This Weeks Sewing

This week I've mainly been machine sewing. Little L now has her skull print pj bottoms. This ended up being a very speedy joint project with my Mum. I had asked if she would mind overlocking the fabric to prevent it from fraying and when she returned them she had sewn the body and leg seams together so all I had left to do was to add the waist band and hem the legs. I used an old pair of Little L pj bottoms for the pattern.

Little L's doll George has his dungarees.

The body seemed very baggy so I sewed in a line of elastic at the back leaving enough room for clothes underneath. One of my cousins commented that the dungarees looked very nice but reminded her of the Chucky doll which I can see myself now she's mentioned it.

Last week I made this neck pillow for Little L to put in the car ( I should have used a thicker fabric or doubled it over so the thread at the back couldn't be seen ). When my Mum saw it she asked if I could make one for their car and I made this one.

Its meant to be a panda but I'm not sure if it looks like one especially after my Mum said 'well you can tell it's supposed to be a creature'. The tutorial for the first neck pillow can be found here.

Dressing Dolls

A while ago my niece gave Little L all her Barbies and furniture that she had when she was little. This was kept in my mums loft for years until Little L was old enough to play with them but she has only started to take interest recently so this week I've started making some items for them.

First I set to detangling the dolls hair. They looked like they had been in a fight before I started. I brushed out as many of the knots as I could, losing quite a bit of hair along the way. Then I wet the hair with very hot water (almost boiling), smoothed some hair conditioner through it then rinsed with the hot water again. After another brush through they were left to dry overnight. My Mum was really inpressed with the results because they looked like they were destined for the bin beforehand. I've done 5 now and still have about the same amount to tidy up.

I made this underwear set using stretch lace. Very fiddly to sew on my machine and might have been just as quick to do by hand.

These very simple skirts were made using a rectangle piece of fabric which was gathered along one long edge and hemmed at the other. The waist band was made by folding over a length of wide ribbon then sewing it on. They fasten at the back by tying the ribbon in a bow.

This crocheted blanket with sleeves ( I don't know if they have a special name ) was made using this pattern

and new bedding was made for the bed.

After going for tea at her Grans this week Little L came back with these fabrics. They were left over from some things that my Mum had made. At first Little L asked if I could make her some socks with the skull fabric but because this isn't possible has settled on some pj bottoms. The vehicle print fabric she brought home so I could make her some clothes for her baby doll George. Looks like some of my next week is planned out.

Birthday Girl

Little L celebrated her 6th birthday at the weekend. Before hand we asked what she wanted to do and this year she asked to go to a beach with 2p machines (arcades). The closest beach to us with plenty of arcades is Rhyl which takes a little over an hour by car to reach.

First we visited the Sea Life Aquarium ( I used my Tesco coupons to exchange for vouchers so it didn't really cost to enter ).To be honest Little L didn't seem to particularly like the aquarium. She just took a quick glimpse in to a tank then swiftly moved on to the next. Maybe everything was a bit too slow moving for her. They had set up a room called phobias containing tanks holding rats, giant millipedes, spiders, etc. She appeared to be fine at first until she saw the spider after that she told us that it was scaring her and wanted to leave.

We walked around the arcades for a while where Little L managed to win a couple of cars and keyrings from the 2p machines then on to the beach for a bit of shell collecting and building.The busy day must have worn her out because she slept all the way home.
Craftwise I've managed to make couple of things this week for Little L's doll. I made two simple nighties ( every time I try to put the photo on here it  turns on its side for some reason ) and finished off this outfit.

The pattern I used is a Daisy May pattern which I purchased off Ebay.

Dressing Dolls

This week I had my sewing machine out to make some quick clothes for Little L's dolls. Both the patterns that I used were free ones which I found on the internet.

These dresses to fit a LaLaLoopsy doll were lined in plain white cotton and fasten at the back using velcro. I've never sewn velcro on using a machine before but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The stitches look slightly wonky on the loopy side but I don't suppose Little L will notice.

 There doesn't seem to be many patterns about to fit this type of doll and I'm not sure if they sell them in shops. I've not seen any. Little L now wants me to kit out her boy doll with a new set of clothes so he can get changed as well. I'll have to see if I can rustle up a pattern using the existing clothes. The pattern for this dress can be found here.

The other thing I made were these dolls nappies. Some were lined with blue cotton, others with flannelette from one of Little L's cot sheets. Little L loves these as she has been playing with her baby doll more lately. I think that might be because she had her first hold of a real baby a few weeks ago, she loved it and wants us to have one. Not a chance, my baby days are over so Little L will just have to be content playing with her dolls and visiting real babies that we don't have to bring home with us.

All Dolled Up

Little L recently acquired a new doll which needed kitting out with a wardrobe. It is an 18in girl type doll and while I have lots of patterns for baby and fashion dolls, most of which were ones that my mum used for mine and my sisters dolls, I had nothing to fit this kind. After nipping in to my local wool shop and finding none there I popped on to my favourite on line site for sourcing patterns, Ravelry. There are absolutely loads plus a lot of them were free and Little L had fun choosing which designs she liked.

The coat and hat pictured below are both free patterns.

The following two designs are from patterns which I bought off Ravelry and both are designed by member Jacknitss.

While searching the internet for this type of doll I came across this site, A Doll For All Seasons , full of clothes and accessories ideas to make for a little girls friend.