My Doll Haven

Everyone Needs Playtime

In our hectic, modern lives, many of us focus so heavily on work and family commitments that we never seem to have time for pure fun. Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, we stopped playing.

When we carve out some leisure time, we’re more likely to zone out in front of the TV or computer than engage in fun, rejuvenating play like we did as children. But play is not just essential for kids; it can be an important source of relaxation and stimulation for adults as well.

There doesn’t need to be any point to the activity beyond having fun and enjoying yourself. By giving yourself permission to play with the joyful abandon of childhood, you can reap oodles of health benefits throughout life.

Monday

Project: Mr & Mrs Gnome

I made these over he weekend, they are so easy and great fun to make. You can decorate them in any way you wish ~ you could even make a Halloween Witch, a Santa Clause using this pattern.

Requirements:

1. Felt for body, arms (skin tone or tan as I have used), hat (your choice of colour)

2. Stretch fabric for nose (I only had pink so mine have rosy noses)

3. Yarn for beard and hair (or fur fabric)

4. Extra felt for clothes

5. Glass sand (or you could substitute rice to add weight) and polyester filling

6. Scissors & haemostats for turning arms in the right way

7. Extra strong threads and a set of doll needles

8. Trimmings i.e. buckle, buttons & ribbon

9. Tacky glue or hot glue gun and glue sticks

Click on pattern and save to your computer, print at 100% on A4 size paper. I always trace my pattern pieces onto quilter's plastic template, but you could use card or paper, whichever works best for you. A 3mm seam allowance is included.

Step 1: Cut out your felt and fabric pieces.

Step 2: Stitch the body back seam, arm pieces and back seam of the hat together using a small back stitch, leaving an opening on the arms large enough that you can turn them right side out.

Step 3: Close bottom by stitching all the way around, easing the two pieces together as you stitch, then turn your hat, body and arms right side out. You will need the haemostats to turn the arms out and to push the hat to a point.

Step 4: Next take your glass sand and fill in the bottom of your gnome. This will give your gnome the weight to make sure it stands up nicely. I put in approximately 250 grams before continuing to fill with polyester stuffing. Try not to overstuff him/her, just fill enough so you have a nice firm body on which to place your hat.

Step 5: Use a running stitch to gather the edge of the nose piece and pull it up slightly. Place stuffing in the middle and pull the gathering up tight so as to form a smooth round nose, then run a few stitches back and forth so it doesn't come undone. (I simply shaped their noses using the stuffing.)

Step 6: Add your beard to the boy gnome and make plaits for the girl. I used yarn separating the ply for the beard, but you could use fur fabric for his beard if you prefer. For the plaits I just used the yarn as it was. Position them on your gnomes so you are happy with the way they look. Then either stitch or glue in place to secure them.

Step 7: Stitch or glue the soft round nose in the centre of the beard, making sure you cover any stitches. (You may notice by this time I had forgotten to photograph what I was doing.)

Step 8: Use your imagination to trim you gnome's body. For my boy gnome, I cut a long strip of matching felt and added a small buckle to make his belt. For my girl gnome I used the felt to make a collar and added a couple of buttons and a ribbon bow.

Step 9: To attach the arms, thread your longest doll needle with enough strong thread that you can double it and run it through the body and back a few times, knot the ends together. Begin by running the needle through the inner side of the first arm, going back through the arm and right through the body to come out the other side, then through the second arm. Run the needle back again till it comes out of arm 1, then back again through arm 2, then come out at the back under where the hat will sit and do a couple of stitches to secure it, then cut the thread.

Step 10: Now attach your gnome’s hat placing it as close to the gnomes nose as possible, then stitch or glue it in place. You may need to fiddle with the hat a bit until you get a look you like.

Of course you could simply reduce the size of all these items and make dolly props if you want to. Try it, it could be fun!

Friday

My Last Two Dolls

These dolls arrived a little while ago, but I haven't really felt like photographing any dolls until today. I did however, make them both new sets of clothes.

Both dolls are lovely and are the same fine quality as all my other PR dolls. The new articulation certainly adds a little more "life" to them in photos, but the articulation is not as versatile as I was expecting. PR have given added movement to their elbows and knees, but the shoulders, wrists and ankles are still the same as always, with no flexible jointing.

I do love this face sculpt though, Cleo is quite the little cutie with pale pink lips and tiny scattered freckles across her nose and cheeks. Her new outfit comprises bib front overalls and top that does up at the back.

Manica is just as pretty and with those curly locks she is a delightful addition to the fold. Her outfit comprises a dress, pinafore and scarf. I used a little foxy print for both dolls, but used a different contrasting fabric; a pink and white daisy print for Cleo and an aqua blue and white check for Manica

Unfortunately, I found the shoes she came with suited one of my boys better than they did her, so the ones she is currently wearing are borrowed from another doll. I will need to either purchase new ones for her or make them myself . . . this is still undecided.

Well that's it for today, I will be catching up with you all over the weekend, so until then . . .

Monday

Thank You

To all my blogging friends:~ Please accept my sincere thanks for your kind words of condolence, it's greatly appreciated by both my hubby and myself.

I am still not ready to return to blogging at present, but hopefully I will be back in the not too distant future. However, before leaving, I thought I'd share the many faces of Coco. There were moments, even when he got older, where he somehow retained his cute puppy looks, and he would look so different when he was given a very short all over clip.