The Princess and the Pea

In August I wrote a post about some little dollys that I was making that would fit into an Altoid tin.  The pattern was called Princess and the Pea by Larissa Holland, and although I had made two sets of Princesses, I was just not very happy with the Princess.  I loved the bed and how the tins worked, but the wooden beads on the hands and feet bothered me.  A few weeks ago, Shiny Happy World released a 'Christmas Elf' pattern that dealt with the bead issue - but the face just didn't feel right.  What to do?  Why, take the good bits from both pattern and create a hybrid . . . . now I'm happy!

And here we are, 6 sets later - I love them!  I would have loved one of these when I was little.  I used to make my own toys (no need to shed a tear, I just had a vivid imagination and loved making things!)  I decided not to make the 'wardrobe and mirror' from the original pattern - 12 Altoid tins means an awful lot of mints!

Each dolly has a bed with four mattresses - one has the 'pea' on it, a pillowcase and a bedspread.

Here are a few more pics - just for kicks!

All the bedding fits inside a tin nicely!

This last photo reminds me of a scene from 'Gone with the Wind' where all the unmarried girls have to go upstairs and have a snooze before continuing with a daytime party.

As I have a bit of a pouch fetish, I thought that I would make these wide mouth pouches (a similar pattern can be found here on Noodlehead's blog), aaaand I'm done!  Phew, that was a marathon - it was fun, but making up SIX sets was a little tiring.

Unfortunately there were some decapitations going on with the 'Frozen' fabric - I bought a half yard a squeezed all six bags out of it - along with the drastic hair cuts!

Although I made the dollys and bed in between Christmas and New Year, I didn't finish the pouches until the New Year - so these serve to be my first makes of 2015.

How are your first makes coming along?!

Just Like Starting Over

Which also happens to be one of my favourite songs by John Lennon . . . . but in this case it relates to my sewing.  The title of this post could also have easily read 'Good News, Bad News, Good News', so let me explain!

The good news is - I have lost 30lbs in weight (woohoo!), the bad news is that this amount means that all my 'me made' clothes no longer fit - with the exception of a couple of skirts with elasticated waists that look rather neat still.  My gorgeous Sorbetto tops and cardigans are hanging off me.  In both cases the issue is my shoulders - which is interesting to note.  Oh, and because of my new sooper dooper bras, my bust point is about 1" - 1.5" higher.  I am quite the perky girl now!!  The final good news is that I can now plan a new wardrobe, using the knowledge that I have regarding what suits me/the colour combinations I like etc., so I plan on working on a small capsule wardrobe and expanding from there.  I think that I can eke out my clothes, including using some rather old RTW, to get me through the rest of summer, and my new wardrobe will feature Autumn/Winter clothing.  How exciting is that?!

I like the 6-piece Autumn Wardrobe on Artisan Square:

• 1 jacket or cardigan in a dark neutral that is great for you (black, navy, brown, charcoal...)
• 1 pair of great trousers in the same neutral
• 1 skirt in another neutral (olive, plum, grey, stone, tan...)
• 1 jacket or cardigan in the second neutral
• 1 top in an accent colour
• 1 top in either of the neutrals

As well as the four by four wardrobes on the Vivienne Files blog. I need to do some more planning and I can't wait to start!

In the meantime, I have made more socks:

More details on Ravelry.

A Fox Cowl:

This will be used to raise money for Galgos del Sol, a Spanish based charity that rescues galgos (Spanish greyhounds) once their owners have no further use for them.  They are often badly treated/injured/sick/abandoned etc.

And then I played around with a pattern called Princess and the Pea that uses old sweetie tins and scarps of fabric to make these gorgeous toys:

Did you see the tiny 'pea' glass bead on the bed on the third photo?  Too cute for words!

What have you been up to?  Are you easing into your Autumn sewing?