Black and White Quilt

You may remember that awhile back I posted a picture of the black and white quilt that I had been working on.  I put it up because I got a little frustrated with it and knew it was out of balance.  It was not wide enough so, I'm fixing that now.  I'm going to add an extra column which involves making 3 more squares with embroidery.

To embroidery the squares, I use the 360/200 loop with my machine, black sulky embroidery thread, sulky stabilizer and white embroidery bobbin thread.  I really love this set of patterns and I'm still impressed on how the machine just sews it up for you once it's all set up.  I plan to finish the 3 remaining embroidery squares today.

Quilt before column is added

Supplies for embroidery square

Machine set up for square

Fancy Nancy continued

I think I will call her completed now.  After my last posting, I finished the clothes.  I made a skirt underlining with tulle.  I just made a very long rectangle, folded it in half, basted it along the top and gathered it together at the waist.  For the skirt, I did another long triangle and did some decorative trims and finishes.  The pink trim along the bottom I bought a long time ago and I guess it was just waiting for this doll because it seemed to go just right.  I decided to use my remaining feather boa material for an actual boa around her arms.  Lastly, I connect flowers to her hands and tied some ribbon it it.  I also put one small ribbon in the hair.

Sewing the outer skirt

Doll front

Doll side

Doll back

Fancy Nancy doll continued

The hair and underwear are completed now.  I varied from the pattern on the clothes.  The pantaloons are made from white eyelet material.  I used the same pant pattern as used in the Annie doll from a few weeks ago.  It's simply a rectangle shape with a slit up the middle to separate the legs.  I decided to add a corset so, I made a long rectangle shape for that, used eyelets to tie it and some decorative ribbon across the top.  I'll be tackling the outer clothes next.  The pattern does not have shoes but, I'm debating on whether to add some.

Pantaloon pattern.  Cut it 5 1/2 inches by 5 1/2

Rectangle piece of fabric (doubled, sewn and flipped right side out).  Trim and eyelets added

Back of corset

Doll with hair and underwear 

Fancy Nancy Doll

I got the body together for the free doll pattern listed in the last post.  She is coming along well.  I have not really made many changes.  The only ones I did was to skip the paddle stick in the body.  In place of that, I made sure the body was stuffed firmed and the head sewn closely to the body.   Also, I ran out of freezer paper so, instead of buying more, I just copied the pattern, cut it out and traced directly on the fabric itself.  This works fine but, if you have the freezer paper, that is easier.

Lastly, I decided I wanted her legs crossed so, instead of sewing each leg to the side of the body, one is sewn more toward the front.  I simply crossed the legs and saw where they fell against the body and sewed it down.  I does not matter too much because her clothes will be sewn on permanently.

Here is what she looks like so far:

Pattern traced on doubled fabric (right sides together)

Seam sewn on pencil line first THEN cut (it's easier that way)

Legs crossed (note how the one leg is more toward the middle)

Gift card holder or Artist Trading Card Holder

Here is an easy gift card holder or Artist Trading Card Holder (ATC Card).  I'm using felt for this project.

Take a 9 by 3 piece of felt and round off the corners.  fold one end up to just above your gift card size (about 3 1/2 or 3 3/4 inches).  Starting at the bottom, sew about an 1/8 inch seam and continue the stitch across the top and along the second side.  Your done!

This is just a basic pattern but use your creative ideas to decorate it if you wish.  Prior to sewing it together, you could sew a line of decorative stitching or do some embroidery work on it.

I'm going to do a doll next.  I found a wonderful free pattern on line by doll artist Judith prior.  I'll be using this pattern if you want to sew along with me.  I'll show you what I'm doing and provide any tips or notes of anything I change on the pattern.  With doll making, it's always fun to make it your own and change things to suit you.  Here's the link for the pattern:

http://www.judithprior.com/fancynancy.pdf

Tomorrow, I should have the basic body together to show you

Folded Christmas tree ornament

Here is an ornament that works perfect for Christmas fabric scraps

It is 2 circles of fabric (no batting) sewn right sides together and then turned.  I got this idea off youtube and the guy who posted it does a great job of taking you step by step through the process.  My ornament has an additional embellishment though with a string of buttons and beads plus a little fiber for a nice hanging dazzle to the ornament.

Here is the link to the instructional video:

Prima dolls Rubber stamps

I have seen Prima doll rubber stamps a few times and really thought they were cute.  They came to my attention again when I saw a swap come up on Swap Bot.  This one was for a Halloween tag made with this particular line of stamps.  Since I'm obsessed this year with Halloween stuff, I decided to jump in and try my hand at it.  There are many videos on youtube about Prima doll stamps and also some darling things on Pinterest.  I've seen great scrapbook pages and tags made out of these.  I'm doing the tags for now and here is what I came up with

These are so much fun to make so, if you see any give this a try.  I would love to see what anyone comes up with so, let me know if you try these.  There is a complete line including rubber stamp clothes.  I also have seen an elf version.  I may not be able to resist that one.