YES, I HAVE A POLE UP MY BUM

I finished up the body of my girl last night. I wanted to get it done sooner but I got distracted and decided to repaint our kitchen island. Anyway, she's not completely done, I need to make her base and an ice cream cone for her to hold. I think she's going to be sitting too.

I NOW ♥ ♥LOVE♥ ♥ YARN HAIR

For the longest time now I've wanted to try yarn hair. I never did because I never really knew where to begin and didn't really try very hard to figure it out. Until I found a doll hair tutorial by bybido. The tutorial even mentions the book Kinder Dolls: A Waldorf Doll-Making Handbook, which I looked up. I did things a little differently but followed the main instructions.

Because this was my first attempt at yarn hair I bought the 5oz super junky Jiffy Thick & Quick yarn by Lion Brand. That way it would go a lot faster. I think I used about half the skein.

I didn't really know where I was going with my plush when I started so I just made a head and added ears. I wasn't really sure what the face was going to look like.  I decided to add  pins in place for the eyes, nose and mouth, so I knew where they were generally going to be. I also played around with laying the yarn on the head to get an idea of the front hair line.



I decided to go with a side part. I'm partial to the side part. Maybe because I see it every day when I look in the mirror.



Here are some more pics of me adding the hair. This is a view from the back at the crown of the head. I'd sew on 4 strands of yarn at a time. Just like the tutorial suggests.



Here's a front view of the head.



This is after all the hair had been added. I should have taken a photo before I had pulled the hair back in ponytails.



Back view.



Now was the fun part of styling the hair and adding the face. I knew when I began that I wanted the hair up. After pulling the hair into two ponytails I separated each of those into three sections and made three braids. Then I just pulled those up and sewed them into place.



Back view showing braids.

Now to decide what I want to do for the body.

HAPPY SNOW DAY

So we were snowed in for two days here in KC. We actually had a blizzard and ended up with 12". Which to some in other parts of the country this isn't a big deal, but for KC and the midwest it was a lot.

Everybody was home and driving each other crazy. To keep busy I made one of my birds. I had forgotten how much I like my birds. I had thought one would be cute in my daughters new "bird" themed room but I didn't think I'd ever get around to making one. So I guess I should thank the snow.

The birds head is about 7 1/2" wide and the whole thing stands 24" tall,



I'm really bad about photographing work in progress but I did manage to get one pick taken at the beginning when I was cutting out my fabric. Many times I'll make a paper template for pieces, so if I should ever want to make more in the future I can. However there have been times were I just start cutting and sewing and don't make a template. The templates I make out of paper I keep in a large envelope with the name of the piece on the outside. Some have notes inside these envelopes as reminders of how I put things together. It's just how I stay organized.

GEARING UP FOR BDAY #3

So much of my "to do list" lately has been focused around my daughters 3rd birthday that is the 1st of March. I don't like working on things at the last minute so I usually start things pretty early.



Here is the dress I finished to match the doll dress. I used Simplicity pattern 9497. Some altering to the pattern had to be made to add the stripe bands at the sleeve, waist, and bottom. I think I'm going to have to get pics taken of my daughter and her doll together wearing their matching outfits.



I also happened to finish up some spring/summer dresses as well. I love this wiener dog fabric.



Cute dress for St. Patrick's day.



Dress for Valentine's day. There are actually tiny hearts in the print of the fabric.

Both these dresses are great for the holidays coming up but don't scream Val. or St.Pats and will work through out the rest of the spring and summer.



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For her birthday my daughter wanted a Dora cake. So we are going with a Mexican Fiesta/Dora theme. A lot of the Dora decorations are kinda yucky so that's why we're going Mexican Fiesta. We'll do cute mexican banners, a pinata, and balloons. I also decided to design the invites because I didn't like the Dora invites that are available.



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For the doll and all her clothes I made a doll box. I originally was looking to buy one but found they are crazy expensive and that's when I decided I could probably make one myself. I am very happy with it, however, I wish I had made it about 2" wider.

This pic shows the wood laying in place before I glued and nailed it all together.



Before paint.



All painted and looking all girly. The outside is painted a cream. The inside is covered in a cream and pink wallpaper. Upper shelf and hanger bar are pink. The chest of drawers is removeable. In fact, I found it at Hobby Lobby in their unfinished wood aisle. Payed 4 buck for it! And it fits perfectly.



Box measures 12" wide x 27" tall.

WARM AND CUDDLY

I can check these off my "to do list". The above is a baby blanket with matching bib for a co-worker.



I also finally finished up all the bedding for my daughters new "big girl" bed, which arrived last week. I've been working on everything off an on since about April. The pink comforter and pillow shams are from Target. I bought a Full size so I could get the two shams and then cut the comforter down to a Twin size, and resewed the edge. Used the portion I cut off to make the longer side pillows.



I found the bird print fabric at fabric.com. I bought 4 yards of it and used every bit of it. Made 2 pillow cases, 2 decorative pillows, one bed skirt and the small quilt. Love the Minky fabric too. Super soft. I used it on the baby items too.



I found this cuckoo clock at plasticland.com but it was a bit small hanging on the wall by itself. I bought a plaque for it to hang on. I covered it with the Martha Stewart glitter you can find at Michaels.



And lastly, I deecided the walls above the bed were to bare so I bought some embroidery hoops and added some of the fabric from the bedding.

All in all it turned out super cute. Not to juvenile and I think it will grow with my daqughter for a while.