A doll's life

I am not one to get into the Blythe craze (tho they are cute and i love the fact that you can change their eye colour on a whim) or any other doll obsession. But one of my yarn customers asked me to make a dress for a Madame Alexander doll as a gift to her niece, and i couldn't resist.

Ms R has given her niece a Madame Alexander doll every year for her birthday and now it is the big one - her Bat Mitzvah. Apparently, they do not make a Bat Mitzvah doll - so Ms R asked me to make one for her. She asked me to copy her niece's dress for the Madame Alexander doll - as well as crochet a little pink kippa (made from Patricia Roberts 2 ply cotton - hey it is a yarn type blog after all).

Here is the original dress:


And here is the doll:

It was so much fun to make something that you would know would be appreciated and loved. And it was a great distraction from tech week along with a very sick Fritz.

Our latest show, LOST AND FOUNDLING, opens this weekend. It is a sweet little story (as told in a video here) about a little girl Found in the Mega Price Mart and raised there by its employees...and then it is a bit of a fairy tale ala Red Riding Hood or Alice in Wonderland. I hope to have pics by the end of the week - my batteries died just before the final dress and i wasn't able to take pictures.

and gratuitious baby shot - or i should say baby butt shot:

the life of a leather jacket

This once lovely leather jacket was purchased by me for Fritz on our "sort of honeymoon."

I say "sort-of" because our honeymoon happened about 6 months after our wedding (as we were busy opening a show the weekend after our wedding. We went to Williamsburg, VA for the historic aspect and Busch Gardens. (We also spent 6 weeks or so working for this theatre in Germany about 2 months after the wedding, so that was our other "sort-of honeymoon") It seems we also went for the shopping. So I bought this jacket for Fritz and he wore it - alot. But the cats liked to claw at it when he forgot to hang up. It had been repaired, and then shredded buy pointy sharp claws again and again.

Well now Fritz does not fit in this lambskin leather jacket and I couldn't just donate it to my costume stock at work - or give it away to GoodWill. So i repurposed it!




I mean, really! Aren't those the cutest little shoes you have ever seen? (okay you might have seen cuter, but just nod your head in my general direction and PRETEND they are the cutest little baby shoes you have ever seen)

I made 2 pair using the pattern found here.
The first pair was a plain black pair, no decoration - and since i blew up the pattern 1.25% they are HUGE!!!! Toddler size, at least.


So I went back to the original pattern and compared it to the shoes he wears now (a la target). So I amde the original pattern, added some decoration (he is only 10 month old now and he can't say NO yet - heehee) and they fit Max FABULOUSLY!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is plenty of leather left over. I am thinking baby biker pants!


And now for gratuitous baby picture - with Daddy:



edited 1/24/2008 to add shoe pattern link.

where does the time go?

Wow! 2 weeks already? Crazy I tell ya!
Well between the baby being sick and me being sick - not much has been going on.

Well that's not true becasue there has been crocheting and sewing happening and a bit of knitting. And of course there are always cute Max pictures that i need to upload at some point....so let's start with what i have sorted out



Yarn: Cascade 220 in a lovely camel shade, 2 skeins (I did have to break into a 3rd only because I threw out the yarn from the 3 times I started and failed)
Hook: G (4mm)
Pattern: Crochet Cable Bag, Family Circle Easy Crochet Spring 2007
Changes to Pattern: LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS.
I view this Bag as I do a rendering from a Costume Designer. Someone else designed the bag - came up with the end look. But I did all the technical work and created the pattern.
The original pattern was not charted and the wording was very complicated and very very difficult to follow, basically not well written. I could not find any links (when i started it in September) that might help.
I also lined the purse and added a pocket and magnet snap ( i am a sucker for a magnet snap).
It is currently sitting in my "sunshine box"*****

So what i have to say to crochet designers is CHART CHART CHART!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Also, why all the back posting from the wrong side when the same texture can be created with front posting and having the correct side of the work facing you.

Okay enough complaing - I LOVE THE END RESULT. I will make more I am sure.
Once i had that chart, it was so easy to make.

I would love to find out how to have a link to the chart i created - it was done on graph paper since there does not seem to be a program for charting crochet - if you know of one, please let me know. People link to PDF's for their personal patterns and i was wondering how I do this. Is it possible with Blogger? Do I need to have a proper server? More research is involved on my part I am sure.


*** A SUNSHINE BOX is a box full of gifts - sort of. When we were little, my Nana had her Sunshine Box (big box with a sun on it) and in it were little gifts. More like the gifts you get out of the bubble gum machine - small toys, stuffed animals, doilies whatever little kids would think were fun. When you visisted you were allowed to pick out one item from the Sunshine Box. So I have always had a drawer or a box in the closet with random little gifts in it - instead of letting someone else pick - i use my Sunshine Box as a place to keep gifts for a future date - for birthdays, holidays, house warming gifts, going out to dinner etc. Some are actually lableed for people and some are just plain random weird things...