Wee Wonderfuls

more vintage doll clothes

I've added the rest of my mom's old dolls' clothes to the vintage doll clothes pool. Since we've determined 80's are vintage maybe I'll add my old Darci doll clothes. Get ready for disco glam!

vintage-ish? fabric

I found these in a display of fat quarters in a funny little yarn shop that sold some fabric too. I asked if they were new because I was getting a not-so-new vibe off them and the owner said they were the ends of old bolts. Many of them are VIP prints by Cranston Print Works Company. I love these, especially the  tiny little prints. There were a bunch of VIP prints in the treats I second-handed this Winter and those were definitely vintage-y. So I have no idea what kind of date is on these. I'm thinking 80s? That's vintage-y.

and the winner is...

***updated to add a bit about the bear***

Yes! Sorry, I was in such a hurry yesterday... this Little Miss Bear is a new doll I just finished up. I'm so happy with her. I've been trying for a while now to make a cute little animal-in-dress toy and I count this little gal as my first real success. She's 8" tall and made from wool and sporting a frock made from a recent vintage fabric score. Did I ever blog that? I am so behind. I was going to take the week off since I'm babysitter-less and it's a holiday week and we have all these kids to keep entertained but I'm going to try instead to post a little something everyday. 1. to be able to clear the "post about.." emails out of my inbox and 2. to try to get some momentum going!

Congratulations Lily Bamboo! And although it would seem I chose the winner by cute name-ness, it was actually the random number generator that did the dirty work. Oh, and Tim of course, who had to do all the counting. This was fun! And a little crazy.

I'll have another few fairy themed freebies up here sometime soon and in the meantime there are always freebies here.

Ok, back outside with me. The weather today in Chicago is perfect. Write it down, I said it...Chicago, weather and perfect all in the same sentence!

 

 

sugarplum fairy giveaway

It's not really sugarplum fairy season but maybe the abundance of smore making around here has brought about this early visit. Or maybe she's just hanging out waiting for Gum-Drop and Lolli-Pop to make it out of the craft room. Either way, she's only here for a brief stay. I've been trying for a while to make something fun for a giveaway (maybe the good giveaway karma will help my odds in winning some of the amazing fabric giveaways that I keep entering!) but things kept getting in the way (popped seams, sloppy stitching, people needing presents, etc) but (I hope) this gal is good to go! If you need a smore eating companion leave a comment to be entered in the drawing. I'll close comments on Monday or Tuesday and pick a winner. Fun!

*** I closed up comments now. I'm going to go hunt down that random number generator and I'll have the winner later this afternoon. thanks! ***

puppy, ladybug and linkers

thanks for the sweet comments on yesterday's picnic fairy! I'm in a good mood today. here are the last two friends, mr. puppy and miss ladybug.

babysitter is coming this afternoon and I'm hoping to knock out the next 3 things on my fairy list. never going to happen but it's nice to set goals. in the meantime, some very fun stuff I found clicking through commenters' blogs this morning...

hand dyed fabric trim tutorial at a little imagination that I cannot wait to try

in a nutshell's vintage apron flickr set

pippy at la belle

lovestitches' pink peanut

erin's camera strap. I need to do this!

and some gorgeous sewing at sasikirana handmade: on amanda and her cutie daughter.

picnic fairy & her friends

I'd been staring at a half-drawn picnic fairy for, I think, almost 2 months now. I would take it out every night and stare at it and nothing. Lots of drawings with kooky ants in them. But you know what, I HATE ants. That's a fun homeowner story for another day. After I decided no ants it all cleared up for me and here is the Picnic Fairy and her friends... watermelon butterfly

picnic blanket butterflies

lemonade sipping bees

I've got a frisbee catching puppy & a kite flying ladybug to go and then the set will be complete.

fairy week

I seem to have a lot of fairy themed stuff churning around these days. I finished this very belated birthday fairy dress up outfit for a twirly little girl on Friday. It's a little kooky but actually turned out exactly how I envisioned. I was having a charmed day in the sewing room and was able to go from drawing to finished fairy outfit during one extra long Phoebe morning nap.

The fabric is cotton lawn and is from the sale bin at Joann Fabrics. I just recently figured out that cotton lawn is a type of fabric. I'd only seen it in reference to tana lawn liberty prints and I guess I thought that was the designers name or something. duh! Amy filled me in when I was complaining about making Phoebe clothes out of quilter cottons and how they were too stiff and she suggested I look for cotton lawn.

So, yep, I'm a big fraud at this 'craft blog' stuff because I don't really know stuff. I figure stuff out eventually, but I don't really know stuff. I get emails like "what size embroidery needle do you use for muslin" and I have to answer "uh, whatever needle is sticking out of my pincushion, sorry". And I'm often re-inventing the wheel. I'll hobble through something just to find it already laid out all nice and neat for me in a book or on a blog. But you know, I still manage to make stuff. And guess that's what this blog is about, the stuff I manage to make.

So how I managed this fairy outfit... It's sort of a smocky apron thing that slips over the head and then has big long ties on either side. I made them so big so that they would fill up in gap in twirlable skirt area. I wanted the wings to be attached securely to the outfit and not a separate piece so they would not go flying off when running around. I made them out of bent wire hanger, slip covered with pink seersucker and then gathered in the middle. I sewed the wings down to the back bodice along the edges and it's nice and secure. I twisted the wire stems of some plastic flowers around the middle of the wings to make it, you know, fancier. The raw edges of the bodice and gathered skirt I managed to fold into the waistband and sew so that I didn't have any edges to finish off. I'm still trying to figure out how I got that to work. I cut the hem of the skirt in big petal shapes. Oh, and the bodice. I made the front twice as wide as the back and then sewed three lines of gathering stitch and then sewed it down in place with this velveteen ribbon I had. It's a little wonky/shifty but I think again, adds to the fancy factor, which we know all the young twirlers love. I want to try to make another of these for Phoebe while I've still got it fresh in my mind. I could try to sketch out the how to's if anyone is interested.

my garden is coming along nicely don't ya think?

ok, ok, not mine. we had to take a quickie trip down to lurie gardens the other morning because I'm a little bit piet obsessed. I don't think there's a sea of salvia in our future but I am going to get some of this awesome sea holly! I had passed at the garden center because I thought it was too pokey for the kids but oscar has his soft furry lamb's ear to play with so I want my cool-ass spikey thing!

photos

So I'm feeling very accomplished this morning. I put in my order for 200+ prints last night at snapfish. Phew! Christmas, Easter, Mother's Day, Phoebe's birthday, the last six months of our lives, done! Now I just need to find albums. I still don't know what I'm doing. At this rate we'll need to build an addition on the house just for photo albums. But at least I'll have them in my hot little hands. I like to sit and look through albums now and then. You know without the one gazillion bad shots or w.w. pics clogging up the works. So, yeah, we do have an external hard drive. What? of course I knew that. der. The thing is I want is access to everything without stuff slowing down. I have my computer guy on it now. Thanks for all your suggestions! They're very helpful.

So the above is a pic I found when I was cleaning everything out. Don't think I showed this before? I was going to make little notecards for Fall out of this gal and her friends. Yep, that didn't happen. But it's still on the list. Maybe this time I'll get the doll instead of the teacup in focus!

like mother, like daughter