My mom's beautiful brown hair and dashing blue eyes were the inspiration behind this dolls features, only I didn't add any gray hairs. :) So I've decided to name her Suzy Q. (hee, hee) I've already made one knitted babe about a year ago, who ended up being Cowboy Bob (he just couldn't be a knitted babe for my son, my husband wasn't too excited about that idea). I have yet to make him a wardrobe, though, he only has a pair of boxers and recently a sweater. Suzy Q and her wardrobe are made from the book Knitted Babes It is such a cute book! I recommend this book to all knitters who have kids or grandkids, or are even a kid at heart (like me!) I altered the patterns for some of the clothes in the book, like her teal peacock blue corduroy jacket with tan fur-like trim (I had a fabric sample from work that was SO SOFT and the perfect scale of fur for her). Her jacket was the cowgirls shirt pattern with lengthened sleeves. Her dress is the same pattern as the book, but I didn't sew on the ribbon and I did a different stitch detail on the hem with my sewing machine. It was an experimental stitch an folding of fabric that actually turned out cute.
Here Suzy Q is lowering her jacket to show the details on the back side of her dress. Two black vintage buttons from my stash, black grosgrain ribbon at her waist and black bias tape on the sleeves.
My favorite part was making her handbag. This past summer I went to a Farm Chicks craft show and got a business card for an online quilt store. The card came with "quilters candy" which was this small piece of fabric I used for her handbag with the orange retro flower. It was the perfect size, about 3"x6". I hemmed both sides, cornered the bottom (I learned this trick from U-handblog's very fun and helpful website), then battled the top hem for a good hour just to get it take the leather cord through, glued a small piece of plastic canvas covered with green felt to the bottom and VOILA!! My own creation of a very cute Knitted Babe handbag! I always tend to enjoy the miniature side of crafting. Probably because I grew up with a mother who made miniatures and took me to miniature doll shows as a kid. Thanks Mom! Even in college my favorite part of our interior design studio was making the 1/4" scale models of our designs out of foam coar and museum board. Maybe someday I'll dig them out of our garage, photograph them, then toss them like my husband keeps asking me to do.
Now I can continue on with my Christmas gift making. I have a hat on needles, two inches of sead beads peyote stitched, and a whole bunch of patterns and ideas floating around in my head. Only twenty more days.....wish me luck!
