Ralph's New Goodies!

Finally got the will to make something for Ralph after finding these socks at Dollar Tree:

 

 

Ralph: "Looks like a sweater to me!"

 

And here's how it turned out!

 

 

There is also his new shoes in the pics as well as his new basketball 'Wilson'. I told him he wasn't going to call it that and of course he responded with: "But why not? That's what his name is." He's related to Rainie alright...

 

I've thought about the sweater tutorial from

for a long time but I really shy away from making things without patterns because things never come out quite as they should. I knew this would be the case with this as well, but I've gotten so tired of freaking myself out about 'imperfect' projects and decided to just do it. Hand sewing and all. (FYI I hate hand sewing a lot of the time.)

 

It feels weird being embarrassed just because I can see the massive errors, but on the other hand I'm really proud that I simply did something without putting business first. I'm getting a lot better idea of how raglan sleeves need to be done so it doesn't stretch over the shoulders like the sweater does. Most of all Raven and I are just really surprised at how much of a 1980s guy he's turning into.

 

Oh, and the interest in basketball was a pretty big shock to me as well. I'm NOT a sports person. But knowing this is Ralph, I doubt it will be normal.

 

~Sister Kyoya

he is so original, I love him!

his new sweater is great!lovely findings^^

Thank you very much! He still needs to have his hair finished but there are some other DD projects I'm working on at the moment. Ralph is definitely one unique character, that's for sure. I was in the kitchen one day and he randomly said, "Beware of the walking leeks!" Knowing him it is tied into some conspiracy of one sort or another.

 

~Sister Kyoya

Wow that transformation was pretty amazing! I wish I had those sweet sewing skills.

Thank you! I have a big bag of socks I've been collecting for making more DD clothes. Naiomi's dress is also made from a sock but that's all I've done with them so far. Personally I think there are a lot of My Foggy Stuff's sewing projects that can be scaled up to DD size so someone can learn to sew. I'm really amazed most of the time hearing about how many people don't know how to sew. My mom has done needlework since she was young and she may not be the best seamstress, she still sews often and taught both my sisters and I how to sew at a pretty young age. I sewed my own clothes in high school because it was more affordable (nothing fancy but at least I stayed covered.) I still sew my clothes simply because I can't find what I like to wear any other way. Now with my DD I can sew all the clothes I've ever wanted without it breaking the bank. Granted, designing boy clothes is an uber challenge simply because it is just different from girl clothes, but with sewing I always have something more to learn. It also doesn't hurt any that I'm addicted to fabric prints.

 

~Sister Kyoya

You're very lucky to have a parent to teach you that. My own mom crocheted Barbie clothes for me and she did sew a few things, but never had the time to teach me. I envy your skills for creating stuff out of something completely different. I love patterned fabrics too! Do you have more "before/after" pictures of other things you've made?

I've recently decided to take matters into my own hands and learned how to knit which has been fun and a great way to make beanies and scarfs for my DD. After I had my daughter I turned into a mega crafty mom and started making her tutus, hair bows, flower clips, etc which I then downsized for the doll. It's been really fun getting my creative juices flowing again.

My mom was attending college, working and raising 4 kids on her own most of the time I was growing up, so we very much had to 'make do or do without.' Even now I use my clothes until the fabric literally wears out, and if I can still remake it into another piece of clothes I will. Once I can't do that anymore I often use it for DD clothes, patchwork, or both. So making DD stuff out of random bits of clothes is nothing new for me.

 

 

This skirt...

 

 

and this one were both from my niece's baby clothes (She's 19 now...)

 

 

And this was one of her onesies.

 

 

Tamayuki's (in the middle) shirt and Dolly's (on the right) 'ugly pants' were both from used clothing. Most of what our DD wear is things I've made unless it is the few random pieces of American Girl clothing that they have snatched (like Tama's pants), or parts of default DD outfits that came with the girls.

 

For about the last year and a half I've been working on setting up my own DD clothing store/website that will offer sewing kits for DD clothes. With premade sewing kits and YouTube tutorial videos for them, I really don't see why more people shouldn't be able to learn how to sew. It is such a universal skill, learning how to do it for DD simply opens the door to so many fun things to learn. It has even been making me expand my own skill drastically even though I've been sewing for ages. I still remember how frustrating it was in the beginning, wanting to make something for my dolls, but not knowing how any of it even worked. Now I'm regularly drafting my own patterns, learning about fabric draping, designing my own DD scale fabric prints, and I often find myself looking up how to do new sewing techniques. Pants are still the bane of my existence, but my growing number of boys and some of my girls keep insisting that I figure it out, and pretty darn quick.

 

The store has been so much more overwhelming than I ever imagined, but I'm still working on it nearly everyday. I still struggle with not feeling like my skill is good enough to teach anyone even though I know that isn't true. I get so very self conscious over the fact that the starter projects are so very, very basic even though that was my intent. I wanted to aim it towards people who have never sewn before and build up skills & vocab step by step, not making the common assumption that the person has some base skill in the first place. Frankly I'm trying to get things set up in a way that I wish existed when I was trying to learn how to sew. My mom knew the basics on how to follow a commercial pattern but I remember occasionally she wouldn't be able to figure it out when something was done in an odd way. So much of what I've learned about sewing I've learned on my own. My whole family seems to be boggled over how I can draft sewing patterns and it doesn't come out all goofed up. Sewing is fun and really rewarding. I just really want to share that with other people so they can make unique things for their girls too.

 

I never really thought about the before/after pics, usually because I either use normal fabric or 2nd hand clothing that I cut the seams out of so I have chunks of flat fabric.

 

I really like knitting but I'm slow at it. Crochet is something I'm not talented at but I enjoy it anyway. Later this year when the preorder girls ship, one of the new girls is going to love crocheting even though she's horrid at it and has terrible color sense. She's really good at 'bad crochet' and her favorite color is swampy avocado green. I heard a quote once that more or less said 'I hope you always have a hobby you are bad at.' It seemed like an insult until I realized that even if you are bad at what you enjoy doing, you are still having fun and there is always more to learn and room for improvement. Being perfect at a hobby just doesn't sound very fun. So my DD girl will be my excuse to crochet, even if it turns out to be a disaster, I can still have fun doing some fast projects that I don't have to figure out how to duplicate like I do for all the store stuff.

 

I totally get the being creative thing. If I'm not making something new with sewing, drawing, designing, writing, taking photos, or making DD props, I'm one depressed and miserable person. Being able to create new things is what literally gets me out of bed in the morning, although my brain really needs to let me sleep 8 hours first... It's hard to be creative on 4 hours of sleep.

 

~Sister Kyoya

Love the photos and the explanations of what you used for each one! I really hope you're able to get your shop/website up and running. It sounds exactly like something I'll need when I get my sewing machine.

The hardest part about anything worth while is taking that big step into putting yourself out there for the world to judge. I had a few sleepless nights before I set up my Etsy shop believe me. Just thinking about what people expect can be really overwhelming. I have to keep reminding myself to not let the anxiety and fears destroy what could be a worthwhile project and growing experience.

Better late than never right?

My reply is so late, but I've been meaning to comment!

 

As for the store, commissions are opening on June 1 (Monday) so I'm working hard on getting the site finished. I'm taking a short break while my computer uploads a ton of pics to the site. The full store will open in September (that's my goal at least) but there is a bunch of backend coding that needs to be figured out before that can happen.

 

I don't normally do before and after pics because often I either dive right into something or I'm not sure it is going to even work in the first place.

 

~Sister Kyoya