a doll for domenica

The last year has been a consuming round of child care. But since Deege was about 4 months old, I have been increasingly getting my craft on. And now, hopefully, I'll start getting my blog on as well.

Deege is now 13 months. Last month I was digging through my old sewing stuff looking for something and came across an old Sunset Stitchery doll kit that I started working on back in grad school. (My mother once accused me of never finishing a project. Through the years I have determined that my mother is completely wrong about this. I almost always finish my projects. Sometimes it takes 10 or 20 years, but I *do* finish.) In the last round of toy acquisition, JG said that deege really needs a doll and wanted to buy some shiny thing from china. I was like, but I'm making her a doll. And here is the proof.

When I pulled the pieces out of storage I discovered that 1) I had actually finished all of the embroidery on it 15 years ago, and 2) I had lost the instructions on how to sew it together. JG didn't like the white haired version ("That looks like an old lady!"). I pulled out all of the stitching for the hair and re-did her as a brunette. I like how it came out.

It looks like Deege likes "Emily" also. Unfortunately, she immediately started trying to pull the arms off. I think it will be a while before she can handle this doll without destroying her. I guess something shiny from china is in her future after all.

monster mash

All of the babies in Deege's class at daycare plus the babies from my birth class all have birthdays in July. This coincided with a trip to see the in-laws for the 4th. JG's parents are the sweetest, nicest people. But it is gawd awfully boring to visit their house. I always take a sewing project. Voila! 10 monsters for 10 little babies turning 1.

crafty bedroom

There was something wrong with me on the nursery front. You're supposed to go all crazy putting one together and I just didn't. We had DG's crib in our room up until a week ago. But I did take some effort to make her room inviting.

Here, a giant cushion made from an old beadspread. Would have been much less effort to make it from something new. I loved this spread and used it for years. The fabric had a bunch of little tears in it that I painstakingly tried to patch before I sewed the cushion up. I also made the drape for the window. I'm still in progress on making a quilt for the queen size bed that is still in the room.



On the opposite wall, I painted this mural:



But it's much cheerier with a happy baby:

crafty dresses

And in this last bit of crafty roundup, some baby clothes. A woman who knew JG as a boy in NY has been sending us boxes and boxes of baby clothes for deege. I think the only thing we've needed to buy for her is pajamas and shoes. Nevertheless, I did do up a couple of outfits.

Here, a genie suit done in a crystal wash:


The cupcake dress. Made from a onesie and a bandana that was dyed at a friend's tie-dye party. I call it the cupcake dress because the onesie has an embroidered cupcake on the front. It was serendipity that on the front and the back of the skirt the pink/red dye made a smiley:


And this from a baby halter dress we were given. I removed the halter part and sewed the skirt to a onesie.