Postcard From The Little Girls

The little girls sent a picture from their road trip. They're having a good time in the curio cabinet at the Second Reformed Church in Zeeland. I don't think there's much wild partying going on, but a mom does worry.

White Doll Finished!

I finished the white doll last weekend. She doesn't have a name yet. She has gone on a little trip with two of her girlfriends, Little Greeny and It's Not Easy Being Red. I hope that they'll find a name for the white doll on their journey. I expect them back the end of May. Road trip with the girlfriends! It sounds like fun!

Here's Little Greeny:


And here's It's Not Easy Being Red:


The little girlfriends really haven't gone that far away. They're at Second Reformed Church in Zeeland for a fiber arts show. I'll go over to visit them next week, after they get settled.

White Doll Front Completed

The front of the White Doll is finished! She now has a face, but she has no name. She'll find her name in her own good time.

It's very important for a doll to have a heart. Hers is a Swarovski crystal.

The next step in the process is to attach the back to the front of the doll. Then I'll stuff it with fiberfill. I'll finish the stitched together edges with a beaded picot stitch.

I haven't decided whether or not to add beaded hair. The back of the doll is not beaded. She could have hair just around the edges of her head or hair completely covering the back of her head. I do not intend to bead the rest of the back of the doll.

Any suggestions for a hairstyle?

If I Only Had A Face...

If I only had a face,
I could smile.
I could talk.
I could laugh.
I could cry.
I could hum.
I could sing.
I would sing.

UFOs or USPs? And Who Will See My Lining?

My sewing group is having a UFO challenge. We're challenged to finish as many UFOs (unfinished objects) as we can during January, February and the first part of March. There may be prizes!

I don't have a huge number of UFOs--or at least I don't have a huge number of UFOs that I want to work on this winter. I may be competitive when prizes are involved, but there's a limit! My UFOs are unfinished for good reasons. Really good reasons.

But I do have a number--an adequate number--a significant number--a substantial number--an embarrassing number--of USPs. Unstarted projects.

These USPs are projects for which I have the idea, the fabric, the pattern, or at least two of those three. Some of my USPs may be almost vintage USPs. Last winter I completed a nearly vintage project, a lap quilt called Fabric in its Prime.

My first USP was a pair of navy corduroy slacks. Nothing fancy--pockets, front zipper, belt loops. I purchased the fabric last fall so I could replace some slacks that were getting rather worn.

My second USP is a white beaded doll. I've made two white dolls before. You can see the first one in this post. She was sold. The second one was given away. This is what she looks like. But I wanted a white doll for myself so I decided to make one. She's about half beaded.

My third USP is a purple corduroy jeans-style jacket. I've used this pattern McCalls 5191 twice before. Each time I make a few more alterations, but it's a fairly loose fitting jacket. I leave off the pockets which are right below the yoke.

The pattern does not call for a lining, but I'm not crazy about raw edges on the inside of a jacket. My first jacket was made of cotton with a little spandex. I made flat felled seams instead of the topstitched seams called for in the pattern. I bound the edges of the facings with a quilting cotton. My second jacket was made of a mid-wale corduroy. It was too thick to make flat felled seams without big lumps. So I lined it.

This third jacket is made from a fine wale corduroy that is somewhat heavy. So I decided to line it, too. It has a rather bright lining. Make that a fantastically loud lining. Purple, red, fuchsia, blue, green, yellow, orange, even metallic gold. Perfect for a purple jacket. But who will see this lining? No one, unless the laundry elves come in at night. Who will see it? You will, because it's right here:

Another Little Girl to Play With!

The dolls have another little girl to play with! She doesn't have a name yet, but she does have hair.

I worked on this doll over the summer and into September. My first plan was just to bead the front, so I did my stitching on the flat fabric. As I was get close to finishing, I realized that I wanted to spend more time working with these beads. So I made a beaded back. I tried to continue the beaded lines from the front to the back in a few places, but this was a little tricky. The lines don't always match up when the front and back are stitched together.



After the front and back were beaded, I stitched them together by hand and stuffed the doll. I then added extra beads along the edge to cover the seam.

The most interesting part of the doll was the hair. Some days were good hair days and some days were bad hair days. I learned a lot along the way, but there was no way I was going to rip out her hair to apply what I learned.

One interesting thing that I didn't realize was how heavy the hair would be. In fact, the hair weighed the doll down so that to balance when hanging, she sticks her "feet" out to the front. Now why didn't I know that? I took physics, but it was a long time ago.

I think the dolls are having fun together. In fact, last week they had quite the game of Hide and Seek. I told them to go to an out-of-the way safe place while we had the carpet cleaned. There was no need for them to get mixed up with loud machinery.

After the carpet dried, I called "Olly Olly Oxen Free" so they would come out of their hiding place. They didn't come out. Where were they? Wherever they were, they were having a good laugh at me, I'm sure. Finally I found them on the bottom shelf of the china cabinet, standing there like the good little girls they usually are.

If you want to see the other dolls I've made, you can look here.

The Topaz Doll--Her Front, At Least

I decided to make a doll with some topaz-colored beads that I had collected. Then I wondered if collecting is an appropriate way to describe how I acquire beads... But that's another discussion.

Originally I intended to use some of the amber I brought back from Lithuania in 2007. I knew the colors would look nice in my living room. But the pieces of amber are about 1 cm across, and they didn't seem to go with the rest of the doll. (If you want to see what I did with some of the amber, look here.)

My plan was to bead the front with the interfaced fabric flat, sew the back on by hand, stuff the doll, and finally add a picot beaded edge. As I got further and further along on the front, I realized that I had more ideas for using the topaz-colored beads on the doll than there was space on the front. The solution, of course, to this problem (if it is a problem) is to bead the back of the doll, too.

The next part of the process will be to bead the back. Then I'll stitch the front and back together, stuff the doll, and add the picot edge. This will be the first time I've sewn a front and back together after they've both been beaded. I've made several dolls with only the front beaded, and stitched the back on afterward. I've also beaded the front and back of a couple of dolls after they've been stuffed.

Beading an already stuffed doll with a curved needle is much harder on my wimpy, grandma hands than beading flat fabric with a straight needle. I'll see how sewing the beaded pieces together works.

If you want to see my other beaded dolls, look here.

Snow Princess Doll Complete!

Meet the Snow Princess! She was completed yesterday. Next week she will be adopted by her new parents, who support children and families through a regional, private, not-for-profit social service agency.

The Snow Princess is five inches tall and nearly four inches from fingertip to fingertip. Her bead-encrusted front is fabric backed by lightweight fusible interfacing. It was beaded flat. The Snow Princess has between 30 and 35 different kinds of beads and a sterling silver heart.

Her back is the same fabric painted with a mixture of Pearl White Lumiere and some sparkly craft paint. After the beading was complete, the front and back were stitched together by hand. She was then stuffed, and a picot edging and some hair were added. She has a ribbon so she can be hung on a Christmas tree. She also has a little fabric bag to stay in when she is not on display.

I think the Snow Princess will love her new family!

Hanging Around With Friends!

My four little dolls are hanging around with their friends.

Little Greeny is the oldest of the dolls, at nearly a year. You can find more information about her here.

The red one was the second one of these started but the last one finished. That would be finished yesterday. You can read more about her here and here. She doesn't have a name yet, so suggestions are welcome. And here's a close-up of her.



Blue Moonstone is a round robin birthstone doll. All that beautiful and complex beading? Three other people did it. I was stunned and amazed by the finished doll when it arrived home. You can see how I started to make her here and here.

If you read the first post link about the Blue Moonstone, you'll see why I had to make Miss Peachy. She was finished just before Christmas.

Now it's on to other projects--a pair of black slacks with a pickpocket-proof pocket. The pocket has a hidden zipper compartment. A nefarious individual would have to get his or her hand pretty far down into my pocket to get ahold of the zipper pull. There is another secret pocket hanging down on the inside for my passport. I made another pair of pants with a pickpocket-proof pocket a couple of years ago. I didn't write down how I did it, so I had to re-invent the process. I vowed that I would write down the steps this time. Oops! Forgot to do that. But I did write down how I changed the pattern (made smaller) when I cut out the slacks. Sure hope they fit...

*Note: I am not paranoid. We're taking a trip to Spain, and there are lots of warnings about pickpockets.

And then there's my January BJP page.

Peach Doll #2--Miss Peachy

I finished Miss Peachy before Christmas, but in the midst of all the festivities, I did not have the time to post about her. So here she is:



And here's her back:



Faithful readers will remember that the poor little thing has had her problems, necessitating a heart transplant and a complete facial reconstruction, as described here.

She's doing well now, hanging around with some new friends.

A little over a year ago I made a doll in a similar color. Her name was Not Quite Pink. You can see her here. Not Quite Pink was beaded on only the front. I beaded the fabric, sewed the front and back together by hand, stuffed her, and put on a picot edging. She was sold so I needed to make a new doll.

Miss Peachy, as you can see, is beaded front and back. I fused some lightweight interfacing to the fabric, stitched the front and back together, stuffed her and beaded like crazy, using a curved needle. Except when she needed Major Surgery. (And for all of you who were wondering, I DID wash my hands before I performed the heart transplant and the facial reconstruction. You will not read about me in today's New England Journal of Medicine.)

I have two other little dolls nearly finished. One of them is Red, as shown here. She's been waiting for her back and stuffing for nearly a year. The other one is white, and it will be a gift.

If you want to see my other dolls, you can find them here.

More Major Surgery!

First a heart transplant and then a complete facial reconstruction! Poor little doll! Thanks to all of you for your concern and good wishes. She's doing very well now and is making a quick recovery.

When we last spoke, I told you about the little doll I was making. You can refresh your memory of that conversation by looking the last part of my previous post.

As I continued to work on the doll, I realized that her heart was not in the right place. Her front looked like a back and her back looked like a front. I reluctantly came to the conclusion that a heart transplant was needed. So I removed the copper-colored heart from the back/front and placed it on the front/back. You can compare the photos in the previous post. Now I am confident she is anatomically correct.

This is the front:


And this is the back:


Last night there was a minor setback. Her face popped out! This required another trip to surgery for a complete facial reconstruction. Two more rows of 15/0 beads and she is good as new. Well, almost as good as new. She was left with a tiny scar on one eyebrow, but we all feel this gives her character. Now all she needs is a hair-do.

The Round Robin Birthstone Doll

My Birthstone Round Robin Doll is on its way to Colorado to visit and be beaded by someone else. Before she comes home, she will have also visited Florida and Australia. Pretty cool, I'd say. I am wondering why she didn't invite me along. I've never been to Colorado or to Australia.

My birthstones are pearl, moonstone, and alexandrite. Since I couldn't find a definitive explanation of what alexandrite was like (other than very expensive and named after Russian Tsar Alexander II), I decided to use pearl and moonstone.

After a certain amount of dithering (described here), I decided to stick with the light blue color scheme. I'll use the peach, white, cream and gray beads for something else.

Here she is from the front:



And here she is from the back:



She is about one-quarter beaded.

Note: No bloging tomorrow. I'm going to Chicago to "The Dumpster Diving Place." More on that this weekend. Please, somebody hold the rope tied to my foot as I go in!

What To Do? What To Do?

Well, I'm in a quandary. What to do? What to do?



I decided that I would use moonstone as my birthstone, and I found some beautiful jewelry using blue moonstones. Extremely expensive. But blue moonstone--just the thing for my doll, I thought. I made and stuffed the doll. Then I made the face cab and painted it a lovely light blue. She has a minor scar on her cheek, so I put the project aside for a couple of days while I contemplated plastic surgery or a total face transplant. Hey, lots of time till June 15.



Then Thursday, I stumbled into, er, made a special trip to, our not-quite-local bead store. I was feeling flush, with a pocket full of crumpled dollar bills and quarters. I had been reimbursed for supplies by participants in I workshop I had just taught in that town.

Then I saw it: A tube of beads labeled "Moonstone Mix." They were cream, white, peach and grey. I was smitten. The perfect colors for my birthstone doll. And then there was a coordinating tube of satin Delicas also labeled "Moonstone." I was beyond smitten. I was in love!




I went into meditation mode, trying to keep myself under control. I spent half an hour looking at every single bead in the shop. Twice. And then I purchased. Woo-Hoo!

Now I have to decide if I will use the little blue doll or change my color choices and make a new one. Lucky for me, I don't have to decide right away. I'm going an indigo dyeing workshop all day tomorrow so there will be no beading.

Don't worry, Little Blue Doll. Mommy loves still you.

The Purple Doll Is Finished!

I finished the Purple Doll today. It will go to the auction to earn money for scholarships for the Florida Library Association. She is five inches tall and three-and-a-half inches across from fingertip to fingertip. Not shown in the photo is a ribbon so she can be hung up. The back is not beaded.

At the bottom part of her skirt are iridescent sequins. The beads are 15/0s, 11/0s, 8/0s, bugles, cubes, and triangles. Her heart started out white, but I colored it with magenta and purple alcohol ink. That turned out pretty well, at least on the third try. I found out that it was possible to erase alcohol ink with rubbing alcohol.

I'd read about stuffing forks. I didn't want to order one so I decided to make my own. My stuffing fork is made from two bamboo skewers and masking tape. The directions for making one are simple: Place the skewers side by side. Tape them together. I consider this fork an amazing success. I found it much easier to stuff the little doll with my fork than with a chopstick or a single skewer.



Good-bye, Little Purple Doll! Find a good home and enjoy your new family.

The Purple Doll

I'm working on a new spirit doll. This one is for an auction to raise money for scholarships for the Florida Library Association. You can see the underside of the doll's front above. She is about five inches tall.

The front of the doll is below. I wanted a spring color so I chose lilac. I've made purple pieces before, but none with this more reddish purple. That was an interesting challenge since I gravitate toward bluish purple. But I'm happy with the way it's turning out. There's not much more beading to do. The back will be fabric lightly decorated with paints or ink. After the front and back are sewn together and it's edged with beads, I'll send it down to Florida. My plan is to do this before Wednesday, when I go to the International Quilt Festival in Chicago.


One question remains: What caused her heart to leap like that? She must be in love!

Improvisational Bead Embroidery as Conceptual Art

My February BJP has taken the form of Conceptual Art. With this, I believe I must have have moved from Craft to Art. I first became acquainted with Conceptual Art during a visit to the National Gallery of Art in 1994. It was all new to me, since Conceptual Art had not been, well, conceived of when I took Art History some (many) years ago. I knew immediately that I was destined for Conceptual Art. And it was destined to be mine. It was perfect. For Conceptual Art, all you had to do was think of your art. You didn't have to actually do it.

Which brings me to my February BJP. I have thought of it. I even picked out the raspberry beads. I just haven't done it yet. I hear you skeptics out there. "Slacker," you say. "Not done on time. Tardy. Procrastinator." Not so. It's real ART! I refer you to this article in The Real Source of All True Knowledge.

If the February BJP is Conceptual Art, several other projects are Partly Finished Art. The front of the little red doll is finally done. I need to attach the back, stuff her, and bead an edging. The back will not be beaded. I'm hoping she'll be done when my book group shows up here in 10 days.


The front of the aqua ornament is done. Again, I have to sew the back on, stuff it, and bead the edging. This is a commission--a birthday gift for someone's mother. This will be done by Wednesday, when I will see the giftor.


This is the front of the back cover for the book (in screen form) that I am making for the online Sampler Book class I am taking through Joggles. It is two layers of tissue paper fused to felt. Then I did a running stitch with a variety of decorative embroidery threads, with some beads. On the right side is the start of the beaded edging. I am using a curved needle to sew these beads on. I hope I develop some more skill by the time I finish. I feel like a total fumble fingers now.


And this is the back of the back cover. Again, two layers of tissue fused to felt. The medallions are paper clay. I made holes in them so I could sew them on. I will glue the lace on as the last step.


For those who asked, I like taking online classes. I like time to ponder the options and I like the freedom to use the lessons to go off in my own direction. I'm definitely a "read the directions to learn" person so it works well for me. I'm not sure it would work for a "show me how" person.

It's Not Easy Being Red

If I could remember exactly why I decided to make a red doll--that is, a doll in red--I'd be better off. But I can't. It might have been a reaction to the color issues in the January BJP. Red sounds simple, right? Huh!

I wanted to make the doll red, red toward rust not red toward magenta. So I got my fabric, stitched the outline of the doll, and got the beads. Double huh!

Since then, there have been numerous incidents. I did such a fantastic job of matching the thread outline to the fabric that I could hardly see it. That was quickly, if temporarily, resolved by drawing on top of the outline with a soapstone pencil. Voila! Instant outline! That was a minor, but recurring, incident.

The majority of the incidents involved the red beads. Don't believe them. A red is not a red is not a red. A red by any other name is a different color. And it's hard to tell when a red is not a red or what its name is until after you've stitched it down.

The top picture shows the doll front in process. Before I ripped out a bunch of beads. And stitched more down. The lower photo shows the doll front in process. After I ripped out a bunch of beads. And stitched more down. Check out the spiral in the middle just above the hem. Does it look different? I ripped out one curly row in the spiral and replaced it. Then I ripped out another. Interesting process. I ripped out more beads on this doll than I did on all the others together. Lucky for me, I have a seam ripper in every room.



The more analytical among us are wondering why red is so difficult to work with. Am I becoming more discriminating? Fussier? Pickier? A perfectionist? Or is it the light? If you look at the two photos, you'll notice that the colors are different. The first was done in natural light. The second was done in artificial light because it's dark outside. And neither one is exactly the color of the fabric, although the lower one is closer. So I'll give that two points for the lighting.

I'll keep working on this little red doll to see how she turns out, still wondering if that large bead will stay on her head and why I didn't sign up for the color theory class at the quilt show.

Little Green Doll

I just finished another little spirit doll. She doesn't have a name yet, but she looks like spring to me. She is 5.5 inches tall and 3.75 inches from fingertip to fingertip. (Truth in advertising: She has no fingers.) The beads are a mishmash selection of all the yellow-green beads I have. (More truth: most of the yellow-green beads. I have some yellow-green colored beads I didn't use.) I used a leaf charm for her heart because the colors of the beads reminded me of new leaves.

Like the other spirit dolls I made, I beaded the front, whip stitched the back to the front, stuffed it, and edged it with a beaded picot stitch. The hair is a picot stitch with extensions. You can't see it in the photo, but the end bead in each strand (?) of hair is a slightly lighter and yellower color of green.

One of the tricky parts in making these dolls is stuffing them. I've seen (doll not turkey) stuffing forks on the internet, but I don't have one. So I decided to make my own. I placed two bamboo skewers side by side and taped them together with masking tape, starting just below the points--where the sharpening ended. The two skewer points formed the tines on the fork. This worked amazingly well. It was so much easier to push the fiberfill up into the doll's head and arms with my skewer fork than it was with a finger or a chopstick. The tines held the fiberfill until it got into the tight places. Now I know why there is a commercial market for doll stuffing forks.

This is the back of the doll. I stamped on the fabric with Lumiere gold and green paints just to add a little interest. It looks kind of blue-green in the picture, but it really is green leaning toward olive.



She is now hanging on a little ornament stand that I found at JoAnn's. It was half off the already reduced price, or fifty cents. I bought five of them. Only four more dolls to make!

Little Pinky Deere

Let me introduce you to Little Pinky Deere. She is a doll I made for a swap, so like all the other dolls I have made she will be moving on to a new home. But isn't that what parenting is all about? You do your best to bead them and you send them out into the wider world.

Little Pinky Deere is three inches tall. Her face is one of the cabs I made with air-dry clay. It has two coats of paint. I can't remember what the first coat was, but the second coat was Jacquard Lumiere Halo Pink Gold. It is sealed with a craft polyurethane. The face cab is held on with beads, not glue. She has a ribbon on the top so she can be hung up.

This is the back. First I beaded the front, then I whip stitched the front to the back, leaving an opening for stuffing. I had to push the stuffing through the neck with a bamboo skewer. After stitching the hole closed, I edged Pinky with a picot stitch. To give her hair, I used a picot variation. Then I decided to try to bead on the back with a curved beading needle. It's just about as tricky as I thought it would be. More practice with the curved needle is definitely needed.


Little Pinky Deere lives in this bag when she is not on duty sharing the love. It is made of a poly satin and it is lined with the same fabric. The color is not as purple as it shows in the photo. I received the fabric as a sort of challenge Christmas gift. The giftor reported that it was the first cut off the bolt, and she wondered what I would do with it. So here it is.


I know you've been wondering about the name, Little Pinky Deere. No it is not a spelling issue. Her last name comes from her special home. See the back of the bag below.


And some people wondered why this was the first cut off the bolt!

Face Cabs

Since I've been playing around with some beaded art dolls (here and here), I decided to try making some face cabs to use with the dolls.

I used a mold because my talent in sculpting is at the elementary school level. Some of the faces are made with Creative Paperclay and some are made with Craft Porcelain.

Following the instructions on the mold, I dusted it with baby powder before pushing the clay in. The faces came out pretty well, considering that this was my first attempt. Another thing to use as a release is cornstarch. I'll try that next.

One issue I had was having the faces come out somewhat distorted in shape. I found that I could smush the face around a little to limit the distortion and, perhaps, to add artistic distinction. I let the faces dry 24 hours on a piece of waxed paper and then turned them face down to dry for another 24 hours.

When the faces were completely dry, I used sandpaper to smooth out some of the Paperclay faces. I learned I needed to be gentle--it sands very easily. I didn't try to sand the ones made of Craft Porcelain.

The next step was painting. I tried a variety of paints, and Lumiere was my favorite by far. It went on very, very smoothly and it covered very well. My second favorite was PRObrite paint. It is thicker than the Lumiere, and it covered very well. I put a second coat of a different color of paint on the faces the next day. In some cases, I rubbed a little of the wet second coat off to show the color underneath. To seal the face cabs, I used a water-based craft polyurethane on the front and the back.

I was surprised at how light these face cabs were. Right now I'm using one (not shown in the photo) on a little pink doll. It's quite easy to work with, and I'll continue to try to improve my technique.