Babies, Babydolls and Easy Peasy Newborn Baby Doll Felt Pattern

I  have had my life turned upside down by this little one....my new grandson Elijah. Love this little guy!

When I put him in my arms for the first time, I got all mushy inside. I love little babies. Grand babies are the best.

With that in mind, I decided to venture away from the  miniature dollhouse sewing that usually fills my days, for my Etsy shop. I'm going to be in a couple Dollhouse magazines soon, and I found myself sewing several different bedding sets so the pictures would be just perfect....

But I wanted to make something....like a baby doll. My mother made me endless little fabric dolls, with outfits, blankets, sheets, pillows. I played for hours with all those little things. My love for sewing and for making baby doll accessories began early on.

I just had to make a baby doll ....a pattern....easy but cute so that anyone that could sew a basic seam could sew it. Laying in bed, drifting to sleep, I knew exactly how the pattern should be...one Pattern piece for the doll. Simple and very sweet and cute and huggable and lovable. A child learns to love and nurture at an early age. I know I did.

I love this little doll. I've made so many now I can't count. Made in any color of felt, to replicate skin tone, outfits that can be layered. The pattern includes the doll body pattern piece, and pictures galore to guide you every step of the way. It is SO SIMPLE! You can make a diaper, headband, slip, dress and jacket. You should see my sewing room, there are these sweet dolls everywhere. They are sitting in little doll chairs, or sleeping on doll beds. They fit perfectly on a Ginny doll bed (Vintage) or Barbie/Blythe doll sized bed. I've also made a few patterns for little quilts and blankets for them to cuddle up with! I love it.

I think patterns should be simple, and you should use the prettiest fabric you can find.

When my sweet daughter was growing up I gained so much joy and satisfaction from making her something to play with. 

She's grown now, and we play with makeup and fun grown up stuff!

I hope you will try one of my patterns, and if you do I'd love to see pictures of it. Use the hashtag #ribbonwoodcottage so we can enjoy it on social media.

You can visit me and see more too over at my Etsy shop-

Blessings,

Debbie 

Garden Roses, Fabric Roses, and a Baby Dutch Belt Cow

Many of you know we live on a Farm (3 acres) and we live in an older Farmhouse.

Over the years I have planted roses...

This one is a climbing rose (Cecil Bruner) and I planted it near a tree, so it would climb up the tree!

I'm joining in with Beverly @ http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/ 

and

 a wonderful Garden Party that Laura is hostessing

http://www.whitespraypaintblog.com/2016/04/thoughts-of-home-on-thursday-12.html

If it is old, I usually plant something in it!

 See the little baby below? He was born yesterday. We are having a cow naming party in our town and we are giving away 2 dozen eggs to the person who wins. We have 8 Dutch Belt Cows. They are a dairy cows.

I do have a love affair with roses...more specific, rose petals!

So much so that a great many things that I sell, or make patterns for have layers of fabric. When you wash these little flowers the edges curl up and look like rose petals.

Rose fabric before I love and adore. It is by Lecien a Japanese quilting fabric. It can be found on Ebay and Etsy and several online stores. It feels amazing, and is beautiful fabric.

I make miniature doll quilts and bedding for my shop. I sell Dollhouse miniatures all over the world. 

My dollhouse miniatures will be featured in another magazine this summer called American Miniaturist. This started out as a small hobby.....and then grew and grew!

Recently at Hobby Lobby I found some trim in the lace section that had little roses on it. See the two pillows in the back below? Those roses are from some of that trim. 

I love it!

I don't have the patience to make miniature roses for dollhouses...

way too tiny for my eyes to focus. But I love making Garden style bedding for beds.

I also loaded a quick 20 second video on my Facebook page-Ribbonwood Cottage.

Would love for you to take  a quick look.

https://www.facebook.com/Ribbonwood-Cottage-636173393094174/?fref=nf

Thank you for visiting!
Debbie

Sewing Rooms and a Beautiful Cottage style bed Pincushion

Does anyone besides me like beautiful pincushions? I love them! They are so sweet. I recently made a pattern for a pincushion that looks like a Cottage Style made bed. What do you think?

https://www.etsy.com/shop/RibbonwoodCottage

I use straight pins galore. But I've recently in the last couple of years indulged myself by buying cute straight pins with decorative heads on them! How fun. Why not live a little on the edge!

I found similar ones on Etsy.  They are called Decorative Straight Pins.

I remember my grandmother's sewing area....not quite a room. But a desk with an old Singer sewing machine.....And she had pincushions, the old fashioned kind. She also had lovely glass jars filled with buttons, laces, ribbons, trims, all sorts of decorative items. I was in love. 

 The loveliest memory was a quilt, on a wooden quilt frame in front of a large window. Several ladies in her quilting group would come over and quilt with her while their kids were in school. I was fascinated with this process very early on!

I've even made some sewing hutches in miniature with several of these little items that I remember so well. This room is in miniature, and I believe all these items have sold. But I love the quilts on the wall, the ironing board way in the back of the room with red floral fabric on it. See the little iron with the red handle on the ironing board?

My grandmother also had wooden hutches and chests of drawers filled with beautiful fabric and hand drawn patterns. I wished I had all of those as keepsakes!

 Even miniature sewing machines need a sewing machine cover.

I have seen very detailed pin cushions, and then simple ones like the old fashioned red tomatoes ones that our moms and grandmothers used.

My grandmother had a wonderful round tin with a lid that she kept straight pins in. I loved to look in there. Many of them had colorful heads. My mother just used the plain straight pins, nothing fancy, so I was enamored with my grandmothers wild side, so to speak when it came to straight pins!

Here is another little glimpse of sewing room furniture pieces in miniature I have done. I used fabric from Lori Holt's Line.

Love her fabric.

I found some free patterns online and saved them to my computer. Then I reduced the percentages of the pattern printables to a small percent-5% or 10% I don't remember. Just small enough so it looked right on this hutch. Don't tell the true miniaturists I did that....it is supposed to be exact....and I'm sure it wasn't!

I hope you enjoyed my trip down memory lane. Delightful memories. They are my inspiration now for many of the patterns you will find in my shop.

Blessings to you all,

Debbie