african skirt and spotty top for Hesper

I bought a fat quarter of African fabric for Hesper a few months ago, at the same time that I bought some South African fabric to make a doll for one of her friends. I have never been sure what to do with it as it is only a fat quarter, but the recent sunny(ish) weather led me to make her a quick and easy elasticated skirt. I used the complete fat quarter and the cotton was lovely to sew. It is a traditional African wax print from Ghana (her Grandfather's birth place) and is available from the African Fabric online shop.

I also made her another smock top with this organic cotton bamboo fabric. It is in a multi-coloured spot print and I bought it from Organic Cotton. I had meant to screen print my cow parsley design on it, but ended up adding two large yellow covered buttons. It's a bit "flouncier" than the last one I made, but she  gets away with it!

cynthia & tig

I posted before about the wonderful Wee Wonderfuls book by Hillary Lang. I have made three dolls using the Tag Along Doll pattern - which is a joy to make, but I also attempted a couple of others when I first bought the book. I dug them out of Hesper's toy box as I thought they deserved a show and tell. This little lady (I call her Cynthia) was made following the Sleepover Pals pattern - the actual pattern is for three of these little dolls who all fit nicely into a roll-up sleeping bag. My idea was to make them with small magnets in their arms so that they can all "hold hands"... well, I made one back in October and she  remains a billy-no-mates. Her magnet arms are quite useful for holding onto H's hair clips that she discards throughout the day...

 

Next is "Tig", made from the "I Heart You" pattern. I used red corduroy for the heart-shaped head, blue gingham for the body, legs and skirt back. I made the front of the skirt from a section of vintage embroidered linen that I picked up from a charity shop. The linen and lace were small scraps that I had stashed away and the rest of the fabrics are all recycled from charity shops. In the book, she is made from a printed, folksy fabric but I wanted to experiment with making a doll from these embroidered linens as they are too pretty to be kept hidden away.

 

handmade vintage dress for hesper

Like most things, I'm blogging about one month after the event...but anyway. The last thing I made for Hesper was a dress for a wedding that we went to, yep, last month.  Having never attempted anything so complicated (complicated to me, that is), I thought I would just give it a go... besides, there's always Next when it ends up looking like a mutilated sleeping bag. But, surprisingly it turned out alright, it wasn't too tricky and I even enjoyed making it. I did start it well in advance, so I could do a bit each evening without getting too panicky. Best part is it hardly cost a thing, second best part is Hesper actually enjoyed wearing it... enjoyed, not just tolerated!

It could have cost me nothing, as I used fabric that I already had, my only real expense was a reel of grosgrain ribbon from John Lewis for a waistband, some new thread, netting and some press studs, totalling about £12. But, I didn't use all this stuff and I could have made it by using supplies that I already had, but I chose to go with press studs as I didn't fancy messing up the button holes at the last hurdle. I also wanted to add a trim of gathered net at the bottom to look like an underskirt.

The fabric is a vintage blue and yellow rose print that I bought from a charity shop years ago and have never got round to using - proper Granny curtain material. The dress also has a dark blue shiny lining, again fabric that I've had stored away for years. I made a flower hair clip with some of the ribbon and teamed it with a gorgeous yellow cardy from John Lewis.

 

The pattern came from a book that I bought a while ago called Making Children's Clothes by Emma Hardy. This is only the second thing I have made from it so far, but the patterns and instructions are clear and easy to follow and are clothes that you would actually want your child to wear. I adapted the party dress pattern to use cotton print instead of plain satin and added a ribbon waistband and a gathered net trim at the bottom. Incidentally, the smock top that I made for Hesper here also came from this book (forgot to credit at the time ... oops).


// Making Children's Clothes by Emma Hardy is available to buy here //

smock top

 I finally got around to using some of the bargain remnant fabric that I bought last year to make Hesper this smock top. The fabric has a tiny faux-tweed type check on it in neutral colours. I added two big cerise buttons that I have had for about thirty years! They were originally on a pair of bright socks that I had as a child. Not sure why socks need buttons this big, but glad I kept them!

I think this is possibly the easisest thing I have ever made, the fabric cost £1 and H actually seems to like it!

two new dolls

In the past month we lost our lovely dog Taos to cancer (I was too sad to blog about it at the time), we had a lovely log cabin + hot tub break in the New Forest, plus some bouts of illness thrown in, getting all Christmassy and... taa-daa! here is another doll I have slowly, but steadily been making. She is a gift for one of Hesper's friends. Made following the Tag Along Doll pattern from Wee Wonderfuls, which I used before here:

Because her recipient is part South-African, I used orange and purple South African fabrics for her dress and legs. She also has green felt eyes and curly wool, hair instead of felt as in the original pattern.  I worked out how to do the hair by looking at various techniques online and then just sort of making it up a bit. I wanted her to have long curls and found this kinky- textured wool gave the right look. I stitched it into side bunches as I used a lot of wool and did not want it to look too wild.

With the left over pieces of fabric I made her a quilt, backed with some lilac and white print fabric that I had squirrelled away. I also covered a couple of buttons with the purple fabric and added these to the quilt with orange elastic loops, so that the quilt can be wrapped around her and buttoned up into a sort of sleeping bag-cocoon! For finishing touches, she has a hand-stamped linen gift tag with metal eyelet and a chocolate coin in her pocket!

...and here is doll number two for another of Hesper's friends. Again, using the same pattern I made her body from organic, fairtrade linen. The dress is from the lilac & white fabric that I used for the quilt backing above and her hot pink cord legs are made from a pair of Hesper's old trousers (thoroughly washed!) She also has curly wool hair, tied in bunches with strips of felt. 

I hope they love these dolls as much as Hesper does!

// Wee Wonderfuls doll making book by Hillary Lang here //

// African fabric bought online here //

i made a top!

I bought some bargain fabric remnants from the market a week or so ago, all are about 1 metre in length and cost £1 each. I've got ideas for all of them for myself and Hesper. One is a cotton in a small check, which I think will become a smock top for H. The others are are stretchy knits: a black & white large houndstooth print; a solid maroon colour; an ochre & black circles print and a washed-out red in a soft sweatshirt-type fabric. 

This has already been made into a slouchy, comfy top and I also screen printed one of my designs onto the front. Originally, I made it without the neckline with just a wide raw edge, but forgetting that I have no shoulders, it was a little too slouchy... so I had just enough fabric leftover to add the cowl-ish neckline. Not bad for £1!

cheat quilt

I made this quilt for Hesper before she was born. I did not (and still don't) know anything about 'proper' quilt making; I had lots of scraps of fabric and just had a stab at it. I think I cheated really since reading a little bit about quilt making and what an art it is. My method was to cut up lots of random patches of fabric, lay them out onto a big  sheet of fusible Vilene and iron them on, tucking the edges under. Once 'stuck down', I zig-zag stitched all the edges, added a layer of wadding and then a layer of backing fabric. 

It was meant originally as a mat I could throw on the floor for her to roll about on, but when we bought the cot bed, it was the perfect size. She uses it now as a snuggle blanket for cuddling up on the sofa with, not quite as vivid as pictured here. The cushions that I mentioned yesterday are covered with vintage tea-towels that I found in a charity shop, I also added an apple applique to the quilt purely by coincidence; but it all ties in together with her new doll that I made.

mini hesper doll

I made a doll! I treated myself to Hillary Lang's beautiful Wee Wonderfuls book, after coveting it for a long time. Hesper is so attached to some old rag dolls that I had as a child (they have had more attention from her than they have ever had in the last 30+ years), that I wanted to make one for her too. I was just going to make it up as I went along, seeings as they all seemed to have a pretty basic design to them, but thought it might be useful to have some more technical help. This is a lovely book and I did spend some time pawing over the designs, choosing what to make.

I decided on the Tag-Along Doll as I was drawn to her round, happy face & sweet dress. She is also  similar to the dolls that Hesper has which inspired me to make one. I plan to make one with African fabric for Hesper, but thought I should practice first with fabric I already have before buying anymore.

The pattern uses wool felt for the body, but I like this organic linen that I already had. I used vintage pillowcase fabric for her legs and the dress is made from a vintage tea-towel with a retro apple design on it. I bought three of them from a charity shop a few years ago and made cushion covers For Hesper's room with two of them, so she now has a doll to match her room! I even think she looks a bit like Hesper!

Hillary Lang's wonderful Wee Wonderfuls book is available here

rainclouds and stars

I created these t-shirt designs recently, using garment blanks that I already had. For the appliques I used fabric from Hesper's old clothes - I have made her a couple of things from her old clothes before as some of the fabric is lovely and hardly worn. When I started screen printing last year, I envisaged combining my designs with appliques, text and hand painting.

These designs came about by just playing around with the fabric and seeing what colours and textures work together. The star on the pink top is painted by hand with fabric paint as I wanted a big, irregular, bold star and then appliqued the fabric letters on top. The cloud is made from sweatshirt fabric, sewn on back to front so that the fluffy reverse looks like a fluffy cloud...complete with sequin raindrops. I think the British summer has had some influence.