Christmas Morning..

Greetings!

It might be early For some people but, I started making some Christmas dolls. Christmas is my favorite time of the year. Love to see all those Christmas decorations, in the Malls and in front of people's houses. Also love to hear those Christmas songs. Every year I visit some shops to see the Christmas dolls, I get inspired and motivated to make more and more Christmas dolls. Not to mention about watching all those Christmas movies, 'Love Actually' and 'Elf' are my all time favorite Christmas movies. Also knitting under a cozy blanket is always fun 😉.

Here is a miniature version of a little Victorian girl unwrapping her Christmas presents, made from the book called 'Making Musical Miniatures' by Jean Greenhowe. Unfortunately these books are out of print but I found this book luckily in my local library.

Jean Greenhowe has written many other books, before she started publishing books of knitted dolls. As usual her creations and ideas are always amazing. I have excluded the musical base. 

Other than the Christmas tree, everything is hand made. The doll's house is made out of cardboard, the doll in the box, is just a tiny bead wrapped with scraps of fabric. The gift parcels are all made out of cardboard, for the wrapping I have used some chocolate wrappers. The girl is wearing pantaloons underneath her dress skirt. The table is made out of a lid of an empty container, which is covered with some scrapes of fabric. I glued on some beads to decorate the Christmas tree. Basically most of the things in this picture are made out of the junk that I have collected.

Like Boxstrolls, I like to convert junk into treasure 😝😜😛.

Now I have to get back to my knitting.

See you soon!

Crochet Marathon....

Greetings!

I suddenly felt an urge to crochet, and since last Tuesday I have been crocheting continuously and these are the things I crocheted 😄. I am not very good, when it comes to crocheting but, I want to learn crocheting and sewing.

I enjoyed crocheting these things. The doll is crocheted from this book, it's a good book which has adorable patterns for clothes and accessories.

Leena is a dressable doll, little girls will love this doll. Her coat dress, underwear, shoes, apron everything is removable, and I am planning to make some more clothes for Leena. 

When I was a little girl, my mum had knitted and croched Some dresses for my doll, and I use to have hours of fun dressing and undressing my doll. 

I learnt some new things from this book. The patterns are written in a Uk style and I came to know that there is no term 'single crochet' in UK. They use the term 'Double crochet' instead of single crochet. I did not read the instructions properly, and since I have only crocheted from US patterns, I was not aware of this. I finished the entire doll using double crochet and wondering all the while why can't the same doll be made using just the single crochet 😛.

Anyway I guess this information might be useful for those who has never crocheted from a UK pattern before. 

I had a problem understanding the pattern at some point, but I managed it. Also I had to alter the pattern a bit  to suit my doll. Since I used double crochet, my doll became bigger than the doll in the book. Also I did not have small hook, and fine yarn. I used a bigger hook and double knitting yarn, because of this, the stuffing can be seen a bit, but I feel  it doesn't look very bad.

The tea set is crocheted from this book. This is a good book as well, with some cute easy patterns. Great book for a beginner.

Other than these I am working on some Christmas knits. 

Will be back soon with my other dolls. Before I go, if any crochet experts views this post, please feel free to tell me if there are any mistakes.

You all have a great time, crafting😜!

Revs!

The next Family of Brambly Hedge.....

Greetings,

Bramble Hedge marathon continues, and the next family that I knitted is Dusty Dogwood, his wife Poppy Eyebright and their little one. I also knitted a little cottage for them, which is of course, made from one of the Jeangreenhowe's books. Even the mice family is made using her patterns. 

Will be back soon 😜.....

Brambly Hedge.

Greetings!

Story books and picture books are my main source for inspiration, when it comes to doll making. If sometimes I get inspired by rosy cheeked, chubby looking children of Mabel Lucie Attwell, and sometimes from lovely looking calico critters of Betrix Potter, this time all the inspiration came from Jill Barklem's 'Brambly Hedge'. I love all the stories from Brambly Hedge series,  and I don't mind if these mice live in my house :). Lady mouse is jean's pattern, I adopted Fiona Goble's daddy bear pattern to make the Lord mouse, I mixed up some of the Jean Greenhowe's pattern to make Pirm rose.

The mice keep themselves very busy. Whether it's spring, summer, autumn or winter, there is always something to prepare for and, of course, the mice never miss an opportunity for a celebration.

This tree house is no where close to what I saw in the book, but my  tree house is completely made out of my imagination. What's so ever, I got inspired by Brambly Hedge and Jean Greenhowe.

Last month was my husband's birthday and I had invited one of my friends for dinner. She had brought a small cake, and as soon as I saw the cake I was only seeing a house for this mice family :). An idea popped up immediately, and again the idea was based on Jean Greenhowe's this (below) particular mice house, that she had designed many many years ago. These patterns are out of print unfortunately. I just kept this photo as a guide and constructed this house out of my imagination. 

I wanted to make a two-storied house, but I had only one cake container. When I went for grocery shopping I asked for an empty cake container in the bakery, and the lady working there was kind enough to give me one. I used felt to cover the outer and inner part of the house. 

The kitchen curtains are made with ribbon and for the bed room curtain I used a netted bag, that I get when ever I buy vegetables. The bed is made out of an empty matchbox and fabric, and embellished with the lace trimmings. The canopy of the bed is made out of lace. I made the fire place inside and wanted to make the house quite cosy. So added some photographs, that's cut out from a needle crafts magazine. In the parlour, above the fireplace the photograph that's hanging is Disney's 'Fantasia'. The rest of the furniture are purchased from Calico Critters, and some miniatures were purchased from a miniature store from downtown.

I made the lawn in the front yard, and glued some real stones for the path way. I also made a ladder using Popsicle sticks.

Overall, I had a great time creating this mice house. 

You all have a great crafty week!

Autumn mouse.

Greetings!

Summer is almost coming to an end. The days are getting shorter and nights are getting cooler. 'Autumn' is almost here, so I decided to knit this Autumn mouse. It goes with out saying, it's a Jean Greenhowe's  pattern! :). 

I am quite thrilled to knit some mice off late. I am knitting some mice based on a story book and this Autumn mouse is a part of that project. I will soon be writing in detail about my next project.

Till then........

You all have a wonderful crafty hours!

Revs.......

Bride and Groom....

Greetings!

Wedding bells just rang to Bob and Chris. The whole of Dumping village were gathered in this celebration. Everyone rejoiced at the wedding of this beautiful couple and showered their blessings on this newly married couple. The couple got married in the Dumpling Village church. 

The Bridegroom looked  handsome and was waiting for the arrival of the Bride at the church gate. The entrance of the church was decorated with the red carpet and was showered with the red roses. Since it was summer the day was bright and sunny, and it was a beautiful day to get married.

As soon as the bride entered there was so much joy and excitement! The bride looked beautiful in her wedding gown. The wedding gown was designed and made by one of the famous fashion designers of the Dumpling Village. 

The couple entered the church together, and then they took their wedding oath. After the wedding the couple cut the cake and there was a grand wedding celebration, food and drinks were organized for the guests. 

The guest list includes: Lord Lancelot ( Little Dumpling Village Manor) his wife Lady Letitia. Their dogs Rascal and Macintosh, Mrs. Mopitup, Wenifred the wool shop owner, Daphne Dabble the artist, Miss Muffin, Farmer Wolly, Benjamin Bakewell, Samuel Sprout and Harold the handy man.

The culinary services were provided by Miss Muffin's tea shoppe and Benjamin Bakewell's bakery shop.

Over all it was a wonderful memorable wedding. I wish a very Happy married life!  to this wonderful couple.

I made these dolls to gift an American couple who got married recently.

Will be back soon with my next project. Till then...

Happy Crafting!

Little Bunny's shopping trip....

Greetings!

Today Mummy Bunny decided to make some thing special for dinner and surprise her husband and her daughter. But when she opened the fridge, she realized that she is out of many things. Was she disappointed? No, she decided to go to the supermarket and get what ever she wanted.

But, what about the little Bunny? Daddy is at work, the older Bunny is at school, and can she find a baby sitter at the last minute? Answer is obviously 'No'. So she decided to take the little Bunny along with her. 

It was a big surprise for this little one. This is indeed her first visit to a super market. The little Bunny was so excited to see hundreds of people, so many things around her, most of all she really enjoyed her ride on the shopping cart. 

Mummy Bunny managed all her shopping with out any difficulty. At the end 'All is well'!.

I had collected many cardboard boxes at home. Also I keep getting some grocery coupons and news paper adds in my mail box. So I decided to make some fun things for my dolls. This simple shopping cart is made out of blue berry box. It actually doesn't look like a real shopping  cart, but I guess it works fine for my dolls ;).

Will be back soon with my next project.

Happy Crafting!