Doll making

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I've never been much of a "doll" girl, but when I saw Emily Martin's (aka the Black Apple) fabric dolls, I simply fell in love. They were not only so adorable, but also so simple to make. Caro and I actually tried out her tutorial and that's how Adele and Anne-Sophie came to be!


Caro loved the project so much she went on to make her own custom dolls that are A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E. Although Adele is mine, I must say it was Caro who put her together, and by that I mean she sewed all the little parts - I only chose the fabric and sewed the top of her head closed! For the longest time, I've told myself that I should stick to the pen - the needle wasn't made for me. But seeing Caro's pretty dolls pop up before me one after the other, just made me go, "Dang, I wanna make one too!"

I am not a spontaneous person, but I do have my moments, and once I told myself I shall make a doll, I went ahead and bought meh a nice little sewing machine the very same day (which I returned a week later because my momma said, "Why don't ya return that thang dear, I have one, just take mine!" And I love it because it's almost vintage ;-) Oh and my mommy doesn't speak like that, I don't know what got into me).

I made a few sketches of characters I could possibly turn dolls. Naturally, they all looked like the little girls I've been drawing lately: big head, wide spaced eyes, small and slightly chubby body with short arms and legs. What can I say, I can't help it :P

Once satisfied with my character, I made its pattern. I had never done anything like that before; I was both nervous and excited! It was a very cool process. Although I didn't have any real fabric, the few coloured felt sheets I had bought randomly now and then served me well. Very well in fact, as I could easily go back on my steps whenever I made a mistake.


So now I present you Keira (as Caro mentioned, naming your doll is almost the funnest part of all!):


Her legs almost gave in when I made her dance on the table, and her hands are kinda stubby, but boy do I love her ;-)

Caro and I are currently working on a little doll serie based on Keira and we'll hopefully be revealing it soon. Much much fun! Stay tuned...

-lychee

How to : Pretty (and simple!) pearl earrings

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I was seeing that type of earring a lot on Etsy and I always thought they were so pretty. When I started to analyze them, I realized they were in fact really easy to make. When you have your pearl and connector, they take no more than 15 minutes to make.

For this project, you will need:

- Two pearls
- Two connectors
- Two earring hooks
- Two jewelery nails
- A pair of cutter
- A pair of round pliers

1- Insert a jewelery nail in a pearl.

2- With your cutter, cut the nail leaving about one inch long.

3- Insert the first connector onto the nail.

4- With your round pliers, make a small loop with the end of the nail. You might need to cut the nail again because you want the end of the loop to be hidden in the hole of the connector.

5- With your round pliers, slightly open the loop of an earring hook.

6- Insert the loop of the earring in the earring hook and close the opening back with your round pliers.

7- Voilà!

8- Repeat all the steps above to make the second earring.

Special thanks to Lychee who was taking the pictures for this "How-to" post :)

- Caro AKA Carotte

I love purple

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I went in vacation in Hampton beach two weeks ago with my family and my sister’s family.

I was on grocery duty and I’ve got disrupted by a fabric store called Jo-Ann located in Seabrook.

There I felt in love with a purple fabric that I immediately bought. With Lychee, we made a new button called "Midnight snacks".

I don't want to puff too much about this but I think it turn out to be a really cool product!

- Caro AKA Carotte

Amy

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I just love making dolls but what I love the most is giving them their names. Each time I sew a new doll, I think of a name for her and it’s only when she’s finish that she is named. First there was Anne-Sophie, then Isadora and now Amy!

- Caro AKA Carotte

How to : The perfect summer/beach necklace!

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I created this necklace base on one that I saw in the book called Les bijoux . On the way, I had to modify their plan to suit my needs, so this is my “How to” for this project.

How to make the perfect beach necklace

you will need:
- 20 medium pearls
- 20 small pearls
- 7 pieces of hemp string (or any other natural looking cord – just make sure that you can slide the pearls on it!) that are 150 cm long

1- Fold 6 of the 7 strings in two and form a loop that you will tie with a knot. Make sure the loop is not too big, about one inch long.

2- Tie the 7th string at the base of the loop to consolidate your loop by making this simple knot around the loop.

3- To make the knot around the loop, insert the end of the string inside the loop.

4- Then, bring back the string towards you and insert the end of the string in the small loop the string is now making.

5- Pull the string to tie the knot (don’t pull to much. The knot must be loose a little bit.)

6- Repeat steps 3-4-5 until you have made your way around the loop.

7- When you are done, tie the string by a simple knot around the base of the loop and cut the exceeding string.


8- Slide small and medium pearls on 8 of the strings leaving 4 strings without a pearl. Try to alternate small, medium and empty strings to create an interesting pattern.

9- Leaving about 10 cm for the pearls to take their place, make a big knot with all the strings.


10- Repeat steps 8 and 9. Try to put the pearls on strings that did not have one on the previous block and keep one medium pearl to make the closing. You will do five blocks of 8 pearls and the last one will contain only 7 pearls.

11- To finish the necklace, insert a medium pearl in one of the string and make a giant knot containing the pearl. To wear the necklace, you will need to insert this knot into the loop at the other end. Finally, you can cut a little bit the exceeding strings beside the finishing pearl if you want to.



12- Voilà!

I want to say a special thanks to my daughter Elsianne, who was quietly playing while I was taking the pictures to make this “How to”.

- Caro AKA Carotte