Not just a quiltmaker….

When we were in the shop, a lot of our sales came from dolls.  People LOVED dolls.  The best way to sell a doll pattern was to make one of the designs up, and so I spent a lot of my time making teeny clothes, turning through arms and legs, stuffing bodies. 

A lot of the patterns were hard as hard to follow, but one designer who always seemed to have her instructions crystal clear was Sparkles And Spirit designs. I made many, many of her dolls.

All consisted mainly of wooden legs and feet shapes, plus a wooden insert in the middle to help make them stand up.

It was such a sunny day when I took these photos – clearly I should have waited a little for it to be not quite so sunny!

I took these little guys outside in the front garden.  I struggled a lot to find a nice place to shoot the photos but I think this placement worked really well.

The attention to detail is what really catches my attention on these dolls.  She makes a range of fairy dolls, and they all have handcrafted felt shoes.  It took me four hours to make one hand stitched felt shoe – I felt like a shoemaker from one hundred years ago!

Once I had made one shoe, the rest weren’t quite so difficult. 

Every well dressed lady bunny needs a mate, don’t you think?

Ooops – he’s just about to fall over…..

I’ve a few of these designs half done in the UFO cupboard – perhaps it’s about time to get them out again!

I haven’t made a doll in years.  I’m not sure if the crafty world has moved on from dolls or if it is just me – they don’t seem to be around much anymore.  Perhaps I am sick of dolls because my girls seem to have such a lot of them everywhere, as little girls seem to do.  Still, these ones are very sweet.

Till tomorrow,

Suzie