I haven't posted in a little while and it's because all I've been doing in my free time is sewing! I stay up way longer than I should just sewing away. I wanted to share one of the things I've made.
This little fleece hoodie is for my friend's baby boy that she is expecting in January. She and her husband are Green Bay Packers fans so I made the hoodie in their colors! It was so soft that I wanted to keep it just to snuggle with it! I found the pattern on Etsy from a shop called Puperita. Her pattern was really easy to follow!
This Thanksgiving I am thankful for discovering a new passion. I am loving every minute of sewing and I hope it does not go away. I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy time with your families and eat until you waddle!
So I've become a sewing fool lately. I am finally willing to say that I think I'm a seamstress now, well maybe a novice seamstress! I've been making quilts, baby bonnets, and even a fleece jacket for a baby! But the thing that I was really excited to make was a doll for my friend's 5 year old girl. A couple weeks ago I stumbled upon some websites that allow you to send in your child's drawings and they turn them into dolls or stuffed animals. There are several websites but my favorite is Child's Own Studio. I was inspired! I thought maybe I could make a doll from a child's drawing too. Visit the website if you have a moment and you'll see what I'm talking about.
One of my friends had posted a drawing of an angel that her 5 year old daughter, Emily, had made so I thought I could start with that drawing.
I went to the fabric store and got some purple fabric, some light tan fabric for the skin, some stuffing, and black yarn for the hair. One of the challenges I ran into was how to make the yarn curly for the hair. After doing some Googling I found that you could curl yarn by wrapping it around round dowels, dosing it with boiling hot water and then baking it on a low temperature for about an hour. I wrapped mine around some chopsticks!
I had never made a doll before so I didn't know how to start so I just jumped in and started! After spending three nights on it, here is the finished product!
I wanted it to be a surprise so I didn't tell my friend that I was making it. Emily got it today and was so excited to see that her drawing had come to life!
I am so excited to try to make more toys from kids' drawings and give them that magical moment when they realize that they designed the toy they're holding.
Back in September I shared my exciting experience watching artist Mary Qian's demonstration at Saks Galleries. If you missed it, you can read about it here. During that demonstration we watched her paint a model live in the gallery. We went back a few days after watching the demonstration to purchase one of her other paintings that I fell in love with, "An Innocent Gaze".
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| An Innocent Gaze |
Well, Mr. H really loved another painting, the one we watched her paint. The painting is titled "Ryann" which is the model's name. It is painted in more of an impressionist style than "An Innocent Gaze", with larger brush strokes. He loved the painting itself but he also really loved the fact that we got to watch it come to life, meet the model and have a real emotional connection to it.
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| ©Mary Qian |
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| ©Mary Qian |
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Mary said that the hands are the hardest part of the anatomy for her to paint because she wants them to look natural and real. They convey emotion and mood all by themselves and they are always the last part she paints. You can see in the photo on the left that the hands are unfinished even though the painting is almost done. I was really excited to see how she would paint them so I watched really closely and intently. I tried really hard to watch how she was going to do it but all I saw was a little shading here and a little shading there and suddenly there were fingers positioned so elegantly and naturally! It was so amazing to me. True talent!
Mr. H loved the painting very much (and I liked it a lot as well) so we went back to the gallery and brought "Ryann" home. Here is the painting in our living room. I am so pleased with it and it looks like our cat Shifty loves it, too! We told Ryann the next time we have a party at our house we'd invite her so she could see the painting of herself in its new home.
