For a Swap: Holiday Dotee

Been a while since I've made a dotee.

I still love them but swaps (in general) are less this time of year so my dotee making has slowed, too.

This one was for a Holiday Dotee swap.  You just had to make a dotee that represented the holidays (to you).

I toyed with making a gingerbread man or a tray of little kawaii cookies (I almost went with with that idea but the thought of doing something so structured bored me--making the baking sheet would be boring sewing).  Then I started pawing through my mass of fabric and I was reminded of some great vintage Christmas fabrics I have.

So I had to take them and make some patchwork fabric.

See, those are some cute fabrics.

Then I had to figure out the face.  I started by making a felt/embroidered one but it just wasn't whimsical enough.  It was kind of scary/mean looking which was clearly not what I'm going for (though all my faces tend to look that way, what's that about?).  So I tucked it aside for some future project and in doing that I spied my pom poms and the rest is dotee history.

THAT face is what I wanted.  Cute and kind of silly and a bit wonky (the wonkiness was pure accident, the face went on a tiny bit crooked but once I saw it it worked with a little off center stitched mouth).

See, cute and kind of silly and a bit childlike.  And just covered with all things I think of when I think "holiday".  We have santa.  We have poinsettias.  We have ever green boughs and little berries.  We have toys.  And on the back is non-patchwork fabric that has a snowman and jingle bells and sleighs and snow and. . .yeah, holiday-a-rama.

Then I had to gussy the doll up so I added gold and silver and red and jingle bells and sparkle (tinsel hair?  yes please!).  I was *this close* to adding glitter but glitter is a hot button thing so I decided against it (I like it in rational amounts but some folks despise it and I get that so, I always err on the side of no glitter).

The fabric in the background is what I wrapped it in (and loosely tied it with a bit of the same gold ribbon I used for the hanger.

And last but not least, a little deer on the tail.  I've been wondering what I'd use this little cutie for and this was PERFECT.  You can't have "holiday" without a reindeer!  (and I finally used some ribbon I've had in my craft hoard for a long while, which is always a bonus).

I'm so happy how this one turned out.  It was such a refreshing change from what I've been working on.  Which is?  Potholders.  And last night those bad boys were giving me the business (hello seam ripper, my old friend) so doing this project first and having success kept me from having a tizzy of a tantrum when the pot holders got the better of me (well, the potholders themselves are fine, it's the bias tape binding that had me in less than a festive holiday spirit).

I'll show off the potholders (and some other christmas gift stuff I made) at a later date.  I need to get good pictures of it.  And I'm still not sure the potholders will make the gift cut.  I'm not totally happy with the one I finished so. . .we'll see!