The Magic Bean

Wordless Wednesday - Forest for the Trees

 

Water Lily is Back and Ready to Hop into Action

I'm teaching Water Lily, my little frog fairy, over at Joggles starting in July.  If you missed out on this class the last time it ran, hop on over to Joggles by clicking here to sign up.

Dear Cloth Doll Muse

Thank you Cloth Doll Muse for sending me the idea for Finders Keepers - a little imp who steals human being stuff.  She fills her pockets with buttons and coins and errant earrings.  She clutches the things she steals in her tail or props them up on her back.  She is full of mischief but she looks so innocent peering out from her bonnet.

 

And the best part Dear Muse, is that the body shape built by wrapping the wire armature with batting makes this doll perfect for teaching in-person.  Not only does this design allow me to teach my face drawing style, but also allows me to teach body proportion, basic pattern alteration and the beginning of designing your own doll. 

And that's not all the inspiration you whispered to me. You told me "Give her a practical purpose too, Colleen".  And I did.  She can be used as business card holder or a recipe card holder, or a holder of letters.  This little imp is not just as cute as all get-out.  She's useful too.

Thank you Muse.  I owe you one.

Freebie Friday - Free Traditional Doll Patterns & Tutorials

Although I certainly can't claim that the dolls that I now design are "traditional dolls", I certainly have loved many forms of traditional doll making.

When I was a kid I loved worry dolls and made tons of them.  Here's a free tutorial on how to make worry dolls.

At another point in time I flooded the house with corn-husk dolls, click here for a free tutorial on traditional corn-husk dolls.

This Art Fetish doll looks like it owes its roots to traditional African dolls.

In the rag doll mould there is the Amish doll.  Another phase I went through.

As I kid, I also remember having a craft book with nature-inspired crafts, including an apple head doll.  Check out this free tutorial for an apple-headed doll.

Another great traditional doll form, the clothespin doll is demonstrated in this video:

Once you've made your clothes page dolls makes this adorable gourd doll house from Bitter Betty Blogs to house them.

In writing this week's free doll pattern and tutorial round-up I realise that I must have over-burdened my poor mum with various forms of dolls for a lot of my life.  Sorry Mum, I sure gave you a lot to dust!

Treasures of the Deep Goes Goth

Natalie Hamade is the last of my pattern testers to finish her version of Treasures of the Deep (poor Natalie had to wait an extra week for the errant post to show up with the pattern).  Natalie remembered that I once said that I'm bad at doing both Goth and funny character dolls, even though I really like those types of dolls.  So Natalie took Treasures of the Deep and went Goth:

 

 

 

I love Natalie's faces which are so different from mine, but so fantastic!  The colours Natalie chose are great.  And I love seeing someone take my pattern in a direction that is so different from my original concept.  I'm imagining that this siren of the sea is from really deep waters...dark, murky and mysterious.

Nat said about her doll:  All of the fabrics were dyed by hand---The bodice was FME and painted to look like mosaic work. I had to go with an alternative for the wool sweater (which forms the felt for the base in the pattern) and used wool felt and dryer sheets for the rocks.

Didn't Natalie do an amazing job? 

I am so grateful to all my amazing pattern testers.  I am spoiled to have such great doll makers who are willing to share their experience and knowledge to make my patterns better.  Thank you Karen, Romona and Nat!

Wordless Wednesday - Power Pylon Geometry

Freebie Friday - Surprisingly Substancial Free Doll Patterns

Sometimes, when I'm surfing along looking for doll links I think, 'Holy Cow! That is free!'.  There are some great doll patterns out there for free on the web.  Here's a few that are really worth looking at:

Linda Misa offers her little boy doll "Sport" as a free online class, get the info for signing up here.

ThisHug-o-Saurus pattern is a real cutie from Kate Erbach.

These two doll patterns are a bit out there, but fun from Dinky Divas.

And here is a gorgeous folksy looking felt doll from Mimi Kirchner.

See what I mean?  Free doll patterns you can really sink your teeth into.

Life Lesson

Never store athlete's foot spray next to hairspray.  You are just asking for trouble.  Enough said.

Wordless Wednesday

 

Another Treasured Tester

Another

of my pattern testers has finished her version of Treasures of the Deep. Romona King chose to do the sequin bodice and I think it turned out beautifully.  Don't you?

 

Romona's doll has an expression that is very serene but with an ironic quirk to he smile.  I like the yarn Romona used for the hair fibre.  This pattern goes through hair wefting which is suitable for any loose hair fibre.

Romona was also able to find wool sweaters to felt for the base (or technically, I should say "full", not felt, but you get the picture) and it turned out really well. 

Romona says that she really enjoyed the beading to create the sequin bodice.  Shiny.....mmmmm....

Bravo Romona!