Crafty Community

These are almost all the toys that I have made in the last couple of years. They are all the result of being inspired by the work, swaps, and suggestions of other craft bloggers. Some are my own design, some are online patterns, and some are from books.

Here's the list of my inspirations — I hope you find some, too.

Top row (left to right):

• Batik Make-Your-Own Doll of my own design, based on these dolls, from this book for Bethany's hand-printed fabric swap.


• Crochet Creature based on Camilla Engman's "Bedfellows" from the Happy Hooker Stitch n' Bitch book. Here's a flickr search of Bedfellows made by others.


• Knit Bee Lady with removable stinger hat is my own design based on the boy doll from, "Woman's Day Book of Best-loved Toys & Dolls, 1982.


• Crochet "Bedfellows" Bear (with slight mods) from one of the two Camilla Engman designs in Happy Hooker Stitch n' Bitch book. Here's a flickr search of Bedfellows made by others.


• Well-dressed Cat is a quickly designed fleece toy that I made for my son when he was sick with a fever. I was trying for fastest-toy-ever, and this lopsided kitty is what I came up with. I thought I was going to embroider the features, but the Sharpie sketch worked just fine. I've had to draw over it once because of fading. He's one of the most loved of this bunch!
  


• Archie Doll from the Make-a-long Wee Wonderfuls pattern. I bought some of the accessory patterns, too.


• Stripe-y Patchwork Cat is a free PDF pattern designed by me. You can get it here.


• Spaceboy, pattern by Wee Wonderfuls. I think part of the success of Hillary's patterns is that there is something about them that actually gets you to sit down and make them. My return (number of dolls made) on investment (patterns paid for) over at Wee Wonderfuls is very high.

Middle Row (left to right)

• Wee Bunny is one of several free patterns from Wee Wonderfuls. Bitter Betty kindly made this one for my kids.


• Fabric Balls are fun to make and they get a lot of play around these parts.. I used this tutorial.


• Gnome Guy is another of my make-your-own dolls for Bethany's hand-printed fabric swap series. You can see his mushroom accessory right in front of him. The kids use it as a pick axe, which makes me want to make a set of soft tool series.


• Olive from Wee Wonderfuls' Make-a-long patterns. She's well-loved, too.


• Bedfellow Bunny from Camilla Engman's pattern in the Happy Hooker. Again, here is her inspiring flickr set of her own creations that these patterns were based on.


• Batik Imp If you are interested in batik, you have *got* to check out Malka's work. She makes the most amazing quilts with her self-dyed fabrics.


• Knit Boy Doll is straight from the pattern in, "Woman's Day Book of Best-loved Toys & Dolls," 1982. When I Googled this book I found that Star Wars fans have an interest in it because of the Outer-Space Station project.


• Make-Your-Own-Husband Doll is a knit doll based on the pattern from the Woman's Day book, but designed by me to look like my husband.

Front row (left to right)

• Knit Bean Bags from Kids Knitting, by Melanie Falick with illustrations by Kristin Nicholas. These are so much fun to play with.


• Lambkin is from a free vintage pattern over at Turkey Feathers' pattern shop, The Pattern Bee. Here's the flickr pool of everyone's creations.


• Tiny Chihuahua, made by Bethany from a pattern in this book (isbn# 4579108884), sits between Olive and Bedfellows Bunny.


• Another Lambkin from the free vintage pattern over at Turkey Feathers' pattern shop, The Pattern Bee. I embroidered grass and flowers around the legs to make them look like they were frolicking through a spring meadow.


• Last, but not least, Little Bunny based on the Bedfellows Bunny. For the ears and upper torso I used some really cool silk Noro yarn that was tape with an embroidered running stitch down the center. I've searched on Google and Ravelry and can't seem to find it. I bought it about three years ago.

Phew! Now that was a lot of links. Enjoy!