Wee Wonderfuls Wednesday! Little Miss Storybook

When I first opened the book, Wee Wonderfuls: 24 Dolls to Sew and Love, this was the first doll that caught my eye and made me say, "I have to make this!" The sweet Little Miss Storybook.

Here she is in the book, with golden ribbon hair. I love the ribbon hair idea. It is so toddler-friendly and it keeps her hairdo in place!

I was envisioning a Little Red Riding Hood when I made this, so I used some brown ribbon that I thought would make lovely hair, with long pigtails for Zoe to play with.

How fortunate, then, that the instructions for Little Miss Storybook come with a pattern for Little Red's cape!

And a cute little apron with an appliqued *little* bad wolf and fir trees.

This gal is the adventuresome type!

But she's still sweet as can be.

Wee Wonderfuls Wednesday! Haus Spooky Haus with lift-the-flaps

With October 31 just around the corner, I thought a little haunted haus was in order. This Spooky Haus (with lift-the-flap windows and door) is my version of Hillary Lang's Haus Sweet Haus from her book, "Wee Wonderfuls: 24 Dolls to Sew and Love."

The Haus Sweet Haus pattern really is sweet, like all the patterns in the book, and such fun to make!

After deciding to make this a Spooky Haus, I started looking for just the right fabric. I found some black and purple batik fat quarters that I thought would be perfect for the main part of the haus. Then I saw this printed Halloween fabric and I knew just what I wanted to do.

My two little ones have been loving lift-the-flap books lately, so I thought I'd add some flaps to this Spooky Haus and showcase some of the cute designs of the Halloween fabric.

Zeke thinks it's hilarious. Of course, he thinks everything is hilarious these days. :)

Zoe loves the spider.

Wee Wonderfuls Wednesday! Elvis Inchworm

For this third Wee Wonderfuls Wednesday, I decided to make the sweet Evelyn Inchworm from Hillary Lang's "Wee Wonderfuls: 24 Dolls to Sew and Love."

But an idea got into my head, and finally I just had to go with it. Maybe it's all the thinking about dressing up this month, maybe it was the challenge, or maybe I'm just kind of different ;) something made me want to make -- Elvis Inchworm.

{Elvis voiceover} Thank you, thank you very much.

I used a Merino wool blend felt that I got from BenzieBazaar on etsy. I love this stuff! It's so easy to work with. Whenever I cut felt I like to pin the uncut pattern onto the felt, then cut the two together. That seems to work much better for me than trying to trace the pattern onto the felt.

Once the felt was cut, I whipstiched the pieces together by hand. I'm so glad I followed the tip not to pin it, because it came together easily. It's a very fun, quick pattern.

Then I set to work on creating Elvis' hair. After a lot of fooling around (and googling "Elvis hair") I came up with a sort of "hair cap" that I whipstiched onto the head.

Next came the famous Elvis snarl. Did you know that Elvis snarled with the left side of his lips? I read that 95% of people snarl on the left side. I tried it, and I snarl on the right. Go figure.

Then the jumpsuit. Ah, those white, rhinestone-studded jumpsuits. My favorite is the one with the red, white and blue eagle on it. And you can't forget the red scarf!

Well, there he is. My husband thinks I'm crazy, but it was really fun to make.

And I did make an Evelyn inchworm, too, 'cause she's sooo cute! But I can't show it to you yet- it's a present for someone....shhhhh!

Wee Wonderfuls Wednesday! Doxie Necklace

It's Wee Wonderfuls Wednesday again, where I am making one project a week from Hillary Lang's "Wee Wonderfuls: 24 Dolls to Sew and Love. This week is the Doxie Necklace.

How cute is that? A little dachshund you can wear. I thought dots would be fun.

This project is completely hand sewn, and you backstich on the pattern lines before you cut.

The most difficult part was turning the body and the ears. It took a lot of fiddling and patience to coax all those little parts out. I used my handy-dandy pointed dowel that I got free in a bag of fiberfil.

Little embroidered eyes and nose.

And a ric rac collar. A necklace you can play with!

Don't you want one? :)

Wee Wonderfuls Wednesdays!

Welcome to Wee Wonderfuls Wednesdays! For the next 24 Wednesdays I plan to share with you a project that I have made from the very fun book "Wee Wonderfuls: 24 Dolls to Sew and Love" by Hillary Lang. I realized the first time that I flipped through the pages that I would need to sew every one of these super cute toys.

Zoe's Olive doll

I found Hillary Lang's Wee Wonderfuls site when I was looking for a cloth doll to make Zoe for her birthday. I found "Olive & Archie: A Make-a-Long Story" and I immediately purchased and downloaded the patterns for 2 dolls, backpacks, felted sweater outwear & professor paws, snowsuits, knitted jumper & kercheif, knitted sweater vest, sleeping bags, and overalls & jumper! Cuteness overload! When her book came out, I knew I had to have it.

So here is the first project, the Ellie bag- a cuddly elephant you can wear as a purse!

I decided to use some super-soft pink minky that I bought when Zoe was born (!) and reproduction fabric for the inner ears and lining. It was fun to sew and see it all come together. It did take a little longer than I thought it would because there was quite a bit of hand sewing involved.

I used a belt from an upcycled felted sweater for the strap.

Zoe loves peeking inside to see what I've put in there.

Just her size!