Nana-Camp

Her brother went to Day Camp for a week, and she is too young to go this year, so we had "Nana-Camp" part of the time.

Her biggest request for weeks had been that we make her tiny bunny some "jammies".  (Her brother has a small stuffed animal with such jamies, so she wanted the same.  The jammies on his go all the way around, but we made ours easier to remove and re-apply, because that is the whole point of having clothes it seems--to take them off and put them on!)

I just cut a piece of fabric from their knit jammie fabric, then we made four buttonholes for the bunny's feet.

As we worked, she spied some fabric in one of my boxes (that was a first; I had been able to hide things in those almost clear boxes for a year and no one paid any attention).  She wanted to make her dolly a Princess Dress because, "It's sparkly, Nana."

So we did.  

Back view (from my original modular pattern; then we added the strip around the bottom because she wanted it to be longer than we had made it)

All done!

She really likes the gold braid, too!

Of course, she would like a Princess Dress for herself from the sparkly fabric, so I got to work when she went home each day.  Making the big one is much too long a process to maintain the constant interest of a 5-year old.

See the separate post for her own Princess Dress.  http://nanabs-sewing-fun.blogspot.com/2011/07/all-that-sparkles-is-not-gold.html

It's 5th birthday time!

Now that I'm "caught up" (for the moment), maybe I will do a better job on my posts?

I had purchased these fabrics in Tennessee last year, as I wanted to make an updated variation of something similar I had made for her mommie years ago.

This was her mommie's 

This is a close-up of the fabric combinations for the new one

Back view, with sash

Matching shorts

Finished front

I just couldn't get past that too wide panel of too-large daisy's, so I took strips of the other fabric and did this (all by hand, in an attempt to not "stiffen" the gathered panel and to nail down all four edges of each piece so it looks almost like it's printed there).

So now it looks like this

It's a big improvement.  I didn't do the back as I didn't want to make any more stiffness, and now that the front is done, I think it looks fine.  It probably needs a bow at the left neck made out of the daisy's, but it would just bug her I think.

Hope she likes it (even though she WILL say, "Nana, you know turquoise is my favorite color now, but I still like pink, too."

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Update--she LOVED it and ended up wearing it to dinner that night WITH the vest on top!     (Hilarious!)   In fact, I have not seen her without the vest since I gave it to her...

Five year olds are precious!

More Christmas prezzies

For a 3-year old's dolly

The Christmas dress was an especially big hit for the 4-year old's dolly.

And her mommie wanted a lot more reusable snack and sandwich bags

And the almost 5-year old loved hers, too.

And her big brother loved his tuxedo vest and pants (I bought the shirt, tie, and cumberbund on E-Bay).

   

And the jamies, dolly jamies, and tiny dolly with blanket went to a 3-year old in Sweden.

While her coming-soon little sibling got one of those nice double-sided flannel blankets like I had made for the shower gift previously.

We don't know if it's a boy or a girl, so I hope this can go either way.

Another person got the same bag as above, and I made reusable snack and sandwich bags of the matching material for her.

And for our sweet heroic lady

She had three of her own, lost her husband, and 'inherited' her three Godchildren from Mexico, who were in a state of abuse and malnutrition.  So each of the four girls got a dolly and jamies.

And a receiving blanket for each dolly (they are not doublesided)

2010 Shoebox Dollies

I'm afraid I hadn't much time to spend on Shoebox Dollies this year, but I managed to get these done in time.

Piggies and Gators

Someone else needed dolly clothes -- and her dolly is BIGGER so I had to re-design all my modular patterns!

My greatniece has an "American Girl" doll, 15-inches tall.  She needed dolly clothes for her birthday.  I didn't want to try anything too exotic until I am sure they fit, so here's what I sent.  Hope she likes them.  (More to the point, hope her MOTHER likes them...)

They are shown on my granddaughter's 15-in. doll, but it is shaped differently with a big bulgy stuffed tummy, so I'm hoping they will fit the American Girl better.

Her mother is a Gator fanatic!   And the theme for her daughter's 4th birthday has a piggy pinata involved.  So there you go--piggy nightie with Gator colors...  What more could she ask for?

Close up of piggies and Gator colors  (The decorative stitching is two strands of thread--one of each Gator color)

Front and back views.   I created the "paneled" effect by stitching from the bust to the hem

   

This nightie does not have matching diaper/panties.  I made them plain white flannel for comfy sleeping.

I don't know how this one will go over.  The pink fabric brings out the pink in the center person's costume, but my granddaughter seemed to not care for the pink fabric at all.  It has some kind of little critter on it, but she just doesn't like it for some reason.

You have to love this little flannel print for her jamies.

Back view

I often use tiny satin ribbon for trim on dolly jamies.  I zig zag it down, and so far it seems to be wearing pretty well (although I suspect my granddaughter's dolly clothes don't go into the washing machine too often--ours certainly didn't).  It gives it a nice finished look.  Sometimes I also run it down the front, but with this brown I didn't want to stitch the velcro onto the back of the ribbon after putting it down, so decided not to use it down the front.

I stitch the little bow down firmly with the machine--I don't want them coming undone!

I will make her other outfits for Christmas after we see how these simple things fit.  (And, of course, now that I know we have a "resident dolly" of a similar size, I am SURE it needs some clothes!)

A dolly needs to be able to dress like her "Mommie"

After accidentally beginning a series of dolly outfits from different countries and cultures (shown in a previous post--see "Dolly for a Sweet Girl in Korea"), it occurred to me that I really should include a traditional Korean costume as part of the first shipment.

This my first attempt at creating a kid-friendly "hanbok" for a dolly

It would look more authentic if the bodice were a tad shorter and fitted under the arms snugly.  But I won't make things so fitted as I want kids to be able to dress their own dolls.  The shoulders should be narrower for this dolly and the sleeves should be longer, but both things make it harder to put it on the dolly, so I have avoided those details.  It would be more gathered at the waist that way, too.  But it's not too bad for a first try, especially given my constraints.

The bodice is a polyester blend "shantung", so it's all been washed.  The stripes are a designer fabric I found on a sale table.  

I'm rather hoping the piece of designer fabric will be large enough to make something for the princess, but she's growing so fast I'm not sure if that will be possible.  I don't know what it is, but I'm pretty sure it is partly cotton.  The black part is almost sheer--very unusual.

I don't think the braid will do too well being washed very much, so hopefully it won't be necessary too often?

The neck band is bias binding, folded and hand-sewn.

For this one I had to break several of my "rules".  Normally I would not "gather" (unless by serger), but both the skirt and sleeves at the cuff had to be gathered.   Also, I would not completely "face" the bodice, but with this fabric it was necessary.  The stuff "shreds"--thank goodness for sergers!  Normally I would not use any braid that wasn't very durable either.  And hand sewing the bias binding is a major 'no-no', but I did--I wasn't messing with the shantung on the machine any more than necessary!

Also, it took possibly 5 hours to accomplish this chore from choosing fabrics, cutting, to completion--another HUGE 'no-no' for dolly clothes!   But she is Korean--so I tried to make it as authentic as possible.

Of course the back is open with a velcro closure--easy on and off for kids...

The diaper/panties with elastic front and velcro closure are made from a stripey yellow/gold cotton fabric (left over from the reversible baby quilt).  I used the same as a "facing" for the back bodice, so I could fasten the velcro into something more substantial than shantung.  I also put a piece inside the shantung on the side you see in the photo above for reinforcement.

So, in this shipment we'll have covered an American slightly Western outfit, a rather Chinese dress with Fishmen's pants, a somewhat Japanese kimono, and a Korean hanbok -- happy accident!  

I'm curious to see what countries may be represented in the next shipment--but I'm already mulling a Swiss costume or Dirndl, and I'm sure I'll get around to a pioneer or Wild West costume eventually.

My "muse" seems to work thematically--sometimes it's a rather unified color scheme or, as in this case it began with several coordinating fabrics and grew into several cultures.  In any case, it seems to sort of "flow together" as I ponder "what's next" as I work...  I rather like my "happy accidents".

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Sat., July 27, 2010

I am SO excited.  My nice Korean shipper recognized the hanbok!  So I did an ok job with my interpretation.  He said the white band around the neck was the "cincher".  He told me that part is often replaced during the life of a garment--makes a lot of sense.

Dolly for a Sweet Girl in Korea

The quilt part of this post is repeated on my companion blog:  Nana-B's Quilting Fun.
http://nanabs-quilting-fun.blogspot.com/2011/01/look-what-few-scraps-will-make.html

Before I took a quilting class, I would have thrown these narrow strips left over from her "big-girl" quilt into the trash. Just look what they made for her dolly!

And every dolly needs her very own cosy quilt--made with batting, quilted like the big one, and backed and self-bound with the scraps.

Back

Dolly's Asian dress with Fishermen's Pants

Dolly's jamies are the matching flannel print which is in cotton in the quilt

Western dress with decorative stitching and matching diaper/panties

Japanese-type kimono with matching green diaper/panties

Thick, fleecy bunting

I didn't start out to make "ethnic" dolly clothes, but the quilt inspired the outfits, and they just birthed themselves. Now that I've started down this path, I'm thinking that in the future I shall send her outfits from more cultures. I shall have to think about how to make a Korean "hanbok" as well.

The kimono was the difficult one--everything else derives from my basic modular patterns, but I should have started from scratch for the kimono. Oh well, live and learn. In the end, with lots of tucks and pleats, it turned out fairly well--perhaps even better than it would have been had I not put in the pleats and tucks as they really help form the arms. If the dolly were alive, it would have lots of movement in the arm area!

(Stay tuned for a greater manifestation of the kimono fabrics...)

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Sat., Jul 17, 2010

I am SO excited--my nice Korean shipper recognized my hanbok!!  He said it was the white band around the neck that cinched it!    yeah!

2010 - Sharing with Friends

A friend was visiting from Sweden in April, and I wanted to send his little girl some fun things.

They are also big F-1 fans, so she gets a special outfit, too. Hers is 2-piece, because I don't know her exact size and this will fit her for longer.

Don't make the solid piece less than a finished length of 2-inches! It gets tricky to use the ruffling foot.

Close-up of decorative stitching

You see elastic hanging out here and there--I left extra long pieces pinned with safety pins so her Mommie could adjust the size of neck, sleeves, and waists.

She's inheriting a pink cowgirl hat from our Princess, so she needed something to wear it with...

I couldn't find just what I wanted, so I made the lace trim (not the butterflies). I did a tiny rolled hem on a long piece of sewn together strips of thin white fabric (same as the white top with black stitching fabric). Next I sewed baby pink ric rac on it. Then I used the ruffling foot to gather the trim. I sewed it onto the garments in a separate step. Then I sewed it down firmly along the top edge using top stitching.

And she really NEEDED a dolly with a matching dress

It can be difficult to gauge just how wide each piece should be (especially on dolly clothes). It would look better if the upper row of b&w checks was narrower than the bottom row, but still wider than the plain white row, but it's still cute.

Back view

Close-up of diaper/panties (velcro fastened) showing two sets of triple rows of ric rac

Dolly's complete layette

Fleece bunting begins with top/dress pattern widened under the arms to allow for other clothes underneath. Add the hood, add a strip down the front, also around the bottom for interest (you could just extend it all the way to the bottom if you like). Just be sure you make it at least 1-1/2 inch longer than the doll.

And the nightie (open down the back with velcro closure), with self-ruffle, and decorative stitching

I wanted our friend to see the fabric from the jamies I had made for our kids earlier, and her little girl could care less that her dolly's dress is flannel. (The lace on the bodice is used to create the effect of an empire waist--it is really all one piece of fabric.)

And what may be the pièce de résistance...

My first overalls--so I had to add a bib and straps to the pants pattern. I left the waist very wide for easy of putting the dolly into the pants. It could be a tad narrower. (If making this for a 5-yr old or older, I would make a velcro fastener on each side at the waist to draw it in nicely.)

Back view

Full shirt

I LOVE modular pattern design!