Owlishly

How I... stuff a doll

I don't know if I'd ever mentioned before how I like to stuff my little dolls. I'd taken pictures a while ago to help illustrate what I do, but I don't remember ever having gotten around to using them. I get questions from time to time about how to get even looking heads (specifically) and body pieces so I thought I'd show and tell how I do it.

First and foremost, crochet your stitches as absolutely tight and uniform as possible.  This is very important so that there won't be gaping holes where you see the fiberfil/roving when you get it stuffed as full as you can. 

The amount of fiberfil that is used is a very large amount in comparison to the size of the head.  It usually ends up being double the amount that you think will suffice, and even then you might want to stuff it even fuller. 

I've found that lumpiness and odd shapes are reduced when I use a great deal of small bits of fiberfil as opposed to using a big lump of it.  You get a small tuft of the fiberfill and then pull at it, stretching it apart until it's barely held together, then at that point it's ready to be inserted.  While inserting the fiberfil, take care to place it as evenly distributed as possible around the shape you're stuffing.

As I fill I make sure to stretch the fabric of whatever shape I'm stuffing from the inside, pulling and shaping from the outside and using a scraping motion on the inside with the back of my crochet hook or whatever other tool I'm using to help stuff.

Just keep stuffing, pretty much until the head becomes a little hard ball, and can't be stuffed anymore.

At the point that no more fiberfil will fit, finish crocheting the shape taking care that your stitches are still tight and uniform and seal the hole.

Remember all that fiberfil in the first image? Even though the head already looked full, all of the fiberfil shown with it was stuffed into the head.  This makes for a very hardheaded little doll which makes them perfect representations of my stubborn little kids :)

Back in the saddle again...

So I feel like I'm teasing you, but I wanted to let you know I'm working on her pattern tonight.  I think I'm going to name her Iolani, from the information I can find, it means bird of heaven, and when I look at the colors I used on her I'm reminded of birds of paradise. It's also the name of the palace where the last Hawaiian monarchy lived and where Queen Lili`uokalani was imprisioned. 

I don't know what the heck I was doing with my camera when I took pictures to explain the lei in the pattern, but I must have changed something drastically since there is a ridiculous amount of noise in each of those photos.  I'm trying to fix them and lighten the finished doll's photos, I'm concerned about the colors and light in all the pictures- are they coming out well for you?

Guess who I've finished making?

Oh yeah! I finished the hula girl.  After like six or seven attempts on the lei, I got it just how I wanted it for the pattern.  I'd made a couple that I liked the look of, but were way too complicated to even want to try to explain in a pattern, and then the easy to explain ones were funky, but finally I think this one is just right- a good balance between looking detailed enough, but also something that I think will be understandable when you're reading the pattern.

I'll have to take some more pictures in better lighting for the pattern, but I hate posting without an image, and I wanted to share since I think she's really cute, and I hope you do too.

So, I have an appointment to take my computer in to get the topcase replaced, and it may be a week before I get it back so I'm hoping I can get the pattern done within the next couple of days so that it doesn't turn into a couple week wait!

Hula body

So here's part of what I have, I'm deciding on the hairstyle, but do have the wig cap made.  Then I'll make a lei, but I'm still deciding on colors and whether I should make it out of yarn, worsted, sock or fingering, or embroidery floss or perle cotton.

Decisions, decisions! Oh, and my email was hacked into and then my address book was spammed.  So a big huge sorry for anyone who got a funky email from me today!

Winner of the Pearl pattern

is Martha Rickard thanks to the Random Integer Generator-  

Congratulations, and yum!

   

Thanks for everyone who participated, it's always so much fun to read everyone's answers- though this time around it was making me super hungry! It's not the best idea to read comments on an empty stomach :)

Pearl the panda girl amigurumi pattern available & a giveaway!

Took me long enough, didn't it!  I hope she was worth the wait... 

The pattern is 6 pages long with 11 images including the one on the cover and is available for purchase on Etsy & Ravelry (buy now).  Here she is from the front-

And now the back :) It's always the silly things or minutiae that I get hung up on, and in this case it was the tail- I'd always thought pandas had black tails, but in all the pictures I could find, both in books and online, they don't! Their tails are that cream-ish white color.

 

She looked like she needed a bow on her hood too since there was so much black and cream everywhere, and it was convenient to use the same embroidery floss that I used for her mouth and hair ties.

This one was a bit different than my typical dolls, I added an animal face to the hood.  I think I like the way it looks, and it's only a little more effort.  I don't think I'll always do that, but it definitely adds something this time around, and I think it'll just depend on what I'm making, you know?

Anyhoo, to enter the contest, all you have to do to enter to win a free Pearl pattern is leave a comment and tell me- What is your favorite food of all time? And if you want to tell me why, that's always more fun. Only one comment counts per person, and no comments will be entered after noon PST June 16, 2010. Oh, and if you don't want to wait to see if you've won, you can purchase the pattern now and I'll refund you via paypal :)

Sneak Peak of the finished panda girl :)

 

More coming soon...

Facebook and other musings

So school is out as of 12:30 yesterday.  Whew! I'm finding out more and more that I'm an all or nothing type of personality, and even though I tried my darnedest, I really did sign up to volunteer/help/do too many things that all culminated into the past 6 weeks of utter and total busy bee behavior.  I have 10 weeks until school starts again for my now preschooler (!) and first grader (!!!) to plan what I want to do next year and how to save time for myself to do things I enjoy doing also.

Meanwhile, I hadn't crocheted for almost 2 months, and while I was selling fundraising t-shirts at the kindergarten registration and assessments last week I was able to make 2 heads! Yay me :) Seriously, you wouldn't think this any major accomplishment, but I'm thrilled.  So, I'm just having my panda pattern tech edited and I should be releasing it next week.  I know, I'm so sorry it's taken this long.  Especially since I talked about it such a long time ago!

In other news, I finally figured out how to do a page for Owlishly on facebook. 

 

After much vacillating, I've decided to keep my MiaZamoraJohnson account for just family, and old and new friends, that way I can share personal information more comfortably with those that know me in real life and I don't have to worry about people taking things in ways that I don't mean them.  But now that I've finally made a decision I set up the page and added pictures.  Feel free to stop by and check it out, I'm embarrassed that I keep saying that I'll update things with more frequency, but I do really intend on trying to, and hopefully it'll be something that I can get done now that I have just summer time activities to participate in.

So I hope to be back soon with some new pattern news to share :)

What do you think- am I being copied?

I think I'm being copied. It's not in crochet, but it appears to be pretty blatant.  A site called Doodle Palace is selling digital stamps that look eerily similar to mine.  Take a look for yourself and let me know what you think!

   

   

 

 


Seriously?!

: : : : : ETA : : : : :

I had contacted them about it, and thankfully I received an interesting reply today with an apology and assurance that they had removed to images off of their blog and website.

When I'm designing a doll that I will be selling the pattern for, I do my absolute best to find images of anything similar to make sure that I'm not copying someone, even inadvertently.  I just expect that anyone else who does what we do would hold to the same standards too.  It's unfortunate that that doesn't always happen.

Within the last year or so, I just have gotten very discouraged by all the copying and pattern sharing on forums, and chasing down and all of the not fun stuff that has to do with designing these patterns.  Unfortunately I let that get to me to the point where I don't want to share what I make, but I do realize that almost all of the people that purchase my patterns do respect my work and my copyright choices and I wanted to let all of you who do follow the rules- I really appreciate you!

Huevito pattern reminder :)

Hi everyone, I haven't had much time to work on the panda, but I did want to get in a reminder that if you're in need of a quick little Easter project you can always work up some little eggs from my Huevitos pattern.  They're fun and fast, so you can whip up a bunch to give out as gifts or throw at people, all depending on your relationship :)

Lot's of things have been happening of late, my dad is running for mayor in the next city over, I've been working on finding grants & other funds for our school's library, my husband is the chair of our school's golf tournament and our poor little girl has gone from bad cough to earache to stomach bug in the course of the last two weeks. 

I also keep putting off taking my computer in to get fixed :)  It's silly since I haven't had time to work on the pattern, but I keep thinking I will, so I make appointments and cancel them over and over again.  I think the reason is that I know it'll require it being sent away for a week to get the topcase replaced and I can't bear to part with it :)

Anyway, I hope you have a good Easter if you celebrate it, we've been getting ready by making dozens and dozens of cascarones all week- it should be fun!