A Zombie and a Pirate - Pincushion Dolls

If you've been following my last couple of posts, the last of Mom's new pincushion dolls are finally up. I think these are my personal favorites, too.



The most detailed of the cushion dolls is this Pirate. I LOVE the beard. It's made with acrylic yarn. He has a couple dreads in his hair with beads in them made with polar fleece.



I helped her out on a few things like the fabric pencil peg leg. It's removable, so the pencil can be used and replaced.



Meet this Zombie, too. She was experimenting on the eyes. He turned out kinda creepy, but in a cute way. :) She still wants to make a mummy that should be similar to this one, but she's still working out the wrappings.



So, that's it. If you want one, go check out the Etsy store here. If anyone is interested in the pattern, let me know. I'd be happy to consider writing one up for these, if there is a demand for it.

More Pincushion Dolls

Another couple of mom's pincushion dolls are up. This time we have a house elf inspired by Dobby from Harry Potter.



She used a head similar to our larger house elves. But this one is quite a bit smaller. He stands about 7 1/2 inches tall.



And another shirtless Frankie...





I've got a couple more to post before we're finished. Later!

Frankie, the Wearable Voodoo Doll Pincushion is Now Available on Etsy.com

Mom has been busy busy on the Voodoo Doll Pincushions! Here's is the first one she's making available to the public. You can see more pics and read more about it by viewing the listing here or by clicking the Etsy link in this blog's sidebar on the left.



She's made seven dolls so far! All are adorable! Four are Frankie's, of which two are already spoken for. The others will be revealed here soon as she lists them in my Etsy store in the next few days. So, stay tuned!

Happy Valentine's Day - New Take on Gumdrop Roses

Daughter and I waited 'til the last minute on her Valentine's cards for school, again. If you read last years post on our Stash Buster Cards, you'll know that we've made the decision not to buy store bought cards. We brainstormed for days before I finally remembers a project my own mom and I made for a school treats when I was my daughter's age. They were gumdrop roses.



Originally made with large gumdrops and toothpick stems, the daughter and I took our own approach and made a few improvements. Couldn't find jumbo gumdrops, but the slices work just fine. We replaced the slightly dangerous toothpick stem with a pretzel stick and planted the rose in a bite-size Reese's Peanut Butter Cup pot. It's the perfect pot!



This was then incorporated into our Valentine's Day card display container made from a single serving yogurt cup and a clear 9 oz. plastic cup. We were pondering how to keep the roses from getting smashed in their paper sack "mailboxes". We were just going to use cardboard circles inside the upside-down plastic cups, but had a stroke of genius at home when we tried the yogurt container under it. This gave us the additional space below to store some extra candy for those who didn't want to eat their roses.



We covered up the Yoplait label with our own which included two different short poems.

"Poppies are pretty. Daisies are dandy.
No Flower's as sweet as this rose of candy."

or

"What can beat a Valentine treat
made with sugar so it's sweet to eat?!"

The daughter didn't want anything mushy. So, we kept them about the roses. :) We printed them in black and white and colored with markers.



I won't go into all the details of how to make the roses. There are an abundance of free tutorials online with many different options for forming the petals. The real trick is to use lots of sugar when rolling out the petals and leaves. Pressing the candy in the sugar frequently while rolling will keep it from sticking.



Butter knives work really well for cutting the flattened gumdrops. Doesn't have to be sharp. Besides that, be gentle wrapping the pretzel stems. Pre-drilling the holes in the top chocolate layer of the pots with something pointy helps, too.



This really is a fairly simple and fun project. And, the best part is you get to eat the mistakes! Mmmmm... I made it a point to mess up on quite a few Peanut Butter pots. ;)



Can't believe we hadn't made these in over twenty five years. My mom was shown how by a wonderful neighbor we had when I was growing up. She was a great lady. She always used to make us the best cookies and other treats all year round always happy to share her recipes and was always there when we needed her. Being a forgetful "latch key kid", I was frequently locked out of our house. :) I also remember my sis and I inviting her granddaughter, a year younger than me, over to our house to play whenever she was visiting. She introduced me to daddy long-leg spiders and chewing on raw spaghetti noodles. Those were some good times. :)

If you'd like the label we used for the cups, you can find a layout of 4 including both poems here. Thanks for stopping in! And have the happiest of VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!

Voodoo Doll Pincushions Revisited

Recently, among my many other projects, I've been helping my mom make some pincushion dolls. We've finally got around to these that my sis was asking for after she saw Frankie. He's the one we made for a Halloween swap here.



The pincushion voodoo doll hangs on around your arm by his scrunchy elastic arms while you sew or pin a hem. If your sewing table is small like ours, this helps keeps large projects from pushing the pins off the table.



There's a metal plate is in his back so the pins won't poke all the way through. And, there is a small pocket on the back (on this one it's his pants! tee hee!) to put needle threaders among other things.



His body is made of t-shirt material with either polar fleece or felt pants/hair. Though some of the construction was accomplished on the sewing machine, I'd say much of it was hand sewn.



We made this greener one before the other. He's more like the original, but the hair is more of a flat top style.



He also has a pocket in back. I didn't make a pattern, so it was really difficult to remember what I did. That was probably a good thing, because it made us rethink a few of the details which I really like. She's working on some other ideas including some other characters. She's got it in her mind to make a zombie, mummy, and perhaps a pirate.

As far as other projects. I've got some outfits we whipped up for and event a few other things to show soon. Need to start planning this years Valentine's cards, too.

Have a crafting time!