Topsy Turvy Doll mini - Doll & Sailor Jupiter

I finished another smaller topsy turvy doll, this one as a gift for my sister. These smaller dolls are made not so much for play but as decorative pieces, but they are still very playable if that is desired. Standing at about 8.5 inches from head to head and about 9.5 inches from head to hem, as the skirt hangs a little lower to fully cover the doll under it, these are an ideal size for display.

Although with my larger flip dolls I embroidered individual face designs for each character, for these smaller dolls I decided to stick to the patterns original face templates. This meant making one dolls face happy and the doll on the flip side sad. These more basic faces were embroidered on using black and white for the eyes with black eyebrows, a pale tan colour for the nose and either red for happy lips or pink for sad lips.

The hands of each doll is also embroidered to give definition and create the fingers on each hand. The hair for each dolls head is made from yarn stitched first in a layer to cover the head, then followed with a second layer to create the length of the hair. This was done to ensure no bald spots on the dolls heads. For the brunette doll I created a fringe and a ponytail tied with a green ribbon to match her skirt.

For the hair on the blonde doll, I create the hair length and left the loops on the ends so it wouldn't look choppy or uneven but instead was left soft and rounded to better disguise any uneven ends. The dress on this blonde doll originally belonged to my sister before she donated it to me for sewing materials and she was pleasantly surprised to see it returned to her in this new representation.

If it was not already obvious, the blonde doll was made to represent my sister but the reverse brunette doll was actually made to represent Sailor Jupiter, the sailor scout who represents the month of my sisters birthday. The outfit for this second doll is a simplified version of Sailor Jupiter's fuku, that is a white top with her signature green colour for her skirt and hair ribbon.

As with everything I sew, this flip doll was completely sewn by hand and this includes the hair and dresses for these dolls. At some stage I will have to find the time to make a topsy turvy doll for myself, I would really like to make a Harry Potter themed doll for my shelf, but in the mean time I have another two sister I am making these dolls for and because they are hand-sewn they tend to take some time to make.

Pokémon Pikachu Bookmark & Ash + Pikachu Key Chain & Poké Ball Box

I've never made anything Pokémon related before but my nephew is a fan so I decided to make a Pokémon  gift set for his birthday. This set includes a Pikachu bookmark, two key chains, one of Ash Ketchum and the other of Pikachu, and lastly a box made to resemble a Poké Ball.

When I found this design for a Pikachu bookmark online I thought it was so cute I had to make it. Using a square 29x29 peg board, the finished design was ironed pretty well flat on both sides to make it as thin as possible so the finished piece could be comfortably used as a bookmark, with the finished size being about 13.5 cm tall.

These two key chains were made directly from patterns I found online and seemed to me to be the perfect designs for key chains. Ash Ketchum and Pikachu are very iconic to Pokémon and were a must to include in this set. The actual key chain part is also handmade by me using red rope, jewellery endings, jump rings and a lobster clasp.

The Poké Ball was was a bit trickier to make. After searching online for a Poké Ball I found a few that I liked and a few that I didn't, so I combined a couple of these designs to create a look I liked. I used a round peg board and made rings of white, black and red in differing sizes to create an oval shaped box.

Once all the layers were ironed together I then had to hot glue these layers to create the 3D box shape. I preferred a more oval, flattened circle a perfect round shape as it was more box like. I also added a magnet closure which, along with the front button piece, was hot glued to the finished box to create the Poké Ball.

I was so pleased with how these turned out and I think my nephew was too. I especially like the Pikachu bookmark, its such a simple design but so adorable. I again ran out of so many colours when making this, you might have noticed that the Poké Ball has some orange iron beads on the inside as I ran out of red. Once I get more iron beads I plan to make more themed gift sets.

Cuddle Pillow Toy - Puppy #1

A while back I made a mini Cuddle Pillow Toy who sits on my bookshelf looking all cute and cheeky with his tongue sticking out. Looking at him I couldn't resist making a larger, full size version of this puppy as a gift for an equally cheeky, yet adorable little boy. The end size for this full sized Puppy Pillow is about 10 inches by 10 inches, making him a comfortable size for hugs, play and naps.

This Puppy Pillow has black safety eyes, a blanket stitched black nose and orange eye patch, semi-filled paws and ears to make them floppy, and a happy little wagging tail. As with all my sewn projects I stitched this completely by hand. The pattern for this puppy can be found HERE in the Shiny Happy World shop and includes detailed instruction on assembling this puppy along with the pattern pieces.

Topsy Turvy Doll - Harley Quinn & Wonder Woman

I have made another of my up-side dolls, this one featuring Harley Quinn and Wonder Woman as seen in the cartoon DC Superhero Girls. Although the Wonder Woman for this doll is actually made in the same way as my Elsa & Wonder Woman doll, with Wonder Woman being more inspired by the DC Extended Universe version of the character.

Although Harley Quinn is seen wearing pants in the DC Superhero Girls, along with Wonder Woman, I have made these dolls into my interpretations of these characters and not an exact copy of them. This is due to the nature of these dolls needing skirts, to be able to be flipped, and also to fit how I had decided I wanted to interpret each character.

Both Harley Quinn and Wonder Woman have block colour skirts, styled sleeveless tops with ribbon accents and ribbon belts. All colours chosen were those that best represented each aspect of their outfits. Wonder Woman with her yellow (golden) indestructible bracelets, tiara and belt. Along with the yellow detail on her top.

Harley Quinn, although mostly based on her DC Superhero Girls version, also has influences of her other incarnations. Instead of splitting her skirt colour I made it all black with a blue belt, this is partly influenced by how I wished her to look and partly by the supplies I had at hand. Her top with the red ribbon trim was more influences by her Suicide Squad look.

Harley Quinn's hair was very much a copy of how it is seen in DC Superhero Girls. Her hair, as well as Wonder Woman's, was stitched on to her head in two layers. A bottom layer was stitched all over the head to hide any bald spots that may show, then a second layer was stitched on. For Harley Quinn this second layer was fashioned into two ponytails, with her coloured stripes included and for Wonder Woman this second layer was left long.

The face designs for both Harley Quinn and Wonder Woman were taken from their DC Superhero Girls versions to give each doll a personalised look. It is interesting to see how different colour and shaped facial features can portray their individual personalities. Both Harley Quinn and Wonder Woman have all features of their faces hand embroidered, and Wonder Woman's stitched on tiara is also embellished.

Along with all my sewn projects, this topsy turvy doll was completely hand sewn, so it does take a while to complete one of these dolls but it is well worth the effort seeing the end result. This was yet another doll made as a gift, one day I will make one of these lovely dolls for myself. I was given a suggestion to make a Harry Potter themed doll of Professor McGonagall, with her as a cat as the second doll on the flip doll. I am so tempted to make this, I just need to find the time..

Magizoology Wallpapers set1 - Garden Gnomes [or Warrick In The Wild]

A few minutes down the road from where I live is a beautiful national park where I occasionally go bushwalking. I don't go nearly as often as I would like, but on my last outing I noticed that I wasn't as alone as I had thought I was. It seems that Warrick, my garden gnome, had decided to follow along and its looks as thought he had quite a time exploring his new surroundings.

I decided I should make some desktop wallpapers of Warrick in the wild. These wallpapers are size 1366x768, which is the size of my own computer, but if other sizes are wanted I can make those too. To download click on the picture of the wallpaper you want and "Save Image As" to save to your computer or alternatively you can select "Set As Desktop Background". Hope you enjoy.

Even More Garden Gnomes (inspired by the Harry Potter Series)

One of my favourite magical creatures to never appear in the movies, but who do make an appearance in my garden, are the Garden Gnomes. I so love these grumpy faced little creatures and have made it my mission to see that that they find fun new homes. This is not the first time I have written about these adorable beings, the first time being back in February of last year, the second time only a month after that.

My first garden gnome was Warrick who, seen above on the left, still spends most of his time indoors and on my bookshelf, despite the fact that it is now winter here in Australia and I'm sure his gnomehole in my backyard would be just as warm for him as my house is freezing. Next to Warrick is a new friend, as yet unnamed as he is to be re-homed with a new family.

The reason for a new garden gnome post, other then the fact that I just love these creatures, is to show the difference materials can make when creating one of these gnomes. Using the one pattern these two gnomes have slightly differing sizes which is all due to the material used. Warrick was made from an old pair of jeans and his little friend was made from left over heavy curtain fabric.

If you decide to make a garden gnome yourself, details for which can be found here, the in-depth tutorial attached advises suede cloth, or any non woven fabric. However I prefer to use materials I have on hand and unfortunately I had no suede when making these. The jeans used to make Warrick were, I thought, a great light brown/tan colour and the material had some stretch to it which made it easer when turning inside-out.

This second little garden gnome was made with a heavier dark material, leftover curtain scraps, that had no stretch to it at all which I discovered made a bit of a difference when it came time to turning out his sewn pieces. It was especially tricky turning the hands the right way out as it was a smaller piece to manoeuvre and the material was also thicker then I was used to, but I found a pair of hemostats came in handy for this.

I have also made a few sets of Blue garden gnomes, complete with Weasley's Wizard Wheezers scroll's that I have previously given away seen here. But I find no mater the material used or the colours chosen for these magical creatures they are each so adorable and such fun to toss about. To get this pattern for yourself visit Tiffany Hinnen (aka. Mieljolie) etsy store HERE, and to find out more about her other macical patterns and creations visit her blog All Things Crafty.

Poison Ivy Key Chain + Necklace + Hairband

Lately I have been playing around with iron beads, creating a lot of different makes from designs I have found online but also coming up with a few designs of my own. Something that is a mixture of the two is this is gift set I made for a special little someone who is a fan of the DC Superhero Girls, I had also previously made her a Poison Ivy & Wonder Woman topsy turvy doll seen here.

For this set I used a square peg board and iron beads, also known as perler, hama and pyssla beads. The first piece is a key chain of Poison Ivy that I actually designed myself. She is small, about 6.5 cm tall, which is a cute size for a keyring. Once she was designed and ironed together I added a jump ring and a cord that I made myself from a waxed green cord, cord ends, smaller jump rings and a lobster clasp.

This necklace was inspired by the flower that is seen on Poison Ivy's belt. The centre flower is from a design I found online, however the vine / leaves were designed by me as I wanted a more statement necklace rather then a plain flower necklace. After the pieces were ironed I connected them with jump rings and then made the chain from a silk green cord, cord ends, smaller jump rings, a lobster clasp and added a few chain links to make the necklace size adjustable if needed.

This last piece, also a flower, was yet another design I found online, however I did have to design the green leaf part myself. After ironing this was hot glued to a plain black head band that I bought from ebay, I actually bought a few of these very cheap. Overall I was very pleased with how this Poison Ivy gift set turned out, I especially liked the necklace which is definitely a statement piece.