China dolls

When I was a little girl I played with these dolls. I probably played with them more than any other toy that I ever owned. They're a bit grubby at the moment. They could use a good face washing.

I have put the Ottilia dress aside and have gone into high gear making doll clothes. Way too many doll clothes, probably. I seem to be making them all at once too. Usually I work on one project until it's done. Right now I am in the middle of 3 dresses, one skirt, two pairs of bloomers, a shirt and a couple of underskirts. Since the direction and patterns for the doll clothes are pretty minimal ( I have the pattern for a shirt front, pantaloons and sleeves only) my experiences in the past year are standing me in good stead. 

I'll post more about it as I sew along.

Ottilia in progress

How 70s is this going to be! I swear my older sister had a dress in this exact print. Only it was rayon or something slick like that instead of corduroy. 

Anyway, this has been such an exasperating project! I couldn't find the second sleeve cap OR the pattern for it, so I cut a new pattern and a new sleeve cap. Just after I finished sewing both sleeves together I noticed that .....the missing second sleeve cap was actually pinned to the first! How the heck did I miss that!

Anyway, now it appears that I did not cut front or back yoke pieces for the underdress and I can't find the pattern. I will now go and cut new patterns and new yoke pieces. Urk!

Here are the sleeves with the elastic casings visible on the underside. It should work fine, I am alittle worried about the fabric tearing, the corduroy is so delicate.

Apologies

I have been a very lax blogger this month. My cold knocked me out for a couple of weeks and then I cut out carbs which knocked me out for another week. The little energy that I've had since then has been devoted to working out and purging the house. We managed to clear out quite a few books as well as several bags of fabric.

However, I do have a dress cut and waiting to be sewn. It's Ottilia from Ottobre magazine. I'm doing it in a couple of interesting patterns of baby wale corduroy. I don't have some of the needed notions, transparent elastic being one of them. Since I now have some experience with using elastic in legs and sleeves, I think that I might instead use casings on the wrong side of the sleeves. It's just tidier, and no doubt feels better to the skin.

I'll probably get started on sewing up the Ottilia today.

Just too keep everyone entertained, here is a photo of the craft that I am currently working on --boiling the kitchen linens.

I cook with a lot of butter and I cook lots of meat so eventually the napkin and towels start smelling like the sheets in a massage studio --stale oil. Yuk! Boiling cleans it all off and leaves me with sparkling clean linen.

New inspiration!

Lovely! I received three back issues of Ottobre magazine in the mail yesterday! So exciting! Apparently all I was lacking was inspiration because I have already started tracing out patterns from each issue. Now my only problem is deciding which one to make first!

I seem to already have a favorite. I am thinking of making both girls the Ottilia dress below. Although the Oliver pants are a close second --how cute are they!

I also found a pattern at Goodwill for a doll dress with a bustle! How exciting. Just perfect for the china dolls that I played with as a child. If my children are very, very good, one day they will get to play with them too! 

Crocheted lace

Well, this is getting a bit ridiculous isn't it? I haven't done much of anything craft-wise in a couple of weeks. In lieu of actual honest-to-god new stuff that I have been working on, I give you ... crafts from college!

During my last year of school I started crocheting again. I learned to crochet as a small child and learned how to make really, really big granny squares. I generally told people they were baby blankets. I could crochet, I just couldn't start or stop the squares so I just kept going. 

In College a friend's mother was knitting lace. I was stunned. It was gorgeous! And she had patterns for crocheted lace. So I started crocheting again, but this time it was really, really tiny. I made yards and yards of the stuff. I made pillowcase and sheet edgings for several people but only kept one pillowcase edging for myself. Here it is on a satin pillowcase that I made for Willa. Apparently sleeping on satin keeps curls from snarling.

I have been working on another pillowcase edging, I though I would give Willa another pillowcase, but the lace is now too long and I hate ripping out. I'm waiting a decent interval before I take it apart.

Peaks Island Hood

This is the Peaks Island Hood by Ysolda. I bought the pattern on Ravelry.com 


This is the project that I started to keep my hands busy during Thanksgiving. It's pretty straightforward and involves long stretches of seed stitch, so it's great for watching movies.


Other than this I really haven't been making anything. I've been sick (a very nasty cold has been sitting in our house), we had Thanksgiving break which coincided with an inch of snow that shut down the city for 3 days and made sure that everyone was stuck together in the house for most of Thanksgiving week. 


I am singularly uninspired by the projects that I picked out to make for the girls this holiday season. Maybe I'll change gears and make them fun slippers instead. Willa has also requested some mom-made shirts. Apparently when she tries to wear an entirely mom-made outfit she only has one shirt to choose from. I do have one shirt underway, Hermosa from Studio Tantrum, but it's in fleece which I don't think is what Willa had in mind. 


Mostly I just think that I have phlegm in the head from my cold and it's making me all foggy and unable to work.