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iOH MY.....look how long it's been since I posted 😱 Why does life keep getting in the way of my crafting and blogging?!! Anyhow, I'm here to introduce my little Miroxdoll "Joe" twins.......Josephine & Jasper. Poor babies have been in the cupboard for over a year waiting for some love. When they arrived I was actually quite disappointed with the tan colour....it was a lot darker than I'd anticipated and I was wishing I'd just played safe and stuck to the fair resin.....so they were put in the cupboard out of sight. I even tried selling them at one point but they were obviously meant to stay put here for whatever reason. About a month ago I decided to get them out to wig and clothe so I could try selling them again. After looking at them sitting on my work table for a few days I was smitten with them all over again. They really are very cute, just a bit darker than I wanted. So I packed their heads up and sent them off to Alena of Enchanted Crafts Group to have their faces done. OMG....I am thrilled with the results!! Alena has done an amazing job of bringing these two to life. They are perfect now! She has even managed to make the difference between the boy and the girl very easy to see! While the heads were away I made them some clothes. Now that they're all back together I'd like to introduce them......Josie & Jasper 💖💙 My gorgeous little twins. Face-up photo courtesy of Alena - Enchanted Crafts Group:  Back together and clothed......  I've done a little story of them having a play day.....posted under the stories tab 😊
Have a wonderful day wherever you are in the world Lynne xx
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My lovely friend, Sarah, in the UK has allowed me to adopt her gorgeous fair Willow....called Birdie. She arrived to some very cold weather, poor little thing! My blue girl, Sherbet was SO excited to welcome her Twin home :) I found some time today to put together a photo story of Birdie's box opening......posted under the Stories tab. Here's a photo of my two lovelies together....and one of them having a Tea Party in celebration of Birdie's arrival.   I made this bag for a friend's birthday.....  The pattern is the Jolly Chunky Bag by Lucy over at Attic24. I've made it up in Stylecraft Special DK, in left over colours from my Cosy Blanket....the first of Lucy's blankets that I made. I stumbled across Lucy's blog about two years ago and fell in love with her crocheting....she has an amazing eye for combining colours together :) I've been a regular reader ever since and have now made seven!! of her blanket kits!! I love going to Lucy's blog to have a read....it's always uplifting and her photography is wonderful. I wanted to make a 'yarn project bag' for a friend who also crochets but I don't have any of the chunky Stylecraft yarn, so I decided to use the DK and adjust the pattern to suit. I did two rows of pattern per colour for the base, then switched to single rows for each colour. The base measures the same as the base in Lucy's pattern....I kept increasing until it measured 23cm. I increased until there were 10 sts between increases for my base, using a 3.75mm hook. I'm really happy with how this turned out and hope my friend likes it too.  I made the sides high enough to hold 100g balls of Stylecraft DK vertically....it holds six full balls. I also wanted to line this bag and put a small pocket in it to hold a crochet hook, tape measure and small scissors or snips, so everything needed for a project is all in one handy place. I thought I'd post the process of making the lining here, in case anyone else would like to line their bag and wasn't sure how to go about it.....it's really quite easy. First step is to work out the base piece for the lining.......for this you need to measure across the diameter of the circle you've crocheted for the base.....mine measured 23cm. Then you need to add the seam allowance to this measurement.....I added 2cm to allow for a 1cm seam. So my fabric base circle is 25cm. I found a cake tin that was the perfect size and traced around it to get my pattern piece......  The next step is to work out the circumference of the circle to cut the side piece. Maths has never been my strong point so I resorted to Mr Google for the formula and found a Circumference Calculator .... YAY!! Just click on the link and enter your radius measurement into the box, click on Calculate and the measurement will appear in the bottom box....easy peasy :) (The Radius is half the diameter of your circle measurement.....so my radius measurement was 12.5) Once you have the circumference measurement you need to add the seam allowances to it.....my measurement was 78.5 ... plus 2cm (for two 1cm side seam allowances) = 80.5. So my side piece had to be cut 80.5cm wide. To calculate the height of the side piece, I measured from the bottom of the gold scallop edge to the bottom of the Lime row (near the bottom of the bag), which is the first row worked without any increases.....this is the first row of the bag sides. My measurement was 20.5cm so the side piece had to be cut at 22.5cm to allow for a 1cm seam to sew to the circle and a 1cm turn over at the top of the lining, where it gets sewn into the bag. SO.....my lining side piece was cut 80.5cm wide by 22.5cm high :) I wanted to add a pocket.....I cut a piece of fabric 17cm wide x 22cm high. Fold the pocket piece Right Sides together and sew down each side with a 1cm seam......photo below  After sewing the seams trim the corners as shown and then turn through to the right side.......  Press the pocket flat. The next bit sounds a bit tricky but it's really quite easy.....position the pocket with the raw edge facing up, where you want it on your lining. I positioned mine so it would sit in between two of the handles and would be about 4cm from the top of the lining.....so I placed the raw edge of the pocket 15cm from the raw edge at top of the lining fabric.....like this below  I hope you can see this okay....it's not the best fabric print to be using for demo purposes :( Pin the pocket with the raw edge facing up and then sew a 1cm seam across this edge, sewing through all layers. Once the seam is sewn, clip the corners on the raw edge and then flip the pocket up towards the top....shown below  Press the pocket in place then pin to hold. Top-sew close to the sides and across the bottom of pocket to attach it to the lining. Give it another press. If you prefer you can add a little hooky pocket like I did....I sewed another row of stitching 2cm from the top-stitching on the left side of the pocket to create a perfect size holder for a crochet hook.....so it's easy to find in the bag and you don't have to go hunting for it :)  Next you need to prepare the lining side piece so it's ready to attach to the base circle. Zig-zag or overlock the sides and top of the this piece, then press the top edge 1cm to the wrong side. Open out the pressed edge and sew the sides of the lining together with Right Sides together using a 1cm seam. Press the seam to one side (or open if you prefer) and re-press the top folded edge where the seam is. Your piece should now look like this....see below  Now it's time to attach the base circle to the rest of the lining. Mark out quarters on your Base piece and Side piece with pins.....as shown in the photos below.....the pins are placed on the (bottom) raw edge of the side piece.   Once you have both pieces divided into quarters you need to pin them together. Right Sides together, put the circle into the open 'tube' of the side piece and line up the pins on each piece. It should look like this....  Now you need to pin the two pieces together all the way around. Placing your pins vertically will make it much easier....as in my photo above. It's also much easier if you have the Base piece facing down with the Side piece facing you. The side piece will need to be eased slightly as you sew, to avoid any puckers. Sew with the Side piece facing up and the Base underneath. If you sew with the base facing up you are more likely to get puckers in the side piece. Once you have sewn the two pieces together, either zig-zag or overlock the seam allowance to reinforce it and deter fraying. Your lining should now look like this.....  Now top-stitch around the folded top edge of the lining. The next bit is a bit fiddly but does make a difference to how the lining sits when in the bag. Press the seam towards the Base of the bag lining by lying the bag on its side and holding the 'tube' up with one hand while putting the iron into the bag and pressing down into the bag.....you will have to move the bag around in a circle to press the whole seam. It's much harder to explain than actually do!! Once your lining is all pressed you're ready to attach it to the inside of your gorgeous crocheted bag. Sit the lining inside the bag, lining the pocket up where you'd like it to be, and pin the top edge of the lining to the top inside edge of the bag.....I sewed mine to the bottom of the Gold scallop row. Hand sew in place with small whip stitches. The inside should look like this......  The last step is to turn your bag inside-out so the lining is on the outside and smooth it down so that it's sitting on the base of the bag correctly. Then I like to attach the bottom of the lining to the base with a few stitches....so it stays in place when putting things in and out of the bag. I hand sew through the lining at four points around the base, just catching the crochet bag, and then tie off firmly. Voilà.....congratulations.....your bag is all finished. Give yourself a big pat on the back :)  I'd like to send out a BIG thank you to Lucy for all that she shares on her blog. ALL her patterns are FREE!! And they are all wonderful. I LOVE this bag and love how it turned out.....I'm not always thrilled with my creations but I am with this one! I'll be making another one soon for another pressie. Maybe one day I'll even make one for myself lol Thanks for hanging in there through this long post......I hope it helps someone to have a go at lining a bag. Have a wonderful day Lynne xx ETA: I've finished the second bag....here it is I used a cute owlie fabric for the inside of this one and the colours are leftovers from Lucy's Sunny Granny Stripe blanket, minus the Bright Pink (which I'm not that fond of). I followed Lucy's colourway until the bag was the right height, using 2 rows for each colour on the base and one colour per row for the body of the bag.....same as the first bag I made :) Love these bags......wish I had more friends I could make them for LOL I have quite a stash of leftover yarn and these are great stash busters!   Wow, it's been ages since I posted!! I'd like to introduce my new boy, Evan :)  Evan is a YOSD size BJD by Impldoll. He's 26cm tall and came to me blank. I've had so little time to do anything remotely dolly for the last couple of months as our daughter married a couple of weeks ago. I've been flat out with wedding sewing and stationery :) We had some warm weather last weekend so I gave him a face-up and then today I made him some clothes and a wig. I'm not happy with the wig but it will have to do for now...it's better than leaving him bald lol At some stage I'm going to wipe the face-up and redo it as it's not as brown toned as I wanted...he looks like a bit of a ginger. I'm determined this boy won't have red hair as nearly all my resin family are in red shades of varying hues. He's much smaller than my Polly (Meadow Dolls Patti) but will still be a good little playmate for her. I liked his body so much that I've ordered a girl body in his size to use with my Sprocket Glee's head :) As much as I love the look of the Sprocket bodies, they are painful to stand and pose. So Evan will soon have a half sister lol Poor boy was tired after all the work today so sat and read a book for a while....The Poky Little Puppy. We love Little Golden Books in our house :)  I'll try not to leave it so long between posts again!
Have a wonderful day wherever you are in the world :) Lynne xx I'm having a blast with this little girl.....she's just so darn cute! I made her some more clothes today. Sock fashion lol The leggings and headband are made from an adult size ankle sock. I'm always on the lookout for suitable patterns when I check out the bargain shops for cheap socks.....sometimes the patterns are the perfect size to use for dolly clothes. Socks make great undies, leggings and tights for dolls up to MSD size. Not sure how anything larger would go unless you used both socks?? Have a lovely day Lynne xx  This sock must belong to a giant!!!! It's nearly as big as me :D  I received my cute little Fair Patti, from Meadow Dolls, a couple of weeks ago. She arrived blank so I had to wait for a decent day to give her a face-up....it's winter in Aus at present and our weather has been cold and damp, with the odd nice day in between. Not long after she arrived I fluked a gorgeous, sunny, warm day so made the most of it :) Here's my new girl.....  And this is before her face-up.....  She's wearing a Kemper wig called Wispy Todd...love it on her!....and the eyes she arrived with. I've been having a LOT of fun making clothes for her :D She's lovely to handle and sits so nicely in my hands. She's fast become one of my favourite dolls. I love her size...she's about 25cm tall and has a lovely sturdy body with lots of joints, so she poses like a dream. I wonder if she'll get a sibling down the track sometime.....I'd be so tempted if another head is made for this body!
Have a wonderful day Lynne xx  It seems like forever ago that I started working on this project! I've had Pale Pink Coco (by Kaye Wiggs) since September last year. She is very finely featured and has a lovely, very posable body, so I decided to bring to life the vision of a little Dragonfly Nymph that was playing in my head.....hence the name Dart.....that's what dragonflies do; dart around the surface of the water :) I made her bodysuit from a piece of lycra dance fabric I had tucked away in my stash. It's made from resizing and adjusting an MHD Designs pattern. I love Magalie's patterns, they are so well designed and detailed.....and the instructions are wonderful. I have a few of them now, waiting in queue to be made up. I couldn't find the right wig for the look I wanted so I moulded Dart's headcap from some Magic Paperclay I had in my papercraft stash. "Stashes" are such handy things to have lol I covered her head with cling wrap to protect her face and then moulded the clay over the top. It's very difficult to get a really smooth finish with this clay, which frustrated me a bit, but it's so easy to work with. I tried using Fimo too but spat the dummy with it when it wouldn't do what I wanted it to!! I finished the look with a coat of acrylic metallic craft paint and a little clear glitter paint, then added the two cabochons to represent the jewel-like dragonfly eyes. The wings were a problem. I really didn't have the time for a wing-making learning curve so I approached Christina from Stitch Soup and asked if she'd consider making a dragonfly wings machine embroidery file. I was so excited when she agreed to do these for me. There is now a set of wings on the site with five different designs in three sizes!! It turns out that Christina loves wings :) I hope to make more of these for a couple of my other dolls when I get time. Then there was the problem of how to attach them to Dart's bodysuit without them drooping or dragging the stretchy fabric down at the back.....I settled on designing a little corset belt that I have attached the wings to.....works a treat :) I haven't decided whether to give Dart a fantasy face-up or not yet. This is the original factory face-up. One day I might get brave enough to have a go at a OOAK face for her! I was lucky enough to find the exact shade of sapphire blue I wanted for her eyes. I've considered getting some fantasy eyes for her so I'll see how I feel if I change her face. Overall I'm quite happy with how she turned out.......it's close to the vision I had in my head. I find it frustrating when I get a creative idea that I can't bring into the physical, so this one is a win for me!   Thanks for coming to visit......have a wonderful day :)
Lynne xx It's been so busy the last couple of weeks that I haven't had time to come back here to post!!  My Kaye Wiggs fair Abby arrived last week but I didn't get to spend any time with her until a few days ago. She's gorgeous! She's on the new MSD body, with a higher breastplate and a notch on the foot so it can be pointed (great for ballet practise lol). I really like this body :) Her head is smaller than my other KW girls so I've ordered her a 7/8 wig. I mostly have 8/9 so I don't have to fight getting them on! From the first time I saw Abby I thought she'd make a great twin sister for Tristan (Maurice sculpt). I'm happy to say that they look fantastic together......  The higher breastplate means Abby can wear little crop tops :) She's going to be my little hippie chick when I find time to sew for her, so halter tops will work well on her body. The little knitted crop top she's wearing is one that I made for my Les Cheries when I had them. Before finding BJDs I had a little vinyl family, which has slowly been reducing. I love it when I find an unexpected use for something in my stash....doesn't happen often! I don't even know why I kept the Les Cheries clothes but now I'm glad I did :) Her beautiful green eyes are handblown German glass eyes. Purchased from a friend who used to make porcelain dolls. They're gorgeous eyes! My quiet, shy farm boy was very excited to meet his twin....he's been waiting a long time for her lol Her arrival has sparked a trial new look for him.....we'll see if it becomes permanent or not.  Wig is Mory in Bronze Auburn from Jpop Dolls size 8/9. It needs a bit of a trim if it's going to be Tristan's forever wig. I'm not sure about it yet....he looks so different in it compared to the Johnny wig he's been wearing. He also has new eyes.....deeper, brighter blue.....and they're a bit smaller. I think I like them :)
This is what I love so much about the BJDs. You can change eyes, wigs and clothes and have a completely different looking doll. Have a wonderful day, wherever you are in the world Lynne xx I thought I'd post some of my past projects in collage form. First off are clothes for the Australian Girl Dolls........   These are some of the outfits I made for the girls' birthdays. I've included a photo of Emily & Jasmine in their boxes. The models for most of these photos are Matilda and another Aus Girl Doll called Amy. I sold Amy to a friend when I found BJDs :)
The little sandals were made by following a wonderful tutorial by Diane Morello...you can find the tutorial HERE Diane has some great tutorials for dolly things. Okay...I'll be back soon with another installment of past projects. Have a wonderful day Lynne xx  This is my current crochet project. I'm making a blanket from a kit by Lucy at Attic24. I found Lucy's blog about 18 months ago and fell in love with her colour combos. I've made all her blanket kits now, except for the latest one....the Sunny blanket. I'm expecting that kit to arrive any day now and I'm really looking forward to starting on it.
This kit is the Original blanket kit. I made this for a friend last year and loved the colours so much that I just had to get myself one too :) The yarn is Stylecraft Special DK. I order the kits from Lucy's Attic24 shop at Wool Warehouse in the UK. This is the loveliest acrylic yarn I've ever used. So soft and it doesn't split as I'm using it. The other thing I love about it is that out of all those kits I've made, I've only found one or maybe two joins in the yarn!!! I've used really expensive yarns and had a lot more joins to contend with than that. This yarn also comes in an amazing range of colours....and I just love how Lucy combines them....she has a gift for putting colours together randomly and having them look wonderful. Saves me a LOT of agonising over making my own combinations! Even though I'm buying this from the UK it still works out cheaper than local acrylics, that aren't half as nice to use. If I buy a maximum of 18 100g balls, the postage is very reasonable. This blanket is for our caravan....and so is the Sunny blanket when I get it done. Blanket crocheting is my relaxation in the evenings when I'm too tired to concentrate on anything else. As Lucy puts it, the "rhythm of the rows" is very meditative when using an easy pattern. Lynne xx PS The pattern I'm using isn't one of Lucy's, it's a Moogly pattern. I love the way it looks, the way the colours dip into each other....it looks like woven fabric. |
My avatar is beautiful Mini Layla
a resin BJD doll by renowned Australian doll artist, Kaye Wiggs About MeHello, my name is Lynne. Categories
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