Baby Doll Repair

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   When my mother was a little girl, her teacher invited all the students to bring their favorite dolls to school for a baby doll beauty pageant.  Mamma knew she couldn't participate because she only had one doll.  It was dirty, had no clothes, and worst of all, it's porcelain head was cracked open.  So, she didn't even bother to tell my grandmother about the contest at school.
     On the day of the dolly beauty pageant, the teacher had decorated a lovely table to display all her student's prized toys.  Mom looked longingly at all the beautiful babies.  She was saddened that her own had to be left at home, because it was a tattered mess.
     At lunch, she stayed at school to admire the dolls instead of going home for lunch.  Before the bell rang signaling children to return to the classroom, she looked up to see her older brother hurrying toward her with a paper bag in his hands. She thought grandma had sent her lunch back to the school with him..
     When mom looked inside the bag, she found her doll.  Grandma had cleaned the doll, made a pretty little dress and shoes.  The crack in the doll's head had been glued together and was covered with a smart little bonnet.  Mamma, excitedly entered her dolly in the beauty pageant and won the contest.
     This sad little doll reminded me of that story when I saw her.  It was donated to the play area at my daughter's gymnastics studio.  The gym owner handed it to me asking if she could pay me to repair it. 

Poor little baby doll:
Before pic

     I began by reattaching the doll's left arm to her body by basting and then blanket stitching two strips of twill on either side of the rotating disks of the arms.

arm repair with twill fabric and blanket stitch

  

another view of reattaching rotating arm to soft body

     Next, I cleaned the doll's head, arms and feet with a mild detergent and water.  Then came the task of clothing this naked baby.  After measuring it, I found that the doll was much larger than most 18" doll patterns.  I was able to alter patterns for newborn babies for a better fit.  I found inspiration for the blouse by downloading the free Newborn Peasant Dress pattern from Bella Bama.  It may be accessed at this link  http://bellabama.blogspot.com/2012/05/newborn-peasant-dress-wfree-pattern.html .
      In order to cover the cloth arms of this baby, I lengthened the sleeves and shortened the dress by only utilizing the 1st page of the 2 page print out.  Next, I added ruffles to the cuffs of the sleeves and hem of the blouse.  I extended the neckline to cover where the cloth body attached to the head by adding two 1"strips of coordinating fabric to the neckline  of  garment and drawing the elastic tightly around the neck.
      For those of you who sew baby clothes, I highly recommend  This little peasant dress pattern.  It was easy to construct.  It appears to be true to size and was a real joy to sew.  Download this free pattern.  You will use it again and again!  I really loved it!

After
Cleaning, new clothes, shoes and hair grooming

      For the pants, I downloaded another free pattern.  This one is for Baby Bloomers from See Kate Sew http://seekatesew.com/free-pattern-baby-bloomers/ .  I really liked the design of this pattern, because it was just 2 pieces; a front and a back.  Again, I had to extend the legs to cover the cloth on the body of the doll.  This time, I did it by adding 3 strips of coordinating fabric, and serging everything together.  I had to do quite a bit of adjusting to this pattern to fit the doll, but it was very simple to do and I'm very pleased with the result.  This is a great pattern for crafters or beginning sewers.  I'm glad I now have it in my toolbox.

     Next, I moved on to hair bow ties.  I cut 4 strips of 2 coordinating fabrics and hemmed each of the 8 sides on my serger.  I really like the way the 2 sided bows looked after I made some pigtails for the doll.

     Then I decided I just couldn't have a baby doll with bare feet.  See my separate blog entry on creating the little mary jane shoes.  I've included a free PDF of my pattern for you!

     Finally, I recruited my four year-old daughter to help dress our cleaned and mended baby.  We attached a note about paying it forward in honor of the life of our little friend, Gabby Lewis.  Learn more about her story at http://rememberinggabby.blogspot.com/ .

     When we delivered our mended baby, the gym teacher didn't even realize it was the old, tattered doll she asked me to repair!  We named the baby doll "Gabby" in honor of our special friend. When a toddler barreled across the floor, squealing and snatching up the doll, my daughter and I smiled at each other and slipped out the front door.

Newborn / Baby Doll Shoe Pattern - FREE!

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   This week, I refurbished a baby doll.  When it came to making shoes for it though, I admit I was a little stumped.  I had never made shoes before.  I was so pleased with my first attempt I plan on making more shoes in the future.

        Click here and download my FREE  PDF pattern for Newborn / Baby Doll  Shoes
 https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6thQdUKGOfycGVzSmk0QzBva2M/edit?usp=sharing

 This pattern will fit a large 20" (or larger) baby doll or newborn baby.  (Wish I had it when my daughter was born!)

Items needed:
1 square felt
Embroidery Floss
Needle

Instructions:
  Cut 4 of pattern.  Turn 2 over, so you now have a pair of felt pieces for a right and a left foot.

Cut holes in the top 2 felt pieces to create the strap and foot openings for the top of the mary janes.  If you accidentally cut the hole too large, affix a piece of elastic running from the left to right side of the strap.  This will create a sling back that can hold the shoe on the foot and remain hidden under the felt heel.

Embellish with decorative stitches, buttons, etc.  Sew the outsides together with a blanket stitch.

Voila, little mary janes!

If you enjoyed this pattern, please let me know!

Thanks,
The Grundy Girl

Gymnastics & Ballet Fairy Garden Teacher Thank Yous

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This week, my 4 year-old completed gymnastics and ballet classes.  She chose to create fairy gardens as thank you gifts for her teachers.  Unfortunately, I didn't know much about creating floral arrangements, so I gathered my supplies and visited my friend, Roselyn to ask for help.  With her guidance and about $15, we created ballet and gymnastics themed fairy gardens.

Gymnastics Fairy Garden - property Tonya Freeman

Ballet Fairy Garden - property Tonya Freeman

     For the gymnastics fairy garden, I snatched up a $6 bucket from the equine section of Tractor Supply.  Then, I headed to the Dollar Tree where I found two types of floral wire, a bag of balloons  and a bag of potting soil.  To create the ballerina fairy garden, I picked up an aluminum mini loaf pan at the grocery store and ordered the musical ballerina jewelry box from www.sears.com.  The jewelry box was only $3.75 and shipped free to my local Sears store.  SCORE!   Grand total of supplies: less than $15 including tax!

      Roselyn provided the plants from her garden.  All the ones we used are succulents.  She also added a little potting mix and fertilizer when she helped my daughter arrange the plants in our planters. 


     Next, I convinced hubby to use the heavier floral wire and a couple bamboo skewers from my kitchen drawer to create uneven bars and a bar for the rings.  He secured the ends with hot glue. A piece of cord and 2 plastic bra strap rings (available at Jo-Ann Fabric) completed the rings.  For the trampoline, we used two types of floral wire and a balloon.  For directions, refer to this YouTube tutorial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOdyJlhjuI.)

Gymnastics Fairy Garden Uneven Bars - property Tonya Freeman

Gymnastics Fairy Garden Rings - property Tonya Freeman

Gymnastics Fairy Garden Trampoline - property Tonya Freeman

       We finished the planters by printing a thank you note found on Pinterest ( http://pinterest.com/pin/479633429035346705/ ) and gluing it to a skewer.  (Our ballet garden has the same wording on the note, but it is printed over the logo of the dance studio.)

     Roselyn will be happy to know, we were able to keep her plants alive until we delivered them this week.  They were a big hit with our teachers --- hopefully, they will be with the fairies too!

Personaizing Patterns

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I loved sewing this!!!!

What an adorable Christmas outfit!  Don't you just love the back?

I modified the Toddler Sizes Olivia Reversible Pinafore Sewing Pattern Tutorial from Romeo & Mae to create this dress. 

My model is a size 4T with a very long torso.  So, I had to extend the straps from the pattern.  (I found they ran a little short. -- My straps actually extended beyond the pattern's size 6.)

The original pattern also covers the entire back of the model.  I wanted to show off the ruffles on the bloomers, so I made small folds under the arms of the pattern that extended to the hem of the pinafore.  This took volume out of the back and opened it up.

The bloomers are a simple 4 piece shorts pattern with elastic inserted in the waistband and around the legs.  I tacked a few rows of ruffles across the back and covered the raw edge on the top ruffle with jumbo ric rac.

The great thing about this pinafore pattern is that it is reversible.  The reverse side of the one on the model is green and white.  I made a matching pair of green cord pants, so she could wear the ensemble on St. Patrick's Day too!