Made

Sometimes I remember back to when I couldn't sew & I get a wee bit wistful. You see, when I couldn't sew, I wasn't inspired to make five storybook dolls, three Chewbaccas, four sock monkeys & an assload of doll clothes for Christmas giving and I had time for things like smiling and brushing my hair.

But then I look over my Flickr stream & feel all proud & braggy & realize it was all worth it (to me & hopefully the recipients, at least; I'm pretty sure Josh is about to chuck my sewing machine into the dumpster behind Home Depot).

I always want to give books to kids because I'm a pretentious old lady. But! Also because books shaped my entire childhood & the minute I found out I was knocked up I started making Amazon wish lists for "Dash Now" & "Dash of the Future" (no joke). But little kids (especially the ones who can't read) don't want your stupid books. They want toys, bitch. So this is my compromise.

Story book dolls! Here's Little Red. She goes to her new little Mama with a basket of felt treats & a beautifully illustrated retelling of the original story (delightfully gross!).

Here are some of her treats on the accompanying picnic blanket. Because if it's not worth overdoing then it's not worth doing at all.

Pippi Longstocking is one of my very favorite stories from childhood. I must have read each book ten times & constantly wished my poor mother away so I could turn our one-bedroom West Hollywood apartment into my own version of Villa Villekulla. 

This Pippi comes accompanied by her pet monkey & a copy of the book illustrated by my favorite Lauren Child.

Monkey butt!

(All storybook dolls & dresses--less Red's cloak which I just kind of made up as I went along--are adapted from the super, seriously, incredibly awesome patterns available from Wee Wonderfuls here.)

I also made a Princess & the Pea doll with mattresses & pea & bed, but I forgot to take a picture. Dammit all to hell.

Another little Mama I know is getting a special American Girl doll from Santa this year (yeah, that's right, I have access to the Nice List. I know what's up at the Pole). She asked for Kanani (the Hawaiian doll) because her family will be vacationing there after the holidays (la-dee-dah), so I took it upon myself to help kit her out.

First I made her a bathing suit because duh. (All garments are being modeled on a borrowed doll I used for fittings).

Doll butt!

Then I made a coordinating sarong. Because seriously, you can't expect a doll to hit the beach without a cover up. Christ, what kind of animal are you?

And then, just a sweet little wrap dress so she can hit the clubs after her little Mama goes to sleep.

Ties in the back!

And last, I whipped up a little monogrammed tote for her keys & copies of Cosmo.

(The swimsuit & wrap dress patterns are from the most excellent Liberty Jane here. The sarong & tote were a collaboration between me & my Chardonnay).

OK, that's enough showing off for now. I may or may not be back later with more braggy posts about squishy crocheted baby blankets, hand made ornaments and more, different stuffed things.