Pillow- and blanket case for the doll bed..

My mom thought, that a doll should change it’s bedding every once in a while.

And by now in know, Moms are always right ;)

That’s why I have the whole thing in yellow here with sewing instructions.

1.     Measure the pillow and the blanket. In my case the measurements for the pillow are 9”x6.2” and for the Blanket 15”x10.2”.

2.     You can cut the fabric in one piece. That means, the length times 2 plus the tuck-in of approx. 4” plus the seam allowance of approx. 0.4”-0.8” times width.

For the pillow that would be 9 + 9 + 4 + 0.8 = 22.8” length and 6.2 + 0.8 = 7 width.

But since I don’t have that big of a piece of fabric I cut the back piece with 9”x6.2” plus the seam allowance and the front piece with 13” (length + tuck in) x 6.2” plus seam allowance. 

3. Sew together one short end of the front and back piece. 

4. On the stitched side of the front piece, wrap the added 4” tuck-in, pin it and if you want staple along the side together so the fabric won’t get out of place, when you sew the front and back pieces together.

I have to admit, I should’ve ironed the fabric before, but if I don’t have to, I fight against it! Ironing is just really boring and in time the wrinkles disappear anyways. I know, I am lazy..

The tuck-in serves the purpose, to later hide the pillow in it. 

5. Lastly, sew the front and back pieces right on right on both long sides and on the not yet sewed short end together.

Obviously the short end with the tuck-in won’t be sewed together, so you can insert the

pillow/blanket later on.

Done.



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Finally the dolls have a face..

Pattern rag doll

Until now I didn’t dare to give the rag dolls faces.

Especially when I think about, how hard I worked on the eyes and nose of the stuffed bunnies. And one of the bunnies still looks like as if he’s not in his right mind.

I didn’t want to deform the dolls with a crooked face.

And on top of it Vladimir thought, that it would look better, if the dolls got realistic eyes. But there is still the nose, that’s missing. How am I going to put that on that flat face?

But then I found these pictures of rag dolls with different faces in an old 70ies- house wife craftwork book from my mom and even Vladimir had to admit, that the friendliest looking ones had simple eyes and mouth.

I scanned the page. I know, the quality is bad and the faces hard to recognize, but maybe you can get an idea. The doll on the left bottom is definitely my favorite.

So, authentic faces to and fro, they’re just rag dolls and button eyes and a simple mouth look the best. And to make those was no problem with Stricktwist.

What an effect a friendly face can have. Before our little Irma didn’t know what to do with the dolls, now she gives them more attention. And I even caught her hugging and embracing the doll.

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Irma’s doll gets a friend..

Pattern for rag doll

I was a little annoyed, that the first rag doll’s hair didn’t work that well. I smuggled the bangs into the tails, so they wouldn’t stick in all directions.

So I sewed Irma another one, before the first one even had a face.

Doll number 2 got red hair like Pippi Longstocking and no bangs. I tried really hard to sew even more strands in and left them all long.

Anyway now the doll has enough hair on her head, to try out different hair styles.

But until Irma will do that, it will take a little while.

I am satisfied, but this doll doesn’t have a face yet either. I have to get to work on that soon, because without eyes and a mouth the dolls look a little creepy.

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Red Velvet Cake Pops for Ada..

For Ada’s 5th birthday I dabbled at making Cakepops for the first time.

Therefor I used the recipe of a Sockerkaka (easy Swedish Sugarcake/ Sandcake)

3 eggs

0.8 cups sugar

1 1/4 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons backing powder

3.5 oz melted butter

0.4 cups milk

approx. 1/2 teaspoon lemon oil

1.     Beat eggs and flour until fluffy.

2.     Add all the other ingredients, except the butter.

3.     At the end slowly add melted butter, so the eggs won’t curdle.

4.     Put dough in a greased form and bake at 347F for approx. 30-40min.

Frosting:

3.5 oz butter

3.5 oz powder sugar

3.5 oz creme cheese

a couple of drops lemon oil

red food coloring

Icing:

0.5 Ibs white couverture

0.7 oz coconut fat

1.     Let cake cool down and remove crispy ends. Then crumble cake in a bowl with your hands.

2.     Add frosting spoonwise to the dough crumbs and blend. You don’t have to use all the frosting, only so much, that the dough is easily moldable (like play dough).

3.     Form balls out of the dough and pu in freezer for about 20min.

4.     Let the couverture melt with the coconut fat in a bain-marie and insert the sticks around 0.4-0.8” and stick into the cold Cakepops. 

5.     Put the Cakepops again for 15min into the freezer.

6.     Then dip into the melted couverture and turn carefully.

7.     While the icing is not dry yet, decorate Cakepops however you please.

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Dolly can now sleep better at night..

I rummaged for lacquer paint at home. The doll bed is so little, it’s not worth it to buy new paint.

Conveniently, we still had loads of paint you could call old rose and a little white.

Well, painting the big furniture pieces in Irma’s room was way easier, because I only used one color.

Because I chose 2 colors for the bed, I had to touch up some spots a bunch of times and it took me three days. I only had time in the evening and you can only see the mistakes in daylight.

But now it’s finished and in addition I also sewed a new bedding. The old one was pretty, but a little frumpy.

Irma testet das neue Puppenbett

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