A little bit of crafting.......

Sorry I haven't posted all week. It's been another busy week at work so. I haven't been getting home until late. The late nights and early mornings are certainly not me. I have, though, managed to nearly finish a felt doll for one of my nieces. I am planning to make them one each with clothes that they can dress them in. This one is still a work in progress but I'm very pleased with it so far. I've got loads of ideas of how to add to it - ribbon in her hair, a coat and a necklace are some of things still to be made. My grandfather was a cutter for a tailor and always had a stash at fabric at home. I am immensely lucky that I have inherited that fabric which includes some lovely material for coat making. I thought I'd start small with a coat for the felt doll then I might even feel confident enough to start making a coat for a grown up. He also left a wide selection of lovely buttons which I'm sure will make an appearance on the things that I make. Keep an eye out for them.

For the felt doll, I started with drawing out a pattern which included the basic shape, her hair and her dress. I think I need to work on the dress pattern as it's not quite as I want it yet. I cut the shoes out without a pattern but I am planning to make a pattern for these before my next attempt. At the moment, everything has been hand sewn but I am planning to get my sewing machine out this weekend to speed up the clothes making process (and make the sewing a bit neater). I did search the Internet for free felt doll patterns but I couldn't find anything that I liked so I made my own. I'm quite pleased with the outcome so far.

Pattern pieces

Basic Lauren doll

Dressed Lauren doll

One more working day of the week to go and then I can spend some time crafting and cooking over the weekend (and getting up a little bit later when the sun has actually come up). Today I'm up and the sun hasn't made an appearance yet which is never the most positive start to the day. I don't know how people who live closer to north and south poles cope with whole days of never seeing the sun. The flip side I suppose is the wonderful days of the summer when it never gets dark and you can be playing golf at 3 in the morning. Ooh, makes we want to visit Iceland and see all their amazing geographical features, including the warming blue lagoon and the amazing glaciers and geysers. I better put that on my things to do before.......