For a Swap: What's a Dotee?

Another dotee swap.

The theme was "What's a Dotee?" so it was really open to whatever struck my fancy.  The point of the swap was to let folks who've never made dotees or were just curious about them try their hand.

I wanted to go more "classic" with this dotee.  To me "classic" is a basic shaped body (usually they're bowling pin/nesting doll shaped) with some cute embellishments (and, of course, the hanger and tail).

My partner noted she liked fall colors so I rummaged through my scrap bin and found some fun oranges that sort of went together to make a cute patchwork which I then used to make the body.  (and yes, the head fabric is carrots!)

WAIT, we need pictures.

See, patchwork to make the front and back pieces of fabric for the body shape.  Then I did the cheap and fast sewing method where you pin the two pieces of fabric together, trace your shape onto on side then sew on the line.  Then you trim the edges and clip and prep the fabric to be turned right side out.  (OH, and always attach the hanger as you sew the seam--I love neat hangers/tails).

The tail on this one is super simple.  Maybe a bit too simple?  Since I had to hand sew the bottom closed, I had to include the tail as I was sewing.  To save my sanity, I just went with a piece of varigated floss with a wee charm hanging on the end.  The charm was an extra I got from another dotee doll swap.  (oh and the ribbon for the hanger is recycled, too--I even ironed it to get the wrinkles out from where it had been tied previously).

The eyes are buttons I removed from a wool sweater I felted (the sweater I used to make the cute little mice T.P. Day and Mr. Durr).  I knew I wanted to do ric rac for the mouth but didn't want to use plain white like I have been lately.  So I brought out the flashy silver stuff.  It sewed on nicely but damn is that stuff strong (or maybe I need to toss my needles and replace them all?).

I added the little paws at the very end.  I just needed to have some kind of arms on this little fella (and yes, I think it's a boy).  Normally dotees don't have arms (that stick out from their bodies).  I like how these turned out.  I'm getting better at embroidering on stuffed items (backstitch for the win!).

Know what else this guy needed?

An actual TAIL!

This tail is what made me think he needed the paws/arms on the front.  The tail gave him a bit of a fox look, too.  I wasn't going for a fox, though.  I was going for a generic "monster".  The actual tail is the finger from a stretch glove!  I was pawing through my non-cotton/quilting bin and found my bag of glove/sock scraps and the color was perfect.  At first I was going to make a little bunny style tail but this tail is so much better.

I think he's cute and weird which is what I was going for.  Cute, weird monster.  I call him Carrot Top. 

It was fun making another dotee using regular fabric.  I've been making a lot of felt ones lately so this was a nice change of pace.  It also has me thinking about what other dotee stuff I can make using the stretch gloves.  I know I'm going to use them for my Hat dotee, but maybe they'll make an appearance in some others, too!

I'm also thinking about doing some welt felting for an upcoming easter dotee.  I love making the fillable felt eggs (and I still have some wool roving left from when I made the Easter Basket of Awesome last year).

Up next?  Well, tomorrow I have a day off from work so I'm going to dotee all day.  Birthday and Wizard of Oz (Scarecrow) are next in line.  Both will be shipping internationally so I might have to pay closer attention to what shape/size they are so I can pack and ship them the least expensive way possible.  (I'm dieing to get to the Hat Dotee but these other two need to ship before the Hat one--maybe I can get all THREE done tomorrow!).

For a swap: Bathtime Dotee

Another swap reveal here.  For the record, if you're from swap bot and checking out my blog from the link on my profile (and are currently in any dotee swaps), you might just be spoiling the surprise for yourself.  You've been warned.  (oh and "HI!, glad to see you here!").

I finished this dotee last night so I can get it into my mail run for Monday.  Good news, I have all the packages I planned for Monday's mail run ready.  I just need to have partners assigned for a scrap swap and I'll be ready to get four different swaps out.  I may even be able to get two (or more) into that run, too, depending on when they assign partners (if it's promptly on Feb 1 or if it's delayed a bit) and what the weekend holds.

But I digress.  I'm here to show off the Bathtime Dotee.

As the name suggests, the theme for this dotee was "bathtime".  My partner's profile noted how much they love cats so why not combine the two. 

Bath + cat =

One disgruntled pussy!

This is a better full shot so you can see the water drop tail.

It's made out of felt, a bit of batting, polyfil, and some netting.  Oh and beads.  The ribbon hanger and netting are recycled from other swaps I've received.  The ribbon was used as decoration on some packages and the netting was tied around a dotee (but not part of the dotee--I'd never tear up a dotee to re-use it).

I just realized that if I hadn't had the netting I could have easily used a small (new, mind you) bath puff instead.  Finally a real use for those (I've never been a fan of them as bath products, I prefer a nice rough loofa).  That would have worked well for the theme, too.  But I had the netting so it needed used.

The only thing I bought new for this dotee was the beads.  But now I have leftovers for future dotees (I can see them making many appearances in tails).  Speaking of tails, the tail on this one is kind of "meh" but I didn't feel like making a full beaded one using seed beads and I didn't want any "bubble" beads on it either.  So felt water droplets worked well.

I'm very happy with how the face turned out.  Once again I drew the image on the back of the felt using a ball point pen then stitched.  It worked great.  The only way this technique doesn't work so hot is if you're doing a design that's directional.  I had that issue a bit when I made the Organ Donor dotee.  The liver is backwards.  Ouch!

I did have some issues with the whiskers.  I think I was just over thinking it which lead to making way more knots then I'm sure were necessary.  But the whiskers look decent in the end so that's good.  I did have to make the face twice. My first go had a wonky nose.  I made the mistake of outlining the nose then using fill stitches but not curling the fill stitches over the edge stitches, so the edge stitches got loose and warbly and just ugly.  I couldn't tear them out without mucking up the felt (this color is kind of thin in spots) so I just remade the face.  Yes, I wasted a bit of felt but it was only a piece about the size of a silver dollar (or so) so I'm not broken up over it.

I didn't take a snap of the back, but the bubbles do go down over the back.  Not a ton of them, just enough to add some detail (and hide the attachment point betwen the head and body--it's a clean attachment but any time I can do extra hiding for attachment points or knots I'm all for it).

I just realized something else great about these dotees.  I now have new Orignail Patterns to add to my library.  The mailbox was an Orignail and so is this.  No, they're not complex patterns that most anyone couldn't figure out on their own, but now I have templates cut so I could make different versions of both if the whim struck.

Ok, what's up next?

What's a Dotee?
Birthday Dotee
Wizard of Oz Scarecrow
Hat Dotee.

I have plans for all four and tonight I'm going to (hopefully) get What's a Dotee done and move on to either Birthday or Hat (maybe I'll work on both at the same time--both have similar design elements, so if I'm cutting circles for one why not both?).

Once those four are done, I have this list to work on.

Easter dotee  (has to be egg shaped)
Beginner easter dotee  (no specifics)
Purse dotee (this one's going to be a real challenge)
Pair of dotees
AND
Out of this World Dotee (the first swap I'm hosting!)

Ok, I'm done rambling about dotees. 

Randomness: Sketches

I haven't done this in a while (and probably should have saved it so I'm not doing two posts in one day) so why not!

These are my current dotee sketches.

I do have a sketch book (where I do transer ideas for posterity--I don't save these sheets) but when I'm at work my desk blotter is my go to sketch pad. 

There are four dotees sketched out on this sheet.  Top left corner is for the "what's a dotee?" swap.  There's no real theme for that so I'm planning to just make a really basic dotee (though I'm kind of in a monster mood lately, so I might make a more square dotee with moster looking face--haven't decided yet).  I have it narrowed down to either a "classic" dotee made from patchwork or a square/rectangular monster dotee.  We'll see.

Bottom left:  Hat dotee.  The theme is hats.  So a hat has to be part of the dotee (or the dotee itself).  I'm going to make a magicians top hat with finger puppet bunny that pops up out of it.  The hat will be felt (with perhaps a fabric covering over the head opening of the hat, which will be where the bunny comes up out).  The bunny will be the finger from a glove with felt and embroidered accents.  The hanger will be on the rim of the hat so it hangs and looks kind of like a hat hanging on a wall but when you look at it you can see there's more to it (an opening on the bottom of the hat--which is technically the top of the hat) where you can put your finger and make the bunny pop up out.  The only tricky parts will be the fabric disguising the bunny.  I'm confident I can make this one work.

The middle sketch is for a birthday themed dotee.  I want to make a Cake-a-saurus.  A felt cake with dinosaur features.  Google eyes, a mouth, and little lit candles as the spines.  This one might end up looking funky (since it's a weird concept) but I'm confident I can actually produce it.  The hardest part will be the mouth area (and I anticipate the candles being tedious to make but not "hard").

The right hand sketch is for the Wizard of Oz series.  This month is the Scarecrow.  The key to the scarecrow is the brain, so I need to include it in the doll.  I'm going to (yet again) use the gingerbread man shape I have for the body shape.  Then cut off the top of the head to make a brain that's then hidden under a hat (the hanger will come up out of the top of the hat, so the had can slide along the hanger to reveal the brain but not get lost).  The body will be pretty basic.  I'm hoping I have some burlap-y fabric in my stash to make the clothes.  And I'd like to use some linen for the face, to get that bag face look the WOZ scarecrow has.  This one will be a challenge because I want to use a bunch of different fabrics.  They might not play well together, so we'll see.  I really want this one to be good, too.  I want to do crazy good quality for this series.  Other folks in this series are really pulling out the stops (the tinman I received is crazy awesome--I'm going to post pics once I have my full set--I'll show all the ones I made and all the ones I got).

Tonight I plan to finish the Bathtime dotee that's in progress.  It's coming along very well.  I was worried the emboidered face wouldn't come out right but I really like it so now I'm eager to get the whole piece done.  I have good feelings it will turn out very well.  (it's a cat in a washtub covered with bead bubbles and looking really pissed off).

Progress Report: Little Portraits

Painting update time.

I'll show them off in reverse of how I painted them (since this one isn't as exciting to see, change wise).

First up, Priscilla's portrait.

Before:

After:

Put another coat of black on and then worked the background a bit. You an see it's darker along the bottom and a bit near the top of Priscilla's head.  The pictures don't do it justice but the changes were minimal (I can't really work on Priscilla while her black coats are wet).

Now Mr. Robot.

Before:

After:

You can see the changes on this one.  I made a sweep over the entire canvas and started working on some of the blending.  I'm really liking the green background on this one.  It's fun to have an actual color for a change (lately I've been doing a lot of paintings with a ton of black/gray).  There's a ton more blending to do here but this is definitely heading in the right direction.

Now I just need to get to work finishing the sewing on Cylindra.  Maybe this weekend.  I only have to finish one more swap item by Monday (when I make a post office run) so I should be able to work on Cylindra a bit (her body is done and her limbs are in progress.  But her head isn't even started and you kind of need a head to have a portrait).

I'm loving these small canvases.  You can grab them right off the easel and turn them all directions and really get the paint just where you want it.  LOVE that.

So far, I'm loving these paintings.  I'm sure a week will come when I hate them.  I'm going to bet once I get to putting the details on Priscilla (those circles!) I'll be cussing and ranting.  I always cuss and rant when I paint.

For a Swap: Valentines Day Dotee

Yup, it's another dotee for a swap.  And another valentines day dotee.  This one was a group swap (so available only to folks in that group) and I wanted it to be extra fabulous since the founder of the group let me join even though I technically don't meet the requirments for joining (some groups have requirements like "have completed X swaps" and such.  I didn't have the required swaps done but the founder was nice enough to let me in anyway, so I really want to kick ass on my first swap with the group).

The only requirement for the dotee (aside from standard dotee "rules") was there had to be a heart on it somewhere.

I was stuck for a long time on what I was going to do and almost dropped the swap because of it and then inspiration hit.  I was browsing some crafty blogs I like to eyeball and one had a free tutorial for a mailbox and letters playset (valentines themed). 

I'm calling it "Hungry for Love" (no I don't put the titles on the dotees or any of that, I name them just for myself mostly because I like puns).

Time for closeups!

The doll is hollow so you can really pack a lot of stuff inside if you were so inclined.  I had four little pieces of cute valentines paper that were extras in a swap I received (the previous valentines day dotee swap).  I decided to keep a little bag of extras that I get from swaps so I can use them in future swaps.  These paper slips were perfect.  Folded in half they were the perfect card shape (and the paper was card thickness).  I didn't write anything on the mouth cards, I figure the recipient might like to reuse them or something.

The dotte is all felt with ric rac teeth and goodle eyes.  It's double thickness felt but no stuffing of any kind.  The hanger is ribbon.

The tail. . .

Is the fourth card .  It's a simple tail (no beads, just red/white striped bakery twine) but it's still really cute and really matches the whole dotee (if I do say so myself).

The flag moves up and down (limited range) and has a little heart on it.

So does. . .

The back panel.

No glue used on any of it (I don't hate glue, but I like to use it only as a last resort).  The dotee is a bit "fragile" (meaning it can get crushed down but you can fluff it right back up) so I'm going to have to ship it in a little box.  Good thing it was a USA only swap AND I got a box from another swap that I can re-use.

My partner hasn't been assigned yet, so I'm not sure where Hungry for Love will be heading.  But all I have to do now is box it up and send it, so I'm ahead of the game.

I'm also working on another dotee for a Bathtime themed swap. That one is going very well (and has the partner assigned--I got lucky and got a USA person even though it was international).  I also have to work on a third dotee for a Hat Dotee swap.  Partners were already assigned (that one's going to Canada) but won't be due for a bit.  But I prefer to get them done quickly, so once Bathtime is finished, I'll move on to Hat.  (I think I have my final idea picked for Hat--I need to do a test run with it before I decide).

Other dotees on my list include:  Wizard of Oz (Scarecrow), Birthday, Easter, Purse, Pair, and one "anything goes" (it's a "what is a dotee?" themed swap, so I think I'll go "old school" on that one and make a more classic styled dotee).

I'll be showing them all off as they get done.

I'm loving dotees (and hope to host my own swap either late February or March--I have a lot of swaps to complete before I can commit to being a host).

New Paintings: Little Portraits

Hold onto your hole(s), folks.  It's time to start a new painting project.

And this time it's not just ONE painting, it's two.  At the same time!

*screaming and fainting*

Ok, it's not that dramatic.  Each canvas is only 8x8, so it's not really a challenge to work on two during the three hour class time.  In fact, I need to have two because each is so small they quickly get covered with wet paint that needs to dry before I can work with it again.

So, what am I up to this time?

Portraits.

This is a twist on what I originally wanted to do but couldn't get oval canvases in time.  Originally I wanted to do two Robot Portraits each on an oval canvas.  I was miffed when the ovals weren't available in time but now that I'm working with the 8x8s I'm very happy.  And I'm still doing portraits.  One is even a robot.

See, when you have a small canvas you feel so much more productive.  I went from blank to that there last night.  And I'm happy to add, I got no help from my wife.  Previous paintings I had him get my photo for me (print it out) and even supervise on gridding both photo and canvas.  I don't need him for that anymore.  I just put the canvas over my photo to trim it down (folded down the paper to get it to 8x8).  Then gridding it out was easy.  Even my puny math muscles can handle dividing 8 by 4 and drawing some straight lines.

For the record, I'm using THIS photo.

Giving it a quick look, I think I have the angle of the top of Mr. Roboto's head off a little.  But I can get that all hammered out as I work the painting more.

So, once I had that canvas completely covered I needed to move on to the next.

Once again, I got the entire canvas covered before class was over.  It was timed pretty much perfectly.  This one's not as exciting to look at yet but that's just because of the subject.  Yet again I'm working with black so it will take a bit for this one to really start taking shape.

Reference photo:

Priscilla!

The shaping is pretty decent but I know it's going to morph a lot as I work on this.  I'm really excited to work on her button eye.  I love the coloring and the three bright dots on it.  It's also going to be a fun challenge to get her circle spots rendered well.  (for the record, the reference photo is cropped a bit top and bottom to fit the 8x8 canvas)

I'm aiming to get both as nicely blended and "realistic" as "Jackie and Xerxes".  So that means I'll most likely be working these for the rest of the semester.  If I get to the point where both are wet and I need something to occupy my time I'll probably start another 8x8.  I think I want to do another pair featuring T.P. Day and Mr. Durr.  And of course I need to make one for (the yet unfinished) Cylindra (the companion robot to Mr. Roboto).

One last pic for the road.

I just enjoy "work space" photos.  In this one you can see the photo my wife is using for his current photo.  Yeah, that's me striking a pose there.  At first I was grossed out that he was using my photo for a painting but I'm used to it now.  I hate photos of myself but I kind of like a painting of myself.  It doesn't hurt that the image is rather small so you can't immediately tell it's me.  I teased him that he needs to make me thinner in the painting (since I'm not that fat anymore).  At least get rid of my double chin!

I'm glad to be back to painting and loving the little canvases.

Trying Something New: Paper Piecing

Over at Quiet Play they're doing a Block of the Month project.

January's block ("Measure Twice") was a nice beginner intro to paper piecing.  I have been interested in paper piecing for a while but most of the blocks I had seen either looked too involved for a raw beginner or they just didn't interest me.

I actually liked "Measure Twice" and it looked like it really was beginner friendly.  Very few pieces so less chance to really cock it up.

So I thought.

THIS was my first go at it.

FAIL!!

I forgot to add the little piece at the end of the measuring tape strip (piece three).  In a moment of hubris, I thought I could just add it on after I had already attached piece 4.  So I pulled piece 4 away from the paper up to the point where piece 3 needed to attach to piece 2.  But, as the second photo there shows, I cocked that up too.  So I had to scrap this, my first attempt.  (this was after I had made a mistake with the first two pieces, that had me tearing them apart and starting over using the same paper template).

After one complete FAIL, I saw what I had done wrong (mostly just not paying close enough attention to what I was doing) so I insisted that I give it another try.

THIS is my final product.

As you can see, it's far from perfect.  In fact, it's still just this side of fail.  The top right corner fabric is not big enough to cover the temlpate and there is also a bit of size issuse along the right side, too.  Not a huge issue (I can just trim the block down to hide those flaws) but technically it's not correct.

I think my big issue was that top fabric.  I should have picked something more forgiving.  I was trying so hard to match up the pattern (even though the pattern isn't hard and fast--the cages go all directions) that I forgot to make sure the piece would be long enough AFTER I matched the images.  And even then, I didn't match the images well enough (it's pretty crappy at the match point).

I did do well on the text fabric, which makes me happy.  I wanted the blue text to show (since it matches the blue of the bird cages really well) and be right side up, which it does.  So that was a win.  BUT, it doesn't line up properly with the next piece and the next piece is also too short so. . .

Yeah, maybe I should really consider this block yet another FAIL but I'm not.  It's salvageable and it was good for me to try something new and see it all the way through (not just give up when it didn't work out the very first time).

So, what do I think about paper piecing?

It's not bad.  I can't say I LOVE it though.  First, it seems kind of wasteful unless you're using actual scraps to start with (which I was).  I was hacking away at this fabric making smaller and smaller scraps which seemed kind of nuts.  Second, it's not very forgiving.  If you don't estimate correctly for the bit you're sewing, then you can't move on to the next step.  And if you have to tear apart two pieces, you're also removing the paper which means you kind of have to free ball when re-attaching those pieces (which could lead to more inaccuracies later on in the block).  So every time you add a new piece you're basically running the risk of cocking up the whole block and having to start over.  I'm not a fan of that kind of pressure.

The pros?  The finished blocks (even funky half fails like the one I made) look really cool.  And if you had more skills than I do, you could blast through some serious scraps (including really bitty pieces) with this technique, which is also cool.

Will I try it again?  Perhaps.  I plan to keep with this series to get all the patterns so I have them to play with later on in life (a few of them look very involved, too advanced for me).  I like all the patterns in the set and if I practiced more I'm sure I could do them all.  But at this point there are other projects I'm more interested in so paper piecing will go on the back burner (for now--if other blocks in this series seem beginner friendly I'll probably try them when they come around).