Embroidery!

This is a bit of a mixed lot post. 

It's mostly embroidery but there is some sewing too (and it's a bit of a work in progress, though I didn't tag it as such, I feel like I'm over using it lately).

A picture is worth a thousand words, right?

It's one of the dolls from the Spoonflower fabric I ordered.

Ok, now I have to just take a second and mention how much I love Heidi Kenney.  I don't buy a lot of handmade plush (yeah, I'm cheap and I prefer to make my own if I think I can) with the exception of Heidi's stuff.  When the Handmade Arcade comes to town, I scan the vendor list to see if she's on it and trot my happy self over there to buy from her.  Her plush are just so cute and even though I probably could make something similar, I just don't want to.  I enjoy the excitement of seeing what she brings to sell and figuring out the one or two things I want to add to my collection. 

When she started selling custom fabrics (at her booths) that's when I discovered Spoonflower and all the fabulous stuff there, including Heidi's cut and sew pair of dolls.  I've always loved cut and sew stuff like that and these dolls were no exception.

But they aren't just cut and sew dolls.  They are cut and EMBROIDER and sew.

This gal has a lot of tattoos.  The anchor on her throat/chest area looks a bit painful to me.  Butterfly on one arm (the other is tattoo free).

I used split stitches and a bit of chain stitch (but mostly split for everything).  It calls for backstitch but I'm not a fan of it (mostly because I haven't quite figured it out yet--how dumb is that--I know it's not hard but I just can't get into it yet).

A rose on her back.

Rope on one leg.

Bird on another (with a little french knot eyeball).

Did you notice the one MAJOR flaw yet?

Look again, I'll wait.

Yup.  Her legs are on backwards! 

At first I was irked as hell.  I really TRIED to make sure I had them all set right so they would be on "right" (meaning the seam would be to the back) but. . .well, there you go. 

Now I could tear them out and re-sew them but the thought of it makes me sad and tired.  And I kind of like her major flaw.  It lends to my theory that everything I make is part of the Land of Misfit Toys.  I did stitch in her toes a bit (they were pointy, like her hands) so it's less noticable but really, it's not less noticable.  It's totally noticable and I'm just about over it now. 

But wait a tick.  Look at that first pic again.

What's that she's holding?

It's a wee pillow with "shhh" embroidered on it.

Shh, don't mention to her that her legs are on backwards!

No, that's not what I was thinking when I made it.  I made it thanks to a post over at Wild Olive.  Mollie (aka Wild Olive) posted a free pattern of different "shhh"s.  I knew it would be a quick little project but I really didn't want to make a finished hoop or just have a random piece of embroidered fabric hanging around.

Then I realized, I just bought a whole mess of fabric scraps (side bar:  JAQS Fabrics has the best studio scrap bundles.  They come in warm/cool, pattern/solid and are all designer high quality fabric, not junky stuff--and some of the scraps are really big--they also have fat quarter destash bundles where you don't know exactly what you'll get print wise but that's what makes it fun--and they are CHEAP).  Some of the scraps were pretty small and I was wondering what project would come along where I could use them.

Ta-da.  Enter the tiny SHHH pillow!

Honestly, this took me about 20 minutes to make start to finish.  That includes the few minutes it took to re-thread my machine (with white from black).  And I think I can find a real use for it, too (if I want).  I think it would look cute if I added a little loop of ribbon and hung it from the door knob of my spare bedrooms.

So, that's what I did last night.  Tiny pillow and one doll.  (I only have the last tattoo to finish on the boy doll and then he'll get sewn up).

What do you think I should name the girl and boy dolls?