Spoonflower Doll Giveaway

For those of you unfamiliar with Spoonflower, you really should check it out. In a nutshell they print on fabric.

They can print your designs on fabric. Or you can buy others designs on fabric. and there are now so many types of fabric that they print on. Cottons, knits, linens, canvas, satin, faux suede.

I've had a number of things printed there, including Scrappy Phoebe. But I've also been eyeing other people's dolls on Spoonflower. 

I especially love the dolls of Stacy Iest Hsu, a San Francisco based textile designer, whose work includes dolls and textiles on Spoonflower and at Moda fabrics. She also designs for Janie and Jack, GapKids, Target, and Tiny Prints. She recently did this Little Red Riding Hood line for Moda, which includes a doll, clothes and a wolf.

I fell in love with a set of dolls she designed on Spoonflower that are perfect for teaching a child to sew. They are just two pieces, many with a simple pet that is even easier to sew. 

All of them are adorable.

The Spoonflower Doll Giveaway

I will be giving away three fat quarters, each with the unmade doll and kitten on them, ready to be sewn and stuffed. 

How to enter?

Comment on this blog post, but be sure I have your email. The comment form has a place for you to fill out your email, but if you want to be sure include your email in the actual comment. I have set comments to be moderated/approved due to recent spam, so if you don't see your comment up there, it is for one of two reasons. either it didn't have an email, or it is awaiting approval. If it isn't up there after a few days, you can contact  me with the contact form.

Giveaway ends March 17, 2016. I will pick the three with a random number generator

I'm the featured shop on Etsy!

I'm not a selfie taker. I don't like being in pictures, I'm more about taking pictures of my kids and my work. But I could not pass up the opportunity when Etsy asked me last November to be their Featured Shop.

The preparation, photoshoot with Cynthia August, who is fabulous, and I mean fabulous, and the interview were all fun and helped me see my business in new ways.

Here's my story on the Esty site:

Featured Shop: Phoebe&Egg

The Phoebe&Egg Studio, photo by Cynthia August

Behind the scenes at Phoebe&Egg, photo by Cynthia August

The Phoebe&Egg Studio, photo by Cynthia August

Two sets of twins

Twins. They are fun, adorable, sometimes exhausting, and in most cultures considered lucky. A woman's chance of having twins is less than four percent.

So when they come into the world, there is a bit more fanfare and celebration.

And if you love to sew little girl clothes, dolls and doll clothes, twin great granddaughters are certainly a reason to celebrate.

Vera Catlett is mother to two daughters, and she now has six grandchildren and nine great grandchildren. The most recent additions to her extended family are twin baby girls, Eden and Eliah.  They arrived on August 5, weighing five and a half pounds and required a two and a half week hospital stay. Two months later, they are over eight pounds, thriving, and the whole extended family is enjoying them.

Eden and Eliah, relaxing together

Especially Vera, who lives two miles away. Not only will she enjoy spending time with Eden and Eliah, but she has already started sewing for them.  Vera's mother taught her to sew when she was a teenager, Vera then started sewing clothes for herself. Since then she has continued to make clothes and toys for her growing family. 

Below is one of Vera's designs modeled by a twin. However, she will soon be sewing on an even smaller scale, she purchased twin Baby Eggs for the twins and will be sewing clothes for both sets of twins, dolls and great granddaughters.

One of the twinslooking pretty at five weeks wearing an outfit made by Vera and held by their Mom, Sarah.

Doll Dressmaking Series: A Retro Collar

Doll clothes are often retro. Or classic. Or both. I thought a longer sharper collar is both retro and classic. It's also simple to sew. The pattern pieces will be in my next newlsetter.

I am basically following the instructions for my beginner's sleeve dress, which are here. But I'm including complete instructions here too.

From your main fabric cut:

1. Dress front and back
2. Sleeves

From the lining fabric (I used cotton lawn which is lighter in weight):

1. Just the front and back

And then cut the collar fabric cut 4 collar pieces.

Sew shoulder seams of dress together.

Sew shoulder seams of the lining pieces together.

Sew collar pieces together. Clip corners and edges of collars. 

Turon collar pieces right side out and push out corners with a point turner or blunt knitting needle. I use a Dritz Point turner,

Press.

Attach the two collar pieces to the dress fabric neckline making sure they are centered. I baste the centers on first. As shown here. 

Stitch lining to main dress fabric, by starting at the bottom of the back opening, go up to the neckline, around the neckline and back down the back opening. When going around the neckline make sure you are stitching through the lining, the dress fabric AND the collar pieces.

Sew dress fabric to lining at each armhole. This is to make sure they stay together when you attach the sleeves.

Attach sleeves. See my easy sleeve tutorial if you are unsure how. These sleeves do not need gathering or easing.

1. Hem sleeves

2. Pin or clip sleevces to armhole edge. If you are feeling confident you can just sew and adjust while you are sewing.

3. Turn over and check that it looks okay.

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Sew side seams and hem.

I'd love the pattern pieces! Sign up for my newlsetter and receive the base pattern set and keep up with all future pieces. This will be in the upcoming issue.

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A New Sewing Book Giveaway

Wool felt is one of my favorite fabrics to work with. It is soft, yet crisp. Comes in many beautiful colors and it isn't hard to find. 

So a few years back when the book "Big, Little Felt Universe" by Jeannette Lim came out I bought it for my 10 year old. It had about 50 projects, all everyday items made with felt. A felt lap top, a little felt lipstick. A felt campfire complete with s'mores. All things she made that first year and all things that adorned her room... until this past year when she was officially a teenager.

The felt campfire set and lipstick are gone. However the book and her felt scraps are here to stay. This past week, we entered a new felt phase. Felt veggies (all of the photos here were made by my 14 year old).

This book is perfect for the child that sews. The projects, ability and age range are broad. The directions are great. And as we head into the second month of summer vacation, who doesn't want a project your child can happily work on mostly on their own.

The book recommends using a felt wool/ acrylic blend. This type of felt can be found easily on Etsy and in fabric stores.

I am giving away one copy of "Big, Little Felt Universe" by Jeannette Lim.

Here are the rules of the giveaway:

1. Leave a comment on this post. You must fill out your email in the comment form or in the comment. Without an email, you are not entered..

2. I will select a winner using a random number site in two weeks.

3. If the selected winner does not respond in five days, I will reselect.

4. I will not pay postage to send the book outside of the lower 48 states. So sorry. 

Deborah Fisher: A Doll Maker with Many Missions

There are a lot of doll makers I follow and within that group there are a lot of doll-makers who I am impressed by.

And then there are the few that completely amaze me.

Deborah Fisher is in that amazing category.

These two lovelies were the winners of the details category in the SewMamaSew Spectacular Softies contest.. I love everything about them! And not just because the boy doll resembles my husband.

Doll making can be about so much more than just making the dolls.

First, dolls can bring a sense of comfort to those in need. Doll-making can be about the craft of sewing and creating, or teaching that craft. And doll making can be about using those skills to create employment or a business.

Deborah does all of these things. She is a doll-maker who has taken the craft to a whole new level.

Deborah uses sewing, specifically dolls and quilts to both comfort and empower.

Where do I start?

She is the co-founder and director of Bright Hopes Collaborative Quilt Project. Bright Hopes is a non-profit organization that  gives quilts to those without the comfort of a permanent home, such as children in foster homes and homeless families.

They also offer on-site quilting workshops for people living in shelters and group homes.

Deborah did not know how to quilt when she started the collaborative with her mother (who did know how to quilt). Now she can often be found teaching quilting on site.

Although Deborah learned quilting as an adult, she has been sewing since she was a child. She loved to sew dolls.

"I started sewing dolls when I found a Loretta Daum Byrne pattern in a magazine (probably Needlecraft for Today or something like that). I would make the same doll body over and over and make each one a different costume.

"I don't know why it never occurred to me to make one doll with a whole wardrobe of costumes. But it did make for quite a collection of dolls as you can see in the photo below.

"There is an Eskimo in the top left, a bride in the top right corner, Artemis and Aphrodite on the bottom shelf, etc. I never made faces on any of them because I didn't have confidence in my ability to do it right.

Deborah has more than conquered doll faces. Recently two of her dolls won in the details category the SewMamSew Spectacular Softie contest (photo at the top of this post). And the details are amazing—I am smitten with the shoes and hair.

Deborah sewing  Sewing Smiles Dolls

Deborah started a second collaborative, Bo Twal. Bo Twal brings handmade dolls to children internationally. Bo Twal pays women in the community to sew dolls from the Sewing Smiles doll pattern and the dolls are distributed to children in the community. She raises funds for this through the sale of her doll and bunny patterns.  Bo Twal is currently working with women in Haiti and soon Indonesia.

Lastly, Deborah is the author of the book Sew Fun: 20 Projects for the Whole Family. The projects are all very creative and designed to be enjoyed by children. With each pattern there are suggestions on how children can help with the sewing.  

There are two adorable doll patterns in the book, along with many softies and other clever and fun sewing projects. And stay tuned, there just might be a "Sew Fun" book giveaway

Doll Dressmaking Series: A Simple Trick

There are a lot of easy ways to change up a doll dress. This trick can be used in a number of sewing situations, but I'll start with showing you how on the reversible dress. After you see how easy it is, you may want to try it with sleeves or a collar.

You will see this is an excellent way to use scraps of fabric.

Start with two pieces of fabric that you like together.

Sew the two pieces length wise. Your goal is to create a piece of fabric large enough to cut the outside of the reversible dress pattern from.

Once you've sen them together, you may want to add trim, but you don't have to.

Sew trim along the seam you just created.

Then lay your pattern out on your piece of fabric and cut.

Next cut a lining and proceed to make the reversible dress. As I mentioned earlier this can be done with sleeves or a collar too. 

Five Things to Think About When Teaching your Child to Sew by hand, A Guest Post

One night scrolling through Instagram, I noticed the cute projects that Trixi Symonds uses to teach children to sew. I had spent the week teaching two girls to sew on the machine and had struggled with the hand sewing aspect. This was her specialty. So, I reached out to Trixi, who blogs at Colouredbuttons.com.  Both her blog and her book "Sew Together, Grow Together" have great hand sewing projects for kids.

We thought a collaborative post would be a great way to bring our different skills together. Today is the first in a series. On her blog I discuss five things to think about before letting a child sew on the machine. 

And Trixi has written five things to think about when teaching a child to hand sew:

My youngest daughter’s name is Yiscah. She first started sewing when she was  three. I vividly remember how she used to peek into the room whenever I was teaching a class so she could watch the older girls sew. After every class she’d ask me why she couldn’t join in. Being the wise parent, I told her that she was too little just yet but she always insisted she wasn’t. One day I decided to let her sew something simple and to my surprise, she did a pretty good job… and she altered forever my ideas about when a child can begin to start sewing. 

I still find people who believe, as I once did, that children have to be a bit older before they start sewing. Not true. So here are some tips to help you maximize enjoyment and minimize problems when your child begins sewing at a young age.

1. Getting Them Excited

There are lots of ways to get your child excited about sewing. Showing them a book of projects and letting them choose what they wish to make is always a good idea … as is letting them choose their fabrics and the colors of their embroidery floss. The basic rule here is simple: the more they do by themselves, the more they’ll enjoy it. 

Even if they can’t manage the sewing on a project they’ve chosen, just watching Mum involves them more deeply than we might suspect and is a sure way to ignite their desire to sew something all by themselves. 

          Museum of Contemporary Art Workshop 2014

2. Using good quality materials 
Good materials are essential for a good experience. Sewing supplies are not expensive, so make sure you choose good quality felts, fabrics and embroidery floss. 

Acrylic felts are the least expensive but they can feel a bit hard and scratchy to 
sew with. I personally love using wool blend felts as they’re soft, easy to sew with 
and reasonably priced. Also, instead of using sewing cotton, I prefer to use embroidery floss, and I recommend using a brand like DMC or Anchor as cheaper products tend to break.

Use an embroidery needle with a large eye that makes it easy to thread. Make sure your needle isn’t blunt. Sewing with a blunt needle can be difficult and frustrating. And it’s a good idea to first sew a few stitches yourself in order to check that everything works as it should.

Museum of Contemporary Art Workshop 2014

3. Stressing safety 
Explain to your child that scissors and needles are sharp and can be dangerous if  not used sensibly. In classes I stress that needles have to be put back in containers and we always do a floor search to check for needles that may have dropped. Scissors are always closed and put point down in a jar after sewing. 

It doesn’t really matter what safety behaviors you decide on, what matters is that your child sees that you treat these things with caution and knows that this is what you must do when you sew. I’ve found that when children really want to do something that requires responsibility, they have no difficulty behaving as they 
should.

 Museum of Contemporary Art Workshop 2014

4. Accepting that wonky is ok 
Young children begin to sew with large, wonky stitches and their sewing lines are often crooked. With a little practice, however, their stitches rapidly improve. Don’t do the  work for them. Let them sew their own stitches and they will be proud of what they have accomplished. 

Sometimes young children’s work becomes messy simply because they forget to look at 
what they are doing. A gentle reminder to look at their work while sewing can bring 
about a miraculous improvement. Hand sewing doesn’t require excessive concentration and the modest demands it does make will actually help to improve your child’s ability to concentrate.

           Museum of Contemporary Art Workshop 2014

 Museum of Contemporary Art Workshop 2014

5. Making the projects your own 
There’s nothing wrong with copying a project exactly as it’s given but this never really 
compares with the feeling you get when you make a project your own. So don’t be afraid 
to adapt things, to change them, and to make them to suit your own and your child’s 
interests and wishes. 

You can also drop in to Mollymoo Crafts where Michelle has adapted Baby in a Pouch. The original project is small enough to fit into the palm of a child’s hand but Michelle and her daughter wanted something that could be hugged, so they made the baby and her pouch much larger giving the project a very different feel.

Museum of Contemporary Art Workshop 2014

Doll Dressmaking Series: Where to find cute trim

I love trim. As you can see I have a bit. Before I get into choosing and sewing on various trims, I thought I'd share some of my favorite places to buy trim. The photo below are the trims I tend to use most often for doll clothing.

Next in this series, a series about sewing on various dolls trims.

Where to find cute trim for doll clothing

When shopping for ribbon, remember often one yard will cover trimming three doll dresses.

Velvet Ribbon comes in all sorts of widths. 

• MJ Trim has the largest variety of widths and colors, but not the cheapest. You must buy a minimum of five yards.
• JKM Ribbon sells spools of ten yards of 3/8" and 5/8" the two best widths for doll clothes for roughly five dollars and has a sufficient selection. 
• Create for Less has 1/2" width spools for $3.39, but a spool is only 3 yards. 
• Farmhouse Fabrics has an amazing selection, but the ribbon starts at $145 a yard. If you are into quality classic sewing materials, you can lose yourself on this site.

Rick Rack, posted about this awhile back but here are the sources again.

Wright's Rick Rack (polyester) sold in the little cellophane cover packets is available many places online. It comes in over 20 colors. You can order Wright's here:

• JKM Trims and Ribbons
• Joanne's

Cotton Rick Rack can be found at:

• Farmhouse Fabrics
• Harts
• Elegant Stitches

Rolls of Rick Rack (polyester)

• Create for Less carries a cool brand called Cheep Trims in addition to having Wrights and lots of other cool stuff.

Crochet edging, sometimes called Cluny

• Farmhouse Fabrics, wide range, quality and there more expensive, but sometimes sell bags of assorted edging cheaply in their barn closeouts.
• Debs Lace and Trims: Lots of crochet edging, very inexpensive. have a whole cluny section.
• Ebay: amazing selection and prices for white crochet trim, which is my favorite. 

Jacquard Ribbon:

This is fairly easy to find, but what is hard to find is the narrower widths of doll clothing. You can play with scale, which can be cute, and use larger sizes. Here are a few places you can find some:

• MJTrim again.
• Farmhouse Fabrics. This is where the cherry trim in the photo is from. Huge selection and a lot of tiny ones. Not inexpensive though.
• Fabric.com has a fairly large selection.

Mini Pompoms!

• Fabric.com has a few colors at about a little under a dollar a yard. 
• Create for Less best source if you want a large supply of mini pom-poms. 36 yards for $18. Lots of colors. larger pompoms too.
• Etsy, lots of people sell them, often a few dollars for five yards.

Bias Trim:

I make my own. simple to do, and you will always have an endless variety and sizes. I'll post about this later.

Ruffle Trim:

I bought this particular one in bulk wholesale from Mokuba, Japanese trim dealer in NYC. I had to buy 30 yards, but I love it and use it all the time. If you ever find yourself in the garment district, stop in. You need a business card to get in, but they are not that fussy about what business. Lots of ruffled trims in lots of sizes and colors. Maybe it's a thing in Japan.

Farmhouse Fabrics has some, but they are not small.

Grosgrain Ribbon: 

I love the simplicity of grosgrain ribbon. It is easy to find.

• Create for Less has a huge selection, which includes stripes and other designs.
• Debs Lace and Trims: It's not a separate section, you have to look through other sorts of ribbons too.
• Fabric.com lots starting at about 20 cents a yard.
• Thread Art: About $2.00 for a 20 yard roll. You really can't do better than that. If you need 20 yards.
• Etsy, easy to get smaller quantities.

In the next few posts in this series, I'll show you how I sew trims on doll clothes.

Doll Dressmaking Series: The Reversible Dress

In my last post, I showed you how make a facing for a basic doll dress. A facing is one way to finish raw edges. When you line a simple sleeveless dress, you something extra, a reversible  dress. Cute, simple and a bit magical from a child's point of view.

How to line a simple doll dress. Makes a sweet reversible dress.

There are several things to consider when choosing your two fabrics:

1. Fabric weight. Quilting cotton is as heavy as you can go. Two layers of anything heavier at a doll's size will be too bulky and the seams will get bunchy.
2. Color. Quilting cotton is not completely opaque. So choose  fabrics where you won't see one fabric through the other. Bothe light or both dark. 
3. If you just want a lining, white is fine. White cotton lawn is good too, since it is so lightweight.
4. Don't choose something that shreds or unravels too easily, like many linens. With a quarter inch seams, you may have some unraveling seams and once the dress is finished and "sealed up" you have no way of going back in and fixing any seam gaps. For one fabric I used quilting cotton, but for the other I used oxford cloth shirting, which does fray a bit.

Make two copies of your basic dress pattern and pin and cut one out of each fabric.

There are several things to consider when choosing your two fabrics.

Next sew together the shoulder seams for each fabric as though they were two independent dresses. Press the seams flat.

Pressing seams is a good habit and makes everything look better.

1. Place the two dresses together with rich sides together lining shoulder seams up to match.
2. Sew the two dresses together starting from the hem edge of the back opening up the back opening, around the neck and back down the other side of the back (see closeup below). Next sew each armhole edge together (see close up below). Carefully clip curves and cut sharp edge off of the corner.
3. Turn inside out by pushing/pulling back halves through the shoulder hole.

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Click to enlarge image

Close-up  of where to sew your two dresses together.

Once the dress has the right sides out, you will need to neaten things up a bit. First use a semi-pointy something to push your corners out, so they look like corners and not curves. I use a tool called The Purple Thang. But there are a number of things that will work. A size five knitting needle if it isn't too pointy. You don't want to poke straight through the fabric. then press so the edges of your seams are flat.

Use a semi pointy something to push your corners out.

Press the neck and armhole seams.

Next you will be sewing up the side seams, but this is done so in the end the side seams will be hidden. in other words, no inside of the dress with fraying or messy or even visible seams:

Your dress now has four bottom of armhole seams. Two on the right side of the dress, two on the left. Find them.

Match bottom of your armhole seams.

Pin your two right armhole seams together with right sides of the fabric together. Do the same for the left side. Pin the side seams together from hem to armhole. Notice on my fabric, I've pinned blue to blue, and dotted to dotted.

Now you will sew from the blue hem to the dotted hem with your pinned together armhole seam in the middle of these two. repeat for the other side of your dress.

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Click to enlarge image

Flip your dress right sides out and press. Now only the hem and snaps are left.  You've finished all of the tricky parts. Hopefully they weren't that tricky.

You are so close to done with your reversible doll dress.

1. After pressing flip dress back inside out. Pin and sew hems together leaving a gap for turning back right side out.
2. Fix your hem corners.
3. Hand stitch up the small remaining gap in the hem. You can use whip stitch, ladder stitch or edge stitch.
4. Add snaps and you have a dress, or kind of two.

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Would love to hear back from anyone who makes a reversible or lined dress. Send photos or...problems and questions.