Bunny Baby

Who is napping on my bed?

Oh it's you! This Bunny Baby was made as a commission and was obviously needing a rest before its long journey to Canada.

The idea is an old one;  dolls with soft bodies and plastic face and sometimes hands have existed long. I have replaced the plastic bits with Waldorf type head and hands. In Maricristine Sealey's book "Making Waldorf Dolls" she shows something similar, but not quite the same. This is naturally my own pattern.

The animal ears are also a used theme.  I can remember seeing at least bunny ears and teddy ears on bought dolls. I offer choice of bunny, mouse, teddy, cat and "beagle" ears. You can have the baby without ears as well. It looks quite sweet with a pointy hood instead.

This is the doll which is more suited for a younger child. Very young children like to cuddle soft toys, throw them about, cart them around in buggies, bags and buckets. There is none or almost no interest in changing clothes for a dolly. To start with the fine motor skills won't allow for this anyway.

The doll's face is made from the same skin fabric, 100% cotton interlock jersey, as the other dolls. The features are embroidered as are the wisps of the hair to make the dolly more durable and safe for the smallest. It would be quite an experience for a little one who is still in his/her mouthing period to get a mouth full of mohair yarn. It is possible to make a little fringe of cotton, but it is not as durable option as the embroidered one.

 The filling is sheep wool, just like the other dolls. And as I just cannot make a doll without ANY clothes, she got a little skirt on. It has an elastic waist, so it is an easy "starter" piece of clothing both for taking off (which happens first) and putting back on. A Boy Bunny would wear elasticated short trousers.

The Bunny Baby is wearing a onesie made of high cotton content velour in colour choice of the customer.

This Bunny Baby ate lots of food before the travel, so her tummy is nice and round. She is ready for hugs and cuddles with her new dolly mummy.

She needed something to travel in apart from the normal packaging, so she got her own tote to travel in comfort.

 

Have you made anything inspiring for the younger children?

The three sisters

 

These two are now ready to travel to their new home.
Their little sister here did go earlier.

Isn't she cute? She is the youngest sister of the three I made. I have a friend who commissioned three dolls from me, one for each of her daughters. She is adopting the youngest one and is giving each of the girls a Waldorf doll with their features and favourite colour clothes. The picture is courtesy of my husband. I didn't get to take more pictures of the "baby" as she travelled to her new home earlier than the older ones.

I love to make these dolls as custom made orders. They become so special because I think about the child and their personality while I am making the doll with care and love. The dolls are obviously not strictly traditional Waldorf dolls, I play with adding features like eyebrows and sometimes dimples. My dolls are also in sewn clothes rather than in knitted ones. I do though honour the idea of natural materials. They are filled with sheep wool, which makes them really lovely to cuddle. Everybody wants to hold them, children and adults alike. This baby has actually also a knitted jumper she took home with her.

Now, let me indulge in the pictures of the two older sisters. Here is the oldest sister posing in her dress. Don't be fooled to think that she can stand. She is cleverly supported from behind, hence the sightly odd pose.

She can wear her boots up long and her warm sweater and be ready to go anywhere!

She has a lovely messenger bag and nice wooden bead bracelets.

 Here is the middle sister in her dress. She likes clashing colours.

 

She too has a sweater and a bag. And a very curly hair!

Her bag is keeping the dress safe on the way home.

The sisters do like each other.

And then for the unashamed self-promotion: Would you like to order a doll like these? I am open for orders and will send worldwide. I take payment through PayPal. You can email me for prices, if you are interested. I also make boy dolls and dolls suitable for younger children (0-3).
As the dolls require quite a lot work, you need to allow 4 weeks for making of a doll. (I might be quicker, but as a caution do calculate with 4 weeks as a standard). I would love to hear from you!

Dolly

First apologies for the mess the blog lay-out is in. I just don't seem to get hang of the new system and don't know when I have time to try to sort it out.

When adopting the adoptive parents are encourage to buy one toy for the child to have with him/her during the whole transition phase, moving from the foster home to the adoptive home with the child. Being me I made one. I chose to make a Waldorf style doll with our daughter's hair and eye colour. I believe that a toy made with love and thinking of the recipient carries a different energy from a toy purchased from a shop.

The doll is filled with sheep wool, in true Waldorf style. I used an excellent book "Making Waldorf Dolls" by Maricristin Sealy as my guide. The book has very "homemade" looks, as the illustrations are drawings. It is not a hip lay-out at all, but the contents are great. I have used several patterns from it and it is herewith declared as one of my treasured sewing bibles.

This is what Elf Daughter's Dolly gets up to:

 
Dolly is a free spirit!

Sniff, sniff atchiooo....!

 Ok, I am a bad blogger, if you have an award for it, just send this way. First we went on summer holidays and then all the school starting business took me by surprise. It is as if it never had happened before; the search for shoes, the PE kit, the sandshoes...and the whole thing getting back to the routine was as if I had never tried it. Now that everything should be smooth and running I went and got a bad case of cold. I told this virus when I felt it coming that a) I don't do colds and b) September was certainly not the time! The virus was not impressed and I have been languishing in my bed the best part of the last week and am still not OK. I am up and doing things, but the batteries are not quite charged yet.
 My crafting has come to a halt too, because of all the above mentioned, so I will show you a couple of things I managed to squeeze in during the holidays.

I had seen on the net a nice idea for an "extra draining board". I am apologising, because I cannot remember at all, where this might have been, just telling you that this was not my original idea. Of course you can use any towel for the job, but this one is a dedicated one and I got to cram some delicious fabrics in it. In this way I can see them every day in my kitchen. The back is made of an old handtowel, which I did not use any more.

We were visiting my family in Finland and my sister S had just given birth to a little baby boy H. I was talking to her about baby clothes before I went (or actually even thought about going) and she was saying that she needed a few more pieces, so this is what I made. It is all made from thrifted cotton sweaters and t-shirts. The only new thing is the buttons.

The little niece L, who got the rag doll in February had also her second birthday. This time I had not had any time to prepare as our decision to go was made two days before the departure. Luckily Grandma had a great project, which I could help with! She had dug up my sister A's old doll's bed and bought a baby doll. Now the bed needed bedding, which was sweetly made out of little L's dad's aka my brother's old baby cot sheets.

That was the present as Grandma had imagined, but us being two to dream up things, we did not leave it at that. I thought that the baby needed a change of clothing

Then I thought that if the little baby was invited to a party, it would not suffice to wear PJs or rompers, so I made a dress and a shirt.

And while I was sewing all this Grandma was busy with knitting. I would have never stretched to those mini-socks and very much doubt that I could have been bothered making a cardi either had it been only me...

I had a closer look at the packet where we had liberated the doll from (I hate those ties all the toys are strangulated with in order to stay in posh boxes with see-through fronts) and noticed that the baby was a bathable one. So of course we had to provide her with a bath towel.

Yes, the binding doesn't bear close inspection. At this point Grandma's machine and I were not on friendly terms. The simplest piece in our collection did take most effort. And just because I had time in my hands I had to make a little shoulder bag for the dolly's clothes.

It was very well received present indeed and the most pleased were the BIG BROTHERS! It was so funny to see how they were changing the baby doll's clothes. So there you are, my summer crafting and nothing really achieved in this month. I have so very many projects waiting that I have decided that I am NOT allowed to buy a new project before I have made a sizeable hole into my supplies. Buying is only allowed if I need something to finish one of the pre-planned projects.


I must say to my own defence that I did re-decorate my workroom and tidied all the work related draws and shelves, so it feels really lovely to get to work now!