PEG DOLL TUTORIAL

To make your own peg dolls you will need:
* Wooden pegs, unpainted, unvarnished (available from craft stores)
* Acrylic paints (I used Jo Sonjas)
* Wood varnish (I used a satin coating)
* 12 inch (30cm) chenille sticks, various colours
* Yarn or wool felt for clothing.
* Pigma pens (optional)
* Craft glue



The first step is to paint your pegs, as you can see I mixed up a variety of pinks, browns and whites for the skin colour. Wait until the first coat is completely dry before painting again. Once again, allow to dry.


Now paint the legs, from the centre slit down to the tips. Allow each coat to dry before doing the next. You can make the legs spotty, stripey, plain, whatever you like. Then paint the tips with a darker colour for the shoes (I used black). Paint on hair in different styles. You can paint on the face if you have a fine paintbrush, but I drew mine on with Pigma pens. A word of warning - the varnish seems to smear the pen, so avoid varnishing the face, or leave to dry for 48 hours first (I don't like to wait!)


When completely dry, coat the pegs with varnish and stand to dry. Coat again. You can use either a matt, satin or gloss varnish depending on the effect you want. Allow to completely dry.


Push a chenille stick to the top of the split in the peg. It should have fairly equal amounts on each side, but you can trim them later so don't worry too much.



Taking the chenille stick from the front, wrap it around the body of the doll twice, winding up towards the head. The last wrap should go around the back of the head and stick out at a 90 degree angle to the doll. You can see I've also bent the other stick at an angle so it doesn't get caught in the first wrapping.





Now take the chenille stick from the back and wind in the opposite direction, around the body twice again, and around the back of the neck as before. Trim the arms if they are not equal or readjust your winding.






Put a small dob of craft glue at the back, just underneath where the arms cross. This is not essential, but helps to hold them in place.
Now for the clothing. To make a knitted dress: Cast on 12 stitches (4 ply) on size 4 needles. Garter stitch (you can do stockinette stitch if you prefer) until the dress is the length you want, I think one of mine was 10 rows for a short dress, 15 for a longer one. Cast off. Wrap the dress around the doll, letting the arms stick through. Sew up at the back.
For a wool felt dress: Cut a piece of wool felt 2.5 inches x 3 inches. Holding this up to the doll, mark where you want the arms to come through. Make holes on the marked places with a seam ripper or metal skewer. Pull the arms through, wrap dress around and sew up at the back. There are lots of little embellishments you can do to make really pretty little dresses.
Another idea is to wrap the arms with embroidery floss, I might do that next time.


Now, I think every pretty girl needs a place to rest her head, watch this space for the next installment!
P.S. I would appreciate any suggestions for improvements for this tute, or any errors. Thanks!






Peg dolls!

I'll be posting the tutorial seperately seeing as it's photo heavy. But first, an introduction starring the Peg Doll Girls!


Meet Jane, an all round nice girl, everybody's friend.


This is Krishna, she loves spending time with her friends and is an adventurous cook.



Say hi to Jo, the funloving and adventurous one of the group.


This is Carmel, she's a little bossy but a big softie underneath it all.




Last but not least is Anna the fashionista. Her favourite pastime is, yep, you guessed it - shopping!
Stay tuned for the tute on how to make your own peg dolls!




GIVEAWAY!

Pop over to Lenna's blog for the chance to win a great floor lamp, I think I really need one of these!

WIP frenzy!

An art journal cover that I'm practicing hand quilting on (and I really need the practice!)

Peg dolls that are painted but as yet unclothed, I'm trying to figure the best way to dress them without interfering with the attached arms. Hopefully I'll have a tute up for these soon too :)

A pair of shorts for one of the girls from recycled clothing.




And, last but not least, a sewing table that is an absoloute disaster zone!!
That's what you get for working on too many projects at once!


Lovely, lovely!

I've been shopping just a little for some "essentials". A few bright and pretty fabrics, some lovely hand dyed wool felt from Winterwood and wooden clothes pegs to make peg dollies with the girls.
It is a near perfect spring morning here, I hope you enjoy your day wherever you are.

Pin cushion eye candy!


Yes, I've been on Flickr, couldn't you just spend all day there, so much to see! I do love pin cushions, I can't believe I still haven't gotten around to making myself one (or one hundred - I like them that much!) This cute little arrangement is by Lucy's Daughter.



Strangely interesting? A halloween pin cushion by lollihops.


And my personal favourite by Picalilli Days. Fabulous!!

Now, time to stop procrastinating, I have assignments to do.
See you soon!

Free sewing

We tend to be a hand - me - down magnet as a family which is mostly a good thing, but involves sorting through bags of clothes we often don't want and that end up in the charity bin. Recently I saved a few items that were made with nice fabric but in a style I didn't like or were too big for my girls. Cut out the seams etc. and ta - da! Free fabric.
So here is the first installment, a top made from 2 other tops. The crocheted flower was a gift, so, apart from the thread and the sweat of my brow the top was completely free.

GIVEAWAY!

Some cute hair accessories over at Nadine's blog - I can see these in my girl's hair!

Help needed!

I have a growing interest in Crewel embroidery but haven't gone so far as to buy the crewel wool needed yet. The design above is a simple one from a crewel work book which I worked in stranded floss. I'd love to have lots of little framed embroideries around my home, so this one will be the first. I actually want to do one for the laundry, seeing as I spend so much time in there these days and it's possibly the least attractive room in the house!

I love hand embroidery very much and hope to increase my skills to teaching level one day. It is such a rewarding pastime and is so rich in history.


I do have one problem (see above). My mother in law kindly gave me her embroidery tin many years ago and this is what sparked my interest. Each new lot of cotton I buy ends up in here - a tangled mess! I would like to treat my cotton respectfully and increase my stash, but this is holding me back. I'll consult my friend Google for solutions, but if anyone has any helpful suggestions I would be most grateful!



GIVEAWAY!

Sarah is having a great fabric giveaway over at The Last Piece, hope I win! (Or at least if I don't, I hope you do :))

PHEW!!

What a week! I attempted this sketchy self portrait tonight, which not only doesn't look like me, it also doesn't convey the intended message- that is, I'm exhausted! It started on Monday with a trip to Emergency for a suspected broken arm (our 2 year old, not me!) Several hours and x - rays later the patient began using her arm again as though nothing had happened, we now think it was a dislocation that popped back in when being handled for the x - rays. Mid week I was "sprung" with the surprise that 2 nieces would be arriving on my doorstep at an hour's notice. After a 3 night stay and a baby who insists on crying nearly all day, every day, I was starting to feel a little put out and frazzled. The nieces (who are lovely, by the way) have now been delivered to another destination and we are back home resting after the lengthy drive.

Now here's the best part. As you know, I've been dutifully handwashing since my washing machine broke down. Ta - da! I now have a new, larger and better washer and all is right with the world again.
And now to enjoy the rest of the weekend, hopefully with the absence of any phantom broken limbs or unexpected house guests!

Tagged.....

By Ophelia, thank you for bestowing the honour upon me once again!

What is a very interesting fact about you?

I did ballet as a youngster for 6 years. One of my teachers wanted me to audition for a national travelling performance but my mother wouldn't allow it. I wasn't very happy about that!

What are two things in this world that you love very much?
God and my family.

What's the last thing you ate?
Porridge for breakfast this morning (note last post!)

Who is your favorite movie/book character?
Anne from Anne of Green Gables.

What is your favorite colour?
Don't have a favourite but I prefer "warm" colours to "cool".

Are you random?
No.

Do you have a totem animal?
Someone would have to explain what that is - I have no idea.

How many people follow your main blog?
69

What is your favorite animal?
I have a bit of a "thing" for alpacas at the moment!


Downhill or Cross-Country skiing?
No thank you.

Soda or water?
Water.

Weekends vs. School days?
Any day as long as it's a good one.

Trees or flowers?
Flowering trees?

REGULAR QUESTIONS

What is your favorite movie?
The Passion of the Christ.

What is your favorite book?
Lots, but a few would be:
Anne of Green Gables (the whole series)
Little House Series
Anything design or crafty that inspires me.
"Your Vocation of Love", Agnes Penny.

How long have you been on blogger for?
Almost 18 months

Who are you going to tag?
Romi Jade
Gilly

"Porridge is knowledge!"

A woman I used to care for in a nursing home would often say "porridge is knowledge!" (RIP Ludmilla - lovely lady). I myself am so enthused about porridge that I'm posting about it today. I think of it as a sort of all round superfood. It is very cheap, very healthy, and very filling. Not to mention it tastes good. If you're also a porridge enthusiast here is a brief historical account and some Scottish recipes here.
Just don't you dare make it salty like my mother in law used to! YUK!


We are so blessed to have had a lot of rain at this time and the garden really has some marvels to show for it. I don't know that it has ever looked as lush.

The rather unattractive colourbond back fence is now completely dominated with flowering jasmine and dolocus.

And, most exciting, there are more than 3 apricots on the tree this year! Now the challenge is to convince the birds that we actually love them more than they do.

What I've been up to.....

Apart from lamenting my washing machine situation (I have to wait a week just to get someone here to look at it!) I've been fitting in a bit of crafty time (in between being stuck in the laundry handwashing). Above is a needle felted lady, my second attempt at needle felting. Very enjoyable.


Also on the needle felting front, a wee bundled baby for one of my baby girls. This little one was also the cause of my first needle felting related injury in the form of a stabbed thumb. Ouch!


I hope you're not tired of the Miss Madlines yet, because I'm obviously not! This little one is for a cute, cute niece of mine, about 18 months old.



No one misses out in this house. Blog readers, meet Rosy - Rosy meet blog readers. She is one of my girl's constant companion, so I made them matching dresses with the leftovers from Corrine's fabric.
Happy Saturday to you all, wherever you are and whatever you're doing!


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