Well, I started this project a long time ago, had all the pattern pieces and eyes picked out, plastic bead stuffing bought and everything pinned together…and, well, put into a bag and stashed in my closet. Then I finally set up one of my sewing machines to make a blackout curtain so I decided to get to work.

I love the pattern, but next time I will alter it a lot, as there are lots of problems with it, notably the arms and legs are too skinny (and I couldn’t even turn the ears right way out) and there isn’t any neck to attach body to head. The solid pink fabric is wool, the floral body is print cotton, vintage fabrics from my costuming days.

I do like her, and she will find a home somewhere in this house.

This is an effigy of my dead cat Seamus. She died of terribly rotten teeth 2 years ago, and me and her sister still miss her. She always liked to watch me cook, so I made her with an apron.

This rabbit is in mourning.

When life gets me down, I like to make toys. Normally I am a hardcore crocheter, but I got a super cute book on Valentine’s day and got to work fairly quickly. The first toy is from the “Unmotivated Kid” pattern. The fabric is ancient bits and pieces I have been saving from my days at Malabar.

I also bought acrylic beanie things to stuff it with, so it will have a little weight. Once I finish moving my junk around this week, I will be able to set up my sewing machine and crank it out.  I have lots of scrap fabric to mess around with, including old BME shirts, so expect more posts in the future.

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while — I have been extremely busy. Anyway, I wanted to post the final version of my nesting doll project. Continue reading for the whole thing. The concept behind the dolls is that the song can be sung as they’re opened one by one.

I know an old lady…

Read the rest of this entry »

Whew! One more to go… We’re going on a secret mission this weekend (don’t worry, we’ll share afterwards) so I probably won’t have time to complete the last one, the fly (which is being done in a nice iridescent pearl glaze for the wings and a green or blue interference paint for the body), which is the most involved of the set I think.

Oh, and I’ve been asked a couple times where I got my blank Russian nesting dolls — they came from Russian Legacy, who have a number of styles available.

My eyes are so going to fall out of their head! Continued work on my “I know an old lady who swallowed a fly“ nesting dolls — from left to right (click to zoom), the spider, the bird, the cat, the dog, the goat, the cow, the horse… and… she’s dead, of course! I may get ambitious and try and finish the painting tomorrow and then give them a nice topcoat to seal and protect them.

They really look a lot better in person I think… I haven’t decided yet if these are going to be for sale…

I was asked how my Russian Doll project is coming. I must admit that it’s coming slowly because it takes me so much effort to paint small (and I’m not really that good at it), and even doing a little one like the one in this entry is about two hours of work… I expect about twenty-five hours in the whole project. Anyway, I am working on it, and here’s the bird!

The picture doesn’t do it justice because it’s painted in iridescent paints and shimmers from tone to tone from different angles.

Update: And the dog too…

I will post these again when they’re finished, but I started today on my Russian nesting doll project (after about a month of nervously wondering whether my order from Russia would actually arrive). It’s a ten part set based on “I know an Old Lady“, put together in the order of the song so it can be sung as the set is disassembled. Here’s a shot of my sketches for it —

I know an old lady who swallowed a cow,
I wonder how she swallowed a cow?!
She swallowed the cow to catch the goat,
She swallowed the goat to catch the dog,
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
I don’t know why she swallowed the fly,
I guess she’ll die.

I know an old lady who swallowed a horse,
She’s dead, of course!!

The last line in the song is why the innermost piece is a tiny little skull. The smallest ones (the cow and the horse) don’t look like much in my sketch, I know, but they will be quite cute when I’ve had a chance to paint them.