On the Worktable Today

I took advantage of my day off from work, and started sewing two Santas from my Sleepytime Santa pattern. I'm doing two of them assembly line style to best use the time I have to sew.

 

I bought these two plaid flannels on eBay the other day. I have a third coming, but we'll see how things go time-wise. The Winter Festival (sale) at the hospital is December 9th, so I may or may not be able to get another done by that date.

 

What I forgot to include in the photo was the felt slippers I've made. The Santa on the left will have black slippers (unless I change my mind). The Santa on the right will have dark gray slippers.

 

I'm getting ready to start cutting out their nightshirts. It's only 5:30, but it feels much later as it's dark and I've been at this all day.

 

You can see some of my other Sleepytime Santas HERE or in my Santa Gallery.

"Santa Had A Little Lamb"

Just finished this Santa, and now I'm getting ready to start another from a different pattern. You can find out about the designer/pattern HERE, in my previous post.

 

This time, instead of using real candles, I made my own from off-white and translucent polymer clay with embroidery floss embedded in the middle for a wick. It was much easier to hot glue these to the tree - the wax candles were problematic in 2011!

Starting a Santa Doll

Now that I've got a couple Autumn dolls done, it's time to start on Winter. Last year, I attended a small sale at the hospital where I work. This year they're planning another Winter Festival. I've requested the day off and will share a table with a co-worker.

I thought it would be nice to bring at least one Santa to the sale. I've got quite a collection of patterns, and pulled out a few possibilities. Last night I started one from a pattern I've used before - for our ER Christmas Party a few years ago. It's called "Santa Had A Little Lamb" by "Hand Made With Love." I have no idea of the age of the pattern (I'm sure I found it on eBay), and I had to do quite a bit of Googling to find out the name of the designer (Pat Baumgartner):

 I found her patterns HERE, and more specifically on this page.

 

Here's my doll from 2011:

Feel free to visit my Santa Gallery!

November 7 Update:

Pumpkinhead is finally finished

I finished Pumpkinhead's dress today, finally. I would have been done a few days ago, but I never found her dress pattern from before. I had to re-draft a pattern, and then I miscalculated on the waistband so it's a little loose. It's fixable, and the pattern has been corrected for next time. 

 

She's about 15 1/2 inches tall, which is a nice size. Her clothing is removable.

Hazel the Witch

She's been on my work table for too long. She's getting done today! This takes me back. "Hazel the Witch" is one of my first doll patterns, published in 1999. I still have the pattern available, both in traditional paper format and e-pattern HERE. Pin dolls take just as long to make a bigger dolls in my opinion, and are sometimes more difficult due to their small size.

 

Did it!

 

Here are my other Hazels:

Prototype #1

 

And Hazel prototype #2

 

Hazel #3, and pattern cover

Life Book 2016 October Lessons

http://www.kristindudish.com/


http://pamcarriker.com/

http://marthalever.blogspot.co.uk/


http://effywild.com/


http://lisaviger.blogspot.co.uk/


http://www.faithevanssills.com/
 

More Art Journaling Explorations HERE

A Wet and Blustery Halloween in Astoria

Pretty typical for this part of the world, I feel sorry for the Trick-or-Treaters this year.

Getting There

I've finally gotten Pumpkinhead's face painted, and all now she needs is her dress. Unfortunately, I can't find the pattern I drafted for my first Pumpkinhead, so now I have to recreate it.

 Her legs are dark brown, which matches the brown in the print for her dress.

More Pumpkinhead Progress

I've worked the past couple days, so not much progress has been made. This evening I finished painting a couple coats of brown gesso on the head and arms. When dry, I will start painting in shades of orange that resemble pumpkins.

Pumpkinhead Progress

I've been working on a couple dolls simultaneously. One is an Alice in Wonderland doll (see earlier posts), and the other is a Pumpkinhead sculpted from Paperclay. Boy, I'm really out of practice (not that I was every very good!). I've still got a lot of refining to do, and add a stem, of course.

 

I've got her dress fabric picked out, and her arms and legs are sewn and stuffed. Now I'm just waiting for the clay to dry before sanding a bit more.

 

October 23

A little more sculpting today. Once dry, needs sanding.

 

 

While waiting for the Paperclay to dry, I picked up an unfinished pin doll I started at least a year ago. I haven't made a pin doll in a very long time:  http://www.blueherondolls.com/pin_dolls.htm