Orange Check

 The siren song of the Walmart mill end precuts enticed me into getting two yards of vivid orange knit, with the idea I'd use it to make something for the kiddo.  What would that be?  Enh, I'd figure it out.

And here we are.

Started this before I knew

When I was working on the doll dress from the last project, I noticed that I seemed to be having allergies triggered by all the fiber particles created by ripping the fabric.  When I made doll clothes more often, I ripped fabric all the time but never had itchy ears or sneezing because of it; I figured, meh, I just hadn't exposed myself to it for a while, so I simply wasn't used to it anymore.

Nope! Covid!

(very probably from someone where Husband works--someone who knew they had been exposed to it but decided it was nothing to concern themselves about and so went to work anyway.  The way it manifested in Husband was more classic covid, and I really did think I just had allergies, but tested anyway since he had it.  Not allergies! Covid! This is the first time we've had covid.  I'm just waiting for my tonsils to stop hurting when I swallow reflexively while I'm trying to sleep.)

So, back when I thought I just had allergies (the trees behind the house are setting buds already! Allergies are happening! But not for me!), I decided to do another Teen Me Would Have Loved This Simplicity 9630 'tapestry' vest.  This time, the project would involve finally figuring out if there was enough of the longer end of the irregularly cut jacquard 'tapestry' fabric I'd gotten from the craft thrift store in summer of 2022 to cut the full vest fronts. Folding and cutting normally: no.  Offsetting the placement of the pattern piece for each side and tossing out all hope of pattern matching: yes.

And even in the full size medium.

Different Doll Sewing

In that, in addition to sewing the doll's clothes, I also sewed the doll's body.

Years ago, someone (I feel bad that I can't remember who) sent me a set of craft doll head, hands, and feet, made of vinyl and meant to be attached to a cloth body.  They went into one of the doll parts boxes, figuring I'd eventually find a plastic body for the head (which a very cursory examination showed was cast from a head that very probably was originally on a plastic body, with an extra flanged neck part added.  The original doll had more hair, too.)

A month or so ago, I decided I should go ahead and make a cloth body for the body, as intended (well...intended by the craft component company who copied whatever doll the head was originally from.)  I thought I'd use one of the body patterns from NunoDoll, but the prospect of resizing and printing one did not appeal.  I eventually remembered that I'd thrifted Simplicity 6006, a Holly Hobbie doll pattern

And when I checked, it looked like it would be a good size to go with the craft doll parts.

And then I let that sit for a few weeks before finally semi-arbitrarily choosing a fabric (scraps left over from a recent skirt) and cutting the body parts out late Saturday night.  I cut off the hands and feet to work with the vinyl parts.

I sewed the body together, folding the edges inside to make channels for string to tie on the appendages, stuffed the pieces (after buying a bag of Poly-fil first thing Sunday morning from Walmart.  I can't remember the last time my stuffing purchase wasn't an open bag from a thrift store.) and tied on those appendages. I hand sewed the legs to the body (if I make this doll body again, they're getting sewn into the torso when it's assembled) and attached the arms with button joints (again, if I make this in the future, those're getting sewn into the torso, too.)

 

I took the path of least resistance and used the Holly Hobbie pattern dress and pinafore patterns to make the clothes.  I added some extra details, as per my usual kinds of doll sewing.

The bloomers pattern piece was missing, but it's easy enough to cut bloomers without a pattern, especially for a doll who can't complain if the fit feels funny.

The shoes as given would have been far too large, but the doll foot sole pattern piece was about the same size as the vinyl foot soles, and it looked like the original shoe pattern minus the seam allowance would have been the right size to fit onto that smaller sole pattern piece.  Did it actually work out that easily?  For the answer, consider that I am not showing any close up images of the shoes. 

The small floral and the chintz were also gifts, and I'd wanted to combine them for years.  This project used just about all of them, so that was nice, too.  I bought the basket weave print ages ago for doll clothes and surprised myself when I was looking for a third print to use and it seemed like the best option--I was looking for something else with at least a little yellow or orange in it, to try to tie things to her hair.  I'm not fond of yellow, so my choices were extremely limited.  I don't think I ever would have picked it if I didn't have a color limit, but I think it works well.

(And, yes, I'm not happy with the doll's hair overall--even if it were a different color, it's still cut very badly.  I don't have any wigs on hand that would fit this head, and, for many reasons, I am not rerooting this head.  So.  The yellow stays.)

This is definitely not my usual kind of Doll Thing, but it is finished.

Fauxaloha

Another shirt for the kiddo--not quite as straightforward this time, because I had slightly limited yardage...because I made a shirt for him from the same fabric about twelve years ago

Then:

Now: