I finished off the term, but no final grades yet as those aren’t released until the day after the last day of finals. In a way, I’ve found this to be both good and bad. Good in the fact that if you have later exams, you don’t become distracted with obsessively refreshing the page to see if grades are up. Bad because if you’re done early (like I was), you have to wait over a week before final grades are available. Either way, I know that I had at least passed everything and I know I did okay in all of my classes this term. So in lieu of finding a job or going on fancy trips (like some of my friends), I’ve been sewing!

All of my crafting lately has been for Blythe – I’ve been using the Doll Coordinate Recipe books that I have as they’re a great resource for patterns. I’ve been on a bit of a sewing kick lately, but I’m sure that’ll switch to knitting soon as I’ve been queuing up a bunch of sock patterns that I want to try and I’ve been crocheting as well and writing down steps as I do them – so patterns will be up in the near future!

The first two are from DCR #5, the third is from DCR #1. I did make some adjustments to all three of them.

First dress: I added ribbon ties at the bodies to go around the neck. For the second dress, I added a lining because I really didn’t want to clip and turn the arm holes without a lining. I probably could have done it without, but I didn’t want to. For dress number 3, the pattern is actually for a top (think camisole), but I added a longer ‘skirt’ to it to make it into a dress.

Modeled by Sophie.

Modeled by Primrose.

Modeled by Eden Mouse.

I’m almost done with 2011 projects, promise! (There’ll be two more posts about 2011 projects after this one.)

These two sweaters are made from the same McCall’s pattern packet as the hooded cardigan from yesterday’s post. This one is Sweater B.

The yarns used are primarily yarns from a Japanese store (in other words, I cannot read the labels very well). The yarn content is 80% acrylic, 20% mohair in both the blue, pink and grey. The white yarn was 70% acrylic and 30% wool. All are sock-weight yarns. They were knit on 3mm (2½ US) needles.

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I’m still trying to catch up on posting photos of finished objects. Unfortunately, because of focusing on school work, there weren’t that many that I needed to get caught up on! I finished this hooded cardigan over two days. Dolly crafting is generally good for short-term projects and good for gratification. It’s not quite instant, but it’s pretty close.

The yarn used was Patons Purple Heather in 0350. The ball band listed the date of manufacture as 26/11/1973. I got the yarn from my mom, it’s from when she used to knit. I knit it on 3mm (2½ US) needles.

The pattern is from McCall’s 7841, Hooded Cardigan E.

The entire cardigan has a seed stitch border, which I find really helps ‘connect’ the entire piece together in making it seem a lot like a human-sized cardigan.

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I just wanted to do a little update! I started back at school earlier this month and I’m already busy with readings and starting to work on papers (eep!), but I just wanted to show off some of my recent doll clothing that I’ve made to fit Blythe. Everything shown was part of a swap package that I made for a dolly friend.

All the dresses are sized to fit both Blythe stock bodies and Licca bodies – in the photos below they are modeled on a Licca body (sorry for the headlessness!)

The pattern for the knit dress was made by me.

Pattern for the second dress comes from puchicollective.com.

Pattern for the third dress comes from the Doll Coordinate Recipe book #5.

Knit pattern of my own creation. I love using self-striping sock yarn for doll clothes because there’s always some kind of interesting striping pattern that comes up! Read the rest of this entry »

I’m not as proficient of a sewer as I would like to be, but I got a little bit more practice in this week! I made this trio of dresses over the course of maybe five days. Day 1 was cutting and getting all the ends fray checked. Day 2 and 3, I didn’t touch them (haha). Day 4 was sewing of the bodices and Day 5 was inverting the bodices, ironing them, ironing the parts I wanted to hem for the skirt and sewing it all together.

I also still need to figure out the gathering stitch.

Pattern from: Puchi Collective

Model: Eden
Fabric: 100% cotton, pink and white gingham.

Model: Kindred
Fabric: 100% cotton, white and blue swirly pattern.

Model: Sophie
Fabric: Unknown (been saving this remnant since forever), light purple with lightly sparkling silver stars.

I did learn a lot more this time around than the last time I sewed a Blythe dress. I used a similar pattern, both the Empire and Party dresses come from Puchi Collective and are available for free (make sure you print them out correctly!). I plan on doing a few more empire waisted dresses and then try my hand at the Party Dress pattern again. Ironing after every single step helped a lot as I didn’t do that last time… I’ve gotten a new iron since then and I love it (it’s not a craft iron, so I do watch my fingers a lot to make sure I don’t accidentally burn myself – which I have done!).

All of them close in the back with a rust-proof metal snap, I need to buy more as I only have maybe 4 pairs left in the small-enough size.

And just another bonus shot: