If you read Chaletgirls blog, which I am sure you all do, you would know that little Emmeline recently turned one.  I normally buy her kids presents but I really wanted to make this little girl something special.

I wanted to make a topsy turvey doll.  You know the ones that have a head at each end with a skirt in the middle.  They are normally fairy tale characters, like red riding hood and the wolf; or cinderalla as a maid and a princess.

I wanted to crochet it and after having a quick look on ravelry I found the gourmet crochet pattern.

I ordered it from crochet australia and received it pretty much the next day.

I used wool from Yarnplanners’s stash (thanks susie).  I was really quite surprised with how much wool this pattern uses.  I quickly ran out in a few colours so had to be a little bit creative with my colour choices.

The skirts are separated by about an inch in the middle, so you will always see the other skirt underneath.

If I made it again I would stick with two colours like the pattern has – pink and white, white and pink. Then it wouldn’t look so odd seeing the other skirt.

I got it done and I love it. This is probably the best toy that I have made so far.

I was a little late getting it to her but by all accounts she loves it too.

I wasn’t sure if I have shown you these funky friends before. I have made quite a few now and it is hard to keep up.

This is the Mitch the monkey and Steve the crocodile.

As always they were made with polar fleece which is such a forgiving fabric and so very very cuddly.

They were fairly easy to make and Paulines patterns use the same techniques with concise directons.

As you can tell we are a huge fan of her patterns.

My little boy’s favourite Disney movie has been Dumbo for quite a while.

So I recently set about finding some elephant patterns.

I started with the Audrey and Maude Edward pattern and some fabric from Amite that I picked up at the latest Brisbane Creative Living craft fair.

He turned out very cute. Susie played a big role in the fabric choice.



But even before I made him, I ran into Pauline from Funky Friends Factory (at the craft show too). Now I have made a heap of her patterns. And all of them have been great.  I still have a few more dinosaurs to make that have been on the “to do” list for years.



So I got one of her elephant patterns – Ellie. Ellie was going to be perfect for my little boy.

So Edward turned into Ella and is now owned by my little girl.

The thing that I like about the funky friends factory toys is that they are designed to be made with polar fleece. It is such a forgiving fabric and I am always happy with the results.

This is “elphun”.

He is so soft and cuddly.
I won’t say that he was difficult to make, but I think that having a basic idea about toy construction definitely helps.

So this was my evening/afternoon of sewing elephants.

I met for lunch with a few girls from work. One of them recently had a baby and I could not go without giving her something.
I have had this wee wonderfuls pattern for ages and thought I would give it a go. This is Olive from the Make-along series.

She has proper “bottom” and sits really nicely.
The doll was so easy to make and I used mostly scraps from my stash. She matches one of my handbags!

I love the wee wonderful patterns and have made quite a few of them. This one was no different. The instructions and clear and well written and lots of pictures help describe what you are doing.

Below are some my other wee wonderful creations.

It is getting so close to Christmas now that I don’t think that it matters if I post about the christmas presents that I have made my family. I am pretty sure they don’t look at my blog anyway.

Last year I took the handmade pledge. This year it seemed all a bit too hard. I don’t have the time and unfortunately with the bad exchange rate, buying on esty isn’t as cheap as it used to be.

For my nephews I made a basic qulit/playmat out of two road panels. It was a pretty quick project. I used some basting spay to adhere some batting to the wrong side of one panel. Then with right sides together, I sewed them up, turned them inside out and then topstitched a border.

As ususal it is difficult to get a photo of a quilt on the floor without ruckus (the cat) being involved.

For little Toby I made him a robot too, because all of the other cousins got one last christmas (see here).

I made my step mum a project bag. Last Christmas I have her something with a simple drawstring basg as the wrapping. I think that she used thatm ore than the gift iteself. So I made her a simple bag using corduroy as the main fabric and some of my favourite scraps for the pockets.

I wanted the pockets to be big enough to hold magazines on the sides. I also really wanted it to have long handles, but didn’t have enough fabric.

I love it so much. I love it so much athat I decided to keep it for myself and I made her another one.

Is that wrong?

I was both dreading and looking forward to making the hair for my Jill doll. (kit, cloe and louise – put together pattern)

The idea is that you wrap wool around some cardstock (old weet-bix box). Then you sew the wool down, then take the card away; creating a wig. Then you sew the wig on. Sounds simple enough. Well it was.

I had a little trouble with the cardstock bending as the wool is wrapped around. I was a also little worried about the wool slipping while sewing, so I used some tear away stabiliser along the seam.  I sewed the seam more than once – more like 8 times.

It was really quite easy to ‘tear away’ and it created a nice hair part. I think that you really have to be careful with the colour of the cotton you use though. I really should have gone with a colour exactly the same as the wool, not close enough.

Just to be different to some of the other dolls I have seen, I went for pig tails.

She is looking good so far. She now has arms and legs sewn on too. Faces are next.

I have been wanting to make the kids some dress up dolls for a long time. I was following the progress of Hillary’s “kit, chole and louise” from wee wonderfuls and immediately bought the pattern when it came up for sale.

Meet Jack and Jill.

Obviously they are still a work in progress and don’t even have their limbs sewn on yet.

Jack is already a little bit difficult.  Because he is for my little boy (18mths), I didn’t want to use yarn hair.  Instead I figured out a basic hair shape from felt and sewed it in the seams when constructing the head.  It has turned out quite ok.  I will also have to adapt some of the clothes patterns so they are a little more “boyish”.  But that is part of the challenge.

I plan on giving these to them for Christmas, so I have some time to enjoy making them. This was a project that I didn’t want to rush.

Memories of holidays are fading fast.  But while I was away I worked on and completed Sir Stephen the bunny from Interweave Crochet Magazine (summer 08) for my new baby nephew.



He was really fun to make and very cute. He is jointed so you can move his arms and legs around. The pattern calls for buttons but because this was for a baby I just left them out. I also used hat elastic to put him together just to allow a little more flexibility.

I used yarn from my stash and didn’t really have enough of anything to complete him. He is actually made from two totally different yarns. The head and main body are a brown alpaca and the ears and legs are a grey wool. They looked pretty close as balls but when completed it is hard to tell the difference.

This is my collection of beenie buddies. Before it was my collection it was an obsession.

I made this for my little girl before she was 6 months old . I was determined to have an animal for each letter of the alphabet. I bought them all through ebay and most of them in bulk lots from the US. There are a couple of duplicates and some unnecessary ones. I don’t even want to think what the total cost was.

I had trouble with a few letters and had to be a little imaginative. For V, I have a vampire bat and for Q a Quokka that I found at the Australian Geographic shop. Can you think of an animal starting with N? I ended up using a Blue Bird and called him a Nightingale.  I still don’t have anything for x/y.

I modified the shoe organiser from simplicity pattern 5124 to accommodate the toys and altered the top to fit an over the door 4 hook rack. Each pocket has the letter machine appliquéd on it.

We barely play with it but it sits over the front of my boys door with pride.

I had a fascination with creating a crochet hamburger. I looked everywhere for a pattern. A few people out there have made them and I think they are terrific. A great easy project and not a bad toy for the kids.

I found a two broken links on yarn to the max and crochetville to The Crochet File Box – which as far as I can tell, no longer exists. I cut and paste and eventually got the link for the pattern and have copied it below. After a bit more research I found that the pattern was initially published in Womens Circle Crochet (Fall 1989) as pot holders.

Here is a copy of the pattern.

Hot Burger Pot Holders

MATERIALS: Worsted weight yam: about 1 � oz beige or tan, 1 oz each of white, brown, yellow/orange and red G/6 crochet hook Yarn needle

SIZE: Each pad measures approximately 7″ across.

BASIC ROUND NOTE: Bun and hamburger are made from this Basic Round. Make in brown for hamburger, in tan and white for bun.

Rnd 1: Ch 2, 6 sc in 2nd ch from hook, do not join rounds. Rnd 2: 2 sc in each sc around. Rnd 3: *2 sc in next sc, sc in next sc, rep from * around. Rnds 4-12: Sc in each sc, increasing 6 sc in each rnd and alternating place of increases from round to round. (72 sc in Rnd 12)

HAMBURGER BUN TOP Rnds 1-12: With tan or beige make Basic Round through Rnd 12. Rnds 13-15: Sc in each sc, fasten off yam at end of Rnd 15.

INSIDE BUN: Make Basic Round in white, cut and fasten off at end of Rnd 12.

With tan yarn, sew inside of bun-to-bun top. Scatter seeds over top of bun by making 25 to 30 short stitches at random with white yarn and tapestry needle.

BURGER BUN BOTTOM

With tan yarn, rep Bun Top through Rnd 14, fasten off at end of Rnd 14. Repeat Inside of Bun Top with white. Sew two pieces together with tan yam.

HAMBURGER Rnds 1-12: With brown yam, make Basic Round through Rnd 12: Rnd 13: Sc in each sc around, fasten off. Make a second piece through Rnd 12, fasten off. Sew two sides tog with right sides facing, wrong sides out. CHEESE

The cheese is worked around the starting chain, making front and back at the same time, then closing the top with a row of single crochet.

Rnd 1: With yellow, ch 24, sc in 3rd ch from hook (turning ch counts as 1 se), sc in next 20 ch, 3 sc in end ch, turn, working back side of chain, sc in next 21 ch, mark end of Rnd. (46 sc) Rnds 2-24 (or until piece is square): Sc in each sc around. Rnd 25: Holding both sides together, sc across top to close, fasten off. NOTE: Since rounds have a tendency to veer to the right, stop every few rounds and pull work to the left until stitches seem to be straight up and down.

TOMATO SLICE

The seed effect of the tomato slice is made by bringing the hook through from the wrong side and working sc (reverse sts) with 2 regular sc separating each seed section. Each round is increased 6 sc as in the Basic Round, with increases always worked in the reverse sts (seed section) after Rnd 3 is completed. Rnd 1: With red, ch 2, 6 sc in 2nd ch from hook, do not join rnds. Rnd 2: 2 se in each sc around. Rnd 3: *2 sc in next st, reverse sc in next st, rep from * around (start of seed pattern). Rnd 4: *Sc in next 2 sc, 2 reverse sc in reverse sc, rep from * around. Rnds 5-10: From here on, sc in

each sc, reverse sc in each reverse se, increasing 1 reverse sc in each seed section, or 6 increases per round. (60 sts at end of Rnd 10) Rnds 11 & 12: Sc in each st, inc 6 sts each rnd.

Rnd 13: Working back loop only, SC in each sc around, cut yarn and fasten off.

Repeat Rnds 1‑12 for second piece. Sew 2 pieces together through both loops of Rnd 13 on first piece and through back loop of Rnd 12 on second piece.

FINISHING

Stack hamburger, cheese and tomato slice between two bun halves.

I didn’t follow the pattern and used the opportunity to try some different techniques and stitches.

I made the buns like the pattern with single crochet rounds. The burger was two rounds using double crochet and then single crocheted around the edge to sew them together. The cheese is a square of half double crochet and the tomatos are a round each of single, double and treble crochet stitches. The lettuce was the most fun. I made it double crocheting around a chain of about 6, increasing lots in random places.

Not too bad for my second third crochet project. I think I am enjoying it more than I did when I began knitting.

Big hugs and thanks also go to Donna and Lara for help with the babette pattern. It is shame we don’t all live closer. It would be nice if we could all catch up for a chat, some crafting and a refreshing ale occasionally.