Wee Wonderfuls Wednesday! Eddie doll PLUS Wes the Baby Giraffe

Since I did two posts on Evelyn (&Elvis) Inchworm, I'm going to get back on my schedule of 24 dolls in 24 weeks (from Wee Wonderfuls: 24 Dolls to Sew and Love) by showing you two projects today. The first one is the Eddie Doll.

I made this for my grandnephew's second birthday back in September. Doesn't grandnephew make me sound old?! It's funny, because he is actually four months older than my little girl! This was such a fun doll to make - a BOY doll for a change. (My grandnephew has named it BOY, by the way.) His pants are made from my boys' too small cords, and his shirt is made from a little T-shirt Zeke used to wear. But my favorite part about him is his fun fur hair.

When you shake his hair it stands straight up, like a little Rod Stewart. :) The other project is for a little grandnephew or grandniece due to arrive sometime in December. Wes, the Baby Giraffe stands about 10 inches tall, and has a neck that's just right for a baby's grasp.

I found this soft green and brown houndstooth flannel that I thought was quite appropriate for a giraffe, and would work for either a boy or a girl. The eyes and nose are embroidered and the horns and tail are braided yarn sewn on extra tightly to withstand little baby tugs.

Those green leaves are now orange and brown! How can it be that Thanksgiving is almost here?

Wee Wonderfuls Wednesday! Evelyn Inchworm PLUS a Pocket Pillowcase

O.K., so I actually already made this one - but Elvis Inchworm was so different from the adorable Evelyn Inchworm in Hillary Lang's book Wee Wonderfuls: 24 Dolls to Sew and Love. And I wanted something to go along with the Pocket Pillowcase that I made for my niece's birthday (photo later in this post.) So here is Ellie Bookworm (renamed in honor of my niece.)

Ellie is about 4 inches long, and made from an upcycled felted wool sweater - part of the stash that I talked about in my Sweet Felted Bird post. This is the softest merino wool fabric - I'm so sad it's almost gone! Enough for maybe one more small project. This pattern is so fun to sew up! It's almost magical how it comes together- the straight gusset is coaxed along the curves to make the inchworm shape.

The body is made up of just three pieces, and it comes together pretty quickly.

 

Two little white buttons make up the eyes and she has felt glasses - to help her read the book I sent along in the Pocket Pillow!

 

I adapted a pattern for a pillowcase with french seams from the blog Film in the Fridge. I wanted to use french seams so there wouldn't be any raw edges showing on the inside of the pillowcase. My niece loves to read in bed at night, so I thought it would be fun to make her a pillowcase with a pocket where she can store her current book. I tucked in the book The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, a very fun read that my 11 yr. old Teddy (and his father) loved.

Here's the front, with her name in ric rac on the cuff.

Off they go, finally - my niece's birthday was only two months ago! Oh, well - as my understanding sister says, it just extends the birthday celebration. :)

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!