I mostly sew clothes for our kids, but I do sometime like to sew something else, like softies. Our kids do no need any extra softies, but I just like the challenge. Sewing softies appeals to my need to create and to learn new techniques. Almost four years ago, I created this doll, and it seems that I have moved up on the learning curve. After I created these two adorable animals in the summer, I deemed myself capable of trying this really awesome doll pattern that I had bought a while ago, but did not dare to start.
Ik naai voornamelijk kleding voor onze kinderen, maar ik vind het soms leuk om iets anders te naaien, zoals knuffels. Onze kinderen hebben geen extra knuffels nodig, maar ik hou gewoon van de uitdaging. Het naaien van knuffels is weer een hele andere uitdaging en dat geeft dan extra voldoening. Bijna vier jaar naaide ik deze pop en zo te zien leerde ik veel bij in de tussen tijd. Nadat ik deze twee schattige knuffels maakte in de zomer, vond ik mezelf klaar om dit geweldige poppenpatroon te proberen. Ik kocht het al een tijdje geleden maar ik durfde er niet aan te beginnen.
In the fall the designer of the pattern created a sew along, and this was just the push that I needed. This time, I actually bought the required supplies, so not like the previous doll just use something that is around the house. I have to admit that things do become better with better material. I took it slow, did only a few steps on one day, but in the end the doll did not take that much time as I feared.
In de herfst organiseerde de ontwerpster van het patroon een sew along en dit was precies het duwtje dat ik nodig had. Deze keer kocht ik de benodigdheden en werkte ik minder met dingen die ik toch in huis had. Ik moet toegeven dat dingen beter worden met beter materiaal. Ik deed het rustig aan, deed maar een paar stappen op een dag, maar uiteindelijk kostte de pop niet zoveel tijd als ik vreesde.
We have quite some dolls in our house, and two years ago I bought two 18" teen dolls. The dolls look great, but in that product line there are only girls. Our son sometimes feels a bit left out in our house full of girls, so I decided that the doll that I was going to make would have to be a boy. In case our son wants to join in on our girls' play. We try to raise our kids relatively gender neutral, but we do see that our son prefers to play with "male" characters, so for example we also have a bunch of male ponies from the my little pony line.
We hebben heel wat poppen in ons huis en twee jaar geleden kocht ik twee 18 inch tienerpoppen. De poppen zien er geweldig uit, maar in die productlijn zijn alleen meisjes. Onze zoon voelt zich soms een beetje buitengesloten in ons huis vol met meisjes Dus besloot ik dat de pop die ik ging maken een jongen zou worden, voor het geval onze zoon mee wil spelen. We proberen onze kinderen relatief gender neutraal op te voeden, maar we zien wel dat onze zoon het liefst met "mannelijke" karakters speelt, dus we hebben bijvoorbeeld ook een stel mannelijke pony's uit de my little pony lijn.
This time I am actually satisfied with the face and embroidered facial expression,. With hindsight, I should have made nose a bit bigger, but it is so much better than last time. I also learned that you should not "draw" the nose with a dark marker, I used purple and that remained visible. I tried to wash it out but now he actually got a pink nose. The kids love this element, so I just let go of my frustration about it. For the hair I used a piece of upcycled fake fur, that I used for these boots as well. So hording this stuff sometimes does pay off.
Deze keer ben ik eigenlijk heel tevreden over het hoofd en de geborduurde gezichtsuitdrukking. Achteraf gezien had ik de neus iets groter moeten maken, maar het is zoveel beter dan de vorige keer. Ik heb ook geleerd dat je de neus niet met een donkere stift moet "tekenen", ik gebruikte paars en dat bleef zichtbaar. Ik probeerde het uit te spoelen, maar daardoor kreeg hij een roze neus. De kinderen vinden hem er extra schattig door, dus ik liet mijn frustratie erover los. Voor het haar gebruikte ik een stuk gerecycleerd nepbont, dat ik ook voor deze laarzen gebruikte. het bewaren van al die materialen heeft dus wel soms zin..
A doll of course also needs clothes and by our son's suggestion I created a bear onesie. The main requirement is that you can put it on the doll, it does not have to be comfortable, so I was fine with winging it, and it actually fits great.
Een pop heeft natuurlijk ook kleding nodig en door onze zoon's suggestie heb ik een beren onesie gemaakt. De belangrijkste vereiste is dat je het de pop aan en uit kan trekken en dat het er leuk uitziet, het hoeft niet comfortabel te zijn, dus ik durfde best wat uit de mouw te schudden zonder patroon, en het past eigenlijk geweldig.
If you have a certain experience with any crafting skill you might not
actually need more crafting books, from the pictures you can make an
estimated guess on how to make it. But we all know the difference
between needing a new toothbrush and needing chocolate. In the
strictest sense the toothbrush is probably more useful and responsible
to buy but who wouldn't go for the chocolate if they had to choose...
I
need crafting books the way I need chocolate (and crafting supplies for
that matter). A few months ago I came across this book online and
bought it as a gift (because I already own a lot of cute crochet pattern
books that are still waiting for their first use). The person I bought
it for had not announced her birthday party yet but I assumed it would
come. The friend in question decided not to celebrate her birthday that
year and the book staid on in my shelves. It had been screaming out to
me since I received it and after a few months I caved in and used the
book myself.
I had created two Arne and Carlos dolls in the
past which took me a bit under a week to make. This doll is super quick
compared to those. The day I started I went to an indoor playground with
my kids and when we went home a few hours later I had created the head,
legs, body and an arm! At first I was a bit sceptical, especially the
body seemed very weird, but after I joint all limps he/she became very
cute.
When I was finalizing the first doll the son of a
friend saw the book and loved the "superman" picture. He asked his
mother if she could crochet but she couldn't neither did his 7 year old
sister he found out. My kids have too much already so I decided he could
have the doll. When he doll was ready to fly from our house my kids
were actually sad that he would go which is why I created two others
that would stay.
Last year I refound my knitting passion when I spotted the book:
Christmas ornament knitting from Arna and Carlos. A few years earlier I
took up knitting simply because I wanted to master it. My mother taught
me when I was small but it never really got the hang of it. So a few
years ago I knitted a few sweaters. Knitting a sweater is really a big
commitment for me because it takes a lot of time! Especially because I
never was really interested in my own knitted sweaters so they just
remained in the closet. The Christmas ornaments seemed a perfect project
to get back into the knitting game. Finishing one never took more than
three evenings (my way of counting creative time) and they looked great.
So Arne and Carlos's new book, knitting dolls looked like another very
promising new project especially because my eldest is really in the doll
playing phase. Over Easter Arne and Carlos had a nice book containing a
bunny.
At that moment I was totally into crocheting and I made adjusted
the pattern somewhat to make a crochet version . When I got the doll
book I got the same giddy feeling as when I got the Christmas ornament
book. It is just so nice to look at all the pictures. flipping through
the pages was like flipping through an illustrated cookbook. You simply
want to try them all immediately. Not only the dolls look amazing they
come with a bunch of clothes!
Knitting a doll took me around 6
evenings and I enjoyed it a lot. If you are considering to start up
knitting (again) but are wondering what to make, this is very
recommendable!
