The Magic Bean

Freebie Friday - Just so Cool

Oftentimes when I am searching the web for great free doll stuff to share with you all I find something really cool, but really unique.  Its uniqueness makes it very hard for me to fit it into one of my nifty weekly themes.  So for my last Freebie Friday of 2007 the theme is going to be 'No Theme'.  The only thing that these freebies have in common is that I think that they are really cool.

Shashi Nayagam, a British designer who I am fortunate to know, has a great free pattern called Butternut, click here to see it. 

Sherry Goshon came up with this fantastic butterfly button doll, click here to see it.  Sherry uses a push-mould face but you could use a cloth one if you wanted to.

I am often asked by beginning doll makers how I go about designing a doll.  I think everyone has a slightly different approach.  As I am very comfortable working with flat patterns and am easily able to see a three dimensional object as a flat pattern, it can be frustrating for people to hear that I go straight to drawing a flat pattern from a design that I imagine in my head.  That probably doesn't help beginners, huh?  So here is a great free tutorial on how to design your own doll from Designs by Phyllis, click here.

If you'd like to design your own dolls but are after something funky and simple check out these really cool photo dolls from Amy Karol over at Angry Chicken (that's a blog, not a fried chicken establishment by the way).

If you are really feeling in need of Zen simplicity and beauty, make this really cute free pin cushion pattern designed by Heather Bailey (Heather is Elinor Peace Bailey's daughter-in-law, ya know).

I loved this free frayed flower tutorial. I think it would make a great embellishment for dolls.

Here is a very cool video from Besewstylish on how to crush velvet using your iron, very cool (oh, I said that already, sorry):

Here's another great video from the folks at Besewstylish on using Shiva (or as they call them in Britain, Markal, don't ask why they changed the product name, same stuff though) Paintsticks to embellish your fabric. The video demonstrates the use of rubbing plates and stencils with the paintsticks.

As I sit here trying to come up with some clever way to sign off, my hubby tries to help by composing limericks, sadly Himself is not a poet, so I will sign off with the promise to spare you the agony of rhyming couplets.  Enjoy the just so cool freebies.

Freebie Friday - A Host of Angels

Hark the Herald Angels for free!  For my last Christmas inspired Freebie Friday I thought I'd round up a host of halo-toting, harp playing beauties for my weekly free doll pattern round-up.

Web of Angels is a whole page of free angel patterns that will keep you busy for hours.  Click here to see this amazing collection of free patterns.

Click here for a sweet country inspired wall angel pattern by Samantha Ann Grout.

Click here to see Ruby the Christmas angel pin doll by Linda Misa.

I love this sophisticated wall angel pattern by Marilyn Nicholson, click here to see what I'm talking about.

If you got tiny scraps of beautiful fabrics and trims, use them up with these great origami style angels.  Click here to see the pattern.

This simple angel would look great with a push mould face.  Click here to see the pattern from Better Homes and Gardens.

Click here to see instructions for making a beautiful angel doll.  Unfortunately, there is no pattern, but the instructions give you a good idea of what the shapes should be.

Click here to see Deanna Hogan's Fairy Faye pin doll which looks to me like a great pattern for an angel pin doll.  Don't you love Deanna's faces?

If you want to make your doll feather angel wings, here is a fantastic tutorial from Deb Wood on exactly how to do it. Genius.

I thought I'd leave you this week with a funny angel story.  When my mum was little, my grandfather was driving a load of kids to church on Christmas Eve. He pulled into the angle parking along the side of the church and my mum's cousin Neil protested 'Uncle Ed, you can't park here!  It says angel parking only!'.  I wonder what angels are driving these days?

Six Days to Go!

I can't believe that this time next week Christmas will all be over.  Actually, for me it's never over.  I listen to Bing singing White Christmas all year round.  And as soon as the gifts are unwrapped I'm thinking about next year. 

This year I've really been enjoying the Christmas spirit of my fellow doll makers and bloggers on the web.  These past couple of weeks I've been really loving Angry Chicken, a blog written by Amy Karol.  She has been doing some fantastic baking in jars and has great little Christmas gift ideas.  I especially love these hilarious free printable gift tags that she has posted to download.  These tags say 'all those things that probably should be left as an inner monologue'.  If you've got family and friends with a good sense of humour then go for it.  I think my in-laws find my tags and gift wrapping style lovely and they certainly appreciate their gifts (especially if they're hand made), but these tags would really confuse my father-in-law.  The first year that he saw my cinnamon stick and raffia gift-wrapping style he got the funniest crease in his forehead and asked what it was for. My 'just decoration' explanation did not smooth out the forehead crease. If you like my little gift bag and tags, I downloaded them for free from Prim Doodles.

Another blogger and friend Romona also had some cute free printable gift tags linked on her blog, plus some other fun Christmas stuff.  So check it out.

I also found a great bonus Santa Claus freebie from Jan Horrox's newsletter.  Here is a great shelf sitting Santa pattern, but hurry as it is only available as a free pattern until Christmas this year!

Cookies and Dolls

Tuesday I sped off to Great Missenden for our meeting of Rainbow Dolls at Rainbow Silks (see how we got the name for the club, clever huh?).  I was armed with some coffee and pine nut sort of shortbread things and some old doll magazines to give away.   Plus, my doll Water Lily to show off.  The rest of the club were similarly prepared with yummies and dolls finished or in progress and Chris brought fabulous trims and fabrics for us.

Stella brought Stanley, a wee elf of her own design who is destined to be enjoyed by Stella's grandson. 

How cute is that?

Maureen brought along some cold porcelain roses she had hand sculpted.  We're a multi-disciplined bunch, ya know!

 

Chris brought a work in progress.  Although headless at the moment, this leggy beauty will be a tribute to fall.  Chris says she's considering a dolly boob-job as she is not entirely satisfied with the bust-line. 

The leaves that Chris has created for the doll's autumnal wardrobe are stunning in themselves - they are made of dyed lutrador and then stitched.

Between mouthfuls of munchies we discussed what we want out of the doll club next year.  We felt that we need to schedule some demos further in advance.  We also talked about possibly inviting guest speakers or going on field trips to artists' studios or museums.  Everyone was keen on a group effort and we felt that a challenge with a broad theme and a longer deadline would be helpful.  Everyone was very keen on then submitting the results of our challenge to a doll magazine.  Nothing quite gives you a high like seeing your name in print!  We'll be discussing possible themes at the meeting in January and also via our Yahoo Group.

So in the spirit of putting words into action we have scheduled demos for the next 3 meetings.

Thursday January 31st at 1:30pm, our own Jill will be doing a demo on handling silks, including the different types of silks available, how to cut silk, and one of Jill's specialities, how to make silk rosettes.

Thursday February 28th at 1:30pm Chris will be doing a demo on dying fabric including how to dye different types of fabrics.

Thursday March 20th at 1:30pm yours truly will be doing a demo on the different kinds of doll joints, including commercial plastic doll joints, bead joints, button joints etc.

The following dates have been arranged but the activities have not yet been decided on:Tuesday April 22nd, Thursday May 22nd, Thursday June 26th, Tuesday July 22nd, and Thursday August 28th.

If you are interested in joining Rainbow Dolls please feel free to come along to Rainbow Silks on the days above or e-mail me for more info.  Alternatively, you could join our Yahoo Group and join in on activities like our challenges if you wish.  There is even a handy dandy join-up button on the side bar of the blog.  The only thing about the Yahoo Group is that you can't sample my coffee and pine nut shortbread things.  Oh well, we'll just say that the Yahoo Group is the lower calorie version of Rainbow Dolls.

 

Freebie Friday - Just Claus It's Christmas

It's all Santa's fault.  That I'm into dolls, I mean.  Or maybe it's my dad's fault.  Basically, I started making polymer clay Santas to give to my dad for Christmas.  Here is one of my first dolls.

Then after meeting Patti Culea, Barbara Willis and Betts Vidal I dropped polymer clay and I've been a complete cloth doll addict ever since.  So in tribute to the man who started it all, this Freebie Friday is all free Santa patterns (not free Dad patterns, silly).  Bring on the big guy!

Click here for a very cute Santa with a Christmas ball for a body.

Click here for a Santa with a mesh body that can be filled with candy.  mmmm...candy

Click here for a Santa that is just hanging around.

Click here for a beautiful Santa pattern from Runo Dollmaker.

If you fancy a more traditional Father Christmas doll, click here to see another pattern by Runo Dollmaker.

Make this sweet but simple country style Santa, click here.

Click here for a cute Santa.

Fancy making Santa and his eight tiny reindeer?  Click here to see a wee felt pattern from Runo Dollmaker.

Click here and scroll through the page to see several Santa inspired doll bits - a sitting Santa bust, a Santa tag, a Santa ornie (actually a couple).  These are primitives and cute as a button.

Phew!  Aren't you exhausted from looking at all those free patterns?  Might need some rejuvenating biscuits.  Why not click here for a sweet Santa recipe?  Just don't eat too many or you'll end up with a round little belly that will shake when you laugh like a bowl full of jelly.  Tee Hee - or should I say ho, ho. 

The B-Word

When I was growing up we were not allowed to be bored.  Just that simple.  If we said the b-word then we would be given a task to keep us from being bored.  Mum said that there is no such thing as anything boring, there are only boring people.  So I won't say that this next project bored me.  I'll say it didn't challenge me (how was that Mum?). 

The funny thing is, I'll look at patterns like this very adorable yet simple snowman pattern and think how much I'd love to make him.  Isn't he a cutie, I'll tell myself.  But if I do start making these short finish-it-in-an-afternoon projects I get b-word.  Very quickly. 

All I could think about while making my little snowman ornie was the much more complicated and exciting, partially completed design of my new doll that is sitting on my sewing table beckoning me with her challenging-ness (OK, so it's not a word, but roll with it, eh?).

So now I've got the cute snowman thing out of my system.  I got to use that sweet book I look at all the time and wonder why I don't make more of it's cute little projects.  I used the fun candy cane stripe fabric I bought at the Marsh Store in Canada.  Yup, it's out of my system.  Bring on the Boredom Buster!  No, not the toilet brush, Mum - the new doll design, oh yeah! 

Freebie Friday - Frosty for Free

I am snow excited about Christmas.  And if you think Christmas is over-rated you probably shouldn't read my blog for the next month, cause I'm going all Christmas, all the time for each Freebie Friday's roundup of free patterns in December.  So there.  This week I'm kicking off with some patterns for some frosty friends.

Click here to see a pattern for Shivers the Snowman.

Or how about a partially melted snowman? Click here to see this melted fellow.

Here is a snowman that is 'no-sew' - a great project to do with the little ankle-biters.

Click here for a  pattern for a skating snowman that would make a great ornament.

Click here for a snowman nativity - all together now, ahhhhhhhh.....

This Smores Snowman got me thinking about stuffing my face rather than stuffing dolls body's, but he's made out of foam!  Darn.

Try these tiny stuffed snowmen from Runo dollmaker for dressing the tree, click here.

Scroll down this page for several free snowman patterns - a Prim Snowman, a stuffed snowman tag, and Cedrick the snowman.

Have fun flaking out with these free patterns! Brrrrr......

Christmas Shrubs and other Foliage

Last weekend my dear sweet hubby and I erected the Christmas tree.  Even though our flat is minuscule we have a rather large tree.  Basically, I have a rule:  it is not a  Christmas tree unless it is taller than you are (otherwise it is called a Christmas "shrub").  To those of you who sit reading this on the other side of the Atlantic, you can't imagine not having a large tree, but here in the UK most people have stubby little trees that they put on tables.  I ask you, what fun is that! 

So Himself and I re-arranged the flat so that you can just about move around the space, agreeing that there are several of our friends and family who probably shouldn't visit until after Christmas due to their lack of spacial awareness.  Clobbering my Christmas tree would put me in a distinctly unfestive mood.

You'll notice that there is not a single doll of any kind on this tree.  That is because when we first made these ornaments I wasn't a doll-maker.  In fact, hubby and I had very little in the way of well, anything, so we resorted to some creative scrounging.  And now we have lovely all natural, sweet-as-anything ornaments.  I love remembering sitting with Himself for hours making clove pomanders out of Styrofoam balls.  Himself proved annoyingly adept at studding the entire ball in cloves in record time using his signature 'pomander manoeuvre.

Then Himself came over all crafty one day and foraged in the park for twigs to make the twig star at the top of the tree - all by himself!  You could have knocked me over with a feather.  He even insisted this year that we re-make the cranberry rings.  Of course, I had to participate in some craft one-upmanship by making mine hearts.  No simple rings for me!

Himself was very receptive to the heart motif and was not at all put out when I forbade him from touching the lights - husband and strings of fairy lights = bad combination.

So even with a bossy, opinionated, craft know-it-all of a wife he still manages to have Christmas spirit.  And has listened to Christmas carols since...well, actually there hasn't actually been any respite, I play them all year round.  So maybe Himself should be St. Himself.  He certainly deserves a halo.