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Original folk art cat doll in progress, the dress muslin

Here are some photos of the muslin of the doll dress I was working on, completed. It is entirely hand sewn using cotton quilting thread to make a basting stitch.

I draw any adjustments in fit and length that I want to make directly onto my dress muslin with a mechanical pencil. Before I assembled the dress muslin, I traced the original version of my pattern right onto my fabric using a permanent black marker. Generally, I use a pencil to mark my dress muslin while my doll is wearing it to make sure I don’t mark the doll.

There are some minor adjustments to make. There was a small pucker in the bodice at the underarm. I will deepen the bottom of the armhole to compensate for this. I also added a quarter inch to the length of the skirt, and widened the back of the bodice slightly.

I used a single strand of thread for my stitching because it is easier to pull out, which is the next step. The muslin is next carefully disassembled using a seam ripper. Then I trace each piece, refine each one on paper, and make a final draft of my pattern. I haven’t pressed the dress muslin at all, to minimize any distortion of the fabric pieces.

Incidentally, although the rough draft of a dress is called a muslin, I don’t use actual muslin fabric to make my dress muslin. I used cotton sheeting on this one. The important thing is to use a fabric similar in weight and drape to the fabric you will use for your real dress.

We’ll be adding these new collaborative dolls to our online doll gallery once they are completed and photographed. I’m brainstorming on my navigation ideas for that main doll gallery page. There are so many original art dolls now, they’re divided into four subcategories, jointed cloth and paperclay art dolls, art doll figurines, soft art dolls and art toys, and already adopted dolls. Be sure to come check them out.

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Happy new year!

These are some of the photos I have taken, although not just recently, at the Raleigh Little Theater Rose Garden, at Sarah P. Duke Memorial Gardens, and in my own garden.

Back in upstate New York, where I grew up, I would spend our most dreary winter days pouring over flower catalogs and magazines. I couldn’t wait for spring to come when I could dig in the warm earth of the garden again. My garden was one of my favorite things in the world.

Last night, I thought I only had one resolution for New Year’s: to answer the rest of my email that I hadn’t answered yet. But, this morning, I decided I needed a new resolution: to start over, and to start over every day if necessary. I’ve realized that I am tired of dragging around my yesterdays. I love so many of my yesterdays, but I spend too much time thinking about the ones I don’t love as much. Those have to go.

I have dwelled on sadness, and on people who have been selfish and cruel, but I accept that they have nothing to do with me. I don’t want to think about them anymore either. I know that I have love to give, and I believe there are good people who have love and kindness to share as well. I hope to find more of them.

I want to dwell on beautiful things, and create beautiful things. I want to have hope. I want to do the best I can do, and know that I have done the best I could do. I know I try to. Mostly, I want to believe that there are good things to come, happiness, good health, love, and peace. I wish this for you too. Happy new year, everyone.

“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these…Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field…shall he not much more clothe you…?”-Matthew 6:28-30

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I saved a Beanie Baby

Yesterday, I was working on my list of loose ends again, exchanging a wrong item I grabbed at the store, picking up things I meant to pick up and didn’t, finally ordering a pair of pants and a sweater since the ones I wear all the time are getting too shabby. On the way home from the stores, I saw one more little loose end. I have driven past this poor Beanie Baby for maybe two weeks now. He was lying on the road, all wet from the rain. At first we thought his kid might come back for him, but yesterday, I could stand it no longer. It was just too sad. I pulled over and wrapped him in some paper (he was gritty and grimy). I took him home and gave him a good washing in some warm water and Tide Free.

I sewed up his shoulder seam using some thread I had just picked up. It, oddly enough, matched his fur. I set him to dry, and then combed his ears. I looked him up online, and found out his name is “Spunky”, born January 14, 1997. I don’t know what he has been up to since then, but now he is a new man. I’ve never had a Beanie Baby before, but, like Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree, he needed me.

I’m having a sick day today, and since I can’t do much for now, I thought I’d share two of my Christmas present books. Crocheting on the Edge by Nicky Epstein is a book of crocheted edgings that you can add to anything you like, in the size and yarn of your choice. So far, I’m fantasizing more than I am experimenting. I’m thinking of lace collars on sweaters for our art dolls.

Alphonse Mucha: The Spirit of Art Nouveau by Victor Arwas is another loose end of sorts. I had wanted it when I first saw it, and I decided I’d get my own copy at some point. I picked it out with a gift certificate a friend gave me for Christmas. I’ve been fantasizing too about making some Art Nouveau-inspired original art quilts, and more Art Nouveau-inspired floral watercolor paintings and fairy art.

Primrose and Quill (1899-1900) color lithographs by Alphonse Mucha
Study for a Decorative Panel 1902 by Alphonse Mucha

As I’ve been in bed part of the day, I was watching some TV too. I don’t know why seeing these crocheted creatures searching for love tickled me, but it did:

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Original art cat dolls in progress, and making progress in general

Original cat art dolls in progress, Elizabeth Ruffing, Max Bailey
These are the original cat art dolls that Max Bailey and I have been working on. The one on the left will be a Siamese cat, and the one on the right is a tabby cat. The tabby is very cute, but I don’t want to give too much away before her entire ensemble is complete. I am sewing her a dress based on Shirley Temple’s dress in her 1937 film “Heidi”. She has a beautiful pet goose companion as well.


Shirley Temple as Heidi in the 1937 filmI have so many little loose ends that I’m trying to tie up, and that includes making my way through the pile of books I intended to read. I’m still working on E. M. Forster. I’m reading A Passage to India right now.

A Passage To India movie stillI think that might be the only one of his novels I’ve read that hasn’t been turned into a movie starring Helena Bonham-Carter.

A Room with a View movie stillOther E. M. Forster novels I’ve recently read are Where Angels Fear to Tread, A Room with a View (scene from the movie above), and Howard’s End.

I’m sure none of these will compare to CSS: The Missing Manual, which I ordered today. That’s by Brian McFarland. It promises to be “crystal clear”. If I still can’t efficiently absorb CSS after that, I think I’m just going to live without it, knock on wood.