Bunny and Fox Flip Doll Pattern

**update Wednesday, 8/26: The bandwidth is all used up and the downloads are gone! Thanks everyone for your comments and interest in my new pattern. It can now be found in the shop.
**update 2011 - this pattern has been retired because my new flip doll patterns are just better.  Check those out first, but if you're really interested in this one you can contact me. ;)

I may not be back to blogging full time, but it seems like I'm already sewing full time. I feel like I've already said so much about these little dolls, I don't know what to say about them now. I adore this idea, and just couldn't get it out of my head until I made one... or five. Anyway, here's the final product. I meant to put a couple of dolls in the shop, but I just don't have the time to make them now. I'm also thinking of making some versions with other animals. If there is some interest, I'll try to do a few before Christmas.

The bunny and fox flip snugly, so it doesn't appear to be anything other than what you see at first. I like that - it makes the surprise more fun. The pattern is a bit more difficult than some of my others - definitely not for the faint of heart. It involves embroidery, sewing in elastic, and sewing many layers and small openings. Each step is explained with lots of pictures and tips to help you through it. Once you get it finished, it makes a very satisfying toy.

Here's the spoiler shot. Kind of weird looking - a little like childbirth.

Below you can download a 15 page pdf with pattern and instructions. Materials Needed: a fat quarter or less of two different fabrics, and smaller amounts of 2 accent fabrics, a sewing machine, pins, thread, scissors, stuffing, low loft quilt batting, embroidery floss, embroidery needle, elastic, and a little bit of time!

Here's the drill: 300 free downloads are all claimed!

I love feedback on my patterns - please let me know what you think. Happy downloading!

Triumph!

I've been working on this pattern for a long time. A long time. I first attempted a flip doll for L for her first Christmas. It was cute, and everyone loved it. But I was disappointed with the flatness of the animals, and I knew the construction probably wouldn't hold up very well. It was kind of tricky to put all of those pieces together in the right order - so I hand sewed part of it.

I've been reworking this pattern it in my head ever since. I've thrown out three prototypes in the last few months. I wanted to make one for J for her first Christmas.

But today, I finished a really satisfying design. And, man, that feels good.


The improvements: the arms and legs are now 3d instead of embroidered on, the heads are more shapely instead of flat, the constructions is much neater, and completely done on machine, so it will stand up to the pulling of little hands. Also, it's bigger - about 10" tall.

I have just a couple of bits I want to improve - teen tiny tweaks that are so insignificant they don't take away from this victory at all. So I'm planning on making another one or two this week - but then you can expect to find the pattern here sometime early next week. So here's the heads up for you loyal readers: I'll be doing my usual pattern giveaway for a short time before I move it to the shop. So if you're looking for a fun, but tricky little pattern, come back on Monday!

Your Sewing Machine Doesn't Hate You

I've been sewing here and there since I was a kid, but I only started taking it seriously about 5 years ago. The more time I spent with my machine meant more phone calls to my mom whining that my sewing machine was going crazy. It was always doing this - I thought it hated me.

With a little experience, and a lot of help from mom, I finally think I'm getting the hang of this thing. So I thought I'd share the top 5 most helpful tips I've learned, for other sewing beginners still in the getting-to-know-you phase:

1. When your machine starts messing up, first rethread your machine and make sure your needle isn't dull. It helps to review the sewing machine manual every year or so to make sure you're threading it right. Also, I went a couple years before I realized I needed to change my needle - don't wait that long. If you don't have a new needle on hand, you can sew over a little piece of sandpaper to sharpen up the one you've got - but this is just a quick fix, so get a new needle soon.

2. If that didn't work - it's your tension. It usually is. Anytime you change fabric, thread, needles, or toothpaste, you'll probably have to adjust your tension. Check your manual for suggestions, but this is how I remember it: if the bumps are on the top turn the tension down, if they're on the bottom turn it up.

3. For regular quilting cotton or similar medium weight fabric, your tension should be somewhere in the middle of the dial. If it's way low or way high, your bobbin tension is probably off, which you can't adjust yourself (unless you know about those kind of things). So you'll need to take your machine for a tune up. Yep, just like a car. If you treat your machine right, hopefully this won't happen too often, but if you, say, sew with a bobbin that doesn't fit in your machine for a year, you'll have to fork over 70 bucks for labor.

4. Use the appropriate needle for your fabric. Your sewing machine manual should have suggestions for this, but here's how I remember it: a heavier fabric needs a higher number, a lighter fabric a lower number. An average weight fabric should take an 11-14.

5. Keep your project neat! Clip threads and iron your fabric. Wrinkly fabric and loose threads will agitate your machine. You may have figured out by now that when a pattern says to pin something, you can really get by without it. That's so true. But not with ironing. Really. The iron is your friend.

It turns out my machine wasn't mistreating me, but the other way around. Show your machine a little love and it'll work for you. Good luck!

Front Page and More Pigs

We went out of town this past weekend. Usually, I don't like riding in the car - but it meant roughly 7 hours of sewing time since the girls were snugly strapped in. You can't beat that. I made three new little pigs - well at least I did the by-hand stuff. These two have been added to the shop.

Plus, my pink giraffe made it to etsy's front page on Friday - which, you may not know if you aren't into etsy much, is pretty exciting. She's off to her new home today, and I'm a little sad to see her go. But I'll just have to make some more!

Pigs and Turtles

I made another pig and turtle for my shop. I just can't get enough of these pigs right now - I'm working on some more for next week. I love the way wool stuffing feels - all soft and squishy. And these are some of my favorite vintage scraps. I have a big piece of that pink that I'm saving for something - just don't know what yet...

When Pigs Fly softie pattern

I've been working on a new pattern for a long time now - I've finally got the assembly all figured out, but I just can't get it to work right. So I set it aside and decided to make this little pig who's been flying around in my head for awhile. I'll get back to the other one eventually, but it's nice to finish something and feel good about it - even if it means staying up until two in the morning so I can sew! (whew, I don't think I'll do that anymore.)

The pig is just a regular pig - but then you can button on his wings and he becomes a flying pig. He's a nice little reminder that anything's possible.

I'll be adding the pattern to my shop soon, but first I'm going to share it with 200 of you. You can download the pdf here until it's gone. The pdf has instructions and a pattern that measures 8x10 so it can be easily printed. This pattern would be great for a beginner or intermediate sewer. It's a sweet project for all those little scraps, and it comes together pretty quickly.

*UPDATE* 7/29/09, 7:40
Thanks for all of your interest in the pattern! It has been moved to the shop now: wilsons.etsy.com

I appreciate feedback on the pattern. Hope you enjoy! Share your pigs in the flickr group.

Flip Doll as Self Portrait

If I was wise enough to know I needed a break from blogging, I should have known better than to try to complete an art project before J is a month old.

But, you know, I did. And it's probably in part because I want to assure those people who ask if I'm still painting (and look disappointed when I say no) that I'm still an artist and designer even though I stay home with my children. I guess I want to assure myself, too.

This flip doll is the result of several ideas coalescing. With the birth of my second daughter, I was already thinking about motherhood and identity. Also, I was working on a new flip doll pattern (I'll share it when it's done!) when I read my sister's blog about the stories of The Goose Girl and The Seal Wife. Then, I saw the deadline for the Renaissance exhibit approaching, and I knew that if I didn't enter something in this show, I probably wouldn't do anything professional for the rest of the year. I guess it's nicely ironic that my insecurities about being an artist/mother motivated me to make this project about women's identity.

Still, now that I've finished this flip doll, photographed it, and mailed off my entry; I'm really glad to have a little "down" time to be a less distracted mom again. That's a good thing to be, too.

announcements...

Popping in from babyland for a couple bits of business:

First, my dust mitt tutorial was nominated for Top Tutorials Week at Luvinthemommyhood. She's sharing her top picks, so you can find lots of great tutorials over there all next week. Mine will be in the diy/repurposing category, so click on the button above to check it out, and vote for your favorites!

Also, remember Teah, from Aunt Lolo who won the wewilsons giveaway? She posted about her win here, and I'm keeping an eye on her blog to see what she does with the fabric. And enjoying her other sweet projects and shop, too.
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Babymooning

I'll be taking a little break for awhile. I guess I've been easing into that. I'm sure we'll be back in a few months with some patterns and recipes, but right now we're enjoying some quiet time adjusting to life as four.

Meet J. 8 lbs 12 oz, 21" long, and beautiful.

We've Landed

Wow, that giveaway day was something, wasn't it? I had no idea how many blogs were involved. Pretty neat, not enough hours in the day to visit them all though. Thanks for everyone who participated here. I enjoyed reading about all your favorite windows, but the randomizer especially liked number 2 (no kidding!) which is Aunt Lolo. Congratulations! I'll be sending an email and two fat quarters shortly!

We spent this week celebrating for a couple of reasons. It was L's birthday (although NOT, unfortunately, J's - we're still waiting on that), and... we closed on our land! The pictures are us celebrating at Besso's after the closing with some gelato.

What land, you ask? John and I have been looking for land (not "looking to land" as our local paper misprinted our ad once) for about 3 years. We've changed our minds several times about what we actual want, and where we want it. But we finally found a lovely piece of land, in a good location, with great friends for neighbors. And now we're finally ready to pursue the next phase of life - building our home, planting trees, raising animals, and enjoying all those other aspects of country life. I'm sure you'll hear lots more about it.