Things I Love: Lillestoff Organic Cotton

I have a weakness for Lillestoff Organic knit fabric. There is really no logical way to justify my Lillestoff purchases.

Yes, it is a soft beautiful cotton knit fabric. Yes, it is the perfect weight and has the perfect amount of stretch. Yes, the colors are gorgeous. Yes, it is a dream to sew with. Yes, it is made for children. And of course, it is organic.

But it is made in germany and it is not even a reasonable price in Germany and I am paying to ship it here.

I use it to sew doll leggings, capris, t-shirts and pajamas. But I can't pass the cost along.

I told you there was no way to justification. Just enjoy it like I do!

Lillestoff leggings peaking out

Lillestoff T-Shirt

A Custom Elsa Doll

I have been asked to do a number of custom storybook dolls—something that I LOVE doing. I knew it was only a matter of time before I had a request for Elsa or Anna or both. Although both of these girls appear in the movie Frozen, they are originally storybook characters (Gerda and the Snow Queen) from the Hans Christian Anderson tale of The Snow Queen.

I am in the midst of creating both Elsa and Anna for someone. And I'm having a lot of fun. Of course their hair is inspiring, but I also like the trims and styles of traditional Northern European clothing. 

Here are a few more photos of Elsa.

Please follow along as these two come into their own.

Two sets of twins

Twins. They are fun, adorable, sometimes exhausting, and in most cultures considered lucky. A woman's chance of having twins is less than four percent.

So when they come into the world, there is a bit more fanfare and celebration.

And if you love to sew little girl clothes, dolls and doll clothes, twin great granddaughters are certainly a reason to celebrate.

Vera Catlett is mother to two daughters, and she now has six grandchildren and nine great grandchildren. The most recent additions to her extended family are twin baby girls, Eden and Eliah.  They arrived on August 5, weighing five and a half pounds and required a two and a half week hospital stay. Two months later, they are over eight pounds, thriving, and the whole extended family is enjoying them.

Eden and Eliah, relaxing together

Especially Vera, who lives two miles away. Not only will she enjoy spending time with Eden and Eliah, but she has already started sewing for them.  Vera's mother taught her to sew when she was a teenager, Vera then started sewing clothes for herself. Since then she has continued to make clothes and toys for her growing family. 

Below is one of Vera's designs modeled by a twin. However, she will soon be sewing on an even smaller scale, she purchased twin Baby Eggs for the twins and will be sewing clothes for both sets of twins, dolls and great granddaughters.

One of the twinslooking pretty at five weeks wearing an outfit made by Vera and held by their Mom, Sarah.

Doll Dressmaking Series: Bib Front Dress

My last tutorial was for a Retro pointy Collared Dress. So I thought I'd stick with the retro theme and add a bib front dress tutorial. The bib front can easily be added to a number of dress styles. I added it to a puff sleeved dress.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to add the bib to a dress pattern. To make the complete dress shown you might also need to reference:

The puffed sleeve drss instructions

The Peter pan collar instructions

The short sleeve dress instructions

Cut out dress, collar, sleeves, lining. I have been using cotton lawn for my linings. It is a lighter weight cotton whic reduces bulk in the lining seams. This especially helps in the neckline collar area.

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There are several ways to treat the edges of a bib collar. In this first tutorial I am using one layer of fabric for the bib and trimming it with rick rack. So choose a trim. Medium sized rick rack or lace both will work well. Small ricj rack is tricky and big may not bend around the corners so easily.

Sew Rick rack to the bib front. This is a two step process. Step one is sewing it about 1/4 inc in around the edge.

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After Step 1 the bib should look like this.

Next fold over the edge so the outer half of your rick rack is underneath and stitch. Try to stitch on top of your first set of stitches.

Pin collar to the dress matching up neckline edges. Stitch down, stitching over your first set of stitches. Press.

Add collar and sleeves. See links above if you need to revisit those tutorials. Or visit the doll dressmaking page with all of them. 

Add buttons. The pattern pieces for this dress and all others are available through the Phoebe&Egg newsletter. When you sign up you will automatically receive the base pattern set in 4 sizes.

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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.

Doll Dressmaking Series: A Retro Collar

Doll clothes are often retro. Or classic. Or both. I thought a longer sharper collar is both retro and classic. It's also simple to sew. The pattern pieces will be in my next newlsetter.

I am basically following the instructions for my beginner's sleeve dress, which are here. But I'm including complete instructions here too.

From your main fabric cut:

1. Dress front and back
2. Sleeves

From the lining fabric (I used cotton lawn which is lighter in weight):

1. Just the front and back

And then cut the collar fabric cut 4 collar pieces.

Sew shoulder seams of dress together.

Sew shoulder seams of the lining pieces together.

Sew collar pieces together. Clip corners and edges of collars. 

Turon collar pieces right side out and push out corners with a point turner or blunt knitting needle. I use a Dritz Point turner,

Press.

Attach the two collar pieces to the dress fabric neckline making sure they are centered. I baste the centers on first. As shown here. 

Stitch lining to main dress fabric, by starting at the bottom of the back opening, go up to the neckline, around the neckline and back down the back opening. When going around the neckline make sure you are stitching through the lining, the dress fabric AND the collar pieces.

Sew dress fabric to lining at each armhole. This is to make sure they stay together when you attach the sleeves.

Attach sleeves. See my easy sleeve tutorial if you are unsure how. These sleeves do not need gathering or easing.

1. Hem sleeves

2. Pin or clip sleevces to armhole edge. If you are feeling confident you can just sew and adjust while you are sewing.

3. Turn over and check that it looks okay.

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Sew side seams and hem.

I'd love the pattern pieces! Sign up for my newlsetter and receive the base pattern set and keep up with all future pieces. This will be in the upcoming issue.

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Now in the shop

This week I'll be adding a few more dolls and clothing sets to my Etsy shop. A few new things are already there.  One is the Fancy Nancy rag doll and she comes with an extra Fancy extra outfit.

Also if you want to buy a Harry Potter doll for the holidays contact me (form for contacting me at the end of this post). I am taking one or two more orders. The sweaters take a long time to make and I am close to my limit.

In addition to Fancy Nancy, I've added a African American doll with a new darker skin tone. And a new clothing set.

I'm interested in Harry, Luna or Hermione for the Holidays. Let's talk schedule

A tale of two lambs

Remember Thing One and Thing Two from The Cat in the Hat?  I have Lamb One and Lamb Two. 

The two lambs have challenged my abilities to replicate--something I've been fairly good at. I've recreated many many many dolls, many many many times, quite easily. 

But it was a lamb that challenged me. 

Lamb One, pictured above, was made over a year ago. He modelled in a number of photographs for me. He was a great model, you've probably seen him in chairs, or with pajamas or on a doll bed or quilt. He was quite dutiful.

Until he was sold and went off to his new home.

This past week, I needed to make a new lamb. I did not imagine he would be hard to replicate.

He was. 

I started with velvet, which was the original fabric, but it frayed so badly, it made working on such a small scale nearly impossible. I switched to organic velour, which was lovely to work with, but it has a slight stretch. This made his shape a bit more, well, flexible, which was good and not so good.

My finished lamb, was cute, but not exactly the same. I realized that so much time had elapsed bewteen lambs, that whatever tricks I developed for making the first one, had been forgotten.

My lesson, which seems rather obvious: it easier to replicate something you have done recently or often. 

Below is Lamb Two. He is cute and I like him, but he is not Lamb One.

Lamb Three will probably be somewhere in between, maybe more like a Lamb One and a Half.

Lamb Two

The Series Continues

All of my storybook characters began with a custom request. Early in my business, I had a request for a Fancy Nancy. And many Fancy Nancys have followed.

Last November I had a request for a Luna Lovegood doll. Soon after she shipped, there was a request for Hermione. Since then there have been several Lunas and many Hermiones. I imagined a Harry, but was too busy to make that real. Until a few weeks ago, I recieved a custom request for Harry.

It was so much fun to create my first Harry. In the past month, I have had requests for three Hermiones, a Luna and a Harry. The only problem is that there little sweater takes time. It is knit on size 2 needles and there is really no way to speed up its creation. Nor do I want to.

Thankfully, I have patient customers.

Below are a few recent shots of Harry, Luna and their clothes.

A few new dolls and clothes and the holidays

I've been busy. Really busy. I have lots of new orders, but also in between I have been trying to make a few new dolls to add to the collection.

They should be in my Etsy shop by the end of next Tuesday.

And speaking of my Etsy shop... if you are interested in a Phoebe&Egg doll for the holidays, please contact me, so we can talk schedule. I am already into October. There's is a contact form at the end of this post.

So here's a sneak peek:

More about him in my next post