More Halloween up at Ebay

I listed this mummy doll today at Ebay. She's another of my half dolls, meaning they have no legs and are built on dowels and bases. Instead of a painted face this one has embroidered features. I did the embroidery by hand for this face years ago and never used it. Thought this would be a good doll to use it for. She's dressed in tea stained muslin and cheesecloth. The muslin cat she holds is sewn from muslin and is wrapped in cheescloth. Type creativestitches in the ebay search to find this and my other items.

I finished a witch last night and I love her. She's one of those things I make where I'm tempted to keep instead of sell. I'll post more about her when I get her listed. Tonight I'll be working on a new pumpkin lady that's also a witch. If I can get her hat done she'll be ready for her pictures. I'm trying out new shapes of hats and I'm really pleased with the first hat so I'm hoping this shape will be great, too.

Halloween items up at Ebay and shuttles at Etsy

I'm listing Halloween decor at Ebay under the seller name creativestitches. The picture above shows a witch cat holding a metal cage with 2 birds inside. The cat and the others are half dolls. That means they are built on wood dowels and bases. They have no legs but with the base they stand.

This is my vampire queen. Yeah, I know the photo's sideways but that's one of the weird problems with blogger.

This is Yvette, a pumpkin princess. She has a wire crown.

Here's another pumpkin lady.

Over at Etsy I put up aerlit tatting shuttles. I have some new colors.

If you are a fan of true pink then this is the shuttle for you.

Here's a new blue shuttle. Notice that the bobbins are the sky bobbins also used for the carribean sky shuttle and sold as packaged sets of bobbins. I seldom carry any of the color bobbins but I do can the pearl clear ones for the aerlits.

It's been a while

It's been a slow summer for me. I just couldn't seem to want to find the time to update the website and here on the blog. You'll notice I now have another page tab. It's for my pincushion patterns. Right now there's just Buttons, the bear. I'm working on an elephant I hope to have done before the end of the year.

News about Dollmakers Journey. They recently added my pincushion pattern and the spring and summer tatting patterns. Have a look at the tatting patterns even if you don't tat. I include directions for each of the items the tatting is attached to. For example, in the summer pattern you get directions for 2 purses along with a case for business cards, a ring bearers pillow, and chair pockets with a pincushion on the top. All for only $12! You'd probably pay that much for just the bucket purse directions.

New Pattern, Buttons the pincushion bear

This is a close-up of my newest pattern. It's for a felt bear sitting on a fabric pincushion. The pincushion is then attached to a container. I used a plastic icing container and give directions on decorating it but any container with a lid could be used. You could even use a decorated gift box. I've seen some nice ones at my local Dollar Tree that would work great. The pattern is available at my Etsy store right now and soon I'll get it up at my Patternmart store. The price is $8 for a PDF version. No printed version until next week.

The reason for no printed version of the pattern is that my printer finally stopped working. It won't even turn on now so yesterday I ordered a new one. I really hate having to replace it since it worked great for so many years. Fingers crossed this one is a good one, too.

This is the cover picture for the pattern.

A little more about this pattern. It was designed for Soft Dolls & Animals magazine last fall and was to be in one of the spring issues. Sadly they stopped production with the Dec/Jan issue. I rewrote the directions in Publisher and now it's ready for sale. I'm planning on designing more. I have a rabbit and a cat waiting to be "dressed" and an elephant and mouse waiting to be sewn.

I guess doll making isn't as popular as it once was. It's truly sad to have seen so many doll magazines end over the years. One woman who was involved in the business for many years was Gloria "Mimi" Winer. I was so shocked to find she passed away this past Feb. When I was first dipping my toes into the business I wrote her a letter asking a lot of questions and telling her about my problems with panic attacks. She surprised my by calling. In fact she called a few times just because she said she was thinking about me and wondered how I was. She was a treasure in the doll making world and I'm sure many of us will miss her. I found her husband is still keeping her business going so google her name to find places where you can buy her patterns and back issues of the newsletter she used to publish. I own a few of the patterns and they are fantastic! I also have all of the newsletters.