sew nice...

before christmas i had the grand idea that i would make hand made dolls and books to go along with them for all of the children in our lives...this sounded like a great idea, like so many things in my head do.
but the reality is that sewing hand made dolls and taking pictures of hand made dolls and writing books for hand made dolls becomes quite the encumbering task.

i was still working on the dolls the week of christmas.

i was taking pictures and going to walgreens to have the pictures taken...because my original idea of having books made through a service didn't fit into my plan of procrastination. also, if i would have done that i would have saved myself the sideways glances i received from the photo technician as i picked up the weirdo pictures i had taken to go along with the books.

anyway, eventually the dolls were made and the books were written and i was ready for gift giving.

until i saw the commercial where the guy receives a pair of hand made mittens and says "the truth about hand made gifts is...that nobody likes them."

at this point my head flooded with anxiety.

i made dolls because i thought they were more thoughtful...and now i was afraid i was going to look cheap! oh, well. if only the recipient knew how many hours were put into each doll (about 5) and knew how painstakingly i chose fabric and stitched names then maybe they would appreciate the effort.

in all, i made 10 dolls.

before this i had never followed a pattern. i sewed quite a few things, but never anything with a pattern and i was quite pleased with myself. i even felt confident enough to take on new projects.

since the dolls, i have made curtains for my kitchen (which i do not have a picture of) and a pair of boots for margo for her birthday.

i've decided what i love about sewing with a pattern is that i never have to worry about if the project will actually serve the function it is intended to serve....yet, the pattern leaves room for creativity where i can add things that i would like to add...like the buttons and owls on margo's boots and the names, pockets, initials, flowers that were added to the kids' dolls.
i have a swing coat in the makes for harper and little baby girl for the fall. i am also planning on making a quilt out of the baby clothes i have saved from each kid and i have put that project off since we knew we were still anticipating the fourth contributor to the baby clothes madness...

we'll see how far i get with that...