Woodland Girl - 6WeeksOfSofties Competition

I love making dolls but more importantly, I love designing and making new ones! I make a lot of dolls for my customers on Etsy and a lot of local people here where I live in Ireland. But those dolls are mainly personalised dolls for babies or superheroes! So when SewMamaSew began their '6 Weeks Of Softies' competition, I took the plunge and decided to design and make something new.

Meet my 'Woodland Girl'....

 I had some beautiful woodland forest fabrics in my fabric stash that I've been wanting to use for ages. Corduroy is one of my favourite fabrics and I had this beautiful olive green remnant from a pair of trousers I made for my oldest boy when he was about two (nearly 10 years ago!). I had also just bought some marked down brown corduroy jeans that I couldn't wait to cut up and use!

 Woodland Girl's hair is made of felt plaits to which I hand-stitched leaves I had made with freehand machine embroidery. I wanted to make her look like she belonged to the forest, and could blend in easily with the woods around her.

 As a finishing touch I hand stitched a little felt squirrel to sit in her skirt pocket. A little companion for her woodland explorations!

 Just a few pics of the details of Woodland Girl's boots, leaves and face.

I hope you like my little forest girl. I'm really pleased with how she turned out and although she was a lot of work, I loved every minute! Can't wait to design something else soon. The thing I love about making softies is that they are all so unique! I see each and every doll I make as a piece of art I have created, full of love and attention to detail. I think this is what makes handmade stuff so special, someone has not only designed it, but has put their heart and soul into making it too!

I felt desperate to do some sewing the other day but my kids had an extra two days off school for an extra-long bank holiday weekend! I was almost going crazy then I thought of this idea to create something WITH them that would satisfy my sewing cravings & keep them entertained - Handmade Book Bags!

I had seen this pattern for a cute messenger book bag from Make It Perfect. Based on that I cut out the shape of the top flap and traced around it onto some paper. I then got the kids to draw a picture and design their own flap.

Aftern they had finished their design they drew over it with a transfer pen. (I still have no idea exactly what Ryder was dreaming up with this design - some boys reading with flying books inside clouds floating all around them?!)

I then ironed the design onto some plain fabric. The kids then decorated, coloured and made a collage of their design using scrap fabrics and markers (I didn't bother with textile markers as I don't intend washing the bags but if you do you might want to use fabric crayons or markers).

Rory was very proud of his lion & boy masterpiece and he did it all himself! I had to help Ryder & Arwen a little with theirs.  Once they had finished decorating their designs it was finally my turn to do some sewing! To make the designs more prominent I outlined them with some free motion stitching! This is my favourite type of sewing & I loved seeing their pictures come alive! 

 Then I got to sew them into bags. If your kids are older they could probably sew some of the bag themselves although the binding bit might be a bit tricky for beginners. The bags are a great size for novels or books up to A5 in size.

This was a really fun activity, although the sewing bit took a while especially as I had three to make! And the kids were asking me every 5 minutes when they were ready!!! But the finished result is definitely worth it & the kids have been using them ever since to hold their favourite novels or books & hang them on the ends of their beds at night!

It also satisfied my sewing craving....at least for a while!