The Magic Bean

Freebie Friday - Free Patterns of the Male Variety

Man oh man there are some great free doll patterns out there for male dolls.  Granted, there are far more female dolls, but there is some pretty great stuff of a more manly persuasion.  Check it out:

Click here for a great generic man pattern from Mary Tressler.

How about a rather ambitious 31" tall boy from Runo Dollmaker in the Japanese style.  Click here.

If you want something to appeal to the guys as well as portraying a guy, how about a Manga inspired martial arts doll?  Click here fora simpler doll or here for something more advanced also from Runo Dollmaker.

How about a pin doll?  Click here for the pattern for the Knave of Hearts by Karen Shifton or click here for a pin doll of Neptune by Patti La Valley.  While you're at it click here for the instructions for the Jumping Man pin by Jane Coughlan and click here for the pattern.

Or how about a manly pin cushion?  Click here to try this great little jester pin cushion pattern from Karen Shifton.

If you like your art dolls a bit quirky try this free pattern from Pamela Hastings, click here for the Quirky Guy.

I really like this merman doll by Runo Dollmaker. Click here for the free pattern.

In addition to this list, there are so many Santa Claus dolls out there, but I am saving those up for nearer December when I will be going for full-on Christmas patterns, so check back then for free Santa patterns.

In the meantime have fun with these guys.  Man alive, those were great patterns!

Frogtastic New Online Doll Class

I will be teaching Water Lily as an online class with Cloth Doll Connection starting January 14th, 2008.  Click here to see the description.  I know, January seems a long way away, but I thought starting the class in December might be a bad time with the holiday season and all.  I, for one, will be knee deep in tinsel and LOVING IT! Bring it on!  Plus, I figured that people wishing to take the class could put it on their Christmas wish list.  Is that enabling your doll making habit?  Probably.   But I love it when people feed my habit - gives me somebody else to blame for my addiction.

I've been doing something a little fun with this online class (besides the obvious fun of making dolls, I mean).  While I was looking at pictures of frogs at the design stage, I found out some really cool facts about our amphibian friends.  So I am including Frog Facts throughout the class. For example, did you know that there is a frog called the false-eyed frog.  It has a set of large fake eyes on its bum!  When it feels it is in danger it hunches over and presents its tushy to show its fake eyes.  And if the creepy big eyes don't work, it oozes a foul smelling liquid. Dudes, how weird is that?

Of course, Water Lily is a much more delicate creature - no foul smells and one set of eyes.  Tee hee.

I'm sure we'll have just as much fun in this class as we did with Bea in her Bonnet.  Can't wait!

Freebie Friday - Ghoulishly Good Free Patterns

Halloween is fast approaching.  Personally, I think, the homemade aspects of holidays make them so much more fun and worthwhile.  So here are a few free Halloween doll patterns to help make your homemade All Hallows Eve exactly as it should be.

Click here for a pattern for Frankenstein's monster.  He's green, he's mean, and he's got pegs in his head!

Or how about some witches?  Click here for a great witch in a basket, perfect for giving out some treats.

Try this simple witch decoration using Styrofoam balls, click here.

This witch head would make a great pin doll, click here to see Mary Tresslers' design.

I think you might need a black cat to accompany those witches, click here for a cute kitty pattern from Hilary Lang of Wee Wonderfuls.

This next cat is just so groovy that I had to include him, even though he is papier mache.  Click here to check out this funky feline.

If you don't fancy carving the real thing, how about some stuffed pumpkins, click here for the instructions and here for the template.

Or how about painting a fabric pumpkin?  Click here for the instructions from Melissa Belanger.

Click here for a great pumpkin headed make-do from Deb Gough.

If you are feeling ghoulish, click here for a bone-rattlingly good pattern courtesy of the DIY Network.

Well, I am all spooked out, don't know about you.  Enjoy. 

We Came, We Saw, We Swapped

On Thursday October 11th, Rainbow Dolls had their monthly meeting, this time at Blue Haze in Chesham.  Stupidly, yours truly booked the day off work and bought tickets for the Knitting & Stitching Show at Ally Pally for the same day.  Yes, I am a moron sometimes.  So Mavis did the head honcho-ing duties and gave a talk on her method for constructing fist-sized heads after the method of Lisa Lichtenfels.

Jill, Maureen and Mavis brought dolls for the swap with Patti Culea's club members.  Jill's goddess featured lovely draped and beaded clothing. 

Maureen made a snake goddess, who can be detached from her "snake throne." Maureen says that the eventual new owner of this goddess might like to do some more beading on her or her throne.

Mavis created a blue goddess, called "A goddess of the wild blue yonder".  She was made as a result of a printing, painting and stamping class with Sherrill Kahn.

Mavis also made a green goddess, named "A garden goddess from across the sea," which was also made after the Sherrill Kahn class.

Shashi, made a mermaid sea goddess that she posted on her blog, click here to see it.

A number of or other long distance members participate via the Yahoo Group.  Maybe if we're good we'll get sent some links to photos of these dolls?  If you fancy joining our Yahoo Group their is a nifty Join button at the bottom right side of my blog.

I've already posted my primitive style, British babe created out of the Star Spangled Banner Sheet music which I printed on fabric then painted with the Stars and Stripes.  But here she is again. I obviously, took a slightly different interpretation of the Across the Sea theme.  I was going for that 'special relationship' angle.

A couple of new members also joined in on the fun on Thursday.  We'd love to have more fresh victims, e-mail me if you are interested.  We don't bite and are only slightly crazy. 

Freebie Friday - Hair Raising Tips for Dolls

Last night I wrote a lovely post on doll hair and just as I finished it, the great computer void swallowed it.  Gone.  Poof.  Hair one minute, gone the next.  There was some hair-curling expletives used.  Then some hair pulling.  What hair-brained idiocy lead me to not click save even once?  Needless to say that as I attempt to recreate my lost doll hair tutorial links, I will be pressing save every few words.

Loose Mohair

If you favour loose mohair for your dolls you'll find that there are many ways of adhering the hair to the doll's head.

Anotonette Cely sews her hair into wefts.  Click here to see how she does it.

Mimi Winer sews hair wefts slightly differently, click here to see another master doll maker at work.

Sometimes sewn wefting is too large a scale for very small dolls so check our how Sarah Russell creates a glue weft by clicking here.

Wendy Froud glues the hair directly to the doll's head.  Click here to see how she does it.  Although this shows a clay doll, the same method could be used for cloth.

If you are trying to attach hair to a head that glue will have trouble adhering to, such as a gourd, you may need to create a wig cap.  Here is Mimi Kirchner's method of measuring for and creating a felt wig cap for your doll, click here.

Hair on the Hide

If you prefer to use hair on a hide such as Tibetan Goat hair click here to try this free tutorial from Barbara Willis to see how.

Or click here to download a free tutorial on making wigs by Shar from Material Magic.

If you fancy dying your own hair on a hide for your dolls, click here and scroll through this newsletter for some tips from Bonnie Lewis.

Curling Hair

Click here to see how to curl various hair fibres with Myra Sherrod.

Yarn Hair

If you want to use Yarn for your doll's hair click here for instructions on how to make a hair loom to make the process easier.  Wish I'd thought of that when making Isadora, pictured above.

Other Hair Fibres

If you really want something different click here to see how Barbara Johnston creates doll wigs from alternative materials, like Christmas tinsel.

Well, I guess that post was no big hairy deal to re-do, but it still felt good to stamp my feet and stomp around after I lost the post in the first place. No one could ever accuse me of being repressed.

Freebie Friday - Thanksgiving Patterns

Being a Canadian in a foreign land means that suddenly you become even more Canadian.  You hold tight to your Canadianism and become fiercely proud, humming O Canada under your breath once in a while, just for comfort.    So when you find that no one except Canadians has a clue that our Thanksgiving is in early October and bears no relation to the American festivity, save the gross over consumption of turkey and stuffing, it can be quite frustrating.  So  let me set the record straight.

American Thanksgiving is in late November and marks the occasion when the Pilgrims and the Indians (I have a hard time typing that, but Pilgrims and the Native North Americans sounds over PC) put aside their differences and ate a meal of thanks together.  Click here for a cute free Pilgrims pattern and click here for a really sweet Indian girl pattern.

The Canadian Thanksgiving is actually based on the Harvest festival of the Church of England calendar.  Here is a cute scarecrow pattern from Kerry Seymour to remind you of harvest time.

American Thanksgiving also seems to include a lot of football watching (American style football, not British) and Thanksgiving day parades.  We Canadians seem mostly content with stuffing our faces with copious amounts of food. 

The food itself is really quite similar to the American fare - turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, squash, and my favourite, pumpkin pie.   Mmmmmm... my mouth waters just thinking about it. 

Click here for a really cute pumpkin pin from Ute Vasina.

Click here for an adorable cloth pumpkin girl pattern from Kerry Seymour.

Refer back to the last Freebie Friday post for instructions on making a needle felted pumpkin.

So, if you are Canadian have a great Thanksgiving weekend.  If you aren't Canadian and you happen to know someone who is, wish them a Happy Thanksgiving.  They'll be impressed that you knew a little about what sets us Canucks apart.  Besides a blind devotion to hockey that is.

Water Lily

One night as I lay in bed, I was thinking about Mowgli from Jungle Book and wondered if a fairy were abandoned by her parents in the wild what type of creature would raise her?  Frogs.  That much was quite clear.  And so I began to think of what life would be like for such a fairy.

This is Water Lily.  Her parents were tragically killed in a mid-air collision over a pond, leaving the young fairy all alone.  A family of frogs adopted her and raised her as their own.  They put a water lily on her head to help her blend into the pond which is how she came to be known as Lily.  They gave her little frog flippers to help her keep up in the water.   But they couldn't come up with a substitute for their long sticky tongues, so Water Lily has some trouble catching flies.  She has just missed a meal and is pouting as she watches yet another tasty morsel escape.

My hubby and I had many discussions on what Water Lily's parents may have collided with when they met their untimely demise.  Himself first suggested a Frisbee.  I wondered why someone would throw a Frisbee over a pond.  Then he suggested a flying squirrel. I ask you.  Unless the squirrel had a sudden desire to do the backstroke why would it leap over a pond?  Lastly,  he declared that it should be a pigeon.  Pigeons are flea and disease infested birds and so are easily vilified, but they fit into the setting of Trafalgar Square better than a pond.  What do you think collided with Water Lily's parents?

I am hoping to offer Water Lily as an online class, so now to writing it all down and then making the pattern all over again.  Is it weird that I actually look forward to that?  Probably no weirder than sprawling on my belly at side of the pond in the park near my flat to get these photos.  At least Londoners are adept at ignoring weird behaviour.  It's a honed skill here.  That many people in one place and you are bound to get a few quality weirdos.  Including me.