A handmade Christmas, part 3.

Have you been following my black-apple-doll journey?

If you're just starting out, I've already made a doll for my son and one for my eldest daughter.

The last one is for my bitty baby.

I re-sized the martha stewart pattern yet again so she'd be a bit smaller than the others.  She is, after all, the little sister.

All in a row, with their arms around their brother...

With a bow in her hair, and a stuffed heart to cuddle...

I think that's the beauty of giving a handmade gift - you really do give a piece of your heart along with the gift. These dolls were truly a labor of love!  I hope they will enjoy their new dolls as much as I think they will...

Thank you for all of your sweet comments and encouragement.  I really feel empowered to try more sewing projects in the future :)

A handmade Christmas, part 2.

A few weeks ago, I shared my plan to make a black apple doll for each of my 3 kidlets.  The first rag-doll was for my son.  Click *here* for the original post.

Here's the cutie going to my eldest daughter.  I made the pattern (found on Martha Stewart's website) slightly bigger, since she's the big sister.

Isn't she sweet?  I gave her pigtails, by cutting a few felt hearts with my PTI dies...

Pink legs!  And...

A sweet little ruffled apron.

Sofia can take it off if she doesn't like it.

Big sister and little brother.  So cute.

But, just so you don't think this was all a walk in the park, I'd like you to meet someone else.

You poor, sad looking doll.  Thank you for teaching me a few things and for donating your legs to Sofia's new doll.  You crushed my spirit for a few hours, but I still love you...

a handmade Christmas, part 1.

I mentioned in Friday's post that I would be attempting to make each of my 3 kids their own black apple doll for Christmas.  And that I would be starting this weekend.  For some reason, writing it on the blog was just the kick in the pants that I needed to get started :)

This sweet, little guy is for my sweet, little guy.  For the record (and to ease my husband's conscious), if I didn't also have 2 girls who would be opening their dolls on Christmas morning, I probably wouldn't be making one for Thomas... so let's just call it a "sidekick" or "little buddy."  Ha!

So this is the first of 3 dolls, and I hope to share each of them with you as I go along... hopefully each one will be an improvement on the last.  This was my very first attempt at sewing something that isn't a square.... or rectangle...

Can you spot the PTI die I used?

So cute, right?  He has his own little elephant stuffie!  I used PTI's sweet baby die to cut out 2 elephant shapes, stuffed it and stitched it closed.  He's the perfect size to fit right in the crook of my doll's arm...

The tiny elephant is an ode to the other, larger elephant in the room.  That grey elephant has been in our family for all of Thomas' little life.  The four years of wear and tear are starting to show, but I'm hoping Thomas will love this new friend just as well.  They'll be bffs in no time!

awwww!  So now you want to make your own?  It wasn't so hard!  Here's a link to the Martha Stewart site where you'll find a tutorial and a free template:  black apple doll.

Thanks for looking!