Elliot's Monster Toy

This is Elliot's monster with spiky bits on the ears and three legs. I made him from calico, the orange lines are heat transfer vinyl. I machine stitched around the edges. So it wouldn't fray I painted the edges with PVA and also painted the legs and ears to make them stiff. Then stuffed him.

Below is Elliot's original drawing, I tidied it up a little and cut it from vinyl on a digital cutter

I did have a go at altering it even more but I like the cuteness of the original drawing so decided to do the toy from that.

He also had a go at writing his name so I put that on the back with the date.

I'm probably a biased Grandma but I think he does very good drawings for a three year old [just 3 in December]

Others pictures, this one is his dad

This one is a self portrait with belly button

And this one is of me, his Grandad and his mum

Happy Paint Party Friday

Fabric Doll's House

A fabric or travel doll's house made for a relative.

It folds and closes with a button.

The back of the house

Inside

The living room and dining room - a sofa with cushions, table set for dinner with chair and a bookcase with books and photo

Kitchen - units, sink, shelf and oven [ a chicken is roasting in the oven]

The doors open to reveal items inside. Two plates in the sink can be removed

Bedroom - wardrobe, drawers and bed. The doll 'travels' in the bed.

The wardrobe doors open to reveal the dolls outfits. They are attached by Velcro on to her tummy

Bathroom - bath, shower, sink, mirror and toilet

and of course a toilet roll

a towel and octopus

removable

the doll with her outfits on

Knitted Doll

Doll and dress made from upcycled jumpers, felt hair. Hand stitched.

Wood Nymph Doll

I finished my cloth doll about a week or so ago. Been waiting for a bright day to take photos.

The pattern I used for the doll body was Anastasia from the Jane Horrox book - An introduction to making cloth dolls.

For the body, arms and legs I dyed the fabric with spray on color wash by Adirondack (pesto and butterscotch). Then I applied freehand machine embroidery to the arms and legs. I used filmoplast instead of using an embroidery frame which made it easy to embroider, but it made it more difficult when I came to stitching the limbs onto the body because it was very hard to get a needle through. I probably shouldn't have embroidered right to the edge.

I used layers of organza for her outfit and decorated with beads.

I used a feather boa for her hair and I coloured a small fascinator for a hat. The fascinator I found in the pound shop. I already had a little chair that she sits nicely on.

Gifts to Arty Friends

The gifts to my arty friends were all based on a kind of Russian doll, I'll explain more further down.

My gift to Gill was three cards of art buttons. 

I altered Graphics Fairy images for the backing cards.

For Helen I made some earrings, on one side the man and the woman on the other. I printed my artwork on t-shirt transfer paper.

 I gave Marian a hand painted brooch. After painting I stitched around the lines and edges on the sewing machine.

Vicky was given a hanging doll of herself, one one side I drew her features and on the other the original photo. I used t-shirt transfer paper again. This particular type came out quite plasticky but it may have been because I didn't read the instructions fully[doh!], but it worked out OK for the gifts, it may not feel good on a t-shirt though. I have done something else since and it was not quite as plastic like but not quite so shiny.

I also designed some wrapping paper and gift tags which I printed on my inkjet. I also made little boxes for the jewellery and covered them in the paper. Click on the images for a closer look.

The project was/is to do with culture and I chose to concentrate on historical fashion presented on a Russian like doll. These are some pages from my sketchbook, the start of the project and I used some of these pictures for the above gifts and paper.