Bendy Dollhouse Doll Tutorial with Clothing Patterns Release

Now Available! Tutorial for Waldorf-style Dollhouse Dolls on Bendy Doll Bases.

Just as in the Elves and the Shoemaker tale… being in your birthday suit is slightly frowned upon… and so I offer these basic clothing designs to help you dress up your bendy doll bases 🙂 Also included is full instructions on how to build fabric heads, put on faces and hair, etc. Available in my Woolhalla shop on Etsy.

Two Dollhouse Doll clothing pattern pages to fit the bendy doll bases available from Woolhalla on Etsy or from Bear Dance Crafts

Let’s make dolls! Or at least some clothes for the dolls!!

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Free Patterns Update

Getting around to updating missing pattern links and slowly adding projects to the Free Pattern & Tutorials page. Find the links on the sidebar, print off the free PDF project and get crafting!!

The Wool Felt Starfish are now in a PDF for easier printing and use – yay!

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Just like the sneaky Easter Bunny!

All of a sudden I find myself thinking, “whoa, it’s Easter weekend already!”, just like the sneaky Easter bunny, Easter just kind of snuck up.  As if I didn’t notice the plethora of eggs and bunnies and other Easter items, but it still snuck up. It’s like Easter Eve and I am totally not ready!!
So, let’s get crafting…
First off I’d like to share The Peg Bunnies Tutorial found on the Here She Goes Again blog.

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Are they not the cutest little bunnies? I love the 4 spring/Easter colours. If you haven’t had a chance to make some little peg people (or bunnies), give it a whirl, they are tons of fun. And…luckily I am surrounded by over 100 colours of wool felt plus wood pegs to make them with, thanks to my supplies business Bear Dance Crafts. *whew* I can do this!! With the template on the Here She Goes Again blog, I am a happy bunny, er, I mean gal…

If bunnies are not your thing, but you’re looking for something fun for spring (honest, I wasn’t going for a rhyme!) then I highly recommend the Princess Fairy Tutorial by Brambles & Blossoms doll maker on her Faith and String blog. Make these little fairies in spring tones for a wonderful spring gift, or something different for the Easter celebration.

Princess FairyAgain, I am happy I have supplies on-hand for these sweet fairies too! If you don’t have supplies, there are some supply recommendations on the blog post, so go check it out with the above link.
There are more great tutorials from these wonderful crafty ladies on their blogs. I’ll also be adding the blogs to my blogroll… not tonight, I NEED to go do some crafting right now!!

Happy Easter 🙂

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Hello World! It’s me…

Hello World!!

Hello World!!

Hello World. I am still here! With some ramblings and a re-posting of a blog post on me I thought I’d share. A little personal stuff…
In a way I am surprised and not surprised at my long absence on the blog. I had plans to finish some free patterns an make them available… uh… I haven’t finished them yet. Somehow life got in the way. Well, actually death got in the way, which has a way of derailing life now and then. I’ve had some major losses this year. And yet I feel blessed that I have had such wonderful people in my life – every one of those people influenced me and made me who I am today.
Before I catch up on things I’ve made, I’d like to share a post made about me on Crafty Bastards: http://thecraftybastard.com/Every now and then CB has a craft sale and I try to get some items up in the sale. CB is on facebook and instagram, and I recommend you check them out!

In November an article was posted about moi, Woolhalla… and here it is copied. Or find the original at: http://thecraftybastard.com/2015/11/12/woolhalla/

Woolhalla!

This week, we were lucky enough to interview Natalie, of Woolhalla and Bear Dance Crafts. Not only is she giving us a peek into her world but she has donated one of her creations for a GIVEAWAY!!!

I have to say, Natalie is quite a character. She’s sweet and caring but she also has a fun quirky side that you can sometimes get a glimpse of.

Natalie is well known in the Handmade Community for her timeless creations as Woolhalla and also for her endless patience and consistently stocked supply shop Bear Dance Crafts, where a lot of us Canadian waldorf doll enthusiasts go to stock up on all of the fun little supplies that go into doll making.

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It may surprise you that Natalie was once on the sewing naughty list. Back in school she nearly failed sewing class because it was frowned upon to make her own versions of the patterns. As you can see, her rebellion against authority gave her the baseline for the creation of many original patterns, some of which she also sells in her store.

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Natalie lived in Holland for a time and started taking doll making classes there. Suddenly she realized that she had a knack for it and that people were looking to buy more creations from her. This naturally became the beginning of her love affair with handmade toys and dolls, and Woolhalla.

You can tell by looking at many creations that she takes great inspiration from nature and animals. These days she’s also become one of us Pinterest enthusiasts and finds some inspiration there. I imagine that what she creates with that inspiration is less of a fail than it is for some of us. 😉 And you guessed it, her other inspiration is David Bowie. What’s that? You didn’t guess that at all? Me neither, but I love it!

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I think like many of us crafters, Natalie gathers a lot of her ideas while lying in bed trying to fall asleep. If she wakes up in the morning and is still excited, she will ponder the details while she is getting all of her supply orders shipped out. Then if she manages to find an ounce of spare time she’ll start bringing it to life. Ideally for her, this process would happen in a cozy chair, either outside in the summer or in front of the woodstove in the winter. Like today, doesn’t that sound nice?  mmmm……..

Oh yes, Natalie.  Natalie has three children, two of which are… gasp… teenagers! and still live at home. Since her teenagers are typical, they allow her plenty of time to get things done and only bother her when they want a ride, or want food, which I imagine is often all of the time.

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We tried to pry some fun stories out of her but she was pretty tight lipped. She alluded to karaoke mishaps, roller derby refereeing and a misspent youth… if any of you manage to get the rest of the dirt, please do fill us in.

Thanks for answering all our invasive questions, Natalie! We just love getting to know the creator behind the creations! And Natalie has generously offered one of these sweet wool felt squirrel for our giveaway we are hosting over on our Facebook page so head on over!

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Suki ~ A large poseable waldorf-inspired textile doll. Yea, that’s kind of a lot to say…

Recently I set out to create a doll, an old idea with a new twist. Here is what the final result looked like~ Presenting Suki and her little pink deer friend…

Suki loves lying under the tree while the cherry blossoms fall

Suki loves lying under the tree while the cherry blossoms fall

Using the largest bendy doll frame I could locate (it’s about 8 inches tall, and Suki just over 9″), I puzzled over how to make this idea work. As I had to use these skookum PINK!! Converse I found for Blythe’s, I had to change the feet a little. I replaced the feet with a normal set of large bendy doll base feet, then carved them using wood carving tools… and then kept going.

Hanging around ;)

Hanging around 😉

Suki’s head is made like a Waldorf-inspired head… kind of like a Waldorf doll, but with a little more detail. her head was first needlefelted then the doll knit put on. Her head is mounted on the frame (I know, it does sound a bit creepy!). Doll knit is sewn around her wire & roping limbs. Then she got some super cute clothes to go with her shoes.

Suki and friend

Suki and friend

Her little deer friend is made with wool felt in pink to match with Suki. The deer is from the deer family pattern I sell under the Bear Dance Crafts license. [You can find it on the BDC site, or via the link in the top-right of this blog. Suki and her friend are in my Etsy shop].
Most of all Suki and her little deer friend just love hanging around together… watching blossoms fall or clouds float by… and dreaming…

Friends

Friends

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In the Woods with a Little Wolf

Recently I made a little set of characters based on Little Red Riding Hood.  There was a twist, there was no grandmother. After all grandmother had gone on holiday, so she wasn’t home.  It’s a modern world, after all!
However the cutest of girls with golden-reddy curls was happy to step in and play the wolf in this story… here she is in the woods

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Dollhouse Family of 4

Making dollhouse families is so much fun,,, and for this one I designed a few new items, such as a jacket, cape and even some earmuffs!  This set has the cutest button from Penguin & Owl’s Woolly Acres too on dad’s jacket.
Here is the latest family:

Dollhouse Family of 4

Dollhouse Family of 4

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Autumn Wanderings

Hello Autumn!

The leaves are turning, days are shortening, and the rainy days are coming… it all reminds me of my childhood.  I have a special fondness for autumn, I am not sure if it is because I have an October birthday or all the pumpkin pies 🙂

This summer we moved, and it has been super hectic, and blogging ended up on the back-burner again and again.  I’ve just started creating again, yay! 

Here are some mushrooms… popping up here and there…

Autumn Mushrooms
Since getting back in the creative saddle… guess what my first project was inspired by??

Autumn & Forest

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Running at the back of the marathon…

That is the ‘get stuff done’ marathon!  I still need to make the PDF for the heart garland, so haven’t been showing my latest dolls or blabbing about anything like the possibility of moving soon… so many things and then you know, you go check facebook or something and *poof* it’s bedtime.  So… here are few dolls I have made lately, just to add a little something visual to show you a little of what I’ve been up to while I get around to that PDF, soon, I hope!

Spring Baby
Little Lammie
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Arya

 

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Rainbow Hearts Garland Tutorial

I’m working on a new PDF called Rainbow Hearts Garland for the Free Patterns page… and though it is not quite finished you can find the printable PDF pattern there. The photo tutorial with instructions is below so you can get started as it is Valentine’s Day tomorrow and it might be a bit timely

Rainbow Hearts Garland Tutorial

Rainbow Hearts Garland Tutorial
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