For Swaps: Patch and an Art Doll

Damn, I meant to post this sooner but all the sudden I have to WORK at my job (what?!) so I have next to no goof off time.  I decided to just make posting this one of my "to do" items so I'd get it done.

OK, here we go.

First up, a patch (for the monthly swap I do all the time)

Super simple.  My partner likes skeletons and all that, so I just trotted out some of my favorite fabric and added a tiny bit of embellishment.  The fabric is so cool I wanted to just let it speak for itself.

The back:

That was just a scrap from my scrap bin but it really works with the front fabric.  I swear, sometimes I spend more time figuring out the backing fabric than making the front!

Next up is the art doll I made for the HallowMuertes Art Doll swap.  For that swap you could make it halloween or dios de los muertos themed.

Hello Mr. Skeleton man!

He's mostly a Dios de los Muertos skeleton guy but he's not a mariachi or anything special like that.  Just a guy in a suit.  Kind of Jack Skellington but not.

I used a pattern someone sent me in a swap from years ago.  I've used this pattern before to make an art doll but I never painted a doll.  This guy is totally painted.

I made the body in scraps of cotton and muslin (which is technically cotton) and then gave them all a base coat with white paint mixed with fabric medium.  Then I put on the top coat of black (with no medium) then added the embellishments using paint pens.

Smile for the camera!

He has a cute face that's very simple in design.  I didn't want to mess it up so I kept it simple.

The black paint pen is just shiny enough that it stands out against the more matte acrylic black paint.  So I could use it to make the shaping of the coat.  I debated giving him lapels but there wasn't really enough room on the body to make them turn out well, so I decided against it.

His limbs are button joints and do move.  They also scrape against the body a bit so over time there should be some nice wear as the limbs rub the paint along the body.  I didn't seal the whole doll for two reasons.  One, I wasn't sure exactly the best product to use and I didn't want to mess up the doll after I had him all finished (sewing the limbs on was literally painful--my fingers were sore jabbing the needle through the painted fabric).  Second reason not to seal was I wanted the doll to show wear as it happened.  I could have distressed it before hand but I'm lazy and (well, that's mostly the reason) I like the idea of the doll showing natural wear, just like an olden days doll!

I LOVED making this dolls (except attaching the limbs, I put that step off for ever because I knew it would be boring and annoying--it wasn't as bad as I thought but it was boring as hell).

I love how he turned out and after working with this pattern again I think I could edit this pattern a bit to make different body shapes (I'd start by trimming those feet down a bit--this pattern was for an "acrobat" doll so I get why the feet are super huge and it's not bad for this dolls but smaller would be better).

Both of these are off to their new homes Friday.

What else am I up to?  I need to get my latest round of Disney patches done (they are going to turn out very nice) and get my Fluff sewing done (have a bunch of stuff started, very little finished. . .story of my life) and then some other swaps.

Sugar Skulls!

Ok, they're actually felt sugar skulls.

Of course,they're made for a trade.

The swap was for just one but they're so small (about 2.5 - 3 inches or so) I just had to make two.  That and I wasn't exactly sure what the size requirement was, so if my first one was too small I made a second to make up for it.

The bride was the first one I made and I didn't think to add the veil until I had the front/face done.

Isn't she lovely!

I really like the face on this one.  It's cute but not too cute.  The eye sockets are bits of felt and the rest is embroidery and beads.  The veil is a bit of lace.  I tied it at the top (to make a little bunch) and then hid the bunch in the seam.  It worked out well.

The back.  Bead and sequin flowers with embroidery stem.

And now, for her husband.

I was a bit obsessed with making a skull with a mustache.  That and I wanted one with flowers as the eyes.  I saw a lot of skulls with flower eyes when I wa looking for inspirational images.  I was going to put the flower sequins for the eyes but they were too girly and once I saw that trim (the gold stuff) I had to make another crown.  (I used that trim for a crown on a doll a while back).  I like how the mustache turned out.  It was just free-handed but it's pretty even and looks decent.  It might be a tiny bit high on the face but I think that is kind of cute.  (for the record, I had to tear out the right hand side of the mustache twice to get it right.  I was worried I'd rip the fabric and have to start the face all over again)

I finally used some of the sew on jewels I've had forever, too.  Bonus.

The back is really very random.  I just wanted to do some embroidery but I didn't really want more flowers.  I thought I might do a pile of french knots (I love that look) but after a did a few I knew I didn't have the patience.  So I made a dot of knots (that's the yellow at the top) and then I just did some stem stitch and just made a random design.  I had been toying with using one of the skull beads I just got (love those tiny ones!) so after I had the swirly done it seemed a good spot for a bead so there you go.

These will go off in the mail probably tomorrow (I don't fee like walking them over this morning).

I LOVED making these.  So simple and fun.

Dio de los Muertos Shrine

It's Dios de los Muertos.  Time to celebrate and remember our deceased loved ones.

That's the shrine I made for my deceased cats, Cringer, Monte, and Cecil.

I used battery powered candles so I could let them "burn" all day while I wasn't home.  I do have tea lights as well, which I may use tonight while I'm home to supervise.  I also wasn't sure if my new cats would be out and about in our house yet (we're doing some remodeling so our cats are sequestered in our bedroom) so I didn't want fire around their crazy selves.

Let's take a tour of the shrine (complete with bad photos!).

There's a familiar face.  It's skellie cat!  He's proud to be a part of the shrine (and glad the candles near him are battery powered).

A paper mache skull I painted.  Even thought it's a shrine for cats I still wanted some classic Day of the Dead stuff.

One of the urns containing my cats' ashes.  A cat nip toy (the sailor print item) and a flower.  The traditional flowers are marigolds but this time of year I couldn't hunt any down (and didn't have any growing in my yard) so I went with a mum.  I really like this mum and plan to plant it in my yard when I take down the shrine (or next season if it's too cold to plant it).  The little doll/statue next to the mum is a very cool doll I got in a swap and it just felt like it belonged with this shrine.  The same with the little fabric patch.  I love the Frieda Kahlo skeleton on that patch and it's a nod to creativity (which pets always inspire in me).

Close up of the boys' urn.  This urn contains the ashes of my two male cats, Monte and Cecil.  They were fond of each other in life, so we chose to put them together in one urn.  We also made sure to get a sturdy metal urn in case they fought with each other.  They would have destroyed a ceramic urn.

I don't have any good printed images of my cats, so I didn't include any photos in the shrine.

Monte and Cecil.

Monte was a neurotic cat who loved to lick off his own hair and loved to eat.  He had a great Siamese meow and crazy fu man chu whiskers.  He loved to snuggle under blankets and purr (we called him he cat-iator).

Cecil was also nutty in his own way.  He was the largest cat I have every had but had the tiniest meow (except when he was being bathed, then he made this crazy Chewbaca noise that cracked us up).  He didn't like much in the way of "people food" but he did like Iron City beer (we only gave him a drop now and again).

The urn for our female cat, Cringer.  She never was very fond of the boys so it was a no-brainer that she would get her own urn.  A very elegant one at that.  This is a stoneware type urn.  Not ceramic.  I'm too paranoid I'd break a ceramic urn.  Cringer's urn also gets its own cat nip toy featuring a female skeleton selling flowers.

Cringer.  She loved to give the stink eye.  She had a crabby streak but was also super loving and nutty.  Being the oldest of the clan (and first) she was never much of a fan of the male cats.  She was a sweet little low-rider tortie with a thumb print sized spot on her head that made me call her Dinty Moore.

While these three are gone, they will NEVER be forgotten.