Doll crocheting

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.

Fawn Lily plus bonus jersey dress

The fawn lily dress was calling to me for a few months but I still had many other projects that I was planning to make (and already owned the pattern of). Then somehow the idea was born that I would sew two dresses for the twin daughter of a colleague.

Her twins are just a bit bigger than my eldest and I regularly receive great cloths and shoes (my daughter actually asked me the other day why daddies colleagues do not give her dresses). As a thank you I decided to make each of the twins a jersey dress and they were allowed to pick the fabric. One of the twins somehow managed to pick the one quilting cotton fabric that Lillestoff has (out of over 100 jersey fabrics) which is why I had to come up with a cotton pattern.

The Fawn Lily intrigued me because the dress does not have zipper. My daughter complained about the cotton dresses I made her in the past that they are hard to change out or into at school when they have gym. I showed some pictures to my colleague and she liked the dress. I happily bought the pattern and made two dresses. The pink one is actually for my eldest daughter but she was not home to model and my two year old was happy to fill in.

 The second twin received a planned jersey dress. adjusted an Ottobre pattern to resemble the design from a dress my colleague had seen in the store. I like the idea of the strings that have to be tight at the back (especially because my kids are skinny). This dress pattern goes on my to do pile, lets hope not another great new pattern surfaces (I am just kidding, I am always hoping for new patterns!).

Mozaik and the fun of the creating process

I have always felt the need to be creative. When I was a small kid I naturally could not buy the materials I desired, and had to be creative in the true sense of the word. One of my all time high creative adventures is probably when I was around 11 years old and saw in a book a picture of a glass painting. I remember that it was a flower, but no other details. I lacked several of the needed tools, for one glass and the other glass paint. I did however owned a stash of puffy textile paint (which I never dared to use because of my lack of drawing skills) and like most families we owned clingy plastic and cardboard boxes. I simply made a cardboard frame with a cut out window, glued/stick the clingy wrap to it. I put the whole thing on glass picture example and copied the lines with textile puffy paint. It turned out great and my mother put it on the mantle piece. That evening a guest came by and was curiously toughed the paint (which had not dried yet) and smudged the whole thing. My mother was afraid that I would be upset and almost did not dare to tell me. I was not upset, I liked the journey of creating it, not so much the finished object. Although I liked the "painting" I did not redo it.

I usually have a urge to try something new and the finished project sometimes even becomes a burden. A few weeks ago my sister and I went to a mosaic workshop (the workshop part was massively overstated). I did not have a clear project in mind about what I was going to make but I did decide beforehand a fruit bowl. I very much liked the process and was not dissatisfied with the result (the picture was made directly after filling the whole with cement and therefore the whole thing is still a bit white) but the bowl did end up in the trash yesterday. The whole thing was simply not that practical and did take up a lot of space on our dining table. I could have stored it somewhere, but I knew from experience that it would had to go somewhere in the future. Somehow throwing away a finished project is much easier than throwing out a failed partly finished project. When throwing away a failed not yet finished project I am reminded of the failure and feel like failure, throwing away a finished project just provides space to try something new. Is that just me?

New coat

When I was browsing through Ottobres for the first time I saw some coat patterns. I loved several of them but I could not imagine being able to sew those. Now I have come at that stage that I feel comfortable to try any type of pattern and was feeling up for a coat.

I was triggered to think about  a coat because when I asked my daughter what to sew for her she requested a coat-dress. I did not get more information out of her besides this fancy name. I understood it to be a coat that looks like a dress, so a coat that can twirl.

The winter is kind a leaving us which made me decide to make a lined rain coat. I bought some laminated fabric and let my daughter choose a lining from our stash. The pink polka dots combined with the yellow fabric did make think twice about my decision to let my daughter choose but in the end I love the combination. I used a coat pattern from Ottobe 1 2010 (adding a hood myself). I made the picture inside with flash which is why the coat looks very shiny, usually it does not shine.

I decided to close the coat with three snaps only. My daughter ruined her winter coats zipper because she is always squatting on the playground. This way of closing the coat makes squatting possible.

Jersey patchwork dress based on Ottobre design

Ottobre 6 /2013 contains a very pretty patchwork dress. Unfortunately the sizes Ottobre provides were way to big for any of my girls and I therefor just hand drafted a pattern from an existing dress. I used scraps from projects of her older siblings and I think the dress looks great. It could have been a bit wider and also the head opening is a bit small. Fortunately we have an even smaller girl that will fit the dress in two years from now.

Creative mending

As a mother of one boy and three girls (and being an academic) I know I can not statistically sound test if the behavior of my son is stereotypical boy (I would need at least 30 kids) but I do have a hunch that holes in trousers is more common with boys. I think my eldest daughter never had a whole on her knee and my son seems to have at least one per week! The pile of trousers that had to be mended was growing and the wearable was shrinking in a dangerous rate. Is it just me or is creating something new much better than mending something, even if mending takes less time? I seem to keep avoiding the mending-pile as long as possible.

I had not mended trousers yet, but I did pin a few nice patches already. I challenged myself to patch every trousers in a different way (not all got pictures). Both me and my son liked the results a lot, and I suspect him of purposely creating a hole in the other knee of green trousers a few days later because he wanted another monster (which he got ofcourse). My monster is not as pretty as many others on Pinterest, my main goal was quick mending (especially because I suspected the trousers knees to re-die quickly.). I have to say that the monster holds up surprisingly well, no new mending of that knee has been necessary for a few weeks (knocks on wood).

For those who do not recognise it immediately (I would be among those people) the purple "thing" is a squirrel. I clearly have to practise my embroidery skills, I suspect that my son will deliver enough practise material for me to quickly become a pro. Fortunately kids have a big imagination and a squirrel is a squirrel if mommy says so.

Another reoccurring cloth problem in our household (and I presume with most household with eating kids) is folds! My kids seem to love ruining especially new cloths with folds that do not wash out anymore. Last week I tried something new, I simply cut small harts out of transfer foil and ironed them on some black spots. Like with the trousers I think the shirt became even better.

Cochet sun rainbow mobile

I guess that all of you that like Pinterest and crochet have seen the mobile of a sun, rainbow, clouds and raindrops. The usual pins state that this is a free tutorial. I also had seen and pinned it but when I decided to make one as a gift I could not find the free tutorial anywhere. I did found a website that wanted a subscription but I was not in the mood for that. I simply eyeballed the design and created a 3D rainbow to mix better with the sun. I kind a messed up the amount of increases but with a bit of creative sewing all worked out fine.

The mobile was a gift without occasion due to a post I shared on Facebook at the beginning of the year. One of my friends was sharing a "pay it forward" creativity post. The first five people that would react on her post by sharing it on their timeline would receive a home made gift (if they would also make 5 home made gifts for people that would react on their message).  I loved the idea and shared the message but omitted the condition that people has to get creative themselves. My Facebook crowd it not that into creating hand made gifts but I was positively surprised which people were delighted to receive those type of gifts. I did not create all the gifts yet but I will (once).

Did anyone else also join this nice alternative home made swap movement?