Who needs Harry?
This cute little girl is from a pattern by Sarah Faix of Bit of Whimsy Dolls. I have made several of Sarah's doll and animal patterns before and they are really sweet and easy to make. So, I was terribly excited when she launched her new Wittle Whimsy Patterns range.
Wittle Whimsies are pairs of small dolls that are about 6 inches high in their finished form. As a big Harry Potter fan, I opted for the Harry & Ginny pair, deciding to begin with Ginny.
The pattern makes it clear that the doll is a bit fiddly to make because of its small size and is threrefore not suitable for a first sewing project. Although this was far from my first ride on my sewing machine, I decided to look for a few ways to simplify matters for myself.
I made Ginny's hair out of hot pink felt and hand appliqued it to her head. This also meant I didn't need to turn her hair buns right side out after sewing. For the same reason, I went for a paler pink felt for Ginny's arms and legs and hand sewed them together. I used a plain cream cotton for Ginny's head and a delicate pink floral print for her body.
As normal, I created the doll's face flat before sewing the halves together. I used safety eyes and then embroidered the nose and mouth. I added a button for extra decoration on her hair.
Before sewing the doll together on the machine, I took the time to baste all the pieces together with the extremities sandwiched in the middle. For once, all the arms and legs came out the right way round. I stuffed the doll with toy stuffing and then hand sewed the opening I'd left at the bottom.
Ginny should have a cotton elasticated skirt. My attempt at the skirt didn't go all that well so I decided to go a bit mixed media. I knitted Ginny a little skirt on 4mm needles with Twilleys Freedom Spirit pure wool. I started with 14 stitches and then increased to create a bit of an A line. The top and bottom of the skirt are garter stitch with stocking stitch inbetween.
To finish off, I gave Ginny a little Papermania bow at the back of her skirt. Can't quite explain why her hair is at such a jaunty angle at the back though...
I may get around to making Harry but in the meantime Ginny is enjoying being an independent girl with a slightly uneven hairline.
Melx
Knit your own getaway retreat...
This delightful cottage was knitted from a kit from The Little Knit Kit Company in Wales (try saying that after a few chardonnays). It's intended as a starter knitting kit for children, which sounds about my level. I'm always curious about the knitting kits you get for children. I personally wouldn't have been able to work out how to knit from the instructions provided - it was only when someone showed me how to knit in person that I grasped it, but perhaps today's children are brighter...
Having said that, if you know how to cast on, how to knit (not even purl) and how to cast off, the kit is indeed very easy. It comes in a lovely paper bag with all the materials you need to make the complete cottage, including some dinky Pony 4mm knitting needles that I replaced with some grown up ones from my stash.
The cottage is made from four green and two gray flat pieces all in garter stitch. There was a very small amount of shaping for the eaves using knit two stitches together. You were supposed to sew the pieces together for a "rustic effect", which I managed very easily with my scruffy making up.
The kit also includes the felt and embroidery thread to make the windows and the door. The beads and button for the door also come with the kit and I think are a very sweet touch.
The instructions did do that thing I hate of suggesting sewing the features on after you have sewn together and stuffed the cottage. As usual, I decorated the cottage flat before I did the sewing.
Probably the hardest part of the whole thing was sewing the roof onto the house over the eaves. I had trouble keeping the roof in the right position whilst I got the stitches in. The effect is certainly rustic in that area!
I think the finished cottage is really rather nice and there was lots of yarn left over for other projects. I'd definitely try another of these kits - there's a cute cat I've got my eye on...
Melx
Bunnies Bunny
This sweet and simple little rabbit is a project from a fab new book called Sew It, Stuff It by Rob Merrett. The book is filled with gorgeous doll and plush animal patterns. I thought I would start with a nice straightforward make as a break from the knitting and a bit of instant gratification.
As you might be able to tell from the title, the idea was in fact to make several bunnies in different sizes but I decided one was sufficient - no need to be greedy ;)
The book comes complete with pull-out full sized patterns. I photocopied the bunny and made it into a cardboard template to draw round. I used a pretty floral fat quarter from The Fent Shop in Skipton for the bunny's body. The bunny is one-sided so I added a safety eye and an embroidered nose before sewing the sides together on my sewing machine.
The book contains two excellent tips. Firstly, the ribbon around the bunny's neck is attached to the back of the body as part of the sewing process so it stays nice and secure. Secondly (and my favourite), the book recommends using pinking shears to trim the seam allowance so you can clip the curves at the same time. I hate clipping the curves with scissors and the pinking shears are an excellent shortcut.
I stuffed the bunny with toy filling and then attached the bell to the ribbon. I used a little fray check on the ends of the ribbon to prevent, erm, fraying.
The final florourish was bunny's pom pom tail. I made this from rather posh yarn (pure Shetland wool in natural fleece colour) using my trusty Clover medium sized pom pom maker. I always fasten pom poms with embroidery thread rather than yarn as it's less stretchy and you can attach the pom pom to the plushie with the same strand of thread for extra security.
I also used this project as an opportunity to buy some more bells (although in the end I used one I already had in stash). I love displaying my crafting goodies in jars and decided to create a bell jar. I like to use Hartleys jam jars for my stash because (a) I like Hartley's jam, and (b) they are a lovely light bulb shape. I trimmed the jar using fancy felt, ribbon, felt shapes and a cute ladybird button. I'm not sure I will ever use this many bells in my lifetime, but don't they look pretty?
Melx
Not all my own work...
I'm a little bit in love with this bag in its lovely autumn colours. The idea started when my very talented mother agreed to make me a panel of Momiji dolls in cross stitch.
The Momiji design comes from Issue 215 of Cross Stitcher Magazine (August 2009) but my ma changed all the colours for me, including the centre doll, who has green hair just like me :)
I did make a small contribution to her masterpiece. I sewed the little button onto the purple doll, the orange bow onto the green doll and the pom pom hair bobbles onto the blue doll. I also sewed the panel onto an orange felt backing and then sewed over the raw edges of the aida with sparkly orange ribbon from HobbyCraft
I wanted to use the panel in a practical way so I decided to make a knitted shoulder bag. I used Rowan Scottish Tweed Aran that I had left over from my knitted rabbit due to my inability to tell the difference between 50g and 100g balls of wool. The bag was knitted loosely on 5.5mm needles. I cast on 55 stitches and did stocking stitch until it looked bit enough. The strap is a simple 10 stitches of garter stitch.
I made a terrible job of making the bag up - dodgy stitching and lumps and bumps everywhere. Happily, I had already decided to felt it. I think you need to felt a lot of knitted bags as they are just too stretchy otherwise. Two goes round the washing machine at 60 degrees and the bag was nicely shrunk and all my mistakes safely hidden. The final bag size is 12 inches wide and 11 inches long.
For a bit more structural integrity, I decided to make a lining for the bag from a brown cotton print and heavy weight sew-in interfacing. I also added a magnetic clasp and a small inner pocket.
I attached the Momiji doll panel with four orange buttons to start with. I was going to sew all four sides down flat but then I decided the panel would work pretty well as a front pocket for the bag. To finish, I hand sewed the lining into the bag.
This is probably my favourite thing I've made this year and all thanks to my lovely mum....
Melx
Spooky....
Following up on the Halloween theme, I have recently finished a kit by Bergere de France called "Gentils Fantomes", which I believe translates to "Friendly Ghosts".
The kit came from Crafty Yarn for £17.99. The website just showed a picture of the finished ghosts, so I assumed, partly because of the subject matter, it was some sort of rough and ready indie kit. In fact, it arrived in a beautiful posh box with a magnetic closure. You get full sized balls of all the wools used and a pattern booklet in multiple languages (one of which was happily English!).
I decided to start with this fluffy grey ghost as it looked the easiest. He is knitted in Plume wool on 5.5mm needles. I have to say that I hated the feel of the toy stuffing you got with the kit and replaced it with my usual stuff. The kit included buttons for the eyes and I embroidered the mouth in silver grey embroidery thread. The pattern included tassels on each corner of the bottom of the ghost but I thought it was a bit much. Plume is very soft and cute and remains my favourite of the three.
