Big As Life

During the week before Easter when my friend sent me the box of baby clothes I thought I would be altering them to fit my bears and dolls. I never thought about making bears or dolls to fit the clothes. Among the things she sent is a darling hooded sweater that would be ruined if I tried to cut it down. At first I thought it would fit the doll that was my mother’s when she was a child but it isn’t a good fit so I set it aside and altered two of the dresses making four little dresses for the bears that I showed you in my previous post.

Shortly after finishing the quilt for the little cradle and the little pillows and pillow cases and the mattress pad I was left with nothing to sew. That wouldn’t do because I am trying to justify buying the new sewing machine. I thought and thought about what I could sew and nothing came to mind at first and then I remembered the sweater and that’s when I decided to make a pattern for a larger doll so the little sweater could be put to use.

Most of the dolls I make are 12 inches or smaller so I had to start from scratch with the pattern. The doll I made for the sweater is 30 inches tall. She’s a big girl and I’ve named her Mara after a character is a story my friend Linda wrote. The character in her story was named Splendora Maravilla. Those of you who have been paying attention know that I never make just one of anything so Mara has a little sister named Dora who stands 24 inches tall.

Mara is on the left wearing gray and yellow and Dora standing is wearing gray and purple. The dolls they are holding were made by my sister Maggie.

It looks like they've helped themselves to the candy jar.

Both dolls are sculpted from cotton fabric that I’ve dyed to resemble flesh. Their needle sculpted faces have been colored with a combination of oil pastels and water color pencils.

These are the largest dolls I’ve made and I don’t have plans to making any larger than these two unless I move into a house where they can have their own room. As it is I’m pretty sure I’m going to be buying them a little table and chair set and you know how one thing leads to another…

Close-up so you can see the appliques on thier tops and get a closer look at their sweet little faces. 

Here's Mara wearing that cute little sweater I told you about.

I did spend the day yesterday making underwear to match their little outfits and Sunday I went shopping for socks and shoes for the two of them. I love Mara’s fancy Oshkosh shoes. I also like the looks of the eyelet trim on her pants.

We have been getting more sunny days even though night time temperatures are still in the thirties which is a good sign that spring has sprung.

Have a great day and as always, thanks for stopping by.