Didn't think I would make it today, but I finished this one.

It has been a long day and it is still early afternoon. I woke up for some reason at 4:30am today. Wide awake and could not get back to sleep. Got up and did the dishes I didn't do last night Oops! Then opened some windows and took care of the cat's needs. By 6am my daughter emailed me and said to let her know when I got up and she would call me so did that and talked to her for an hour. At least by then John was up so that I could go and do some sewing. So, that is how my day started.

I wanted to work on an outfit for one of the 32 inch walking dolls I got yesterday so pulled the fabric from my stash, made a pattern for the dress, cut it out and sewed it up. Then I wanted an apron on her and it has been ages since I had made one so that took a lot longer than I thought it would. I don't use a pattern, just cut and sew.

I had done the hair yesterday and cleaned her up so at least she was ready for clothing today. I thought she could use a necklace so found a little heart locket and added a ribbon in the same color.

I hope you like her because I think she came out really cute.

So now I think it is time to go take a nap or I will fall asleep watching tv tonight.

What do I do next????

I have bears to finish for a online show in November, and I have dolls to dress. Right now I have 6 dolls to dress. What to I do first...that is a good question and here is sit at the computer.

I know I will get one bear finish tonight because it is just finishing up the seams and I can do that while I am sitting and watching my tv programs. Then tomorrow maybe I can get to the other bears I want to finish for the show. I am having problems getting them stuffed because my hands and wrists hurt when I do it. I will just have to do part of it at a time I guess.

But then, I want to dress some of those dolls. I have all these poor naked babies sitting and staring at me when I walk into my studio. All I can say is sorry babies, I can't do you all at once.

Today, I picked up two of the dolls from Goodwill. They were a mess but then that is not how I look at them. I look at them as what they will look like. They did have dresses on but cheap little china made dresses and I can see them in a nice cotton dress with a white pinafore. The hair was another thing and that I have already taken care of. Washed, conditioned and set. They came out beautiful. One had shoes but I had to buy socks for both and the shoes for the one.

Now I didn't even tell you what size these dolls were. They are a big 32 inches tall and are walking dolls. They are going to make someone very happy when they get them. They may be recycled and they may have been made in china but to some little girl, they are going to be their pride and joy.

I will post some pictures as I get them done, so stay tuned.

Now we are on to some little dolls.

I am not thrilled with doing dolls under 15 inches. I like the feel of a bigger doll and the clothing is so much easier to do. In among all the dolls that I have bought, which my hubby thinks is way to many, I got a few little modern plastic dolls that had just been thrown in with the order. I decided, what the heck, might as well dress them and sell them too.

So here are so of the dolls that I did this to. First is a little 10 inch doll. She has such a sad look on her face. I thought she look like a little girl who needed an old fashion type print dress. She has her hair cut in a pageboy and this is the way I use to look when I went to school as a child. Not the sad face though because I loved school. She just has that old doll style doll face. She is a soft plastic and vinyl doll and I know someone will fall in love with the look. Her tiny feet are only 1 1/4 inches long and boy were those shoes hard to make. They are felt but I don't do any hand sewing unless I really, really have to, so they are machine sewn.

The second doll, which I did first is 14 inches tall and to me another of the school girl look. I found this small piece of black and white cotton fabric in my stash that has a blackboard look to it with all the writing on it. Of course, that called for a white blouse and I found another little piece of white on white heart fabric in my stash. Made up in a really cute blouse and enough left over to make the panties. These black felt shoes were easier to make and the socks too.

You must have surmised by now that I am a fabricholic. Yes, I must admit, I can't pass up a bargain on fabric or even dolls. I have a double wide closet full of fabric plus a shelving unit full of fabric. It is a good thing there are no fabric stores in town any more since WalMart quite their fabric department, or I would have lots more. I probably could never buy another piece of material and sew every day until I can no longer sew and I still wouldn't use all the fabric I have.

Now the dolls are another subject and my hubby is getting a little worried that I have bought too many and that they will not sell. I figure, and I hope that I am right, that with the holidays coming up, there will be lots of sales at the shows I am doing and from the website.

Final note: I talked about the fabric I have and some day I will talk about all the faux furs I have. You see, bears were the main thing that I made for a long time and now I have fur stacked from floor to ceiling on a 4 foot wide shelving unit. Then there is always all the supplies that go with all of this sewing.

Another day for that subject...................

Another day - Another Goodwill find.

Here is my latest find at the Goodwill thrift store. Wednesdays are senior day and it is always crowded but being a senior means I get a 25% discount, so we always stop there before we do our grocery shopping.

So I picked through all the dolls that they had available and I see this big doll and it is heavy. Had a battery area in its backside and the contacts inside the case look clean and the doll, who you could tell had been played with, was dirty plus the hair was messy. The price was good so we bought her.

When we got home I washed her and her jumpsuit and then brushed out the messy hair and set it and put her out in the sun to dry. After she was dry I combed out the curls in her hair and put them back in the little ponytails that the doll was set up to have.

Then it was time to do some research and see if I could find out what kind of doll it was. After an hour or so looking though collectibles dolls and a few other websites, I found her. She is a Baby Loves to Talk doll, made in 1992 by Toy Biz Company. She was designed and sold as a promotion doll of the year in Toys R' Us. She was called the most innovative toy of the year in France and the best toy and doll of the year in Australia's Family Fun magazine who named her the Best Doll of the year.

Now that I found all that about her, I wanted to see if she talks. She requires 4 "C" batteries. I looked all over this house and could only find 3 "C" batteries. Bummer!! So in the car we go to the dollar store to get batteries as now we were both curious as to what she does. The store is less than 2 miles from the house so we were only gone about 10 minutes. Get back home and after fighting with the blister packs to get them open, hate blister packs, I put the batteries in and it said to kiss her forehead and tip her head. Nothing. Take the batteries out and try again. Nothing. Now this was getting frustrating and I was bound and determined to see if I could do something else to make her talk. Decided maybe the contacts needed to be cleaned so did that and put the batteries in again and then hit the reset button. She talked! Now we had to see what else she said so for about an hour we listened to her as she said different things and moved her mouth and blinked her eyes. She is soooo cute! Also in my research it said if she said a word wrong to repeat the word and she would say it right. It worked! What a great doll.

I know that some of you may remember this doll as it is only 18 years old and some may have had her as a child or bought one for your child. I am going to have a hard time parting with her but I will be selling her. I have so many dolls now and I know I will be buying more and I am quickly running out of room. I truly do enjoy the hunt for dolls of all kinds and then turning them into a clean like new doll for someone else to enjoy.

My winning entries

Finally I am able to post the winning entries I had in our Mohave County Fair. This has been a month long adventure. First was trying to decide if I was going to enter anything in the fair and this being the first time that I had ever done anything like this, I didn't know what I should enter. I changed several times before I got the final decision made. From there it was deciphering the entry form on the internet. So many divisions and so many categories and sub categories to choose from. The easy part was being able to enter on the internet and not having to print everything out and mailing it in. The forms had to be in almost a month before the actual fair.

So now were the 3 trips to Kingman. The fair grounds are over the mountains and a 100 mile round trip. The first trip was to get the things there a week before the fair so that they could be judged, the second trip was to see if I won anything once the fair was open and then finally yesterday was to go pick everything back up after the fair closed.

I am happy that everything I entered won a First Place ribbon and am really happy that the Fairy Princess won a Best of Class ribbon. I do get a little money from all this but that is not why I entered this competition. I just wanted to see if anything I design and make would be judged by others as good. There were 100's of entries in my division and so I am very pleased that mine all won top honors.

From here these items will all be available on my website and I hope that you will take a look and with Christmas coming up soon, you will decide if anything I have will fit into your budget.

I have several craft shows that I am doing this fall and everything that is on my website will also be shown at shows. Shop early if you see something you want and with 50% down, I will hold an item for you in layaway.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and tell you friends about it as I really do need more followers.

Poor Strawberry

Poor little Strawberry. She had so many problems when I got her in the mail. Her body was so dirty and she had red and pink strips in her unkepted hair plus one eye was not all there. She looked like she had been truly loved but then discarded in a box. I found her and tried my best to clean her up. She use to be a Mattel Sneezy doll, dated 1975, that when you pressed her tummy, she would sneeze and her head would go up and down. I suspect that the original mommy decided she needed a bath and put her in water and all the stuff that make her work leaked out and all over her hair and body. It had to have been red and this gave her the red streaks in the hair but the body is a soft vinyl and it made the body a purple tint. I tried and tried to get the body streaks to go away but to no avail. They are lighter but she will never be like new again. Even her little fingernails and toenails were a blue/purple color. And then there was the poor eye.

Oh what, oh my, what was I going to do with a this sweet little doll with a cute little face. Surely she could come to life again and be loved by another mommy.

After working on the body for two days, and being frustrated in not being able to get the streaks out of her, I decided to work with them. First was repair the eye. A little paint and pens took care of that and now she has dark blue eyes that twinkle at you. Next was the mouth which had no color so a little red took care of that and the blue fingernails and toenails are red too. She was beginning to look better. Then to tackle the hair. A good roller setting and a few hours in the sun and she had curls. There is still the red in the hair but now they looked like they were meant to be there.

Now it was time to work on clothing. The legs had to be covered so after a couple of tries I got her a pair of flesh colored tights made and that covered up all the ills on her legs. Had to pick out some fabric for her and I found this little piece of strawberry print fabric and used that to make her a dress with long sleeves to cover the rest of her body. Of course she had to have shoes too so a piece of green felt and shoes were created for her.

So now you know that she had to have a new name to go with the red in her hair and the strawberry print dress. Strawberry, what else could she be named! Now she is all ready to be loved by a new mommy.

You can see her and the rest of her pictures on my website where she is now for sale.
http://www.ejcraft.com

I WON, I WON

Not much time to write tonight because it is almost bed time but I did have to come and tell you about my day.

I had entered four items, a faux fur black dog, a faux fur long haired teddy bear, a Emma doll, the four face doll, and a green suedecloth fairy princess into the Mohave County Fair. Last week we drove them over to the fair grounds so they could be judged before the fair opened. Today the fair opened so we drove back over the mountains again to see if any of my items had at least placed.

Surprise, surprise!!! I won a First Place ribbon on all four of the items. Then I also won a Best of Class ribbon on the Fairy Princess.

I took some pictures but because you couldn't get close to anything they didn't turn out well. I will have to wait now until Tuesday evening when back over the mountains we go again to pick up all the stuff.

I am thrilled as this is the first time I had ever entered anything into the fair competition. There were probably 200 to 300 entries in my division so I think I did very well.

Nite all.