Hi.

I'm here, but isn't life just so busy!?! Especially in January, and most of our Birthdays bunch up together through from the middle of January up until now! But with school back and life normalising again- I'm slowly, slowly trying to get all my dolls up and listed on Etsy. These are some of the photos.

The doll making, I love, but the photographing and organising, I do not! :( It really takes so much effort and focus and I tend to get disillusioned half way through... But I'm doing my best to stick at it- I will update when I'm almost done.

Wish me luck!

And there are a couple of small old school softies that I listed a little while back, waiting around for a home- $40 including postage.

B.

hello! welcome!

Hello! I did the Etsy Made Local Market last weekend in the Blue Mountains- where we live, and how crazy it was to be doing a market again! So. So. So much preparation to be able to show up with the goods! I'm amazed that I did that every weekend for 2 years... sometimes more than once a week- and much busier markets too! All before kids though.

So 'Hi' if I met you at the market! 'Hi' if you bought a doll! And thank you for supporting handmade! I know these ones are kind of pricey- my regular dolls are $110 each, and I know that's a big purchase- well it would be for me! So it's lovely to have people recognise the work, effort and materials that go into them and to be able to differentiate between these guys and the cheaper, mass produced ones.

I really believe that children don't need their rooms overflowing with toys, just enough to actually be able go find them and play with them. To be able to look after things, and to appreciate them.

B.

more of the same, and then a little different!

Just more dungaree making this week, cutting into nice fabrics- new and old... finishing up a batch of new dolls, all with the new coloured and chocolate brown merino I found in Katoomba a couple of weeks ago...

And then last Friday I woke up with this idea in my head. I was thinking of the Sally dress pattern, which I have made quite a few of, and it's my standard go-to Elka dress- it has a twirly skirt, pockets and a simple classic bodice, which I always add buttons to at the back, and as I was cutting the bodice, it occurred to me I should add pants instead of a skirt.

Ta-da! And then I fell into the zone of repetitive making, which is what I do when I'm working something out, and I love them! I think they are adorable and I'm really happy with how the dolls are turning out right now- that's not always the case!

And this magenta-ish haired one, is my complete and utter favourite. Her eyes are slightly purple-ish blue and I think it matches her hair, and she has what I call 'fireworks cheeks' - a little flecky embroidery pattern that I've been doing cheeks with lately.

I'm just about to sew up another batch of 5 new dolls, fingers crossed I get a good start this weekend!
B.

dungaree development!

I've been getting my dungaree/overall pattern completely sorted this week! I'm pretty good at making a pattern, altering it as I go without ever tracing the new pieces... but i managed to get on top of all that this week. Because the dolls are all just a little different, just the quirk of handmade, the clothes all need to just be slightly larger or smaller depending- which is both a little bit fun or a little bit frustrating if you don't think it through! but I'm happy with these old dolls in new clothes.

B.

and somehow it's october!?!

Spontaneous bursts of love in the main street, courtesy of our Marriage Equality Postal Vote.

Finally managed to force myself to sit down and sew these babies up. Reusable produce bags. Considering the complete excess of every type of fabric I own, I couldn't bring myself to buy ready made ones! I have seen really good ones with toggles in the shops though, and the prettiest ones here.

I managed to finish up the Seamwork Addison top that I started in about January! And it's so clever with the 'burito' facing finish. it's got me wondering if that's how i should be sewing dolls tops...

A cat skirt, because why not? I can and she's only little once... I saw some cute versions of Pinterest. I used the Purl Soho gathered skirt measurements and it was perfect for her. Obviously I left their pockets out. She asked for blue! And I heard her say to her brother last week- I love my (Barbie) camper (they take all their animals on camping trips!), but why is everything soooooo pink!? And I mention this as hope for anyone with a tiny girl caught up in the pink/purple phase! It happens, but they work it out! Phew.

Contemplating tiny doll quilts... I love them, but there is that age old question- will anyone want them!? Will anyone pay for them? Why am I making them... of course, age old answer is because I want to...

Miss. Matatabi had a sale... what can I say?! I now have grand plans for almost every piece of that fabric! We'll see how that goes!

And wondering through Spotlight, I found these pegs!! And they are really really clever and handy! I have always basted the gusset piece to each side of the head, which is reasonably time consuming, but I have just finished up 3 dolls using these pegs and they seem to have held the fabric really well. I also spotted some online that you can somehow sew over the top of... which sounds kind of magical to me!

And upon purchasing supplies for my Fibreshare buddy, I stumbled upon this perfectly thick and soft 100% merino wool. It is divine. And I love it... It's made all the other wool look kind of bland and shabby!

B.

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spring.

We have had the most full-on, not-very-much-doll-making kind of two weeks!

The flu really got us at the end of Winter/beginning of Spring... one by one, dragging it out, day by day... Right at the end of term when Daddy was working late a lot, when the school play happened, finally after months and months of rehearsals... but we made it, with what seemed like a hundred days of school and work, and doctors visits and day sleeps.

The house looks like several small bombs went off, all. over. the. place... and the children have gotten to know the movie Trolls so well, that they could probably recite it for you word for word, and I could definitely sing you the whole entire soundtrack, and I've even found that despite all my aesthetic sensibilities, those songs make me smile!

SPRING! It's warm, the firewood is used up, the backyard is out of control and we are going to have to do an awful lot before bushfire season really gets going... :(

Look at that light streaming through the window. Complete relief that winter is on it's way! 

And I found this book at the library, which is American, so some of the ingredients aren't as easily available here, but interesting to read about mordants and all those types of things, and colourfastness- the things that intimidate me. I recognised the name because there is a really interesting podcast with Kristine Vejar on Seamwork Radio. And I love the name of her shop- A Verb for Keeping Warm, it kept popping into my mind after I listened to her story.

Just to begin with, I did some dying with regular commercial dye powder that I found at a local yarn store- which I didn't know existed until I stumbled upon it. I'm not a knitter, but the yarn hair  for the dolls has opened up a whole new world of fibre love, and I signed up to Fibre Share, which has meant that I am seeing a lot more amazing yarn related posts on Instagram. Anyhoo, dying this way was a great, easy, safe way to see how it all works, and see the way that it soaks everything up. It's completely unlike dying with fabric. The possibilities are quite amazing!

And to cope with the complete lack of doll making, well, not complete lack of doll making, but just the extreme reduction in doll making that my brain required to get through the weeks, I managed to finish off a hundred little things that I started quite some time ago... like kids dresses and bags and dog overalls, and skirts, and to begin some things that I'd been meaning to get to for a very long time. And to cut into some fabrics that if I'm honest, I can admit that I've just been hoarding like pretty treasures... it's the vintage op shop finds that are hardest to part with. To me, they are just the most precious, limited, rare, who knows when they might strike again! And in my early sewing days, I was a bit braver/unaware, and not a very good garment maker, and oh, the waste! Makes me sad to think of what I cut up, only to ruin! But such is the learning process. Always make a muslin. And the plus side is that now I've finished quite a bit, I know how much I have left over for doll clothes. YAY!

I subscribed the Seamwork almost as soon as it started, and I have about a million extra sewing patterns now because of it, but I don't always have time to make (who does!?). By the time I print out the patterns, tape them together, trace what I think is the right size, and then make a draft- which is what that black floral thing is up there, and then resize, well, I need to pack everything away and feed my family. But with Spring coming, I just thought, I'm doing it and we can all eat leftovers and I will cop the stares and rolled eyes about the exploding sewing mess... and I want to use the fabric sitting there gathering dust! It's pretty nice! And more importantly, it's already paid for. I think this might be my approach to Spring cleaning... Spring using?! But this is a cross Georgia/Veronica dress where I used the Block/Paper/Scissors adjustment, and it's a little big, but it will be great and breezy over my swimmers this summer. I love the Blue Mountains, but I don't love the summer heat... it's a little inland and it's often in the late 30s... sometimes low 40s... This is double gauze and it will be perfect.

And now I have a brain exploding with doll making ideas, I just need to clear the physical space in the house for that to happen!

B.

the future.

mid-drifts for mermaids...

Delving through the scraps, finding things that make me smile and remind of baby clothes I made a million years ago. They were all ironed and folded and neat in a box... not so much now! But slowly, slowly, these mergirls are getting dressed!

B.

kitty mermaid

And this happened... I've really not managed much sewing this week, but this little catgirl came into being here and there along the way. I'm dreaming up some cat-themed clothes for her!
B.


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the mermaids are coming...

I started on a batch of 10. Batch sewing has never really been my thing, but I'm finding that with the children and working and housework, I have to do it this way. I need to cut them all out in a batch at least and then I can slowly go about finishing them up, one by one. This morning I woke up to have 5 finished and five to go. Two need arms, 2 need body sewing and 1 needs stuffing and hair. Which is making me pretty happy! Of course, I'm going to have to come up with 10 different tops, but that's a good excuse to rummage through my hoarded scraps.

b.

play. and waste. and excess. and all those things...

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So, the last time I was doing the doll making thing, it was all completely different in my brain. I was and am, and will probably always be a left wing kind of person, who cares about the environment, who cares about waste, and consumerism and excess and everything that goes along with that, but then I had babies! And don't children bring with them a host of STUFF? All kinds of stuff, for all kinds of reasons, it seems to swarm into your house and multiply, and quite a lot of it is acquired with the best of intentions. You buy things, you think to yourself, this tiny human owns nothing, we must get it everything it needs. But oh my goodness, so does everyone else in your life, and they don't have to be living close to you, friends of friends, and aunts of friends, and cousins of neighbours, and so and so on. And with kindness and the best of intentions, you suddenly have more stuff than you even knew it was possible to own, and it all has to go somewhere. And some of it is beautiful and just your taste and some of isn't, but then there is the guilt of being given something with such sweet intentions.

And, anyway, it feels great to give, so everyone is giving and giving and giving. And we live in a society with such chaotic and strange values and priorities, and we have access to so much stuff, and it is so cheap and available, and the consequences of acquiring it, and especially obtaining it to give to someone we barely see, are so abstract, that we just keep on keeping on. After all, it makes the world go round and creates jobs and all that stuff right?

But of course, we know when we're home alone with all this freaking stuff, that it is just a pain. A pain to store, a pain to clean up, and it just keeps arriving. There comes a point when a child has so many toys, they don't even notice any of them. It just adds to the stress of an already chaotic life.

And children do need (I use this term loosely!) some toys. They definitely do need to play, to engage deeply in meaningful self directed activities. It helps their brains develop, it is meditative and therapeutic. But then you go strolling down the toy aisle at your local department store, and it is divided into the girl and boy sections, chopped up into blue and pink, and even the lego- which is a toy I love- is packaged up according to gender, and into projects with instructions to make very specific things- things that already exist, a lot of things that are from movies or television shows, and, well, it's kind of depressing to think that even at such a young age, we are taking our littlest people and indoctrinating them into such mediocrity.

And so, I guess I've grown up a bit, and so have my dolls. They are not perfect, most of them are girls. But I make them slowly and properly and out of things that are as sustainable as possible. And they can be used for open ended play. And as I watch my little people develop, it's just becoming clearer and clearer to me that they really don't need all that much stuff at all, they just need some good stuff, things that can be used again and again in different situations, that can be adapted to whatever is the curiosity of the day, that can be dragged around the house for comfort and company, or chatted to as other things are happening.

B.