Wee Wonderfuls

Anouk

Anouk, originally uploaded by Hillary Lang.

I've finished another beribboned doll today. I know I was kicking around the idea of putting these dolls in the shop but I don't think I can do it. They're just too much work. I still want to have some actual toys for sale though. Back to the drawing board I guess.

In other shop news, have you seen it? Tim redesigned the shop and launched it this weekend and I think it's just swell! Also it's fully stocked, all the season stitchettes are back in stock, the turtle is back and the new bunny patterncard is up and ready to go. Just in time for a total meltdown of the US economy.. happy shopping ;)

craft room clean up still in progress

craft room clean up still in progress, originally uploaded by Hillary Lang.

another cheater way to blog! "blog this" from flickr. sweet!

dream bubbles

The other day I was asking Tim to give me some ideas for Christmas embroidery patterns. As always, he gave me 'I don't know' but I forced him to spit out Christmasy things... santa, reindeer, candy canes, kids in their beds dreaming about what they want for Christmas.. ahh! I ran to the bookshelves to find one of my childhood favorites, Gyo Fujikawa's A to Z Picture Book. I loved this page when I was a kid. So I loved this idea! And I swear it was like the 5th thing he threw out there. I'm going to force him to brainstorm more often.

Here's my first dreaming-of-Christmas fellow. Remind you of anyone?

I was thinking of doing this as redwork but wasn't really feeling it. But I also didn't want to get a bunch of colors going because I'm thinking maybe 10 of these in the series (wouldn't that make a cute quilt!) and man that'd be a lot of work, it's so much easier to embroider all in one color. So now I'm thinking maybe all one color for each design? This guy's in navy.

It's hard to believe I'm thinking Christmas, especially since I'm in total denial that it's already Fall and the air conditioning is still on. But it's feeling pretty easy to be overrun by stress and uncertainty this past week and I'm really trying to focus on our own little reality here, like how Christmas is fast approaching and I'm going to try to make it as fun and awesome as possible for these kiddos.

And I might have accidentally ordered these really cute Christmas prints (bing, bang) that are totally getting me in the mood.

 

 

does anyone know a place...

online to buy cute vintage doll furniture? not dollhouse furniture but bigger, doll sized furniture? we've got a lot of dolls around here and no seating. feet are getting tired!

I've been checking in on the kit, chloe and louise flickr group looking for new friends. look who popped up... evy! isn't she so cute! I love the dark braids and that red jumper.

I feel like (or rather Tim tells me) I'm jumping around from thought to thought these days. Scattered, ok, but I'm here. If I worried about grammar or cohesive thought this blog would be a ghost town. For the cause of short but sweet content I've started a wee wonderfuls twitter. I'm sure it'll be full of thrilling stuff like what I had for breakfast but what the heck, I just like the name.. twitter. I'm going to have Tim add it to my sidebar over there just as soon as he's done with the new shop design (!) and the advertising thing, and the wholesaler bit and the amazon links and the new categories and I know there's something else. Ok, it might be a while. But the new shop is coming soon. And along with it restocked stitchettes and the new bunny patterncard!

notes on a smock

I did it. I said I was going to make something and then I did. The very next day. I was almost derailed by the 'it's in japanese' factor but I stuck with it and ta-da. It turned out really cute! (here's the back) I love this style. It fits in very nicely with my strong desire to dress Phoebe as Laura Ingalls Wilder everyday. The fabric is fig and plum. I love this print. I also got it in blue.

This shot below didn't turn out so well (none of them did actuall) but I had to include it... she hopped up there and I caught her in this funny toe-gazing wardrobe re-mixer pose. hee! Do they have one of those types of sites for kids? They totally should.

bambini + sesame

craft room bulletin

I worked on Phoebe's quilt some this weekend. It's going well, got three rows done, and then decided to put it back in the drawer for a while. I think she has less clothes than Oscar did, is that possible?! Maybe I saved more and have less in the cut-up pile. Either way I'm going to hold off while I wait for her to outgrow some of her current cutie pjs. (oscar's quilt here)

Phoebe's still too little for any of the patterns in my Japanese craft books but I thought I'd try this smock. Looks like the style where it wouldn't matter that she's 80cm instead of 90cm.

Still in pursuit of an organized craft room, I took down almost everything on my quilt wall and my bulletin board. All the pins are home and waiting for new inspiration.

buy a spoon!

Hello and thanks for all the Kit, Chloe & Louise love & orders. I can't wait to see y'all's dolls! And I'm soooo happy to have this pattern done and out!! I seemed to have been stuck in goo for a while there. But now it's on to new things, brainstorming and sketching and new ideas. Tim trimmed my new too-long bangs into sorta-too-short bangs and now I can see clearly what's in front of me. Today it's a spoon puppet. Carol and I are kicking around the idea of doing the Renegade Christmas craft fair this year.. right? are we? This is one of the project possibilities, a spoon puppet with flocked hair (can you tell that it's fuzzy?) and posable felt arms in a little outfit. I don't know, sounds like a lot of work, but Tim did come up with this great marketing campaign.. Buy a Spoon! Who can argue with that?

Kit, Chloe & Louise PDF Put-together Book in the shop

They're here! Kit, Chloe and Louise are ready to come over and play. The pattern is in the shop. Here's the skinny... it's $15 for a downloadable PDF pattern that includes full-size patterns and easy-to-follow instructions to make three 16" dolls and four snappy outfits (undersuit, Chloe's dress, Kit's top & jumper and Louise's top and jumper) plus a pattern for the shoes. Pattern also includes detailed instructions for yarn hair!! 26 pages of patterny goodness in all.

And a big fat thanks to all my wonderful pattern testers!! Everyone had such helpful suggestions and was so nice to work with. I really appreciate it! If you guys want to add your photos I've started a Kit, Chloe and Louise flickr group here. Can't wait to see them all together :)

Oh, and Jess.. this is your Chloe! I'll pop her in the mail this week.

my sorting technique is unstoppable

I did it! I finally, after being in this house over a year, finally organized my fabric. I've been collecting fabric for years and years, many of those years being hardcore thrifting years so I'm a little embarassed and very overwhelmed by my fabric collection. That really got out of hand fast! (extra points for id'ing movie quote) So I've been determined to get it under control. I just stuck up on how to sort, by color, by size, by type - vintage, japanese, designer, etc and I finally nailed it down to this. First, everything is by color..

Then it's by size, medium and large pieces in their own stacks

and small pieces in their own shelves

Then I got ambitious and sorted the other side of the closet. I finally let my japanese prints get out and mingle with the rest. All cotton print went to the print side of the closet with the heavy canvas weights staying over here and hanging with other decorator weight stuff.I also left a little stack of japanese novelty prints sitting in front staring at me, reminding me to use them before I buy more!

The solids even got refolded and color sorted, as did the wool felt.

I think this is going to be so great. I feel like I've never really had a workable system. I can finally see what I have and don't have. For example I can stop buying wool felt apparently. And having it all separated by size will be so helpful. If I'm looking to make something for Phoebe I don't need to mess around pulling out tiny quarters and scraps that will do me no good. And if I'm making something tiny I'll know where to look first. Only problem now is I don't want to mess it up by actually pulling stuff out and making anything.

I'm feeling very accomplished. Not only did I tackle this monster, but another big project I've been working on is just about finished. I'm hoping tomorrow or the next day to put up the Kit, Chloe & Louise pattern in the shop *and* it is going to be PDF so if you've been waiting patiently (tapping your fingers and looking at the calendar counting days til Christmas) get ready, you could be playing with your new doll this weekend.