Once upon this time there is a darling 3 year old, (named Lily) who inspired me to create the Lily Doll Project- a year long celebration of delight, joy and creativity.
When Lily’s Mamma, Elena Kawachi, posted pics of little Miss Lily taking her first steps into the world of ballet, I couldn’t resist designing a tutu for Lily Doll, woven on the Mirrix Chloe loom.
And because ballerinas need to stay warm after class, I designed a wee shrug for Lily Doll, too. The kit for the shrug and tutu are available at LINK
The Shrug also looks great with the Pinafore Pocket Dress (kit also available on the Lily Doll page LINK)
Here’s to the joy of woven dolls and imagination! Hope you’ll join us in the delightful, healing art of dollmaking and make your own, unique version of Lily Doll and her friends! <3
It’ s the festive season, so I designed a party dress for Lily Doll:
And, then I discovered that there is enough yarn in the Party Doll kit to be able to weave the Pinafore Dress (with a pocket!), so, I asked Elena and Claudia at Mirrix if we could add the Pinafore Dress to the Party Dress kit. They thought that that was a great idea. 😀
It struck me that people might want to weave the Lily Doll in a way that is unique to them. I love exploring creative and imaginative options, so I decided to weave a doll using the Lily Doll Pattern, but to change things up a little.
Well, LOL…. I ended up having to weave her arms twice, because I managed to (HUH?!?!) mess them up on the first go. Okay, so I un-picked them and wove them again. Got it right this time. Whew.
Then, I was weaving too late at night, when, thanks to Long Covid, my cognitive function isn’t always at the top of the loop- oops… and I wove the body in plain white, which I hadn’t meant to do. Went to bed shaking my head. Got up the next morning and wove the body using Herringbone technique. (I’ll do another post about weaving Herringbone on the Chloe loom). YAY! Got it right!
Next, I merrily wove her legs using pick and pick in tapestry technique which mysteriously gave her very out of proportion legs. Sigh. Un-wove them and wove them in pick and pick, but THIS time, I used the tabby technique. AND YAY! The legs are totally tickety boo…. whew…..
And, luckily, her dear little head (using the pink and purple yarn and hand dyed silk left over from the Party and Pinafore Dresses kit) turned out perfect the first time round…. so…. here she is!
Lily Doll would like to introduce her cousin, Lally Doll!
and here they are, wearing the Party Dress and the Pinafore with a Pocket Dress:
Ooh, I am so delighted with them! Even though I seemed to get so much wrong on the way to getting Lally Doll right, she was totally worth the effort.
The Herringbone technique is explained in step by step photos in my book: Innovative Weaving on the Frame loom. It, and the kits and patterns for the Lily doll project are all available at: LINK
I have fallen in love with carving flowers on my wooden spoon wooden dolls.
Nowadays, I carve the wooden spoon part of my wooden dolly spoons in the shape of a heart, to symbolize gathering and sharing love and kindness.
This Hearts and Flowers Sister is about 6 inches/15 cm tall and is a celebration of the river and the ocean and flowers and butterflies and dragonflies:.
To be honest, she’s also about dreaming of much much gentler weather than we are experiencing right now.
We have had a brutally long ferociously cold spell of winter, and I am so longing for Springtime, and for flowers to be in bloom
instead of blistering icy cold shattering winds!
I miss the ocean, and it’s so cold that I am not even going out to say hello to the river, even though we live close to it.
so I carved flowers as a love song to the flowers and waves for my longing to walk along the ocean’s shore:
It has been such a long time since the dragonflies danced in our neighbourhood
and of course, the butterflies are cozy in their cocoons, dreaming of springtime…
Seriously…. Springtime, I am longing for you!
I carved ‘Springtime’s Sister and the next blog post is all about her. LINK
Tottie Talks Crafts Blog 