Bunny Dolls

I'm definitely spending more time on Pinterest at the moment. One thing I keep seeing is cute, and often quite stylish, animal dolls. So I had a go at making my own.

This is the first one I made. A little bunny in a knitted jumper and jeans.
I found some cotton fabric that looks just like patterned denim, which is perfect to use as it looks like jeans but isn't as thick as real denim so it easier to work with.

I made the jumper by knitting four squares; one for the front of the jumper, one for the back, and one each for the arms. I sewed them together directly on the doll. I only had two balls of wool at home; black and sparkly pink. It wasn't hard to decide which one to use!

My second bunny is wearing dungarees and boots. Putting this one together was a bit more complicated than my first one.

I used more of the denim-looking fabric to make the dungarees. The waist band was a later addition to cover up the tricky time I had connecting the trousers to the top!

Both bunnies have black boots made out of this leather-looking fabric. I really like having a mix of textures to replicate real life clothing, rather than making it all out of cotton.

A trick I got from one of the examples on Pinterest is to use lace as a layer on the ears for added texture, which I did for both of my bunnies. One of this bunny's ears got a little wonky during the sewing machine stage, but I think it just adds character.
I also made a headband from ribbon and felt and a flower embellishment. Cute!

I'm loving having time to try out new things and make things just for fun.
What other animal dolls should I make?

Embroidered Knitting

I've had this project from Good Knits of embroidered 'knitting' favourited for ages and I finally got around to trying it to make a birthday card for my Mum.

I used the same heart pattern as in the tutorial and made the holes with my pokey tool.

I followed the instructions to do chain stitch and I think it turned out quite well. The holes could have been a little closer to really make it look like knitting, but it still looks good.

Knitted Head Wrap

I'm really behind on Grey's Anatomy guys, like, season 7 behind. But I've borrowed the dvds so I can slowly catch up, except I don't like just watching tv so I needed a new project that I could do in front of it.

I decided on knitting. I realised that I've only done miniature knitting so I should have a go at the regular kind. With the help of youtube I managed to cast on and get knitting. After looking online for simple knitting ideas I decided to make a head wrap which is just a thin strip of knitting sewn together.

This finished product was actually my third attempt. The first was too wide so I abandoned it and with the second one I ran out of wool. But I got it right the third time and never dropped a stitch!

I wore it out at the weekend, as shown in this cheeky alleyway selfie, and it was surprisingly warm.

And I'm much further along in Grey's. The musical episode guys, woah.

There was an old lady who...lived on a coaster?

Remember that miniature knitting I did?

Well I wanted to do something with it so I made an old lady who could use it.

The knitting needed to be a bit longer so I first had to re-teach myself how to knit (thank you youtube).

The old lady started off looking pretty creepy.

I used Sculpey but still haven't got the baking times right as she came out of the oven with varying skin tones.

I'd never tried sculpting a face before and I'm actually surprised with how it turned out. I used my fingernails and a needle to get all the detail. And by detail, I mostly mean wrinkles.

While I was sculpting the old lady's face I happened to be listening to the episode of This American Life which was a tribute to David Rakoff who had died the week before. It made me sad towards the old lady and made her seem more frail.

For her wispy hair I used some polyester stuffing, I made her some tiny wire spectacles, and I gave her a pearl necklace, cos old ladys like pearls, right?

Her jumper is made from a cardigan that I bought to use as the carpet in my model bedroom.

Making the rocking chair was a fun challenge, like when I made a wheelie bin for my degree show piece.

I think this is the first cardboard miniature thing I've made since graduating.

I also made her a little knitting bag to keep the rest of her wool in.

And so you like her fluffy pink slippers?

They're made from a flannel that I bought to use as the carpet in the bedroom of my degree show house.

Nothing gets wasted over here!

What should I name this old lady?

I think she could easily be a Gladys, or an Enid, or a Judith.

Any thoughts? Hit me with your best old lady names.

Miniature knitting

Isn't this incredible!
I haven't actually seen the film Coraline but that is some crazy skill going on there.
After watching this video I decided I wanted to try miniature knitting, and I've finally got round to it.

Only, I haven't done any knitting for a long time, probably since I was in single digits, and my Mum did all the casting on for me.
So first I had to learn how to knit, and youtube helped with that.
Now, it might have been easier to learn on a regular scale and then get smaller, but I jumped straight to miniature and learnt as I went.

Here's attempt 1.

For knitting needles I used pins which are really slippery and the cotton thread I was using as wool kept slipping off .

But I persevered and here's attempt 2.

A little neater but I still kept losing stitches so I gave up on this one too.

Then with attempt 3 it suddenly started to work.

Obviously it took a while if you look at the bottom, but I got there eventually.

It looks like proper knitting!

It really is tiny but I feel like I've mastered a new skill.