Winter landscape - window transparent

As I don't find much time at the moment for big (sewing) projects, I made this transparent for January.

The carton is actually light blue, but I didn't manage to get the colour right AND show the transparent's layers.

I have the book "Mit farbigen Transparenten durch das Jahr" by Michaela Kronshage und Silvia Schwartz, which offers 15 or so transparents with detailed decriptions. Not all of them are 100% to my taste, but they are all really good to learn about the layering and how to achieve certain effects.

Aliena for Isabel

One of my best friends from waaaaaay back in schooltimes has an adorable little daughter called Isabel. So of course I wanted to make a doll for her, too. And the name for this one was clear from the very beginning. Aliena. Like one of the main characters from "Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follet. Of course there is a story behind this. When I was about 15 or so, I was given this novel from my friend and I was dragged into the story of love, hate, passion, drama, history - I was hooked and in a way it was a novel that a huge impact on me. But enough on the name.

I wanted the doll to have a sort of "earthy" feel so I chose dark brown hair (which the character in the book has, too, and dark eyes). The clothes are a dress made from layers cotton batist in curry yellow and a grey/mud brown. Her hat and her shoes are a crocheted from a dark burgundy cotton and the coat (with hood) is knitted from grey wool that is just the sligthest but irregular in the shade of grey.

To make the doll, I followed Mariengold.net instructions. As well as for the clothes. I love those instructions (she sells them in English and in German and if you have questions, she's answering them really quickly via Email and she's really friendly, too!). The material for the doll is from www.wollknoll.de, they have wonderful jersey knit for the skin in I think 5 shades. This one is called "haut hell" (light skin). The hair is made from Dolly Mo Woolly Mohair in dark brown. And the filling is wool fleece (from sheep from Southern Germany... and I LOVE the smell of wool!). All the dyes and fabrics  are ecofriendly/organic and non-poisonous so it's entirely child-safe.

I made the doll as a Christmas/Birthday present.

Leevke - another baby doll

And yet another doll for christmas - for little Miss No 2. Who didn't get a self-made doll so far, so this is her first one. Again, I made the dolly following Mariengold patterns, also for the clothes (shoes, coat and dress). The dress is a variation on a tunic shirt in her clothes book "oh girl". It is a little longer and has a ruffle and velvet ribbon attached at the bottom, so it is more a dress than a tunic.
The hair is made from off-white mohair wool (from wollknoll.eu) and I then attached two pleats on the back which i tied around the head, so it is like one big pleat around the head. (because of the big ribbon around the head, you can't really see this...) Maybe I manage to take another picture when it is warmer.

Making these little dolls is so addictive!

Wencke - a baby doll.

This little cutie is called Wencke. She was this year's christmas present for my not-so-little-any more Miss No 1. And she adopted her with delight saying "finally I have a little baby, too!".

Anyhow, I made this little dolly following the instructions for "Mariengold" dolls (www.mariengold.net) which i really like. The hair is made in a special crocheting technique with Dolly Mo Wolly Mohair in dark brown.

All material is organic and non toxic (including the dyes). The filling is wool fleece from local sheep. :)

The clothes are made following Mariengold "Oh girl" patterns (shirt, hat, suit, shoes), only I combined a dress and a trousers pattern to make this overall. They were farbric remnants from shirts and trousers I also used to make clothes for the kids.

This was my second attempt at dollmaking. And again, I really enjoyed it.