shhhh... work in progress

So, [shhh] here she is...

....only just begun really, but getting closer to being finished.

I need to add her skirt (which I hope will be VERY special), and her face, her hair, and finally her accessories. And then she will be heading off in a postpak to someone very beautiful and brand new. I had a lot of fun with her shape --- I hope it's ok to give a child's doll hips?

Will give you an update once I have finished her off... xo

josie the angel

josie the angel close
Originally uploaded by summer pickles

I have been very busily sewing for Christmas this past fortnight. Here is Josie, a new angel I have made. Lots of pink of course!
Chat soon, xx

etsy sale!!!

Hi all

Just a quick post to let you all know that my etsy shop is having a pre-christmas sale. Button rings, necklaces, hairclips (oh my!) plus a couple of softies. I am about to get out the sewing machine again, so hope to be adding in more softies, so watch this space!

Hope all is well in your part of the world...

xx

a bit quiet on the crafting front

1. monkey minus head, 2. doorknobs, 3. plants from the lounge room, 4. jessica the elephant - close up

Hello! (in case you crafters are still out there?)

Just a very quick post to apologise for my lack of crafting content of late... I am one of those people who believes that if you start something with a clear purpose (eg. this blog, talking crafting and creativity) then you should stick to that purpose, and it seems I have strayed....

So, the reason I have perhaps strayed a little is that I have (sadly) had no time for crafting or even scouring the world for incredible crafters.... we have been renovating! (Please don't read the exclamation mark as unbridled enthusiasm... it is some exhaustion, some frustration and a little bit of manic giggling as things don't quite turn out how we would have liked!)

What I can show you today is photos of a number of works in progress.... some renovation work, some crafting work... enjoy, and I hope to be back to the land of creating (and finding inspiration) very soon!
xx

summer pickles softies getting out and about!

my babies
Originally uploaded by plur_bitch_plur

This is a photo posted by plur bitch plur after receiving Brett the Sausage Dog. Looks like he has already made a friend!

I really do get a kick out of photos taken of my softies once they "leave the nest".

Penelope the Kangaroo has also been out and about, and now actually has her own flickr site! You can see what she has been up to in Poland by visiting her here.

Hope you are enjoying your weekend.... it is a lovely one in Melbourne!
xx

baby elephant love - the mobile

Just finished another mobile!
This one is called baby elephant love... and is made from polkadotted felt (of course from my existing fabric collection - I am still going with use what you have). This is now available at my etsy ...

Now that I have finished stitching felt hearts I can go to bed (whew!) ... it is 1.46 am here!

xx

introducing brett the sausage dog

Before I madly hunt through what few childhood photos I have, to try to fit the theme for this week's flashback friday, thought I would give you a wee glimpse of one of my brand spanking new softies who is currently on his was to the US in a padded postbag, as part of a swap on flickr.



This is Brett the Sausage Dog. Dear little Brett... he is a bit of a nervous one, but loves a bit of adventure (dealt out in portions he can deal with).

The idea for Brett came only from the fact that my US swap partner loves dachshunds. But I think in the end, he turned out to be a lot of fun! I was also very excited that I made Brett from my existing stash of fabric and eyes to meet the conditions of the Use What You Have group, and that he also fitted in with the flickr Get Your Craft On theme for August (polkadots).

I am trying to decide now if I should focus on making more members of Brett's family, Frank's family, Penelope's family or Douglas' family first! (Ah, the decisions!!!)

Happy Friday!
xx

summer pickles softies getting out and about!

Okay, so I was just casually cruising various Melbs blogs this afternoon, and as I popped into Cinnamon Moon's blog, saw a familiar face looking back at me.... it was Frank the angel!

Frank was featured on Cinnamon Moon's blog in an entry titled things that make me laugh, which is perfect, as Frank's purpose is to make people smile (and perhaps giggle a little too!). Frank is now available through etsy... click here to get to know him a wee bit better.

Thanks Penny for featuring Frank, this was very exciting (and made me giggle a little too)! xx

Penelope the kangaroo arrives in Poland

Penelope the kangaroo by summer pickles

Not sure if I even mentioned it here that I organised a toy swap with lalootka through flickr, and was sending over Penelope the kangaroo for the swap. I sent Penelope some weeks ago now, but saw on flickr this week that she has arrived safely in Poland (a long way to travel for a little aussie kangaroo!).


Clearly I am excited about this!!! lalootka and I have promised to take photos of our toys received, in local places, doing local things.... should be loads of fun!


The little character that Penelope has her arm around in the photo below is Bo the lamb, who will be coming to Australia shortly to stay with us. I am already developing a list of places for photos.

Welcome Penelope, hallo flickr friends, Bo, goodbye Originally uploaded by lalootka

Please let me know if you might be interested in hosting Penelope for her next holiday (probably in October?) by leaving me a comment. Thanks Aloutka!
xx

things I learnt from the cloth doll workshops - instalment no. 1

Hi there!
Okay, so I have kept you in suspense long enough... Here are a couple of the things that I learnt from the workshops mentioned in a previous post.

1. Cloth dolls made from simple patterns can be very beautiful, when the focus is on the embellishments. This was an important lesson for me - I had been getting myself into such tangles with developing up really tricky pattern pieces that were incredibly fiddly to work with, and at times, just frustrating! These dolls are made by Cindi Goodwin, who does amazing and beautiful embellishment work:

Dolls by Cindi Goodwin

2. Sometimes you need the right tools. I have included a photo of my new tools here, and will provide photos of me using them as we get through future posts. What I have is a poppa (fruit juice box) straw, a blunted wooden skewer, a pair of forceps and a tiny finger stuffing fork.

Here's me stuffing an elephant's trunk with the forceps. Now, I actually used the forceps to stuff all of the elephant, but did much of this at my lunch break at work, so no photos. One of the advantages promoted to us at the workshop of using forceps is that you can get right into corners with stuffing, as well as "the pain element", which is what happens when you try to overstuff a doll/toy (you end up with incredibly sore thumbs/fingers from the handles of the forceps if you are trying to overstuff and are exerting excess force!). As well, they have blunt ends, so won't go through your fabric!

You might notice in this pic that there is a big trail of wadding going off to the right. One o the things I learnt at the workshop was that to avoid dolls looking like "a bag of peas", you should stuff them as if you were spinning wool.... you stretch out the wadding into continuous, stretched stuff and then slowly feed it in. This has definitely impacted (positively) on the look of my toys and dolls.

I'll be back soon for some more instalments and the interesting stuff... demonstrating use of the tools and providing examples of my new work.

Oh! And here is a photo of the doll I created from a pattern by Bethan Short in my first workshop (sorry, not a great photo). This doll is just two pieces of fabric of same shape sewn together and wings added.


Have a gorgeous week everyone,
xx


Oh! and can anyone help me by telling me why my line spacing changes mid-post when I include photos, and what to do about this??? drives me bonkers! Thanks! xx

the bird mobile... completed!

Hoping everyone has had a beautiful week. We had a rough ol' week in this house last week, but life goes on...

So, I finished off the bird mobile on the weekend, and so wanted of course to give you all the progress update. Here 'tis:

(more pics on my flickr)

I found the threading much more difficult than I had ever imagined (!) as I had to get the entry and exit points "just right" to get the birds to "sit" properly. I am also not particularly thrilled with the black thread... I was thinking of fishing wire but didn't know that there was enough weight on the thread to keep fishing wire straight. Any ideas very much welcomed!!!

I love how they move... the birds seem to be bobbing their little heads up and down... I must admit I was thrilled with this result!

The mobile was a great hit with the recipients as well... even the grandparents gushed, which made all of it incredibly worthwhile (of course giving a handmade gift always is extremely rewarding!).

Hoping you have a gorgeous, wonderful week. I will promise to pop back in and let you know about the Melbourne craft fair which was a great source of inspiration, but not now... later!
xx

good luck Tash! and a work in progress

Hi there!

Just a quick one (have to get out and do the gricery shopping at some point!).

Thought I would post an update on my secret squirrel pressie to be. My girlfriend is in hospital as I type this post, so I KNOW she won't be checking out the blog... Good luck Tash & Pete! We can't wait to meet your new member of the family in the outside world! xx

So, here is a bit of an update on my bird project... I had fun with these small scraps of fabric... I need to remember to put a coin next to my toys when I take a photo so you can get a sense of scale... next time! My own pattern, so a bit of room for improvement! But I am really enjoying working on these.

Have a gorgeous week!
xx

(shhhh.....) secret squirrel baby gift & a wee bit nervous...

(Shhhh.....) I am on a secret squirrel mission at the moment, to make my girlfriend something special for her new baby, who is very soon to arrive to the outside world!

As I am not sure if she will be whiling away these last few days on the net, I won't put too much detail in here (and certainly won't include my sketches of the hoped-for-finished product!), but did want to show you some of the amazing bird crafts that are out there. My heartfelt thanks to all of these brilliant people who have been completely inspiring!!!

1. 9 birds, 2. Bird bag and coin purses from one of my Japanese Crafts books, 3. Carved Folky Birds, 4. Flock Together, 5. another birdie, 6. Bird, 7. Erin, 8. peaky beaky bird, 9. Botanical bird, 10. ♥ bird, 11. Berri, 12. 03/08/07, 13. passaropapel, 14. Bird ornament, 15. in progress, 16. FINALLY!!!!, 17. One of my little bird mobiles, 18. 1_bird with paper flowered, 19. Egbert, 20. birdmobile_31, 21. Easter Tree Hangers, 22. birds on a string, 23. felt bird ornament, 24. bird quilt patch, 25. gift for enya, 26. crib mobile, 27. Handmade bird mobile, 28. Friendly Birds, 29. flock of birds closeup, 30. 9 birds

Keep an eye open for the finished product.... think this will be a big weekend project, so I hope to have photos up early next week....

Am also doing something quite exciting/terrifying today, which is going to a Melb Etsy catch up in Fitzroy. I do feel very much like a beginner at all of this, so don't know that I can exactly go along feeling like I belong, which immediately makes me feel terrified! But I am counting on those in the craft world being lovely and generous.... I guess I can always pop in for a coffee and leave if I am not comfortable, but it is still incredibly nerve wracking!!! I will let you know how it all goes...

Happy Saturday!
xx

mosaic.... a "retrospective"

I don't think you can have a retrospective if you have only been focussed on crafting for a few months (it was only in March this year it started to become more of an obsession for me!), but I had a play on fd's flickr toys today and put together this mosaic of some of my crafting highlights since then. It looks like I have been much busier when it is all put together like this!

Have a fun week! xx

frank the angel... a prototype

Have been playing around with the sketch I did in the dark one night, and trying to transfrom him into a softie... anyway, gave it a first shot after work this week, and have come up with Frank (the angel). I am not all that happy with his body, but I think that is more due to fabric choices... in my sketch his body was patterned, as were his legs, and I think that will add to him, next time around. Here he is for the very first time, comments are welcomed!!!



Have a fun weekend! (inaugural craft circle tomorrow.... any distance members feel free to sign up and email me your photos of you crafting!) xx

no crafting this weekend

On my lunch break from work, so can provide an update...

No crafting this weekend, as we have lovely visitors coming from newcastle, where all of the floods were recently. They are bringing with them their little baby boy, so I have been in a mad frenzy this week, cleaning, clearing spaces and trying to make it child friendly... finding buttons and cotton reels in all sorts of spaces around the house!

I was hoping to make something to give Jye, but sadly, douglas the monkey has some major room for improvements, so my plan to give him away have been ruined (first shot at the newly created pattern, so not beautifully executed). Perhaps I will get a chance to whip something up over the weekend, but I doubt it.

Oooh! Having said that, have just remembered a terrific baby cap pattern I found at economical baby, which I could probably put together and then throw some embellishments on.

I have though made some clips(again, first attempts, so please be gentle!) for a little toddler friend Cate, so will be posting those out in the mail very soon. Had chats with her over the phone the other day and she can now say my name, which is very exciting (apparently they have been practising!).

Anyway, better get this kitchen cleaned before the visitors arrive!

xx

douglas the monkey

hi again

Well, I have been busily finishing off a wip this week... a (previously) faceless monkey now named Douglas (in honour of my hubby's grandfather who is still alive and well but very very bald --- hubby's idea). This was a brand new pattern thatI dreamed up and so there are definitely some teething problems, but nothing that can't be worked through.




As someone who always overstuffs dolls, I thought I would be cautious and understuff this one, and I am really not happy with the result. I think that all of the stitching lines seem too obvious, and he just doesn't look quite right...

As well I am not entirely happy with his head shape, or flat face, so I am going to revise that as well.





I am happy with the very plain stitched face though. I always try to make my dolls baby friendly wherever possible, so stitching is the best way I know to do this (mostly baby friendly except for the groovy scotty dog I am making at the moment for a 2 year old girl... but that's probably for next post!).

Not sure about his little stubby legs without feet either so I am going to work on some ideas around those too.

I have started to make a funny monster from the same pattern, with some alterations, so once I have stitched and stuffed that I will also show it here as well... probably gives me an opportunity to try some new things with the pattern too without getting too locked into the monkey idea.

But that's about it from me... long weekend coming up, so bring on the sewing! I have started dreaming in toy designs, which is a bit sad, but have started keeping a notepad next to my bed for note in the dark. Last night I designed a rocket and a cute angel, so I aim to get one of them designed and completed (ambitious!) over the weekend.

have a lovely one,
xx