Back to the Doll Clothes Factory!

I finally have my energy back and was able to get back to working on the doll clothes for the Wisconsin grandkids. I finished the pajamas I had made for Zachary's Paul. The sleeves were too long, even rolled up, so I took off the cuffs and hemmed the sleeves. Then all I needed to do was add buttons. I used the pants from this pattern, Pippa's Bedtime. The top came from my Checkered Shirt Pattern for Happy Kidz, but printed at 80%. I had to enlarge the seam allowances back to 1/4", of course, because 80% of 1/4" isn't nearly big enough for me. I left off the collar, just to simplify it.

Then I made a shirt and trousers for paul. As for the pajama top, I used the Checkered Shirt pattern again, but with the collar this time. The trousers are from the Liberty Jane Boot Cut Jeans pattern with the substitution of my special back piece, which makes it work for Happy Kidz. Again, to make it fit Little Kidz Pippa and Paul, I had to print the pattern at 80% and then enlarge the seam allowances back to 1/4". 

Here's my special back piece, which I use in place of the original pattern's back. (I also don't put the pockets on, but you certainly could. I would make them a little smaller, though.) I print this at 100% for Happy Kidz, then check to make sure the 1" box is accurate.

I need to make a new pattern piece for the Little Kidz, because this one needs editing to work for them.

In the interest of saving time, I purchased some T-shirts from a shop on Etsy. One will go to Zachary's Paul. These are nicer than I could make, because they were made using a serger.

This will give you an idea of how it will look on Paul.

Pippa is holding up the front of the T-shirt, so you can see the faux fly on the pants.

Here's a look at the front pockets. They are surprisingly easy to make.

Please excuse Pippa's naked top. She's modeling Paul's swim trunks. I used a cotton batik fabric and the pajama pants pattern (see above), but cut off.

I also made two pairs of leggings for Daphne's doll.

I hope to get Daphne's doll out, wash her hair and get her to model her new outfits. I do have to get the whole thing mailed off this week, though.

I cast on the Pippa's Wonderland Turtle for Paul. It knits up very quickly.

I have some pieces I had finished already, extra, which I'll include for the new dolls. I have the pajamas for Daphne's new doll cut out and ready to sew, so you will see that next week. I also expect a special surprise this week.

During the week, I made enchilada casserole and Spanish rice, which I served with refried beans. So we don't have to eat the same thing for the next four days, I made TV dinners. I have the makings for lasagne, and plan to do the same thing with the leftovers.

The Facebook page for The Doll's Storybook has been becoming more and more annoying. Somehow it got set up as a business, which it isn't. Facebook keeps using it as the default, making it necessary for me to log out in order to get to my own personal page.

If I go there to answer a comment, I can't get back to answering the comments on my personal account. It's an incredible waste of time, except that it has been a place for me to post links to the stories. It really activates my ADD! So...I've decided to delete the account. Since many people who are not my personal friends on Facebook follow the account, I'm giving them two weeks to find and friend me. I will also provide links to the Instagram and Pinterest accounts. Several people have suggested making a group page instead, which I could do. I just don't want to get involved in another rabbit hole. We'll see. Maybe someone will volunteer to help moderate.

In the meantime, I want to get started on the next book, and of course, there are the weekly stories to write and photograph.

Speaking of my books, If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for "Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart" in Children's. Every click on the page for the book makes it more likely they will keep a good supply in their warehouse and stores. If you are outside the US, you may have a separate website for these retailers. If you have a copy of our first book, Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, it would help if you left an honest review on the websites, especially if you bought from them.

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Still the Hinterland pullover, with a few rows finished this week. No progress on the emPower Kerchief, but now I'm working on the Turtleneck for Paul, too. Everything is some shade of very dark blue!

What's on my loom: Still the trailer rugs, no progress this week, but the loom looks pretty in its corner by the windows.

What's on my sewing machine: Doll clothes, now the pajamas for Daphne's doll.

What's in my hoop: Still the whole cloth quilt, no progress.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Disappointment. Pippa wonders why other dolls don't just give up when they fail at something. She learns about the value of failure and how it adds to your success...if you don't give up.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to The Woman Who Smashed Codes by Jason Fagone on the Audible app. 

What's in my wine glass: Gozar! Red Berryessa Gap, Yolo County, California. Nice. More tangy than bitter, but still very pleasant.

What's my tip of the week: Charlie bought me some cooking spray at Costco, and, of course, it comes in spray cans the size of wine bottles. Not having the necessary strength in my thumb to hold onto the slick can and still spray while using my other hand to hold the pan vertical to receive the spray, I decided to add some rubberized shelf liner to give me a good grip on the can. (I use this stuff to help me open jars, too.) Since I was going to need it every time, I just put a couple of rubber bands around the can to hold the shelf liner on, so it's always ready.

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with few changes. Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is now available for preorder from booksellers world wide. The link for Book Baby is here. The three stories are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is also available. The three stories in the first book are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less. 

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 or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

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Performances

Not much crafting happened this week, although I did knit a few rows on my pullover, but it doesn't look much different. Here's what I did instead.

Monday I spent most of the day writing Friday's story. (See The Doll's Storybook, below.) I also fed my sourdough starter and baked some bread, sour rye with caraway seeds. You can see from the two jars of recently fed starter, they are still performing well.

Tuesday we went to get our second booster shots, since we were both recovered enough from the flu we had, and we were about already three months overdue, because our initial shots had been so early. We were able to walk to the recreation center, where the clinic was taking place. (It was just as fast as taking the car, because we could get to it on the trail.) We had to wait in line for about 45 minutes to get our shots.

After the required 15-minute waiting period to make sure we weren't going to have a problem with the vaccine, we walked home. Neither one of us had any side effects other than a sore arm. Mine lasted barely 24 hours and wasn't all that sore. I wondered if it was because we still had some immunity from the previous shots.

Shortly after we got home, we had our biweekly online meeting with fans of Madroña Vineyards and the owners. Needless to say, a lot of wine was drunk.

Wednesday I took the photos for the story, all except for the ones where Mariah was wearing her judges robes, which I took the next day. That night, we had choir practice with a lot to prepare for the big weekend.

Thursday, Dusty went to the groomer. The appointment didn't start until 3:00 PM, so I knew he wouldn't be ready until about 6:00, so I arranged to have a ride to church, so DH would have the car to pick Dusty up. (Our call time was 6:00 PM.) Our anthem is here, at 52.11, if you want to listen. (I'm hiding behind the flowers on the altar the whole time. 😆 You can admire the beautiful church, though.)

We didn't sing for Good Friday, but Saturday night we had the Great Easter Vigil, which is a very long service to usher in Easter. To listen to our anthem from the Easter Vigil, go to 1:43 here. (You can see me this time. I'm the little one in the front row.)

We weren't done. We still had two services Easter morning.

Daphne had a performance Wednesday. Here she is with a friend, one of her fellow dancers.

There were some good comments on the performance.

Of course, Zachary is dancing too. I think this photo was from his last competition. I think he looks great! (He's the one on the left.)

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for "Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart" in Children's. Every click on the page for the book makes it more likely they will keep a good supply in their warehouse and stores. If you are outside the US, you may have a separate website for these retailers. If you have a copy of our first book, Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, it would help if you left an honest review on the websites, especially if you bought from them.

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Still the emPower Kerchief and the Hinterland Pullover, not much progress.

What's on my loom: No progress this week.

What's on my sewing machine: Doll clothes. No actual sewing, but the pattern pieces for several items are set up.

What's in my hoop: No progress.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: In Who's the Boss? Mariah and the boys discuss who is more important: a president or a prime minister. Mariah has other ideas. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to The Woman Who Smashed Codes by Jason Fagone on the Audible app. 

What's in my wine glass: Madroña's El Tinto, a red table wine, one of their basic selections, which varies from year to year, but a favorite each year.

What's my tip of the week: I've been cutting parchment-paper circles for pizza, which we have nearly once a week. Then it occurred to me that someone might actually make these. Well, they do. I found them in the size I need here. 

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with few changes. Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is now available for preorder from booksellers world wide. The link for Book Baby is here. The three stories are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is also available. The three stories in the first book are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less. 

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 or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

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Taking It Easy

I ran out of yarn in the middle of the concert on Sunday, but more on that later. After the concert was over, I set up my ball winder and swift on the loom and wound another ball.

I spent another week of mostly sleeping and only doing the basic necessities. By Thursday, though, I finally felt like knitting again. The hard part was separating the sleeves from the body, and that was only difficult because I had to concentrate and count, two things I wasn't doing well ever since coming down with the flu two weeks ago. As I write this, I'm still coughing, but more energetic than I have been for a while, and we're hoping to get our booster shots on Tuesday. Charlie is about two days behind me on the symptoms, so we'll see whether he feels like going or not.

So there I was, Thursday evening, putting the sleeve stitches on waste yarn. Now it's just straight K, K, K, all the way down to the waist. Here's the link to my project page on Ravelry, if you want more details.

I managed to make some chili and some bread on Friday. It was a good thing I felt up to it, because we were out of cooked food and TV dinners. I baked a little loaf of Dutch oven bread, but I didn't think to get a photo until this was all that was left.

Friday was Zachary's birthday. I think his favorite present was his iPod. I call it a training phone. He can't make phone calls with it or surf the internet, but he can text his parents if he's home alone and needs something. He can also access The Doll's Storybook directly with a special link.

He was happy to get some Legos and some other fun things. He helped bake the cake, chocolate on chocolate. (He's a little intimidated by the double-digit age, though, but he'll get used to it. He will have a double-digit birthday for a long time.)

We got him a Götz Little Kidz Paul doll. Paul is the same size as Pippa in my stories. He actually comes as a boy.

Zachary was very excited to get him, and he and his sister have already played with their dolls together quite a bit.

It's nice to have a birthday on a Friday, so he could play with all his new things all weekend. 

Sunday we had planned on going to the concert series we've been attending. We didn't really feel like going, but didn't want to miss it. Fortunately, it was broadcast, so we were able to watch it with the pups. They included "Melody No. 2" by the Ukrainian composer Miroslav Skorik, which is to Ukraine what our "America the Beautiful" is, almost a second national anthem.

Speaking of Ukraine, If anyone is in the Portland, Oregon, area, you might be interested in this benefit, Voices for Ukraine. The price of the tickets includes the $20 cost of the concert, and the rest of the price of the ticket goes to Mercy Corps. 

I'm really, really, hoping to be back to normal by next week!

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for "Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart" in Children's. Every click on the page for the book makes it more likely they will keep a good supply in their warehouse and stores. If you are outside the US, you may have a separate website for these retailers. If you have a copy of our first book, Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, it would help if you left an honest review on the websites, especially if you bought from them.

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Still the Hinterland pullover and the emPower Kerchief.

What's on my loom: No change.

What's on my sewing machine: Back to doll clothes for birthdays.

What's in my hoop: No change.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: "Fashion Show." I didn't feel up to taking a lot of action shots this week, so I used the photos from many of my free patterns and instructions and only had to take photos of Veronika and Mandy introducing the outfits.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Listening to The Woman Who Smashed Codes by Jason Fagone on the Audible app. 

What's in my wine glass: Ribera Del Duero Teófilo Reyes Tempranillo. Very nice. I could hardly resist an extra glass.

What's my tip of the week: Before you leave to go shopping for food, check your medicine cabinet for whatever cold supplies you need when you're sick, like tissues, cough medicine and decongestant. You won't want to have to go out for it once you get sick.

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with few changes. Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is now available for preorder from booksellers world wide. The link for Book Baby is here. The three stories are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is also available. The three stories in the first book are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less. 

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 or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

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Down for the Count

I wish I could say I got lots of things done this week, but I would be making it up, so here's the truth. I knit several rounds on my Hinterland pullover. Now I'm, done with the colorwork, so it should go fast, once I have the energy to knit again.

To show how sick I felt, for most of the week I didn't feel like knitting. Maybe it was actually the/a flu bug, which can happen, even if you have had the flu vaccine, since they can only predict the most likely viruses, and those buggers replicate and evolve so quickly.

There were the usual chores, like feeding the sourdough starter and making the bread.

I got the laundry done, too, with some help from the dolls. (The story this week was about how they did the laundry for me, so I was more or less killing two birds with one stone, which is an awful cliché.)

I used two of our Covid tests, first on Monday and then again on Thursday. Both times, the test was negative. (The line shows that it was a valid test. If it were Covid, there would be a second line next to the "T".)

I'm glad we had the tests handy, for peace of mind. However, in spite of wearing a mask most of the time around DH, I still managed to give it to him, or maybe he caught it before I knew I was getting sick.

I attended choir via Zoom, although I was still sick on Sunday and didn't get to go. It was a special event, with some of the Mastersingers joining the choir, so they had plenty of help. I watched the service on YouTube. It was lovely. I was sorry to have to miss it.

The Wisconsin grands were off at another dance competition. Zachary's duet took 2nd place.

Daphne participated in a number of different kinds of dances. 

Both kids really enjoy it, and it's good for them.

Homework is good for Johan, too, but he doesn't seem to enjoy it so much. Here he is, grumbling about having to do it.

Soren was off with Dad at the playground.

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for "Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart" in Children's. Every click on the page for the book makes it more likely they will keep a good supply in their warehouse and stores. If you are outside the US, you may have a separate website for these retailers. If you have a copy of our first book, Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, it would help if you left an honest review on the websites, especially if you bought from them.

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Still the Hinterland pullover and the emPower Kerchief.

What's on my loom: No change.

What's on my sewing machine: Need to sew the buttons and Velcro on Paul's PJs. Paul arrived safely in Wisconsin, so he's there in plenty of time for Zachary's birthday.

What's in my hoop: No change.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Dirty Laundry. Mariah and Charlotte teach Pippa how to sort the laundry and do the wash.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Didn't get very far with The Woman Who Smashed Codes by Jason Fagone on the Audible app. 

What's in my wine glass: Perímetro Tempranillo, Spain, 2010. Not bad.

What's my tip of the week: Those "English" cucumbers that come wrapped in plastic are really tasty, and convenient, since you don't have to peel or score them to avoid that bitter taste. They hold up better after opening the plastic if you remove the plastic entirely and roll them up in a paper towel. they can be stored in a plastic bag or kept in a container. The paper towel reduces the moisture around the cucumber, keeping it fresh longer.

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with few changes. Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is now available for preorder from booksellers world wide. The link for Book Baby is here. The three stories are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is also available. The three stories in the first book are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less. 

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 or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

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