Made it: Rag Doll

Finding gifts for an infant that is not your first born is tough!  Nothing is gender specific at 5 months.  Everything W needs for chewing and playing is already around from the B.  Poor girl never gets anything new except clothes.  I can't make a plastic toy for her to chew on.  I don't want to make infant clothes.  What should the made part of her gifts beeeee?

She might be a little young for a doll but everyone needs a rag doll.  I think it is pretty special to have a made doll from your mom.  Right??

It's far from perfect...but it's a rag doll so that's cool.

I used this pattern as a starting point.  I edited it a bit but it's close to the original.  I decided on felt hair after doing some research about rag doll hair.  The hair is dark brown even though it looks black here.  As for the face...it was the least creepy version of a rag doll face I could come up with.  There are some CREEEEPPPYYYY doll faces out there. C.R.E.E.P.Y.  Google it.  Anyway.  The whole face is stitched on with DMC Floss.

Nice.

The most trying part of this project was the felt hair.  I did it without a tutorial so it took me three tries to get it right...In the end it wasn't that complicated.  I traced the shape of the head (flattened) and then drew the hair around it.  I sewed the hair pieces together (right sides together), turned it right side out and glued it to the head of the doll.  I finished it off by stitching it around the perimeter of the hair.  It turned out way better than I expected based on my poor first few attempts.  Also, I wish I had stitched the face before I sewed the doll together.  Other than that, it was pretty straightforward.

Advent Conspiracy.  Check it out.

Made it: Toddler Tool Belt

Brady, don't read this post! 

Ha.  Brady is a toddler.  This is one of his Christmas presents.  I saw the tutorial here and knew I had to make it for him.  He loves having a place to put everything.  That is kind of the theme of his presents so far.  

The best part of this present??  It cost me ZERO dollars.  It is made from things I already have.  

The green striped cloth is one of the dish clothes from the pack I bought to make this bolster pillow.  The ivory flannel was from this window treatment for B's room.  The blue binding was left over from when I did this to my duvet cover.  

Feels good to spend zero.  I always see those posts on other blogs.  I have finally been sewing long enough to have left overs!  

Here is the tutorial I used.  

Again, thanks to Walt for taking pictures.  See his real photography here. 

Made by Me Monday

This New Years I committed to being a committed blogger.  So far so good.  I am loving equally the inspiration I have found in all the blogs I have discovered and the motivation writing has given me to do more creative things.  Riding that inspiration and motivation I have decided to step it up a notch and commit to a weekly installment....I made it Monday....or Made by Me Monday....or something else.  Which do you think?  Made by Em Monday.  Hmm.  This week it is "I made it Monday" and I will commit to a name by next Monday.  My goal is to have a new project to post every Monday...big or small.

This weekend I made my first bolster pillow.  I saw this tutorial on Prudent Baby.  Her tutorial made it so easy and gave me confidence as I went along.  Bet you can't guess what was playing on Pandora while I made this.  Jay Z, Lupe Fiasco and Pharrell.  I think that it's reflected in the color choice.....  Ok. So I saw the tutorial and gave myself the same encouraging pep talk that I gave before taking on the pelmet box.  Basically: Cheap.  Do it cheap.  Just in case.  

Notes:  

-The three fabrics were three dishtowels I got on clearance at Target.  $5.  Sweet deal.  I didn't even have to worry about matching colors...which I am working tirelessly on building up my confidence in....because they came as a set.  

-The tutorial called for two bags of Polyfil.  I was highly skeptical. The entire two bags fit in that thing.  I was stunned.  

-It is 23x9 incase you are wondering.  

-I skipped doing the cording because I discovered I don't have a zipper foot.  Must get one.  

-Also, I didn't do the decorative stitching.  I don't have that focus.  

Does anyone know if there are ways to reduce the lumpiness of the polyfil?  I worked on it before I closed it up but I think it could use some more de-lumping.  

I have my eye out for some low cost white pillow shams.  If anyone has suggestions about places to look...let me know!