Sweat Shop, the Sequel

Hannah has a nice warm jacket to wear. 

Here's a look at the jacket without the scarf in the way, so you can see the hood and pockets.

Hannah's boots are from Home Sew. Since I gave the hat and scarf I had made for her to the second Habitat doll, I made her a new set. My pattern is based on this tutorial, but much simpler. I cut three rectangles: 1.5" X 21" for the scarf, with 2" fringe cut into the ends at 1/2" intervals. For the hat, I cut 7" X 14", then cut fringe on one of the long sides, same size as for the scarf. Then I sew the two short ends together and stick it on the doll's head. The third rectangle is a strip 1/2" X 7" or more (it will be trimmed). I gather up the fringe on the top of the doll's head and tie the 1/2" strip around it, then trim to the same length as the fringe. If the doll's head is small, like Hannah here, I can turn up the bottom of the hat.

Hannah's jacket pattern is from McCall's Crafts 2506. I adapted the pattern for the boys, replacing the hood with a stand-up collar and adding a band around the bottom. I also slimmed it down around the waist. I slimmed down the pants from the same pattern. The waist is the same size, but I found the pants too baggy for the boys. The skirt is from this pattern. It used to be called the "Girly Tank Top Set" but the designer is going through and renaming her patterns, taking out references to American Girl Dolls and any photos of the dolls. I'm not sure if she named it after me when she changed the name, but I noticed that several other people in the doll groups I participate in now have their names on this designer's patterns. I've made this skirt several times, so maybe.

Because I'm working from my stash, I found some corduroy left over from a previous project and a woven stripe for Buddy.

Dude's jacket is a quilting flannel, like Hannah's, and his pants are homespun.

Both jackets are lined. The zippers came from Pixie Faire.

I'm trying to finish up the sewing, so I can start cleaning up for Holiday visitors. I've been sewing in the dining room because my fiber studio looks as if a tornado went through it. I'd like to straighten up the dining room and then start on my fiber studio.

Because I've been focusing on sewing, I haven't finished Dude's sweater vest yet, but it's coming along.

I did finally catch DH's cold, so I skipped Vintage Stitchers this week. Joanie hosted. She's not in the best health and uses oxygen, so I really didn't want to risk giving it to her.

However, the weather was nice for a few days, and we both felt well enough to go on some long walks and short hikes. (Dusty looks almost like Sunny here, but he's rapidly turning silver.)

The pups cherish their off-leash time. It's nice to run and play. This shot gives you a good idea of their relative sizes. Dusty's growth seems to have slowed down. He's almost at the upper range for height for miniature poodles, but he still weighs a lot less than Rocky. We expect him to fill out a bit.

Both of them have recovered well from their respective...uh...medical conditions. Rocky's hip is pretty much back to normal, and Dusty's "reconstructive surgery" only slowed him down for the few days he wore the "Cone of Shame." 

Happy Halloween!

What's on my needles: Dude's sweater vest. Still. The “So-not-my-palette Cardigan” second sleeve is still on hold. 

What's on my Featherweight: Done for now.

What's on my wheel: Still put away for now.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to music for Park City Singers. On my Kindle app, I still haven't picked out something new to read.

What's in my wine glass: Nathanson Creek Merlot, the one with the froggy on the label.

What's my tip of the week: Inserting elastic in the waistband of a doll skirt or pair of pants, If you press the seam(s) to one side (the same side, if your waistband is a continuation of the pants or skirt), you can insert the elastic from the side with the seam allowance, or in the same direction as the seam allowance, and your elastic won't get hung up on the seam(s) as it goes through. I use a large safety pin, and I try to pay attention to which part of the clasp is up, so when it comes out the other end, I can tell easily if it is twisted.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Warm Fuzzies While Doing for Others

Buddy's sweater vest is done, and Dude's is on the needles.

I adapted a doll sweater pattern I like, the same one I used for Hannah's Fair Isle Cardigan. You can find information on the pattern and how I adapted it on the project page for Buddy's sweater vest.

Both sets of dress pants and shirts are finished, and the boys got to show them off in a "skit" they put together for cancer-awareness month (not just for breast cancer, but others as well). We took part in a knit-along on Ravelry in the Götz Doll Lover's forum on Ravelry called "Think Pink 2016," where we had to post something specific each day, always in pink or with pink on it somewhere.

Dolly produced and directed a scene where Dude and Hannah played the parents of a child who needed surgery for cancer. (I chose Wilms' tumor, because the treatment involves surgery, and it occurs in children.) Buddy played the child's pediatrician, and Gabi was the surgeon. It gave me a chance to try on the doctor's coat, stethoscope and scrubs I bought for Daphne Jr. for Christmas. The medical outfits came from Home Sew. Hannah's purse also came from there and made an appearance in an earlier post in the knit-along. All the shoes in the photo came from The Doll Clothes Store.

Some participants decided to work entirely from stash and donate what they would have spent to cancer research. I decided to do that, too, since I have so much stash. The boys' pants were made using the Boot Cut Jeans pattern from Pixie Faire. The shirts are based on the "Cowgirl Shirt" from Best Doll Clothes Book. I just left off the yoke overlays on the front and back. The bow ties are improvised from red ribbon and fasten in the back with a tiny piece of Velcro.

In the Frog Prince group on Ravelry, we decided that it looked like a scene from General Hospital, and Buddy and Dude were identical twins separated at birth who somehow both ended up in the same hospital, both concerned about the same child.

This was the week of the "Overall Ball" for our local Habitat for Humanity. We had our photos taken holding some tiny tools (I have a spanner, DH has a hammer), and the photo was superimposed on a photo of some Park City houses in the old part of town.

Of course, the main reason we were there was to help promote the silent auction of Lauren and Zoey, who joined in because we ended up with so many clothes. Here's how Lauren looked displayed with the suitcase and clothes. I had a slideshow of photos of the clothes that were included playing on my iPad set up on an easel next to the display.

Zoey had just as many clothes as Lauren. A couple of Ravelry friends sent me extra outfits, which helped up the price.

Together they brought in about $350 for Habitat for Humanity. The dolls, suitcases and shoes were donated as well as the handmade clothes, so all the money goes to Habitat.

Lauren took a selfie with Zoey when they said goodbye at my house before the party. We're thinking about doing this again next year, but with one of the dolls being a boy. (Lauren and Zoey are Creatology dolls from Michael's)

This week also brought our absentee ballots. Our county decided to go to all mail-in ballots this year. We always get a mail-in ballot, but usually have the option of going to the polls to exchange it for a regular ballot. We consider voting an obligation, so we never miss it.

Our canine warm fuzzies are back to normal, unsupervised play and long walks. Dusty is completely recovered from his "reconstructive surgery" (not performed by Gabi) two weeks ago, and Rocky is now at five weeks after having his hip returned to its socket with no further injury.

One final mention of donating to charity: If anyone needs magazine subscriptions, candy or nuts, Daphne is selling them in her online store to raise money for Girl Scouts. (She's a Daisy.) One caution, though. The candy and nuts are expensive to ship.

What's on my needles: Dude's sweater vest. The “So-not-my-palette Cardigan” second sleeve is still on hold. 

What's on my Featherweight: Doll Jacket.

What's on my wheel: Still put away for now.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to music for Park City Singers. On my Kindle app, I've finished reading Corinna: A Sweet and Clean Historical Romance by Lauren Royal. It was good. I'm still picking out something new to read.

What's in my wine glass: Corbet Canyon Cabernet Sauvignon. Always a nice choice.

What's my tip of the week: When making tiny items, such as doll clothes, it's usually easier to completely line them, rather than make tiny facings.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Colds, Cones and Cardis

First the cardi:

If you're interested, you can read about how I adapted a great Argyle pattern to Fair Isle here. That's the Ravelry page for the project. It has links to the pattern for the cardigan and the skirt, and to the yarn used. Hannah seems to enjoy wearing the new cardigan, so I think she's happy with it.

Here's a view of the back.

Here's a better look at the skirt, which I finished earlier in the week, when the weather was nice.

Now to the cone. In family life, Dusty had his "reconstructive surgery" on Monday. (The one that made certain he wouldn't chase the girls.) Unfortunately, the little rascal showed too much interest in his incision, so he came home with "The Cone of Shame." By Friday, he had figured out how to reach his incision in spite of the cone, doing an imitation of a pill bug, but whenever we took the cone off for him to eat or go for a walk, he left it alone, so we left it off after that. No more problems.

Finally, the cold: At the same time as I was dealing with Dusty's recuperation, DH came down with a raging cold. He had been at the Farmers' Market running the voter registration booth, when a sleet storm hit. A couple of days later, he got his flu shot. By the time he got home from getting his shot, he realized he was getting sick. He spent several nights coughing, so I didn't get much sleep, either. He's better now, though. I just hope I don't get it.

I wish I could have gotten a photo of Dusty's face when he saw this neighborhood visitor on Wednesday. She had a youngster with her, but the young one was camera shy.

We got more snow this morning. Dusty thought "ho-hum." He's used to it now.

I missed Vintage Stitchers this week because I was looking after family members and was exhausted anyway. I'll try to go next time.

Sunday afternoon we went to see Carmen at Utah Opera. As expected, Carmen met with a well deserved death. As always, it was a great production, and it was fun to see two of the young people who sing with us at church on special occasions performing in the chorus.

What's on my needles: The “So-not-my-palette Cardigan” second sleeve is still on hold, but I'm ready to start a sweater vest for Buddy. 

What's on my Featherweight: Shirts for Buddy and Dude.

What's on my wheel: Still put away for now.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to music for Park City Singers. On my Kindle app, I'm still reading Corinna: A Sweet & Clean Historical Romance by Lauren Royal.

What's in my wine glass: Bota Box Old Vine Zinfandel. Not bad. The nice thing about the box is that if you don't finish the whole thing in a day or two, it still tastes good until the end.

What's my tip of the week: When counting rows of ribbing, I find it easiest to count the purl bumps than the K stitches. In this case, I have five rows of ribbing, and there are five purl bumps. The first row of green was straight knit, so the bottom stitch isn't actually ribbing, even though it looks like it. Normally when you count rows, you count the stitch on the needle, too, so that would give you six. I find that confusing. This works better for me.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Doll, Puppy, Show-and-tell

But first some quilting show-and-tell.

Common Threads met at Georgette's on Thursday. Margareth had just finished piecing, appliquéing and embroidering her first quilt. She is now hand-quilting it. The embroidery says, "Welcome to the cabin" in Norwegian. I love the mother bear and her two cubs.

Karan had finished the final block in her long-term appliqué project. 

Here are all the quilt blocks laid out in order. There will be sashing and borders.

Carol is finishing up some Advent calendars. The ornaments come off and go in the little pockets, which she still has to number.

Georgette was working on a knitted pumpkin, but she had this Halloween pillow on display.

I was finishing up Hannah's leg warmers for her ballet class outfit.

The sweater is from this pattern, but instead of a button and buttonhole lower front left, I put a crochet-chain belt loop under the left sleeve, just above the garter stitch border, then threaded a ribbon through the front right at the waist edge to tie through the belt loop. I also made 3/4 sleeves, for ease of movement during practice. The yarn is some leftover Encore DK I had. The leg warmers are 24 stitches around, with five rows of 1X1 ribbing at the top and the bottom and stockinette stitch between, worked in the round using pink Rowan Soft Baby (discontinued) worsted-weight yarn.

The skirt is made from some nylon tricot I had. I used the skirt pattern from McCall's Crafts 2506, only I made the back as-designed and for the front, I made a matching pattern piece, but with the curve, and cut two, so they would overlap slightly. The waistband has elastic in it. A ribbon bow is sewed onto the front as a faux "tie." The pointe shoes and leotard (covered up, but it's cute) are from The Doll Clothes Store. I think Daphne will be pleased with it.

I have started on the Fair Isle sweater to go with a skirt I plan to make for Hannah. Here's what I have so far, along with the fabric for the skirt.

I'm using this pattern, which I used to make a sweater for Daphne Jr., pretty much as pictured on the pattern, but now I'm working Fair Isle patterns over the whole sweater, and making the cardigan version. I picked from some simple patterns in 200 Fair Isle Motifs, A Knitter's Directory, by Mary Jane Mucklestone. 

The big event in Dusty's life this past week was his trip to the groomer. He's been to see Marcia several times before, but this time he got his first adult haircut. He looks like a grownup dog.

He's still a lot smaller than Rocky, but his shape is now more mature, and the sweet puppy hair is gone. (Don't worry; I had Marcia save it for me. I still don't know what I'll do with it, but I'll think of something that will make a nice keepsake to remember his puppyhood.

As you read this on Monday morning, he's at the vet's getting...er...reconstructive surgery, for want of a better term. He has two puppy teeth left, which they will pull at the same time. Our baby is growing up!

Rocky continues to heal three weeks after his dislocation. We are going for walks now, but still restrict his activity to supervised play with Dusty, walks, and getting on and off the furniture by himself. No unsupervised play and no ball fetching yet.

What's on my needles: Hannah's Fair Isle Cardigan. The “So-not-my-palette Cardigan” second sleeve is still on hold. 

What's on my Featherweight: Hannah's skirt and other make doll clothes.

What's on my wheel: Still put away for now.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to music for Park City Singers. On my Kindle app, I'm still reading Corinna: A Sweet & Clean Historical Romance by Lauren Royal.

What's in my wine glass: Crane Lake Malbec, one of our favorite inexpensive wines.

What's my tip of the week: When binding a quilt, it isn't necessary to cut the binding fabric on the bias, even if the edge of the quilt has curves (scalloped edges or rounded corners). If the fabric is a plaid or stripes, I like to cut the binding on the bias, but otherwise, I cut width of fabric (selvage to selvage) and join with diagonal seams. Here's a video that shows better than I could what I do.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Sewing and Reaping

Buddy and Dude have new sport sandals.

Remember the T-shirts I ordered that were too tight across the shoulders? I made the boys some new T-shirts to fit, and shorts to wear with them. I thought the sandals (from The Doll Clothes Store) were cute and add a nice touch to the outfits. I still plan to make them all (including Hannah) some warm jackets, backpacks and dressy outfits for the boys.

I made Hannah's shorts a little shorter than the boys'. I accidentally installed the elastic through the front seam instead of the back, leaving a square of stitches where I sewed the elastic to the casing right in front, so I made a "drawstring" bow and sewed it on over the stitching. No one will ever know.

All three pairs of shorts came from Joan Hinds and Jean Becker's Fancywork and Fashion's Best Doll Clothes Book.

Her new pointe shoes came (also from The Doll Clothes Store), so she had to try them out. She has a leotard from the same place, and tights from Home Sew, and I'm making her some leg warmers and a sweater to wear while practicing. I also have plans for a wrap skirt for practice sessions, and eventually a tutu for recitals, after her skills have been honed a bit. I think her hand positions are already excellent. She needs to work on her turnout, though.

Then I started on a wrap jacket, which also could be worn as a dress with tights. (It's as short as a miniskirt, so her bare legs might get cold.) I used the sweater from Jacqueline Gibb's Crossover Cardigan Set as a basis for the jacket, but started knitted a few inches before starting the decreases. Details are here.

Under it, in the photo above, she's wearing the skirt I made her and one of the T-shirts (given her by the boys, because their shoulders are too broad). I also made a reversible top to go with the skirt. The top is from the same book, the skirt is from McCall's Crafts 2506. 

Here's how I made the top reversible. I made it as instructed in the book, but then I sewed the bottom seam, right sides together (like a pillow) with a gap in the seam more or less in the middle. After turning, I top-stitched the bottom edge.

After I finish the ballet practice outfit, one of the projects I have in the planning stages is a pleated skirt for Hannah using this pattern and a Fair Isle Cardigan to go with it. I'm thinking about using the same pattern for the cardigan (Una Hendry's Argyle pullover), which I made for Daphne Jr. last spring, only with Fair Isle patterns picked from a book of patterns instead of the Argyle. I plan on using Palette in several colors from my stash. Here's my fabric and yarn:

The colors of Palette are (clockwise from bottom right) Teal, Sweet Potato, Semolina, Almond and Garnet Heather.

The boys have PJs, but Hannah still has nothing to sleep in. I'm going to have to figure out what to make her for bedtime. And maybe a nice, fluffy towel.

So that was the sewing, with some knitting thrown in. How about the reaping?

Later today Rocky can start regular exercise again, I'm assuming gradually and carefully, but I think we are reaping the rewards of our diligence in protecting Rocky from himself, as he has not redislocated his hip.

During the last nearly two weeks, Dusty has learned to entertain himself more. He spends a lot of time in the wilderness we call our backyard. He hasn't yet given up his archeological dig, having found even more relics to bring to me, but he has taken up gardening as well. He dug this wildflower up by the roots. I'm not sure whether he had planned to transplant it elsewhere or bring to me as a gift. So I don't know whether he was reaping...or sowing.

He really misses playing with Rocky, but he has been willing to take walks alone with me, which has given me time to work with him. We always say, "side," when a car comes, and we move to the side of the road. Rocky and Sunny always waited for me to move to the side, and then they followed me, but Dusty now moves to the side of the road as soon as he sees or hears a car. Smart boy! Our boys still get to hang out together on the front deck, with Dusty in the "play yard" and Rocky loose on the deck.

It was a big week for Dusty. He turned five months old on Saturday and 22 weeks old on Sunday. He tips the scales at 15 lbs. Most of his baby teeth are gone, and pretty, white adult teeth are taking their place. Too bad the piranha fangs are the last to go. We go to the groomer this week. Maybe this month the long, straight puppy hair will go. [Sob!] They grow up so fast. Soon it will be time for reconstructive surgery on his nether regions. Unless we want to reap the ire of the neighbors with unaltered females.

My fiber studio needs a major overhaul. I have been putting it off until I can get the basic wardrobe finished for each doll. It will be nice to lounge in front of the fire in the Jøtul in my fiber studio! (As soon as Dusty is trustworthy enough to roam the house.) 

Common Threads meets this week. We didn't have a meeting of either group last week because it was a fifth Thursday.

What's on my needles: Finishing ballet practice outfit for Hannah. The “So-not-my-palette Cardigan” is still on hold while I work on doll clothes. Still waiting for the second sleeve.

What's on my Featherweight: More doll clothes.

What's on my wheel: Put away for now.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: No change since last week. No audiobook in action, still listening to practice music for the Park City Singers' Holiday Concert. Still reading Corinna: A Sweet & Clean Historical Romance by Lauren Royal. I'm still liking it.

What's in my wine glass: Frontera Vintage Red from Concha Y Toro.

What's my tip of the week: Fabric softener will make towels less absorbent. It's better to wash them in soft water if you want soft towels that absorb moisture.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals were harmed during the production of this blog post.