The Dolls are Done!

These are my five grandchildren. I am making a doll for each of them for Christmas. The two who live in CA. will not get theirs until we fly out there in Feb. I'm not concerned about them seeing these since I'm almost sure they do not look at my blog.

For each one I chose something about them that I thought would capture their personality or something they really liked to do.

The first one is Sydney. She lives in CA. and loves, loves, loves her dog Clyde. Sydney also wants to be an Entomologist when she grows up, hence the butterfly. When we were in Costa Rica this Summer, Sydney was besieged by butterflies while we were near a waterfall.

Next is Connor, Connor also lives in CA. and loves the ocean, he takes life guard classes each Summer, he also plays water polo. When we were in Costa Rica we had the great privilege of seeing a Green Sea Turtle lay her eggs on the beach at night. The guides were wonderful and told a story about riding the turtles back out to sea when they were children. They emphasised that they did not know that it was dangerous to the turtles at that time and in no way should this be done today.

Connor was so enraptured with the turtle laying its eggs. He was laying on the sand almost at eye level with the turtles eggs. That with his love of the ocean is why I chose this way to represent Connor.

Aubrey is the blue haired doll walking her dogs. Aubrey is our artist and loves her dogs. I wanted to show her independence when it come to being her own self. She loves to wear her black knee-high boots so those were a last minute addition. The dogs were quite a challenge for me. Little is harder than big, believe me. I had to make the patterns up as I went. I'm sure someone does it much better, but they are cute.

Ellington is a reader and loves her cats. She also has her way of dressing and I wanted to show that with the doll. This girls reads LOTS so I wanted to show her reading. She is really into the fantasy books, this one is Warrior #2. Don't know if it show on the photo or not but the book is about a cat.

To make the book I copied the front of the book and one of the inside pages. I then went to Word and pasted the photo of the cover and the pages. I then printed the page on fabric and cut each the pages out with two pages. I placed Steam-A-Seam behind the page before I cut them out and fused another page over that so the pages would be two sided. I then placed them together and sewed down the center to make the book.

Hannah is the oldest of our grandchildren and is really into cheer leading. The school colors of the school she will be going to next year are red and black. Red and black are also the colors of USC her Dad's Alma mater. She has the most beautiful hair and almost always pulls it over into a side pony tail.

My husband made a megaphone to place beside her and I found a funky football at Hobby Lobby for a neat prop.

I have had the best time making these for the kids. It is truly addictive but even more so when you are making them for someone you love.