Mermaid Doll

So many of our friends-and-relations have birthdays between mid-January and mid-February (including a brand new nephew born Wednesday!) that it's practically a second Christmas around here crafting-wise.

In addition, Ray and I decided that as we are both turning 33 this month, it's time to get serious and see how fit we can become if we work out more consistently.  We are calling this "The Last Hurrah."  So I'm running five times a week and lifting six time a week on top of my time-consuming Pinterest addiction.  And that whole parenting thing.  It's a good busy, full of things that I love.

On to the sewing content, which is probably why you're here.  A little friend of ours just turned four.  I rarely see her without a stuffed animal of some kind -- she has an assortment that she rotates through -- so I wanted something in that vein.  This mermaid doll tutorial quickly became the top contender.  I realized after it was done that I'm not sure I've ever seen her with a doll, usually animals.  Hopefully the tail makes it count! 

Don't you think a mermaid tail calls for sparkle dot material?  I've never sewn with it before, but fortunately thought to Google for tips ahead of time and saw the recommendation to use a leather needle.  It helped tremendously.  It did get gunked up with the glue a bit, but it went much more smoothly than I expected.  I also used the selvage edge for the hem and shirring, which simplified things also.

The other change was to make yarn hair, using this tutorial and this one.  There was some procrastination involved with the hair and face, since I was worried that I'd screw them up and ruin the whole thing, but it went quite well, and much more quickly than I expected.

I left her hair kind of shaggy in the back, thinking that mermaids don't get to the salon too often.

With her tail off

The embroidery was what I was most nervous about, so I decided to go for a Waldorf-style face.  I like their simplicity, plus it was less scary!  I thought she turned out really cute.

Sorting & Matching Peg Dolls

One of my friends has a little guy who turned two last week.  I've had this Wooden Peg Sorting & Matching Doll tutorial picked out for him for quite a while, thinking two is just about the perfect age for such things. 

I found some candle cups at JoAnn's and the chunkier pegs at Hobby Lobby.  I really liked the simple faces on this version, so I tried to emulate those, but with boy/gender neutral hair.  I was so glad I had the teeny-tiny paintbrushes from the medal holder; they made things much easier, what with my lack of painting experience and all.

I used a matte acrylic spray, rather than glossy.  I tend to be a matte sort of a girl, but it did make it hard to see if I'd completely covered everything or not.  Hopefully two coats did the trick.

My next thought was that little sets like this tend to get scattered all over the house, at least in this house, so they needed a storage bag.  I'd pinned this clear storage bag tutorial a while back and thought it would be perfect.  

It went together easily, although I should have planned out the size better.  The dolls were drying in the basement, and I was too lazy to run down and actually measure how big of a bag they'd need, so I guessed.  I used a 7" diameter base, which was much too big.  Hopefully he has some other loose toys that would like to share a home with these little guys.

Every time I pulled the drawstring shut, at least one guy fell over.  He looks kinda pathetic, doesn't he?

When O. saw them, he decided that E. needs some for her birthday, and then when he noticed that one of them had green eyes, he decided we should make Harry Potter ones (this is not an original idea, apparently).  She doesn't have the manual dexterity to actually put them in their cups, but she might like picking them up and knocking them around, so we'll see if he remembers as it gets closer to her birthday.

Doll Mini-Wardrobe and a Play Sling

A few weeks ago, I got a phone call from a friend's not-quite-four-year-old (I think?), asking if I would make her doll a dress.  Obviously a request like that must be taken very, very seriously.  The dress turned into two outfits for her baby and one for her older sister's.


I found a bunch of patterns here and got to work.  I made her sister's doll a reversible cross-back dress and bloomers.

Back View

Then I went for a poofy party dress!  This one has a hook & loop closure in the back.

I think my favorite, though, is this casual outfit, a knit peasant top and jeans!  Hee hee.  I used some pants that E. had outgrown so the hems and side seams would look authentic.

I've never sewn doll clothes before -- although I did once knit several pieces for my older niece's American Girl dolls -- and I really had fun putting them together.

As I was working on the doll wardrobe, another friend asked me if I would make a play sling for her daughter as a gift for when her new sibling was born.  Surprisingly, I didn't have any long enough pieces of girly fabric, so I was forced to go to the fabric store.  It was rough.  ;)  I got enough extra to make a dress for E. as well, so you'll be seeing this print again, hopefully soon.

I make doll slings almost exactly the way Jan Andrea shows here.  I used to sell them on Hyena Cart in my one-child days of leisure and even emailed Jan to see when she had put her instructions up, since they're nearly identical.  I'm a big fan of her site and wondered if I had read them, forgotten about it and then subconsciously made mine the same way!  Turns out I made my first one right before she posted her tutorial.  Nothing new under the sun, right?