Miss Loveday Lemon

I finally finished the doll from this book by Corinne Crasbercu. I'm quite happy with the result, but it's been another day of unsatisfactory photos. I plan to make her clothes though so there will be plenty of opportunities for better photos later.

I made her entirely out of my stash. The book calls for an antique bedsheet but I didn't have one, so I made her out of tea-dyed coton cashmere, which gives her a nice soft feel. A while ago my mother gave me an old cotton sheet so one day I'll make a smaller one using the sheet fabric. I stuffed her with Airtex Premium fiberfill. Her legs have some lumps but I was able to stuff her head, arms and torso in a nice uniform way. Her hair is too thin, but I started making it on a Sunday and the yarn shop was closed. Since I was using thinner yarn than in the book (though it was hard to tell at first from the photos as the book didn't specify the yarn thickness) I should have used more strands, I will know it for next time.

Her nose gave me trouble, it was my first bullion stitch. I don't have a millinery needle and didn't want to order on the net and wait for delivery, so I used a normal needle. My first stitch was a total failure, the second attempt looked like it would end the same way, but by pulling the thread from both ends it ended up more or less acceptable. Wouldn't look good in a rose, but for a nose it's good enough. Loveday already suffered a mishap - while I was stuffing her body the top of one of her legs was torn open (I had sewn it too close to the fabric edge). I repaired it by hand and it shows but it will be covered by her underwear.

To make her hair, the book said to align the strands, tape them in the center on both sides with adhesive tape, put tissue paper on the bottom and then sew over the tape with a sewing-machine. Didn't  work well at all for me - it was very hard to remove the tape once it had been sewn over, and it ripped the stitches apart. So I decided for my next attempt to tape on both sides of the center, and to sew between the taped parts, which worked much better.

I was nervous about embroidering her eyes, but they turned out all right, though not perfectly symmetrical. To place her features I used bits of felt to decide on placement and then cardboard templates that I outlined in chako pen.

When I was finished I gave the bits of felt to Puni and she played with them and leftover yarn and a rejected lemonhead from when I made Taffy.   

So far I have found 4 other blogs with dolls made from the same pattern :

Un autre jour

and

Patia Création

and

Le bricolage de Florence

and

Le blog de VJ

If you know of others, please tell me. I love to see how others have interpreted a pattern that I used myself. On Flickr I found three dolls made from the same pattern as Anzu (apart from Soph's original of course) : here and here and here. I haven't seen yet any doll made from the same pattern as Taffy so if you know one please let me know. 

Comments

[Felicia]

Well she is a cute stash doll. And that ripple blanket background is lovely too :)

[Florence]

Thanks for the link... I discover your article only today.
The way you sew the hair is really interesting and will take me make a third one !... if I can find a needle long enough ;-)
Your doll looks wonderful !

[Rachelle Bealer]

I also really like the look of Miss Loveday Lemon. I don't suppose this book by Corinne Crasbercu has an English translation?