My “Hug Me! Slug” is in an Etsy treasury today. Thanks sarihihi! And thanks, Maia, for letting me know.
Tag: Soft Dolls and Art Toys
Dollies look back
Now there can be a two-way staring contest. Eleven faces made it to this point, without my goofing anything else up. All that is left is to heat set them with the iron, and then I can begin to match them up with fabrics for dresses, stockings, and boots. I should be having fun right now, but, honestly, I am having such an off weekend. I’m not feeling well, and my car is out on loan, standing in for one that needs repair. So I am cooped up. I have had every intention of turning that into a positive, by getting lots done, which I am doing, but the cooped up part is getting to me. Everyone I know seems to be away for the weekend, and I am imagining them all having fun at the beach or doing something entertaining, which I hope is true. Still, I’m feeling a bit like Cinderella, in more ways than one.
That reminds me…I have been having some very strange nightmares. The other night I dreamt I was getting married. I was wearing a full-length satin gown and all the guests were there, but I had to go talk to a couple of people in a back room. When I came back, most of the guests had gone home, and all the decorations were gone. Only a handful of people had waited for me, to tell me they were sorry. I said that was okay; I wanted to go ahead and get married anyway since whoever would be performing the ceremony was still there and we didn’t need the rest. The remaining people thought that was very sweet that I’d still want to get married, without any frills and even though almost everyone had left. I was standing there with a bouquet, wondering what I was supposed to do, and I looked over at the groom. I had no idea who he was! He looked familiar, but I didn’t know him. I was panicking and thinking maybe I should call it off, but I felt weird about it after saying I still wanted to go through with it. I couldn’t figure out who the guy was. Geez…I guess that’s sort of funny, but, it’s also kind of terrible! Ha! Thank goodness I woke up!
Dolly Onlookers
I’ve been painting new doll faces today with my other dolls looking on. The slugs seem the most curious and eager to see what I’m up to. I need some shelving, maybe stadium seating.
I was making good progress until I had to take allergy medication for a bad insect bite I have on my foot. Nothing else seems to control the awful itching and the swelling, but then I nearly nodded off right in the middle of my faces. I kept going, but one or two didn’t come out the way I planned. I hate doing “negative work”, a phrase a friend uses for creating more work for yourself by making mistakes. I cut one up just to stop myself from continuing to try to fix it. I always feel compelled to try to fix everything, but sometimes it is just better to start over. Besides, most of them came out quite well. I’ve always been a perfectionist in regard to what I make, and that can make things unpleasant for me sometimes. I’ve been told that by the time I reached my current age, lots of things that bothered me before wouldn’t bother me so much anymore. In some ways that is true, but I haven’t shaken the perfectionist drive.
Owlie Art Toys
I am still at work on my Lucy dolls, but I only managed to simplify my pattern by eliminating a seam or two…not much of a difference. I decided she was just going to remain complicated to make, and so I am slowly making progress on those. In the meantime, I took a mini detour and made an Owlie. I made up the pattern myself, fiddling around until I liked the shape.
I added some machine appliquéd details and sewed him up. I made two cute yellow feet for him too. I used some natural, undyed cotton fabric I had from a few years ago for his body. It has a lovely texture with a diagonal woven design. It is the color of oatmeal and is very soft.
Although I tried as many things as I could think to try, I could not get this red polka dot fabric color to show up right in the main photos of my owl. It is a dark red, but it looks too dark in my owl photos. It looks about right, on my monitor anyway, in this photo below:
Mr Owl is about 8 1/2 inches wide by 6 1/2 inches tall.
Other than playing with toys, I got to play with kids this weekend, which was a lot of fun. I think we crammed every kid activity possible into one afternoon. We played with toy trains (I managed to fix the engine part), flew kites, ate ice cream, looked for real trains, played on the caboose at the park, rode on a miniature train, rode the carousel (I picked a bunny), and played tag. And I’m sure I’m leaving things out. I also learned that I am sorely outmatched both in ice cream eating abilities and in superhero powers by a five and a six year old. I needed a lot of pizza to refuel afterwards, but I couldn’t help but feel happier when they were around.
