Official UFOs

I finished the patchwork blanket top I'd wanted to work on before starting the cat patch experiment project

...and then I added a few more rows to the cat patch experiment project, doubling its size

This one is roughly 90" square, the first is roughly 60" x 90".  They'll be put aside until some unknown date when they'll get backs and batting and proper quilting.

I hope I can figure out how to take better pictures of 'em by then, too!

Spring will be here before it's finished

...mainly because I have no batting and also no experience actually quilting a patchwork blanket, but, hey, this part is fun (so far)

Once the top is finished, I'll probably take a picture of it and then put it away indefinitely.  Progress!

And there it shall stay

Here's where I've gotten with the experimental cat patch project

Not at all sure if I'll stop here (roughly 43" square) and finish it with the remaining piece of the watercolor-style floral for the back, or keep going until it's grown to bedspread size.  For now, it's been folded and put back into the cloth closet, making it my first official UFO in a long time...

Patch Cat

I saw Elizabeth Hartman's cat patchwork blocks and thought they were adorable but way too complicated for my sewing inclinations, so I played around in CorelDraw (hooray for snap to grid) and came up with this cat block idea

which I decided to try out today (instead of working on the other patchwork project I had ready to go...)

I showed it to the kiddo without telling him it was supposed to be a cat, and he gave it a hug and asked if he could have it, so I took that as a positive ID.  (After I made progress with this springtime palette, he asked of he could have something wilder...so...yeah...eventually...)

The only tweak I think I'll make is to flip one of the eye blocks so the patch arrangement is mirrored instead of identical (although it doesn't really matter.)  And eventually I'll make an entire proper patchwork top arranged something like this

Eventually.

The Dolls March On

When I started this blog, it was with the vague idea that it would be only for, shall we say, human-size endeavors.  I've posted a few doll sewing things here before, but I've posted loads more on Tumblr and Flickr.  But...there was no real reason not to post them here, so I'm going to make a better effort at doing that, starting with the silly little outfit I made for a silly little doll.

I've had this doll for a few years, originally thrifted in a cheap satin and lace and fringe flamenco dress, with a coarse black wig glued to her head.  The eyes are what convinced me to get her--not only do the lids work as sleep eyes, but the eyes themselves are also on pivots and make her more than a little shifty-eyed

Such attitude.

She'd been in a box, wigless and unclothed, until I pulled her out yesterday and played around with a few doll wigs sent recently by a friend.  This wig is technically Blythe-size, but a quick dart in the back made it snug enough to fit this doll's head.  Since the friend, Mmy, is also possessed of Mediterraneanly dark skin and giant pink hair, I decided to dress the doll in Mmy style.

The pin tucks already existed on the cloth, which came from the waistband of a skirt I shortened from the top--which also meant it was interfaced, giving the skirt more body than usual even at doll scale.  I used one of my 16" fashion doll patterns for the bodice, shortened significantly; it probably could have been taken in a bit on the sides, too, but I didn't think 'figure skimming' was a necessity for this doll's clothes.  Lace, rickrack, and a satin bow (eternal cheers for fork bows) were all stitched to the neckline, which was finished with a facing (my usual approach, because I do not want to even consider the idea of turning a curved seam that small *shudder*.)  The puffy sleeves were improvised around a cap sleeve pattern, with some unfortunately obvious elastic at the cuffs.

Underneath is a pair of bloomers, made without a pattern (because "big, floofy, elasticized, and mostly hidden" is seldom in need of formal patterns.)  No pattern for the socks, which have decorative elastic at the tops, either.

The shoes...um...they're more placeholders than anything.  I am absolutely not a doll cobbler.

And in the hair is a length of ruffled lace, sewn into a loop, then flattened and the edges seamed together.  It's held in place with a simple thread tack through the wig cap on each end of the seam.

Silly, quick, and fun!

I'll leave you with this picture of her passing judgment on the Christmas cactus that decided to bloom the morning before Valentine's Day.

H...hand...sewing...?

I am not good at hand sewing.

I used to take this as a point of pride.  I used to say things like "I hate making clothes with buttons!  Because I hate sewing the buttons on!  Because I hate hand sewing!"  But, then, I got a machine that made a better four-part button hole, and I realized that what I hated was not "the hand sewing of the buttons" as much as it was "the unavoidable confrontation of crap buttonholes." Then I got a buttonholer and I figured out that one of the random presser feet I had was to hold buttons while using the machine to zig-zag 'em in place, and I forgot about my "I don't exactly hate hand sewing after all" epiphany.

So, what this basically means is that, while I might not detest the idea of hand sewing now, I still don't usually think "Oh, I should hand sew that instead of using the machine"...and it means that my hand stitching is not...um...good.

But!

I didn't hesitate to volunteer to hand sew a few little felt thingies for the kiddo's teacher Valentine card.  I'd never made any little hand sewn felt thingies before (...um...obviously...), but I did have this book

which technically does have patterns, but I feel like they're more...suggestions...than the rigorous templates most patterns are.

Scarecrow Chic Shirt. Sorta.

You know those projects that seem like a good idea until after you've started and then you decide that no actually that wasn't a good idea after all?  Of course you do.  Those projects are part of hobbies in general.

Most rational sewing people will put the project aside in a UFO pile and move on to happier craftiness.  Me, though?  I'll hang the offending item in plain view and glare at it, refusing to start any other projects (wellllllll, any other human-size projects, 'cause doll clothes are a different realm) until it's finished.

Soooo, yeah