Look. I grew up with cabbage patch dolls. I ADORE cabbage patch dolls. But wtf is up with their business lately?? Raise your hand if you’ve purchased a doll lately. Chances are the room is not full of raised hands. They are VERY hard to find in stores, and when you do see them, they are very specific looks and styles, that are hard to customize or change. If you want a 17-20” doll (like my childhood) you can order online. Those beauties are $69.99 flipping dollars. The ones in store (like Walmart or target) are 14” and range between $22.99-$45.99 depending on where you shop. They are limited release and if you miss out on one, people are selling them online for hundreds of dollars. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND why the cabbage patch people are focusing on adoptimals. No one has a flipping key from their doll, so that’s not a selling point. The little cutie mini plastic toys are cute, but I mainly think so due to my love of my baby doll that I used to feed are dress like she were real. I spend 6 hours today trying to find a 14” doll thatbhad medium blonde/ light brown hair and brown eyes to match my youngest child. I might have chipped in for the 20” doll, but I had already purchased one for my older two children and didn’t want a size discrepancy. (Jealously, you know). I could rant more about how they’re not being the best doll company they could be (they could rival American girl if they quit doing these bullshirt side projects) but I will bite my youngest for now. But the BEST part of dollies in general is dressing them up!! If anyone has any good 14” cabbage patch doll patterns, let me know, but in the mean time, here is what I have mocked up, as I was unable to search a good pattern out on Pinterest. My goal is to make these into pdf’s eventually, but as of now, they are jpeg photos of printer paper. If you can print this with no margins, it should be good. GOOD LUCK! 👍🍀
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So, it's the first week of school. My daughter comes home for the first weekend break, and on Friday night, late before bed, she declares "oh! One of my assignments is to cover my math book!" Ok. No problem. Except... "Oops. I left the book at school!" This isn't really relevant to the project, except it gave up plenty of time to decide what cover to make. She just started reading the Harry Potter books after years of prodding and buzzed through 1-4. She's working on 5, but school slows the process down. We decided to have a mini-marathon and checked out 1-3 at the library (4 is on HBO. Why only that one, though? Really??) Bada-bing, bada-boom, long story short, the epiphany "LETS MAKE A CARE OF MAGICAL CREATURES FURRY COVER!!" So we made a run to Joanns. She picked the furry fabric, what kid of eyes it would have and how many, and if we would add any more specific movie details. I measured and folded, she helped cut. I got glued, while she held things in place. It's completely held in place by hot glue. I should take some fashion photos of it later, but don't want to wait to post this. I hope it holds the whole school year, or at least as long as her new love of HP will allow. I can give more details if anyone needs help constructing it. I could also make and sell one to those of us who aren't as craft-talented. Craft-ilicious? Craft-macncheese? Craft-ka-teer? Whatever. I should have an etsy site, but I'm too lazy. 6/20/2015 0 Comments Double stroller canopy trimI made this cool canopy cover for my double stroller. I've felt frustrated with the sun coverage for a while and now that it's summer i thought I'd do my kids a favor and provide an option for more shade. I've always felt that most strollers don't have a good system for blocking sun. These Rinky-dink, stumpy canopies that don't stretch out hardly at all seem like a waste of space. 5/28/2015 0 Comments Baby clothes from free patternshttp://www.purlbee.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Baby_Sun_Bonnet_Template_V2.pdf http://toddah.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/ToddAh_LilLeggingsPatterns.pdf I made one thing, but was skeptical and didn't take pics. But it turned out nicely and now I don't have pictures to show the process. I'll work on it for the next item. This is very much still "in progress" but got stuck in the closet for the time being. 3/28/2015 0 Comments Little girls dress with smockingCruzing my local craigslist and I come across an add looking for someone to finish a sewing project for hire. I reply and set up a meet to learn more. Well, this mans mother has recently passed. He's been going through her belongings and came across a half finished little girls dress. He has the idea that it would be a brilliant gift for his sister who has a daughter, rather than leave it unfinished. Sort of like one last present from grandma, from beyond the grave. It's actually a sweet story, it's almost enough to get past the ugly fabric. Lol Well, I had never worked with smocking before, and there were no instructions, and some of the pieces were missing. So beyond this being a cheery little project, it transforms into more of a brain game. Cue mortal combat music and narration: SEAMSTRESS CHALLENGE So here's what I get... There's a yoke front cut, a random piece with smocking, a skirt back cut, two sleeves, and a yoke back. There's no collar, no indication of how it's going to be pulled over a head, and no clear indication of where the smocking goes and why it's so much shorter than the front yoke. So I search the Internet for examples. Sometimes the smocking is found in the top yoke. Sometimes it's below the yoke in a band, and sometimes there are additional pieces on the sides where it attaches to the arms. The band below the yoke from armsye to armsye is the most popular, but it seemed too short. I asked around and my cousin said she thought I could cut the gathering stitches (which I was hesitant to do). BUT IT WORKED! Well, it had to be stretched and ironed, since it was a bit springy. I decided to use a lining fabric to use as a guide, and to keep the lumpy smocking from being itchy. And to save you from the rest of the brain storming and sewing issues, I finally got it finished. I promised a week and took a month and a half. But most of that was procrastinating. It was quite the teaser, and I wish I had handled some of the issues differently, but it's done and he was happy. So I should be content. 12/7/2014 0 Comments Christmas fabric garlandI started working on this a while back. It ended up going through several iterations before landing on this. I could give you a list of what didn't ended up working. But it turned out pretty nice. All the fabric edges are raw. The fabric was more flexible left alone, and I figure I'm not washing it anyways. I took a 2 inch strip of fleece and cut slits in it every 1 inch or so, then pulled the fabric through. I cut varying lengths and widths. I used twist ties to join fabrics on the back side, but I probably could have stitched them together. Then I added my fleece roses and "scarf" strips with hot glue. I also had a square of crochet that I sewed into tubes and weaved in. I think it turned out pretty nice. Like an ugly sweater, happy but tidy, sweet crafty Christmas. I wish I had ornaments to match. *Star Trek quiet book* I saw this on Pinterest: http://juliegillrie.blogspot.de/2011/09/my-star-trek-quiet-book.html?m=1 And it's an adorable little project! I was excited to make one for my own little one. But I had a few issues. 1) turns out, I hate embroidering things. And hand stitching? That's for the birds. 2) I didn't want to mix original series and TNG. 3) I wanted to see if I could include more exploratory tactile things. So I used this as a base and made a few changes. My plan was to stitch all the parts together, but if I had to do that this project would already be in the trash. Against my perfectionism, I decided to glue. And not only that but the fastest glue I know, HOT glue! I can zip through this thing in no time! It adds bulk though. And it has the potential to melt things or glob up or become less flexible. I'm trying to spread it thin though. It's hopefully secure enough to withstand a toddler. 12/4/2014 0 Comments IKEA chair slipcoverI didn't make a tutorial, I'm just showing off part of my Christmas decor. We have a kids chair from ikea sitting near our fireplace. It's never been covered yet, with the exception of draping fabric around it to decide what I liked. But I got excited to follow through with the last trip to hobby lobby* when I was holding one of our new stockings, in hand, to match to. I wanted to find something that matched our stockings, would be cheap, cozy, not too cheesy, and a hint of manly. Maybe when I make a cover for the non holiday season, I can show how I made it. (Hint: it was the cheapest, laziest way I could thing of). I wish I had rounded the corners of the top pillow, but I don't want to fix it. *Whereas I choose not to boycott Hobby Lobby, I don't agree with their political views. |
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