. brightmeadowknits: 2011

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Dotee dolls

I'm participating in a Dotee doll exchange on Mary Jane's Farm.  I'd never heard of Store dolls before.  It seems they were created originally by a woman named Dot Christian.  The doll body and head is from 3-5 inches long, it has a "tail", usually made of beads, and is usually made of beads.  There is a ribbon loop sewn into the top for hanging.  Usually the face is blanket-stitch appliqued to the body. The face can be drawn, painted, embroidered, or printed.   The key to success for this doll is embellishment.   You can see a whole slideshow of dolls at Flickr in the Dotee  dolls group, or google For Dotee  doll images.  

 Embroidering the doll's  face was something that I could do on my embroidery machine.  I've been wanting to learn how to use the PE-Design software for a while to do something other than import and change existing designs.

After only about 6 hours, I have figured out the software and created several in-the-hoop designs for Dotee dolls.  They require some refinement, since I need to change the order of sewing.

Moving my laptop closer to the sewing machine might also help, I really got a workout yesterday going up and down the stairs... But at the same time, I am also converting my cassette tape collection to MP3s, and the stereo is downstairs.

I've made a few cloth bodies for the dolls, but I also want to do some knitted dolls. Maybe make the tails out of I-cord.  I'll post photos here when done.


Tuesday, April 5, 2011

GRAMKC Spring 2011

I was delighted to try on Diana Berns "Flared Jacket" at GRAMKC Spring Seminar and found that it absolutely fit me. I bought the pattern right away. It is a yoked garment with saddle sleeves and side panels. so definitely will fit on my machine. It calls for Diamante yarn. She demonstrated her technique for making a ribbed finish that doesn't pull in, and doesn't roll, but simply lays flat, giving a very elegant, smooth look to the garment. Eileen Montgomery demonstrated a number of techniques. The number of stitch patterns you can obtain using all the machine's capabilities and the #1 (birdseye) card is amazing. She showed us two-color tuck, slip, fairaisle, weaving, elongation, double-width, and so on. There must have been 100 different samples, and none of them involved using a ribber. Everyone was fascinated by the "tea cozy" stitch, which involved slipping 4 rows then knitting 2 rows. I was sad because I only had one day to spend with these two ladies.