Exploring Dollmaking

Here's some attempts a making dolls. I started with Amelia & Corrie:

For these dolls I followed a great tutorial from Quaint and Quirky's blog (http://quaintandquirky.blogspot.com/). This is when I really knew I needed help - my machine-sewing skills are not great so both doll heads turned out resembling E.T. (my husband's observation)!

Then I worked on this one:

This is Eddie. He's from the book "Wee Wonderfuls: 24 Dolls to Sew and Love" by Hillary Lang (currently sold on Amazon.com). If you are into dolls, this is an AWESOME book! (I've also made the "Sleepover Pals" and a "Mermaiden", but I don't have pictures yet).

Then I got a bunch of random stuff at the thrift store and decided to make my own doll pattern, a bit bigger. The first one I worked on was made from a really fun patterned shirt, but as I was stuffing it I realized that stretchy material is not a good choice for dollmaking, so I put a hold on that one (so she's hanging around with Sunshine, still without hair).

(Sunshine loves dolls - hair or no hair!)

I jumped into making 2 more dolls, both for my big sister. I re-vamped my pattern and called it "Tommy". Unfortunately when I went to dye the first fabric, it came out looking "dirty" instead of off-white. So I pitched that one. The other one was made from a pair of thrift store pants. He ended up looking very "unique" (material is dark brown, hair is yellow fuzzy fleece).
At the moment, Sunshine is trying to put Tommy's pants on her own feet (not working too well - I had to alter the preemie outfit to make it smaller). It is pretty funny to watch, though!

(That's Tommy in the background, pants-less).

So there you go, a little glimpse into my very first attempts at making dolls. I've done a fair bit of embroidery (mostly facial features), and I am slowly getting better at that, but as for making dolls, I'm no expert!

(This was taken just after the tantrum Sunshine had because she couldn't get the pants on.)

Preschool Songs

Today I thought I’d share with you some of my preschool music. I think it is important to have scripture “hidden in your heart”, and my favorite way to “hide” it is through music. So I wrote a bunch of songs for my preschoolers (recorded them at home, they are pretty raw quality, but my kids love them anyway!). I haven’t figured out if it is even possible to embed my own music here on my blog, so in the mean time, I’ve put together a list of a few of these songs that I made into videos a while back.


Blessings Come Down:
Stop, Look and Listen:
God Made the Flowers:
Ask, Seek, and Knock:
Psalm 27:

My Very First Blog Post

Here's my very first blogger post.  I'm very new to this so I may get things totally screwed up, but hey, that's a bit like life, right?  Anyway, I strive to never make the same mistake twice.  I will admit that most of my creations are made by templates and tutorials I've found online.  However, I also like to "play by ear" so I fiddle with most of the pre-made patterns, too. And I like to make up my own designs, too.  Sometimes they  end up as a disasters, and sometimes they don't.

Ok.  So here's the first creation I'm sharing.  A baby shoe (worn by my sweet Sunshine).  I went through a sewing frenzy while I was pregnant with Sprout.  I made bumper pads, baby shoes and clothes, head bands, and other stuff. A friend of mine let me borrow a Singer sewing machine (1953!) and another friend let me borrow a serger (Bernina) and it's been fun to learn on them.