Pippin- the world traveler.

With school out, garden season sick kids and still dealing with the affects of  the Lyme treatment,  i've had to put my dolls on the back burner for a while. i look forward to rainy days when i have an excuse to stay inside and sew. Unfortunately we haven't had a lot of rain lately, and there isn't any in the forecast until mid next week. 

This is the one i was working on last month. i decided to name her Pippin, because she looks very hobbity to me. My first thoughts were that she was a quiet homebody, who loved good food and good company. i can picture her in a little hobbit hole with a vegetable garden and cottage style flower garden.  She seemed a little boring though, and i wasn't sure what she needed to bring out her personality.  i made her a felt bag with a tree applique', but didn't like it at all.  She needed patchwork!

So i made her a little patchwork bag, and shoes and suddenly i knew she needed a hat as well!!

Although she is mostly a quiet homebody, she has a 'Tookish side' and can not pass up a good adventure.  :)  So she is my world traveler, that loves to explore new places but is always happy to come home to her little hobbit hole and her garden. 

 i've been checking the decorative boxes at the craft store, i would LOVE to find a suitcase style box or steamer trunk to package her in.  So far, i've been able to find one that is the right size, but i'm constantly looking.

i still have a few details to finish up on her, but she will be available for purchase soon.

Doll making Journey- April

At the beginning of the year i decided to finally put my focus into my dolls and commit to making and selling them. It's really been a process and a long time coming. i dealt with some insecurity issues, and problems with the pattern but have finally created a pattern that i am really happy with and am creating doll that i'm confident selling. 

River was the first to sell.  The mama that purchased her wanted to sweater and extra outfit, plus owl hat and bag. i was so pleased with it all. She just came out amazing, it was very hard to let her go. i truly become quite attached to these dolls. i know she was heading to a wonderful home and i'm sure the family that received her loves her as much as i do. 

"She arrived!!!! Oh my god, she's even more beautiful and amazing than the beautiful photos. Tree, you are not charging enough. I don't know how you do it. All the details on the doll herself and then the flowers on the shoes, the beaded necklace!!!! Melody is so happy and she loves her soo much. Oh, the underwear!!"

This is why i love to make dolls.

So, what did i do with the money i earned from my first doll sale? Bought more materials of course!! i order from Weirdolls.com which is out of Ann Arbor Michigan, my old stomping ground. :)  i grew up in a town just south of Ann Arbor. 

i'm a disappointed that they are discontinuing their organic interlock knit. i still have some of the peach/blush and i purchased a few yards of the tan, but they are selling out quick and won't be restocking it. i'm not sure where else to purchase the organic, but i'm going to keep looking. i wanted some other skin tones, so i also bought some of the mocha and cocoa fabric.  i love the mohair boucle yarn and picked up several different colors of that as well.  Doll making supplies are very exciting! i can't wait to make some beautiful dolls!

i currently have lots of doll parts, dresses, sweaters and shoes made up and ready to go.  i can sew these parts pretty quickly, but the actually construction of the dolls takes a good amount of time, and then the finishing takes even longer.  i'd like to eventually get some custom cloth tags made for these with my business logo on them. Sometimes the finished dolls sit around for a week or two before i have a vision of who they are and then am able to pick the outfit and accessories that bring out their personality. i have several that have been sitting here for over a month, just waiting patiently for the perfect sweater or bag. i love the process of figuring them out, and really am not in a hurry to finish them. It will happen, everything in it's own time.

i recently finished and sold my second doll.  i had named her Juniper, but the mama that purchased her requested a name change to Luna.   So this is Luna, although i still think of her as Juniper. :) 

 i made several sweaters before deciding on this one. i was afraid the purple was too much with her purple hair. The wooden tree branch button helps to bring some of the brown into it, and the headband is made from the same fabric of her dress and breaks up all the purple from her hair.

Of course now i'm totally in love with her. She is a little bit spunky, care-free and fun-loving. She loves to gather fresh herbs and wildflowers.

She is made with the organic cotton knit, stuffed with clean carded wool and her hair is a wool/mohair blend. She's wearing a batik dress with matching headband and purple tie dyed bloomers. Her bag and shoes are eco-fi felt.

i would really like to eventually start using the wool felt for the shoes and bags. i bought some felt sheets a few years ago and they were too thick to use.  Perhaps the next time i put in a supply order i'll get a few sheets from Weirdolls to see if it works better than the stuff i had before.

This is the latest girl i'm working on. She is quite hobbity looking. i named her Molly, because something about her she reminds me of  Molly Weasley.  i gave her a skirt instead of bloomers, but think i may change it to a patchwork skirt instead of the solid green. She is very earthy, and will have a bag with trees or leaves on it. Still working through the process, but eager to see her personality emerge. 

With spring here, i'm having a bit of trouble staying focused on the dolls. So much garden work to do, butterflies to chase and birds to watch. :)  i cherish the rainy days though, and do as much sewing as i can on those days. i'm still feeling very good about the direction i'm heading with these, and am excited to keep creating! By adding a beaded necklace and crocheted sweater to each doll, i'm able to continue sewing, beading and crocheting and don't feel completely limited to one craft. i really feel in my heart like this is what i was meant to be doing. 

Doll progress.

i'm really happy with my doll progress and hope to have a few available for sale soon. i admit, i really like to take my time and 'get to know' each doll before finding them forever homes. i tend to change the outfits/hairstyles several times before i'm completely happy with them. 

This is the batch i started back in February. The dolls themselves are done, except a couple still need hair sewn on, but most are just waiting on the details. Finding the perfect outfit, shoes and accessories...all the things that give them personality. i'm in no hurry to finish them though. They are a labor of love, and at this point the only benefit to selling them is that i'll have money to buy more supplies so i can make more. :)

i do have a few i'd like to introduce you to though.

This is River, she is a free spirit with unruly hair and a love of the out doors.

She's wearing gorgeous batik cotton fabrics, is wearing a hand beaded mandala pendant and has a felt bag and shoes.

This is Muriel.  She has a big imagination and loves to pretend play, dance and do anything creative.     Her batik dress is in bright rainbow colors, and she has rainbow streaks in her hair as well.  

This is Madeline, although she prefers to go by Maddie. She is a bit shy at first, but warms up once she gets to know you. She loves spending time in the garden or curled up with a good book. Her dragonfly dress has a corduroy heart appliqued on it, and she's wearing matching corduroy pants and felt garden boots.  She is carrying a handmade rope basket filled with needle felted carrots.

So as you a can see, a lot goes into these. Much more than just sewing together fabric. Each doll has a personality waiting to come out. Some are quite obvious, but others take a bit more time.

i know i've mentioned before that i am enjoying the 'process' of doll making, and i truly am. i look forward to finishing up the others and seeing their personalities come together. i hope soon i'll be seeing pictures of these dolls in their forever homes with the smiling children that have adopted them.  

Back to Dolls Again.

Making dolls is one of those things i seem to always come back to. i started making rag dolls several years before i had children. Then was my daughter was born i fell in love with Waldorf style dolls, but they weren't affordable and so i decided to learn to make them.

i made her a new doll every year for her birthday. In this photo all of the dolls are made by me except the one on the far right. The first two on the left i made for her before she was even born.  The second one from the right is the first waldorf style doll i ever made. 

This one was made in 2012 for her 6th birthday, but was lost a year later in our house fire along with all of her other dolls.

These are the dolls i made for her 2013, 2014 and 2015.  As ,much as i loved the Waldorf look i really struggled with them.  i had thought about making them to sell, but just never felt that confident with the pattern and really struggled with them.

This year i decided to try again, but instead of following the Waldorf patterns i had been using before i went back to my old rag doll pattern.  i used what i had learned from the Waldorf technique of sculpting heads and combined it with a pattern i was more comfortable with.   Just like that- it all seemed to come together.  The areas i struggled with before are no longer a problem and i'm very happy with how the dolls are turning out.

The last few weeks i've been working on them non-stop. i have 7 almost completed and 3 more started. i'm really enjoying the process of seeing them come together. i'm still just trying to find and perfect shoe and sweater patterns, details like bags and hats etc.  The dolls typically go through several outfit changes before i figured out their personality. Then i begin to add the extras.

These girls are waiting on shoes and bags. The doll on the left will probably have another outfit change, as i'm not really loving the pastels on her.  

This one was my least favorite of the bunch until i figured out her personality, and then she just came together perfectly. 

Every year i start off making dolls, then abandon them once gardening season starts. This year i'm really trying to stick with it.  i feel like this is the year, this is what i am meant to be doing right now. i truly do love the process of seeing them come together, now i just need to work on the finishing process and actually listing them for sale. :) Everything in it's own time.