More for the collection

Actually, these are not for my growing pile of toys, they are destined for a craft sale I have entered in early November. I have not tried to actively sell any of my things before so it is both exciting and a little scary. But, it will be a fun day whether people are interested in buying the things I have made or not! To get ready for the sale, I have made some more of my dress up dolls, and some other smaller toys. I plan to make a few more monster toys for the sale so the girls are not over-represented with the dolls!

These dolls show the different skin tones and also a few other hair styles that can be made. The clothing is always an adventure as I don't really know what to dress them in until they are done, and that inspires me to design their clothes.

Julia, long brown hair and loose ponytail, with beige skin.

Helena, with blonde hair done in 2 braids on top of her head, with pink skin.

Eva I believe I have posted about in another post. She has black hair, done with a single braid across the top, and brown skin.

Idalia, with lighter brown hair, done in an up-do (lots of braids then braided together), with beige skin. 

Views of the hair styles. If you would like to know how to create any of them, please just ask!

Different clothes for different gals! It is such fun creating the outfits for them to wear! 

I also made a long coat set for one of them. It has the coat, a poncho, boots, hat and mitts for those cold days to come. The trim and poncho are mohair (Mickey, my cat just loves any natural yarn so I had to be on the lookout for him while I was making these as he will eagerly steal the yarn to wrestle with it!) The main yarn for these was actually cotton, which is nice for doll clothes as it does not pill and is not as slippery to put on and take off for little hands. 

Those fingers are so darned cute! And his mouth has a tunnel behind it so he can really "eat" things! 

This is a monster I also just finished. He was part of another pattern test and was a very nice change of pace from the dolls. He got chased up the cat ladder by some ghosts that I made by special request for Hallowe'en!

That appears to be all I have to say for now .... off to make a cup cozy tonight and then back to dolls and monsters! 

Have a wonderful week!

Lil' Chipmunks

Change of pace and some cute little critters! One of the dialysis patients requested a chipmunk to give to his wife for Christmas, as she has been feeding a little chipmunk all summer. So I set to work finding a pattern that appealed to me, then went searching for just the right yarns to complete her. I am most pleased with the results. So pleased, I made 2 of them! 

This is a free pattern, if you are so inclined. Really cute chipmunk to crochet It is crochet. I used a 3.75 mm hook. Normally I use a larger hook for my amigurumi toys, but the yarn I found in the perfect colour was just DK, and it was not tight enough with a larger hook. The body is done in Mellowspun DK by Mary Maxim in bronze. There were many small parts to sew together, but I find when I do the sewing as I go, it is not really a big deal. Other than the body colour, the rest of the yarn was bits I had left from other projects.

The pattern calls for just a small tail, but I opted to make a longer tail. For one, I crocheted 8 stitches in a circle until it was the length required, then did a decrease row and then closed the opening. I stuffed it lightly, and after sewing the tail onto the body, I crocheted the stripes right onto the chipmunk. That is the chipmunk on the right below.

For the next chipmunk, I crocheted the tail as a rectangle, again 8 stitches wide. After the body colour was done, I went along both sides with a row of black in single crochet. I then added a row of white single crochet but I also joined the black edges together to form a tube which was then sewn onto the body. For the body stripes, this time  I crocheted a long chain of single crochet the length needed to go down the back, and up the other side. The stripes were 3 rows of single crochet .... black, white, then black again. Once the stripes were finished, I sewed them onto the body, starting just behind the ears. This is the chipmunk on the left, below.

Both ways of making the tail and the stripes gave a nice result and were about the same in difficulty to make. I embroidered the eyes by making black knots which I secured at the neck before sewing the head and body together. I also gave both chipmunks a pink bow, since the request was for girl chipmunks! :D

Maybe you would like to create a few of these very sweet little creatures for someone you know as well!

Dress up Doll Show

More dolls!  The body of the dolls is made of acrylic yarn, with 3 ¼ mm needles, based on a Jean Greenhowe pattern. The stuffing is polyester, so the dolls are machine washable and can also be machine dried on gentle. All seams are double stitched so no arms or legs will detach as the dolls are played with. The clothes are also acrylic unless otherwise noted. Depending on what I know of the recipient of the doll, I use Velcro closers, or button and buttonholes, or snaps. Sometimes a tie is used, but generally little ones who play with dolls are not into tying bows yet and  I am sure the care givers would rather the dolls be easy for the playmate to dress by themselves.

I had several orders for the dress up dolls, and here are the results!

Becca, Carla and Daria

Becca and Carla were for the same person, who wanted one for herself and one for her grand-daughter. She wanted them to be just like Amelia, so I did the best I could to recreate her. It is difficult to make them the same, but I think I came close enough. For myself, I like to get creative with the clothes.

Daria is for another lady, for her great grand-daughter, who is only a month old at the moment. She wanted curly golden blonde hair, and a pink dress.

Amelia (my prototype), with her new friends.

Long, dark brown curly pony tails, and short, curly golden blonde hair

It seemed that people are getting caught up in the attributes of the original doll I made ( beige skin, curly pony tail etc), so I made Eva to highlight some different things that can be done to make the dolls unique. Eva has dark skin, and braided hair done in an up-do. Her clothes are cotton, rather than the acrylic that I normally use. I wondered if cotton might be good for some of the clothes as it is a little firmer to handle than acrylic so might be easier for little hands to dress and undress the doll.

Franca was the next doll to appear. She has a long golden blonde pony tail and lilac clothes, as requested.

Georgia has also been completed, with a long pony tail in light brown. She also wanted lilac clothes, and a set of extra clothes in green and pink. I started to play around with crochet for some clothes, just as a break from knitting them, and created a party dress and shrug for her as well, since the green and pink clothes were the sample clothes I made initially.

I am working on a pink skinned doll now, and making some extra clothing sets. I have found some actual crochet patterns that I can adapt to fit the doll I think. Amelia continues to be my model doll for sizing of clothes and garment co-ordination. 

How to make Curly Doll Hair

Making doll hair can be one of the most frustrating things, but it is crucial to bring the doll to life. I have found a few ways of making a pony tail that I like, and ringlets just around the face makes a cute doll as well. Curly hair can be a challenge, if you really want it curly and not just short.

The Curly Hair Kids (over cast day so kind of a dark picture, I will try to remember to retake one outside)

Improved pictures of the dolls

This is the best way I have found so far to make curly hair. It is crocheted rather than knit, however. You do not need to be an expert at crochet to do this, as long as you can do a chain stitch, half double crochet and slip stitch, you will have no problems at all. Start by making a hair cap to fit the dolls head.

Basic hair cap ..... magic loop, ch 2, 6 half dbl cr in loop, pull tight. Join. Work in continuous rounds. 2 half dbl cr in each st. All of these hair designs was completed using a 4.5 mm hook. Caron Simply Soft yarn for the lighter tan hair and Waverly for the pink doll hair in a darker beige.

Working increase rounds

No increases, just half double crochet around for the sides of the hair cap

Now, you are worried because this is making a very loose fabric ... that is okay. You are going to be adding lots of curls to it later on. You do NOT want this to be a tight fabric. Keep it loose. You also want some easy loops to be able to join the curls to. So, after you have the base circle started, (12 st), you are going to crochet in the BACK loop only of each stitch for the rest of the hair cap. The front loops will become the joining place for the curls and it is very easy to crochet into them if they are unattached.

Crochet into the back of the loops only

The hair cap is worked in half double crochet stitches.

Next round, crocheting only into the back of the stitches, 1 half dbl cr, inc in next stitch.
Next round, half dbl cr in 2 st, inc in next
Next round, half dbl cr in 3 st, inc in next
Continue this pattern until the hair cap is the right size for the top of the dolls head. You will need to try it on the doll to check periodicall.. Once you have the size you need, stop the increases and just do the half dbl cr in continuous rounds until the hair cap is the right size for the doll.  When you have just one round left, work some decreases. I do 5 dblcr then 1 dec all the way around. This just keeps the hair snug on the head while you sew it on.

Sl st to join once you have the desired size but do not fasten off.

Finished hair cap, ready to start curls!

Curls .... chain 2, then sl st into one of the loops close to the hook. ch 2 slst into another loop diagonal to the first loop you used. ch2 slst into another loop diagonal to the last loop you used.

Circle back to fill in spaces as you work. I don't mind if the curls cross over each other to get to an empty place now and then.

About half done

Continue to do this to work your way randomly around the hair cap. Try not to go in straight lines either across the hair cap or vertically. You want the curls to be random. I work about 3-4 rounds of loops at a time, gradually filling the hair with curls. I don't use a set pattern, but it is ( ch2 slst into hair cap, ch2 slst ) changing rows and directions with each loop on the hair cap. I work about 1/4 of the hair cap at a time then gradually overlap the chains to I am working in a new area. If you notice a patch seems to have fewer curls in it, just work you way back to it and fill in some more, just make sure you don't leave a long straight chain on top to get there.

You can experiment with different length chains if you want longer curls, perhaps a ch 3 or ch4 between the slst.

Once you are happy with the thickness of the curls, slip stitch and fasten off but leave a long tail to sew the hair onto the doll.

Viola! You now have a curly headed doll!

I have used a sc base and the half double crochet base, and I really think the half double crochet base is much easier to work with, and is much lighter than the finished result with a tighter hair cap. The doll with the pink dress at the top was done using a sc for the hair cap, and I found it more difficult to keep the stitches random. As a result, some of her curls are close to being in organized rows. The other 2 dolls were done with the half double hair cap and a very random arrangement of curls. The final result in thickness of curls is the same. The half double method takes considerably less time to make the hair cap as well.

Pink doll, hair cap done in sc. It was hard to get the hook through the stitches in places,

half double crochet hair cap base. Let the curls meander as you create them!

Doll Picture Time!

Presenting my version of the fashion doll by Jean Greenhowe, in a dressable version!
You can tell how much fun I had changing her clothes for all the pictures. I guess I am still a child at heart!

Miss Amelia in her bloomers, from the doll pattern. I added a few rows of ribbing across the top rather than sew them onto the doll.

The pink sundress is an short version of the dress given in the pattern. I had to improvise the top as it was originally knit as part of the doll. The dress ended up being too wide, so I had to use the sewing machine to take it in some rather than redo the entire dress. I think that is called steeking ... have not tried that before.

The yellow top is entirely my own design. I need to perfect it, but it is useful as it is. It can be worn with either side to the front so does double duty.

The shoes are an adaptation of a pattern for an American Girl doll. It is from Knitting Nelly's Yarn Cache blog, going back to 2008.basic doll shoe pattern

I used 4.5 mm needles to make the shoes, and increased the cast on stitches to 22. For the marker placement, I then had 10-2-10. I added 3 rows of garter stitch so they were higher, and added a simple single crochet chain of 12 stitches for the strap.

Sundress and Shoes

Sweater as a short sleeve cardigan

Sweater with buttons at the back for a top and skirt effect

Sweater under the dress as a t-shirt

The dress is from another pattern, Amelia Doll Tunic which I found on Ravelry for free. It was designed by Kristin Maw. It can be made into a sweater or a dress with many variations. 

The lighter violet clothes are again my own creations. 

Back of dress

The shoes are from the same pattern as the pink shoes, but I did them in 2 colours and instead of doing the top of the shoes in garter stitch, I did them in a stockinette stitch.

Striped top and skirt, designed by me!

Top worn with buttons on the front for a different look

Solid top and skirt. Not happy with the way this top turned out, but it is useful as another change for the doll.

The back (or it can be worn at the front) of the solid top has a bit of a collar effect, which I liked. But I knit it so the stitches are horizontal rather than vertical and am not really sure I like that effect. It was a design experiment! 

So, there you see my dress up doll. It was great fun making all the things for her and trying them on. I plan on making another doll, perhaps in pink, and another set of clothing as well.