A Custom Doll

A custom doll for a dear reader's little girl. She is 12.5 inches tall, made of organic cotton Swiss jersey skin fabric, firmly stuffed with 100% organic wool. Her face was sculpted using a combination of traditional waldorf doll making techniques and needlefelting. Her hat is made from softest, cuddliest 100% cashmere, and her blond hair is from 100% organic lambswool. Her eyes (which are quite beautiful, if I do say so myself) took forever and a half to embroider! Her wardrobe consists of a pair of tiny bloomers edged in vintage lace, a dress made from coordinating cotton fabric with a matching bias neckline, and a sweet little linen/cotton blend pinafore with a matching pocket. I have to finish up a few tiny details, and she should be heading for her new home in a day or two!

In which a doll is born

Our sweet little Claire turned 4 years old this weekend. During the last month of my pregnancy I began working on a special doll for her, a baby doll. I knew I wanted it to look a bit like her new baby sister that was on the way. So with that in mind I set to work. I created a doll with arms and legs that are jointed and can move, to make dressing easier. Plus her new baby would be able to sit up and hug and do all of those fun things you need movable arms and legs for. I embroidered her baby's eyes to match Claire's own eye color as closely as possible. We had a very clear ultrasound picture of Violet at 36 weeks and her face shape was just like Claire's was as a newborn, so I carefully sculpted the new doll's face to have a sweet pointy chin, chubby kissable cheeks and a darling little nose, just like my sweet girls. Her skin is organic cotton, and her hair is a mohair and wool blend. It was a natural white, and we gathered black walnuts from our woods and I dyed her hair with them after I crocheted the little cap to the correct size for her head. She is firmly stuffed with wool. 

Ever since Violet was born 3 weeks ago, Claire has been watching everything I do with the new baby very closely. Doll play in our house has become much more serious business now! Claire has spent the past couple of weeks playing "mommy with a newborn". She mentioned how she wished one of her babies had short soft fuzzy hair, like my newborn. She also told me several times that she would like to have diapers for her baby, so she could change it's diapers. (Lately a very frequent occurrence that she has witnessed about a million times around here!) So I made her new baby a couple of diapers that close with velcro. The diapers turned out to be a very big hit! Claire's baby has had her diapers changed even more frequently than her baby sister's in the past few days. During the time I worked on the doll, Claire had no idea that I was making something for her! She was so surprised to open up her gift on her birthday

With everything that has been happening over the past few weeks I gave myself a break and decided not to make her handmade clothing right now. So she is being dressed in "real preemie baby" sized clothing for the time being. The little pale blue pixie hat with velvet ribbons and the embroidered violets on it was borrowed from my own little Violet Penelope! I made it from the softest cashmere sweater. The pink hat with matching tiny Mary Jane shoes were actually Claire's when she was a newborn! They were made for her by her adoring Grandmother!

Claire and I decided to wrap our new born babies up in their blankets and take pictures of them together. Playing Mommy with my sweet little girl is so much fun. 

Joining in with Nicole at Frontier Dreams today and Linda at Natural Suburbia. 

Free Shipping and a Winner!

For this week only I am offering free shipping on any of the Waldorf inspired dolls in my Etsy Shop, so if you would like one of these adorable little Autumn dolls now would be a great time to hop on over and get one! Domestic and International shipping are included! Enter this coupon code at checkout:

FreeShipFall2013

The free shipping coupon is good only through September 28, 2013 so hurry on over to my Etsy store now! 

A big thank you to everyone who left all of the sweet comments on my giveaway post! Without Random.org it would have been impossible to choose! :-) 

The Winner of my doll giveaway is Renata! Congratulations! I've sent you an email!

Doll Giveaway and a fun announcement!

Aren't they adorable? I mean really?! I am so happy with how these little dolls have turned out. And now just in time for the Autumn Equinox I'm having a great big giveaway to celebrate the arrival of Fall! I'll be giving away one of these adorable Waldorf inspired Mushroom dolls! Perfect for playing with or displaying on your nature table! 

I had so much fun coming up with these two designs. I'm not sure which is my favorite. The little mushroom dolls are modeled after some of my favorite kinds of mushrooms which grow in abundance here in the woods surrounding our house, the Amanita muscaria. 

The Acorn dolls have little wool hats, embroidered to resemble the acorns that they are so fond of. Their little tunics are decorated with fall colored Oak leaves and a wool felt acorn. Both kinds of dolls have fully posable arms thanks to a soft wool covered wire armature inside them. They were entirely handmade by me using all natural materials in the Waldorf tradition.

Now for my fun announcement! I've listed two of the Mushroom Children and two of the Acorn Children dolls in my etsy shop!

And now for the giveaway! To enter all you have to do is be a follower of my blog. Either via Google's friend connect or by email using the feedburner widget. Both are found over on the right hand column just under the "about me" section. Alternatively, you can also Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Please be sure to leave a comment here letting me know how you follow my blog (and what email address you use if it's via feedburner) Please make sure I have a way to contact you if your name is drawn as the winner! I'll draw a name from the comments (Only one per person please!) using a random number generator on Sunday September 22, 2013 which is the official first day of Fall! Oh and I'll happily ship anywhere in the world so this giveaway is open to all of my friends everywhere! ♥♥♥

P.S. Feel free to pin the top image and let all of your friends know about the giveaway too!


linking up here and with Linda here and with Nicole here and with Joey here

A doll and her baby

 This little doll and her baby doll were made for a sweet young friend of ours. Our friend has beautiful long blond hair, the cutest pert little nose and great big expressive blue eyes. So I tried to make her doll look a bit like her. I asked the girl's mommy if she could help me out with the yarn for the hair, since I was having a hard time finding something that seemed just right. She is a very talented spinner and whipped up this gorgeous yarn lickity-split. It's 100% soy silk and is the softest, silkiest yarn I've ever worked with.

After I finished the doll and her little wardrobe, she seemed to need a little playmate of her own! So I made her a dolly of her very own, complete with a tiny hand-stitched cradle, a soft, wool stuffed pillow and her very own knitted blanket, made to match the big doll's knitted shawl. I think she was pretty pleased with her tiny new playmate. To hold the big doll's shawl on, I thought she needed a pretty little shawl pin, so I made her one. It is topped with shiny little glass beads, very big-girlish in style we think!

*Waldorf Dolls Details- Big Doll:  stuffed with fluffy clean sheep's wool, with 100% cotton skin and 100% Soy Silk hair. Her clothes and shawl are handmade of 100% cotton. Tiny Doll: Body wool/Bamboo blend felt hand dyed by me, Skin, hair, and blanket are 100% cotton. Stuffed with clean carded sheep's wool.

Linking here and with Nicole and with Natural Suburbia.