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Wednesday, July 23, 2014

summer flower doll craft

I still craft. I swear I do. I just forget to take pictures. Or, sad to say, the girls get involved and the results are rather, er, disappointing.

In any case. The other day we were faced with the prospect of a birthday party for a sweet little three year old. And I figured. Hey. Its been awhile. Lets craft.

I got out this "How to make flower fairy doll" book, given to me by my mother, who knows me too well, and thought it would be perfect. Easy. Felt. Wool. Have it. I can do this. Right??

The actual present turned out really well. The little birthday girl loved it. My girls were happy. And JEALOUS. Where is MY DOLL?? I WANT A DOLL TOO MAMA!

Yes, okay sweets.

So, we spent the day making dolls. One, a sweet little violet doll for my Evergreen. The other a stately queen daffodil for little miss.

The results were....mixed...but we had a lovely time and the girls participated and I only got slightly flustered when I realized it was dinner time and I was STILL SEWING.

But, nonetheless. and now, a month or so later, the flower dolls still get played with, residing in a place of honor on top of the piano.

Here is how we made them if you want to try. 

And hey, I posted this and I thought I never really mention actually trying to involve kids in this. Well, I did, for once. Which included things like picking out colors and helping to cut felt and thread and learning to stitch (a bit) and stuffing with wool and rice.  For older kids, well, an eight year old could do this on their own, I should think. Okay. That's all I had to say. Good luck. Ha!


The pink doll was my effort at this book years ago, for little miss.

The basic pieces started. The light purple for the baby. the green leaf shapes for the baby's bed.  The dark purple skirt is for the mama.


Another view of the pieces.
 
 This is the page about cutting out the clothes to make the body. A very simple shirt. A rectangle for the skirt. A round circle for the bottom of the skirt.


Here is the start of the head. A ball of wool crossed over with some thread to make a face shape.


Making the bendable arms to insert into the shirt. Simply wrapped in some wool and some wool yarn.


The head, now covered in a stretchy jersey knit, pulled tight and sewed up in the back.


The body, put together with the head. The shirt bottom wasn't wide enough, as you shall see, making her rather floppy.


Sewing on the skirt and the bottom of the skirt. I stuffed it with rice at the bottom and then wool.


A simple stitch to gather the top of the skirt.

Stuffing the skirt.


Drawing the skirt closed. I didn't take a picture of the next step because it was freaking hard. I had to stuff the skirt up into the too narrow shirt and sew it all together. Possible. Frustrating though.

The little baby. Really simple. Sew together, insert little piece of jersey knit for the face. Stuff with a little rice and some wool. Sew face on.

 Baby side view.


Finished mama, baby and leaf bed.

The hair was needle felted on and then sewn a bit too, along with a flower in her hair.
The face was hard on these to get right. I don't like either but, eh, the girls were happy enough. Little miss wanted her queen to have a smile though, as you can see below my attempt is rather, um, funny. But she looks happy and smiley and...good enough...

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