Front and back.
In case you can't tell, it's a magnifying glass. My swapee's profile noted numerous times how much she liked Sherlock Holmes (the original version, not that new stuff that's been cropping up lately). When I think of Sherlock Holmes I think of magnifying glasses (along with that funky hat and a pipe). The theme of the swap was "valentine inspired". So it needed to be red and pink and hearts and such but not necessarily profile based. But I like when I can do both, so I did.
The back is a little heart and when you turn the magnifying glass over, the front shows a close up of the heart, all smiling and being cute.
This whipped up SUPER fast, too. All freehanded, too. I did test out the shapes for size (and had to cut the white circles twice--the first one was too small). I even free-handed the hearts and they turned out well. I'm notoriously bad at making hearts. They always look Vulcan but these were plump and very heart like which stunned me.
It's really a super simple design. Circles for the front and back "glass". Narrow strip for the side of the magnfying glass glass area. Sew the circles to the rim. Stuff with scraps of cotton batting. Yup. I just layered some batting scraps in there (and that first felt circle I cut that was too small!). Oh, make sure you attach the hearts to the glass first with a few stitches. The handle is just a rectangle of felt rolled up and sewed closed. Super simple! Attach the handle to the wall of the "glass" and then add your embelishments (I glued the ribbon to the handle--again, I don't like to use glue but in this case it looks very neat and the ribbon wouldn't have held stitches well at all--very loose weave on the ribbon).
Just make sure to attach the hanger as you're sewing the back glass to the rim strip. I forgot and hand to pull a few stitches out and go back. No biggie. For the tail, just hide the knot up inside the roll of the handle to keep it looking neat. I didn't embellish the tail much since the rest of the dotee was pretty fancy. I just used the red and white striped bakers twine (which I love) and a jingle bell. The jingle bell is definitely my go to for tails. (though I did another dotee this weekend and I actually made a beaded tail--I'll be showing that off later this week).
While I'm yapping about dotees, I have to admit to having one HUGE peeve about other folks' dotees. Don't take this the wrong way, I'm not bashing them (hey, maybe they're new to sewing, everyone's a beginner at one time) but it irks me when I see a hanger that's sewn on after the fact. Those big gnarly stitches holding it on just detract from the dotee. It doesn't make me hate the doll or anything like that, but I just notice that right away and it's kind of a let down. I'm super picky about trying to make my dotee hangers and tails blend into the doll, not look like an after thought so it's just something I notice. Again, not bashing others just a really nitpicky thing I have going on.
This dotee is off to his/her new home today. And with this one done and he one for the Wizard of Oz swap (not yet partner assigned) done, I'm officially ahead of the game on my dotee swaps. I have one other swap I'm signed up for (bath time dotee) which I've sketched up some ideas but I'm waiting to see if I can make it profile specific, so I haven't started it yet (the wizard of oz one didn't leave much room for profile tailoring since it's a very specific theme--I liked that).
I think I need to make a new embroidery hoop for my office cubicle, so maybe tonight while I'm watchign t.v. I'll work on that.
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