Dotee Dolls

My second Dotee .. or Ditto Dotee as I call her....

A piece of pretty blue embroidered light weight fabric .. lightweight enough that I could have/should have backed it with another piece of lightweight something ...   I'll get it down pat by about the 4th or 5th...I'm sure of it.  And,... still a learning curve.. remind myself to leave more of a seam allowance on the third Dotee body.  I seem to stitch only about 1/8" from the edge no matter what I am stitching.

Probably from the bear making days...always trying not to waste any expensive mohair fabric.  With the cheap little bits of fabric I use for these...and I do seem to have a lot of it around from the doll making days... it is no big deal.  Just cut them out larger and leave a good seam allowance.

I was merrily stitching away when, all of a sudden,  realized that I had totally forgotten to leave enough room to turn it right side out!  acckkk!!  Look at this...only about 1/2 an inch left.
hah!  can't fool me.  I have turned teensy weeny fingers on dolls.  I have the tools and the expertise for this!!

An array of haemostats ... that'll do the trick.

Grabbed it deep down near the dangly tail piece...pulled carefully through the opening...then, teased the face disc though the tiny space as well... being careful not to pull it away from the fabric... and phew  ...  done and all still intact.













Then, stuffing through that little opening was no problemo ...done that before with little bears as well... but the fabric was fraying like nobody's business.  That was a problem.  I ended up stitching the hanger to a piece of twill and tucked it into the seam and stitched the fabric onto that at the seam.  Works like a charm.  But...next time.... bigger seam allowance so I don't have to wrestle with anything.  And, somehow, remember to stop stitching before I leave too small an opening for turning it right side out!

The colours in the first few are all out of whack due to the camera setting....I wasn't paying attention.  As you can see it even has the "sparkle" effect turned on.... sheeeesh........ oh, well...

here is one that is the proper colours.... a lovely soft blue with pinks..... and, hair.  My sweetie liked the "hair" on the first one and I have managed to find some yarn of appropriate colours to use for hair on all three (yes there are already triplets!) ....as a matter fact ..now I've begun a fourth.... and, she too, will have hair.  Must be my signature.....

and, I got fancy with her beads and used some pearls.... Maggi, you know where the small ones and the tear drop one are from......

Please meet Dotee Pearl .....

Egg-stra stitching..

.... oh, brother....I suppose I could go on forever with the eggy titles...but, I should quit...hahhaha.... but, why? .... it's kinda fun and ...funny to me..... good enough.

Doing some extra stitching on the scalloped edge of the lace on the top of this one.... Karen's little frilly dilly stitch...she calls it Frilly Picot.  I never know if I've got it quite right...but, it looks right to me and with the number 12 Perle cotton and if I pull each stitch pretty tight...I can get it tiny.  Click on the photo to "biggify" and you can see it so much better.  I love it.  And, I think it really enhances the flat lace.  Gives it more body or something... and makes it more interesting to look at.


See the four little tiny scalloped bits on the lace edge? ....  just above the umbrella looking machine stitched flower on the cotton fabric I used for the base fabric?  Those are my little frilly dilly thingies ..... with some French Knots above holding the lace in position.. until the whole egg gets a backing of white silk.




I'm debating what to use for trim on this other guy...and ... more or less leaning towards a bit of this lace on the top end of the egg......

Not much time to stitch today ....but, must do a few each day at the very least.........every little helps, as my Mum was fond of saying.... then she would add...... "said the little old lady who peed in the sea"....... must be an old English saying ..or ... maybe she just made it up .......

Hatching some eggs

I made up a second sheet of fabric in bright whites.  The piece with the flowers embroidered on it was sent to me in a fabric swap organized by the first group I took a class with.

If Lexxie visits my site... which I don't think she does ...she may remember this piece... look Lexxie!  I'm using it.  It is shiny and she loves shiny ... well, actually ...who doesn't? ..hahhaha... I think Magpie is the middle name of most women.

I did the same thing I did when I was making the pin cushions.  Seeing as I just can't visualize things finished without a frame to view it in....I viewed it with my newly made egg template.  Perfect.  Now, I can work away on it ...inside stitched lines...but, always with my viewer nearby.  Grab. Place. View.

Love it....

I decided to make several ...    in the same style as my cushions.

 Here is the first one so far.

I'm egg-cited....

I dreamed up something else to do with my special fabrics and trims.   Egg day is not far off.  So.. I thought... why do pincushions or hangings have to be rectangle or stocking shaped? ..  and drew myself an egg shape too.

Look how cute an egg will be when made from a piece of the fabric I made using narrow strips.  The sheet I got busy and made and then had nothing to do with it once it was done... hahah... except for using as test pieces and perhaps on a page or two of my stitching journal......but, now.... I want to get busy and make me some eggs!

I just want to do some stitching...

hiding...

...in the house.
It's pretty brisk out there ....-24C and the wind is blustery at 25kph ... that means it's ..uhm, .... cold.  Too cold to go out.  The snow isn't conducive to building snowmen anyway..

Pinned a silk backing to my pouch.

Stitched around 3 sides and a portion of the fourth and then, turned it through that opening.  Now I need to close that opening by hand... stitch a portion of the folds closed and stitch all around the outside edges  ... buttonhole around the edges.... ... hmmm... still quite a bit of stitching to do really.  But... happy to get this done today and see how it is going to look... still haven't decided exactly where it will fold over... and..... it's a pretty large pouch...hahhahah...

The back in this folded configuration.... who knows if it will stay like this... maybe it could even be overlapped and have buttons or toggles or ties.... We'll see.

A page..

I cut up my fabric that I've been playing with ....and decided to make an opening on my page to display a portion of it.  It will serve to remind me of what I did with this particular piece... how I stitched it ... how I manipulated the bits of lace and silk... the actual stitches I used...

In this particular case..it will also serve as a reminder never to stitch a piece directly onto my page!!  Wow!  What a tricky thing to try.  Why didn't I just use double sided tape like everybody else?  Oh, no..not moi.... I figured it might be just as easy to stitch it onto the paper.  Wrong!   the down stitches were just fine, but the ones coming back up again?  from beneath paper and several layers of fabric? ... arrrgghhh!  I couldn't see the holes even when I held the page up to a bright light... and ended up having to poke a needle through each hole from the topside... guide my sewing needle to the exact spot and withdraw the top needle and carefully poke up with the stitching needle.  As you can guess ... the air was particularly blue at several points during my ordeal.  And, yes, it was a bit of an ordeal.  Next time...play with paper stitching and just enjoy it ... .. tack on fabric later...

Oh, and... I also did the unthinkable.  Stabbed my finger a good one and bled on the paper before I even realized it.  Luckily, I also licked the bloody area immediately...  and then had to lick again because it just smeared... ... and then, luckily ... I was able to blot it off easily with paper towel.  Whew.
Saved the page after I had worked so diligently with my stitching...

I was having some fun with FME also... onto a gauzy square with a few little embroidered flowers on it.  I'm not sure what it is ...perhaps a table protector of some sort... too big for a hanky ...  not really a doily... too small for a scarf...... Maggi found it for me...

I love how the FME looks on it...I'll try a bit more and try for better photos of it...  I cut a bit of it and added it to this smaller piece of the fabric...

less utility, more fun...

This piece of fabric strips is my latest little project... well, not a project really...just some fun. There are still a few utility stitches used to hold the strips in position... but, then... some machine free motion work will come into play and also some hand embroidery and some embellishment.

The dark strips are from a piece of what I think is metallic and silk..it is actually open weave and see through, but, it is a bit darker than I'd like... however, it does go nicely with some of my off whites.  Some day I'll organize a swap or something and get me some of the real thing... in a lovely nude colour or perhaps some silvery... we'll see.

Who knows what will become of this piece of fabric...   some of it could even end up as a pin cushion I guess ..... we'll see as it progresses.


I have to say, the bears and other assorted animals that live at my house are not always totally helpful... take the other night for example... I was going to sit under some bright lights in the office so that I could see well enough to do some tiny stitching... because my hobby room is still in disarray and I have no clue where my Ott light is... but, I wasn't quite sure how to take this.....maybe I should just be thrilled that they think my bum is only that big.....

If you didn't know better, you might think kids live here......

Thinking about it.....

Karen stopped in to see if any stitching was happening in between snow shovelling...and, well, ...it wasn't, of course.

It's already been almost two weeks since somebunny decided we had to tear the drywall ceiling down in the finished tv room and replace it with a suspended ceiling.  Mostly because of some wiring ..  ... and, well, .. you know how it goes....   it does take time, effort, and lots of work, to get things back together again.  Now that he is back at work after the Christmas break... he only has such a few hours each day to work on it...

So, the room still looks like this...plastic protecting the other half of the room... drop cloths covering the carpet, tools all over the place and lots happening overhead..

Moving some pot lights and re-arranging wiring, etc...

However, my stitching buddy came for tea on Monday ...  and, although we didn't actually do any crafting or stitching...we did discuss what we are going to make in 2014 and that got me thinking 'bout stitching..and that lead to looking at stitching stuff later in the day, and that ... you get the drift............................

I've decided to make a pouch with the completed blocks from the first stitching class I took with Karen. It was going to be a wrapping cloth...but, since doing the little pin cushions and loving them...I decided to turn these into a smaller project that I know I can and will finish.   I do like the joy and satisfaction of completing a little project and being able to look at it and say..." I made that".  Maybe it sounds almost arrogant, but to me it's more just a bit of slightly smug satisfaction in knowing that I worked diligently and carefully on something; actually finished it off, and am happy with my project.  I like that feeling.

Here is the placement of my blocks...it could be a smallish wrapping cloth, I suppose ... or I could make a few more blocks and make it somewhat larger....but, no...I've decided a decent sized pouch that I can use for bits of lace, or pieces of fabric, or something like that, will be better.  Useful and still pretty ... just what we were striving for actually, if we were going back in time in our minds and hearts while stitching away on our treasured little bits of fabric and trim........

For some reason, even though I didn't measure any block....they all turned out to be exactly the same size across.  How strange is that?  They are not  the same length.  I may add a bit of lace or some trim here and there to change the centre as it might look like a seam down it.  That may look just fine.  I won't really know 'til I have it stitched down.  But, if it looks strange, or I don't like it  ...I can fix that .... we have ways.   I'll decide later.  Probably much later.......

If you come to the blog sort of regularly, you may remember seeing some of the embroidery and embellishment, but if not..here are few shots of the areas. I tried to incorporate most of the techniques that Karen was showing us in the class.

Today I'm still trying to get somebody to buy my sofa and loveseat... because, Monday some new ones are arriving ... who wants a really nice sofa or a  loveseat, traditional style...exceptional shape...for next to nothing? ... Anybody in Calgary reading my blog? .....

It's Christmas all over again at my house!!!

woohoooo....!!  I did a trade with one of the ladies in my stitching group... and both of us were getting pretty down in the mouth, because her pincushion to me went astray.  It's been in transit since early December and ...well, ... should've been here long before now, so we figured somebody else got a nice present .... but, it's arrived today!!  and...it is beeeyoootiful!

Soft creams and ecru colours with bits of greens and some pearlized seed beads.  Such beautiful attention to every little detail.  Click on the photos to biggify and see things better.

I don't recognize the stitch along this corner of the edge.... but, now confirmed... it is crochet.....

So many little corners to look at over and over again...tiny stitching and details to check out ... I'm back and forth between windows with it to look at every aspect of it in really good light.

I loved it in photos I had seen of it before I got it....and it is even more beautiful "in person" .... oh, what a fun day today is!!

And,  now...into my curio cabinet with it.... so no grubby hands will touch it.  Yes, you can look at it..but, from behind glass.......... so it will be a treasure well protected ....

Show and tell..

Finally!! I've had to keep it under wraps 'til now because my stitching buddy Maggi hadn't yet received it ...and she does check out this blog every so often... I didn't want to spoil my little surprise.

Remember the 'master sheet' of fabric I made from various bits of other fabrics?  Well, here is something else I decided to make from it..instead of just pincushions.... a little Christmas stocking.

I cut a design in light cardboard and moved it around over various parts of my sheet of fabrc..to decide on the best area to begin.  Tried bits of trim and got a feel for how it might look when finished.  Of course, it always changes midstream...but, that's fine... it's mostly just to find a great place to start.

See?  It did change ...I decided on a totally different area, but that's fine.... I'm sure nothing is ever set in stone when doing handwork.

I figured out a little bell in cross stitch and used some seed beads for a clanger... made some gold stars and tried a few French Knots with single strand of thread...  that was tricky...the gals on our stitching Flickr group heard about it and offered suggestions to tame unruly gold threads.... thanks ladies!
An edge of buttonhole lace on the real piece of lace on the heel, and a few green and red threads for holly and berries.. and, as they say....et voilà!
I did find a perfect ribbon instead of the cord to hang it ...but, no, I did not remember to take a final photo of the finished product.  Too eager to get it on its way to Maggi's house.... ...

I love my own little rendition of some Christmas bells....  here you can see them close up before I added the lace to the heel.

And, because I was so pumped with my finished stocking...I just had to do another ...and it was easy to finish on time as I had already done plenty of hand embroidery on what I thought would be another pincushion....but, for some reason...I was having big trouble deciding what to put on the left side of this piece of stitchery...total mental block it seemed....... .until...I looked at it through my "stocking" viewfinder instead of this "pincushion" block ... ...hahahha....all of a sudden.. a stocking it became!!

The three large rose looking flowers are actually bits cut from the piece of lace fabric I won from Karen a while ago.... I added some bullion stitches around them...and of course, had a lot of my favs...tiny Forget-Me-Knot flowers....

Once I decided it was becoming a Christmas stocking I had to add some gold stars to mine as well... copying the first Christmas stocking... and found a bit more ribbon to hang it ....

Directly onto our tree it went.

hand made lacy fabric

Well, that's what we are calling it ...cuz we mostly do make it ourselves using FME (free motion embroidery) on the machine.... albeit on some base of scrim as lucky Karen gets to use...or in the case of us gals in Canada and the U.S. ... silly old cheesecloth...which is not nearly as nice to work on and it becomes stiffer somehow than the scrim too...

My own has some off white bits added and I don't care for it as much...plus, I think I've decided not to FME it so fully..maybe that makes things a bit stiffer as well.

I am using the piece I won from Karen to cut up and add to my latest endeavours with the pincushions and those are the hole-y areas... almost sacrilege to cut it ..but I am putting it to great use...at least I think so.

 I did a practice bit on the edge of the scrim and on my cheesecloth, and they did feel more similar when I used exactly the same bits of soft lace to add to it ..and did a bit less FME... it'll save on the reels of cotton too..hahhaha...the only thing I really know about FME is that is does use many yards of thread... bobbins actually ..already...

Okay, now I'm off to rummage in the storage area looking for my little walnut mice bits and pieces ....and also the origami ornaments to play with.  Must make some each year to give to folks.... always a new face that doesn't have one or two for their tree...
It's a perfect day to play inside at -17C  although, I must try to shovel a bit later...the drifts are huge and packed pretty stiffly...but, maybe I'll wait until the 60 kph winds die down a bit ... they are saying it is wind chill of -30C  ...brrrrr.....

I am NOT a morning person...

...and usually when I do try to be more productive by 'doing' too early, or if I try something that calls for the little grey cells to be more active than they usually are before 10:00..or need my eyes to see something before they are ready to do that.... ..... ...well, let's just say ..sometimes it isn't worth it.

This morning I took my coffee into my sewing room and was eager to put together my latest little pincushion.. even had the machine all set up and threaded, because I was also trying some FME on open weave fabric yesterday ....easy right? ...just change feet, raise the 'dogs' and sew around the 3 sides of my pillow.


acckkkk!  .....wtfajita???.. ........ .....    dammit!!!   No way!!  I'm not picking out those teensy tiny stitches...NOT!

Obviously I wasn't even thinking, period; never mind thinking clearly.  Stitched around the 3 sides of what is going to be my newest pin pillow alright ... ..... but, totally forgot to put on the silk backing ...and the piece of thin cotton that backs the silk..... what a nimno!  I took it off the machine and looked at it and it still didn't even register ...'til I thought... now how do I turn this? ... there is nothing to turn...what have I done? .... Sheeesh...... So.... either pick it all out ..which did not happen, because it would have ruined the satin-one-side-crepe-y fabric, I just know it would've.  Instead...I put on the backing material..pinned and stitched it as I was supposed to do in the first place ...just barely inside the other line of stitching... whew!  It worked.  Happy camper, me. Saved my lovely piece of fabric and embroidering..

So, I have a slightly smaller cushion..but, not enough that anybody would notice or care... because there is no regulation size, of course......

I particularly like this little area of webs and detached chain leaves.. peeking out from under the lace that runs across ...

Now...just to stuff, close and stitch around the outside ...and my first off white cushion is a reality...

colour..

... I decided to add a bit of colour...  the little pieces of white that I added with FME didn't stand out enough for me... they just seemed to disappear into the fabric when I got some stitching done around them.
It looks great up close ... but, just not enough oomph...

I love the way the bits of colour look with pieces of lace and organza built up on top of them, but, I think next time I'll let it ruch up a bit if possible...it is a bit too flat looking for me.                      

 I did add a few French Knots of yellow to pick up on the colour of the printed fabric.
Almost ready now to stitch up and turn and see how my first little off-white cushion looks....still looking for some off white fabric for the back side.. my silk is a bit too white...... might have to go shopping....