Confined Crafting

 This has been a very busy week on the home/work front, and therefore a very quiet week on the crafting front! I've done a little mending, especially teddy Dandelion Flower who needed her back stitching up! Alterations One of the things I always had in mind when I started sewing was not just making my own clothes but also adjusting shop-bought clothes for a better fit. I started looking at a few tops and dresses this week to see where I could adjust them. I started work on a flowy summer top that I've had for a while but always felt uncomfortable because there wasn't quite enough fabric in the sleeves which twisted the way the top sat on my body. I chopped the sleeves off, which helped a lot, but there's also the issue of the bust not doing up.  I got some great advice on Instagram, including a suggestion from SewBusty who have started a blog for the sewer who is well-endowed! Removing the elastic from the gathered part has really helped, I only need to find another in...

 My daughter loves the Amelia Fang book series by Laura Ellen Anderson, and she's often asked for dolls or toys of the characters. However there aren't any commercially available. Anderson recently released the final book in the series which we bought for H as a birthday present - and I decided to make her an Amelia doll to go alongside the gift! I found this pattern from PetrasWonderland on Etsy which I used as the base. To make my life a little easier, I used black fabric for the body and arms, and striped black and white fabric for the legs (rather than make them in skin tones and then 'dress' the doll separately). That way the only clothing I needed to sew was a circle skirt, which I then sewed to the body. I added some netting in between the circle skirt fabric to get the sense of fullness found in the illustrations. Finally I added some little wings from stiff black felt. Amelia wouldn't be complete without her little pumpkin Squashy, so I used some scrap or...