A Special Delivery

This summer, I was lucky enough to have an intern, Maggie Hamel. Maggie came once a week to sew and put together more doll sets to be donated to children at Shriners Burns. This past year I have taken on a number of unexpected endeavors, so the help in getting a batch of dolls together to donate was extremely appreciated.

Maggie is such a talented and ambitious high schooler and seamstress. She sewed clothes for the sets both in my studio and at home. She gave a lot of attention to assembling a color coordinated wardrobe for each doll, both boys, and girls. And then she put coordinated labels on their bags.

Each doll also came with a hospital gown (made also by Maggie), because the children at Shriners are in hospital gowns for their whole stay due to the delicate nature of skin grafts.

On the last day of summer, Maggie and I met in Boston to deliver eight dolls. We hope that each doll set brings some joy to a child in a long and difficult recovery. Thank you, Maggie! (scroll down to see Maggie delivering the dolls)

A fox comes to the rescue

Since I started making the dolls for the children in need, I have been making puppies for the boys. They looked like this:

They were very cute, but tiny and too many little pieces for something I need to make lots of. I had been searching for a pattern that would have the same appeal for a boy, but be more fun to sew up.

I think I found it.

Enter the fox. From this pattern that I found a while back on Etsy.

The fox so far seems to meet all of the requirements: sturdy, fun to make, materials are easy to find, appealing to little boys and not scary. He's cute, but not too cute.

This past weekend, with the help of an assistant,  a skulk of foxes got made. Soon they will go out with a bunch of other dolls, some to Family Promise in central Massachusetts and some to foster children in Connecticut.

A Pile of Puppies and a Fox

Tomorrow I'm sending off seven puppies for boys in Family Promise, a program that houses transient families in local churches. This is part of my Doll Friend Project.

I have made about two dozen of these puppies over the past year. The pattern is cute, it works, repeatedly, and most importantly, the puppies are cute.

But they take a lot of time to make. A LOT. They look fairly simple. But they are a lot of little tiny pieces, spots, noses, tails, inner ears, outer ears. And the pieces are all tiny. Much smaller than I am used to working with.

Because the puppie production is slow and fussy, the boys always have to wait longer for their tranisitional object. The girls received their dolls weeks ago. And that makes me feel bad.

So this is the last batch of puppies. 

I have found a fox pattern that I am looking forward to trying. He is bigger. He will be made out of cotton. The puppies are made from a soft twill that frays and is hard to manipulate on a small small scaled object. And he is cute. Especially with the fabrics I have in mind

So, hopefully next time the boys won't have to wait so long. And I won't feel bad.

Family Promise Auction Doll and Wardrobe

This fall Family Promise Metro West (as in Natick, MA), will be hosting a fundraising auction. This organization has been wonderful in helping me make, give and match dolls for children in their program. Their program shelters homeless families in local churches, along with a lot of other wonderful services.

The auction is November 7, 2015 and in case you are local, the details are here. Tickets go on sale next week.

I have donated a Phoebe doll and wardrobe to the fundraiser (another good reason to go). 

The doll set will include:

• A Phoebe doll (as shown above)
• Her school outfit, dress, undershorts and shoes
• Play outfit, T-shirt and capris
• Beach attire, bathing suit, beach bag and sunglasses
• Pajamas and slippers
• Winter coat and scarf
• Sewing Pattern set: Phoebe Gets Dressed
• Phoebe's lovely box to store all of this in

I am thrilled to play a role in this wonderful fund raiser and to help such an amazing non-profit.

Beach set

Winter set

Play set

Pajama set

Phoebe's sewing patterns

Delivering Joy, Two Dolls at a Time

Two summers ago, due to a scary set of medical circumstances, my youngest (aka Egg), then 11, lost use of the left side of her body. After a stint at the Mass General Pediatric ICU, we were released to a children's rehab in Boston where she began the difficult task of relearning how to walk, dress, shower, eat, and knit.

We both lived there for a few weeks. The rooms that were not occupied with children, there for round-the-clock PT and OT, were used to house children in the foster care system waiting for a relative or foster family to volunteer their home. Both Egg and I were saddened by these children. They would often spend the days sitting at the nurses' station. 

A three year old girl was in the room next to ours. She spent a lot of time alone in the sparse room in the crib.  I would have considered bringing her home, but it had been a harrowing summer so far, and my energy was solely for Egg.

Egg made an amazing recovery and we went home, but we could not stop thinking about these children, who did not have a home.

Flash forward two years, our lives are good and stable. But we have not forgotten the plight of this group of children, whose lives are not so stable. I wanted to offer them something comforting for the unsettling journey, a doll friend. 

When I launched Phoebe and Egg, I had a vision of offering a one for one, a doll donated for every doll purchased, like Toms does with shoes.

It took a bit of time and organization, but it is now a reality.

Introducing The Doll Friend Project.

For every doll purchased from Phoebe and Egg, a doll will be given to a child in the foster care system. 

Eventually I hope to work with Councils on Aging and Girl Scout troops to help them make small wardrobes to go with each doll. 

I am working with The Plummer House, a non-profit in Salem and Lowell, who offer housing for teen foster children and services for a wide range of ages, to make this happen. For these children transitional objects are very important and the dolls will be just that. 

This past week I delivered the first batch of six dolls. Each designed for a specific child. However, the dolls are also designed to be durable. portable and machine washable. 

I am looking forward to many more deliveries.

So from here on in, Phoebe&Egg will be delivering joy, two dolls at a time.