a whole, especially at the back. Also, having more than one layer helps.

What I do is this: my first layer of yarn, spread out from the front to the back of the head, covers the doll from forehead to about halfway down the back of her head. I stitch this down in the middle, until just below the crown, bunching up the surplus yarn at the back as I stitch (because it originally went halfway down when spread out, and I’m now securing it until just below the crown, I’ve got some extra yarn).  After it has been secured, I fingercomb this extra yarn down the back of the head, starting at the crown. Unfortunately, I can’t show you any pictures of this part right now, as most of my dolls-in-progress are still in boxes waiting to be unpacked! But I hope my description will be sufficient for now.

The next step is to stitch this first layer all around the head as usual, starting at the side, at eye level,  making sure to gradually dip down a bit when you reach the back of the head, and up again to the other side. Like this:

And seen from the back:

This should leave you with a well covered head!

A ‘regular’ second or even third layer of yarn, stitched down just in the middle, will make it look even better.

See?

And combed down, it’ll look like this:

I hope this helps! Please let me know if there’s anything that’s still unclear, and I’ll do my best to clarify things a bit more!

© Meike, August 2009.

**Feel free to link to this tutorial , but please do not upload it to your own site / duplicate it in print. **

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We’re there… We made it! Yay!

All my crafty stuff (well almost all, I managed to unpack exactly one box of yarn before deciding that I really need more storage place!) is still in boxes, and I’m having a helluva time deciding where to put it all… And all the while I am looking at what other folks are making and my fingers just itch to have a go at it too… I’m dying to make some new dolls, finish some knitting! BUT work comes first.

I can tell you though that I’ve got my own little room now to go crafty in. With a pull-down IKEA table to sew on… Yeah! No more sewing machine in the living room! Pictures soon, I promise, just as soon as everything’s unpacked and tidy.

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