puys + dolls

who could resist that title? not me, apparently, even if I did actually use red lentils for these spindly little fellas. they were made in the nick of time (read: started the night before the party, finished a half hour before we were meant to be there) for ava's double-birthday galpals sofia and amelie.

I've never made a doll before but I knew it was something I could do with things I already had on hand: spare fabric bits, buttons, embroidery thread and something to stuff them with. you could use little tiny brown beans (uncooked, natch) but since I don't eat beans as a general rule and didn't have any dry ones in the house, I relied upon the humble lentil for stuffing. also, I had a kids toy badge-making machine from boots I'd been wanting to try out for something.

in the beginning, I was aiming to make one of them look vaguely catlike and the other somewhat rabbit-like. but before then, way back when I pondered making these dolls for somebody one day, I thought they'd be girl cats wearing '60s dresses and patent boots, and each would be gripping a fab bag. and they'd have good boufy bobbed hair. and in addition to their dolls the birthday girls would each get a sixties a-line dress and bag of their own that matched their doll's outfit! that would've been pretty cool! alas, it was a bit ambitious to do all that in a night, so they ended up wearing what they were born in - green velvet and barkcloth for the cat, tapestry for the rabbit.

the first thing I did was cut a pattern out of brown kraft paper - I used the same general outline for both dolls and the same cutout for both front and back (and just changed the ears when I did the cutting). these dolls are floppy two-piece beanbag affairs and I didn't bother with putting in seams to give them curves or let their legs sit out neatly at 90-degree angles. I didn't give them butts to sit on or protruding noses, but all that can be done if you use darts, curved edges on the back panel that don't exactly match the front, or a seam down the middle front. I may experiment with that in the future.

it's easiest if you sew the buttons on for eyes and nose and do any facial stitching before you sew the front and back together. stitch the two sides together inside-out, leaving a half-inch seam which should then be cut with pinking shears or overlocked. I did an overlock stitch to give the seams a bit of extra strength. don't forget to cut a little nip in along the curves and cut the fabric very close if you have corners, so it doesn't bunch along the curves when you turn it right side out. also, don't forget to leave about a three-inch opening so you have a way to turn it right side out again and have a place to put the stuffing in.

this is the step I'll do differently next time - I left the opening in the side of the dolls. but when it came time to fill the dolls up with lentils, every time I turned the doll to stuff a limb, the lentils would slide right out of the limb I'd just done. it took forever! next time I will leave the opening in the head, pour the lentils in the top and let gravity be my friend. also, next time I will make the pattern for the arms and legs a bit wider, I didn't expect their limbs to come out so skinny.

the last step was to bust out the badgemaker and voila, finished wabbity and feline dolls ahoy!

say it with cake

need a homefashioned gift on the quick that's every bit as fab to make as to receive? I am here to recommend mix-in-a-jar for your giftgiving needs. if you're a baking sort, you'll have everything on hand already. if not, all the ingredients are easy and inexpensive to score. you can score big mason or jam jars at ikea, from ebay, from your local five and dime store, hardware store, haus of catering supplies or even freecycle, where I scored jam jars on one occasion (and later properly met the lovely woman I got them from again when she was sitting in the cafe with a good friend of mine, turns out they were in the same NCT group together, is it a small world or what?).

so with the cake-in-a-jar it's not only about speed but presentation. you basically just layer all the dry ingredients in the jar, pick a piece of fabric or ace paper to wrap around and tie to the top, add an instruction tag and decorate the jar. I used a 1953 house and garden mag for these.

I chose recipes that were easy but also fit the folks getting the gift - the first was for a housewarming where vegans would be snarfing the goods, so I went for the tried-and-true wacky cake variation I always make - 3 cups flour, 2/3 cup dutch cocoa, 2 cups sugar, 2 tsp baking soda layered in the jar, filled to the top with vegan dark choc chips. for the second couple I changed the choc chips to dairy and as the jar was a bit taller I also included a stack of cupcake papers wrapped in plastic inside. this recipe is handy because it uses one pan and there aren't a whole bunch of extra steps, I always hope this means people will use the mix one day and then keep the jar for other stuff.

make sure you then attach a tag listing what wet ingredients are needed and how long/at what temp to cook everything, and robert is your cake-inhaling uncle. recipes that call for choc chips or nuts are good to use because you can adjust on the fly for the size of the jar, nobody will notice if there are a few more or less of these. bear in mind that if your recipe calls for chocolate chips, it's thoughtful to go that extra mile and include extra chips for the recipient to snack upon as they wield spoon - do unto others and all that.

craft night 2 - electric machine boogaloo

we had us another craft night, wahoo! I started making a pillow for maria's birthday, got the flowers all cut out but didn't get the case finished, and by now it's late, oops. the lateness of a gift from me is more my signature than the handstamped craft ho label. but at least it's started, and there's nada like having a craft night to get a fire under my butt to keep on keeping on with the crafting.

this time there was a heap of drawing + painting going on, also some stitchery of buttons on jacket, drawstrings on bags, zippers on pouches. we had bookmaking - not of the betting variety but of the handsome-babe-scrapbooking and bookbinding-from-scratch variety. jenn's 'practice' book looked better than any of the for-real books that I've made, she's got a total knack for it. there was knitting and making fancy felt fleurs for future fashion frippery (aka FFFFFF).

and there were savory pies. and cupcakes - not specifically a craft, but handywork of a sort, and crafters need fuel! I'm hoping to host these nights on a monthly basis from now on.

blood, sweat and lipstick

another birthday, another pillow, and a big one this time! I spent ages poring over the fabric trying to decide which colours were best suited for vicky's environs, the fabric is a long strip of coloured semicircles facing each other in an asymmetrical path along the bolt.

with the memory of bleeding on christina's pillow not yet hazy, I pushed the sewing accident envelope even further this time - I had finished sewing the two sides together, turned the case inside-out, stuffed the pillow form inside and just then the girls unleashed a startling wail as if being murdalised, I looked up quickly and boom, there was a long smear of red lipstick along the edge on the beige corner! I scrubbed at it but it wouldn't come out. but then I realised the case was a bit loose anyway, so I took out the innard, turned the case inside-out again and brought the seam in all the way around by about an inch. voila, lipstick-be-hidden! and there will always be a little bit of mac dubonnet in her seams, the artiste's signature.

I spent a lot of time staring at the fabric at first, wondering which grouping of colours to use. but it turned out okay and fit right in with their other pillows and their ace paul catherall prints!