Ugly Christmas Jumpers and some much needed furniture...

Long time no blog yet again! I've got the computer mostly sorted now but I've been in a making things mood recently rather than a computery one so I've hardly been on the PC since we got it back!
I've been sorting out all my photos from my holiday to the Highlands a few months ago so I'll be doing a couple of posts on that soon as there's a lot to show you all!

I have been busy though, and surprisingly for me, looking forward to Christmas.

Most years I'm a bit ambivalent about the whole thing as it always reminds me of the year I was really depressed and spent most of the festive season in tears, but this year I'm really looking forward to it. A lot of that is due to Max and Juno - I really want to set up some festive scenes with them so I've been busy hoarding all manner of accessories and bits and pieces in advance, not least their clothing!

I've made a few jumpers over the years but always found doing the sleeves really awkward...right up until I realised I was sewing them in a needlessly complicated way and since learning the right way it's changed my life!

I'd seen plenty of doll jumpers made from socks before and even made a couple, but it wasn't until I watched one of MyFroggyStuff's brilliant tutorials on Youtube that I thought about really Christmassy jumpers. I saw a really cheesy pair at the local charity shop, so I grabbed them to go along with a couple of other things I already had that I thought might come in handy. The red thing at the top is the knitted cover for one of those reusable handwarmers which I haven't used yet, and the red jumper below it was a tree decoration from Poundland last year which needed just a little work to fit properly. The blue patterned socks are printed ones from the £1 shop, and as they are very stretchy I thought they'd be better for something else entirely...

 

 The rough pattern was cut out and sewn up...

...arms added...

...until finally...

I used some super slim velcro for the back which is thankfully almost unnoticeable.

As you can see, the blue socks made some excellent leggings!

The jumper decoration's sleeves were sewn shut at the ends and were a little short for the doll so I made some cuffs from another sock and closed up the back with poppers. I used some black fleece to make fingerless mittens but I'm going to have to get rid as they've started to stain her hands! D:

The hat is made from yet another sock and the scarf is just a long rectangle of very thick knitted fabric sewn together.

Max's white hat was falling apart at the seams so she got a new one too which suits her a lot more I think. (also socks. XD) She's not really the novelty Christmas jumper kind but I think Juno will bring her round/bribe her into it eventually.

As you may have noticed in some of the pictures, I also made some cushions! I bought a fat quarter on holiday with lots of brightly patterned deer with the intention of making one of the girls a set of pajamas but they're too close together in the pattern for me to isolate one for the front of a top so I've had to improvise.

I really wanted a sofa for them though as so far I only have one chair and I'd like to do some proper christmas scenes with them later on. Sooo, I dug out some cardboard boxes and started experimenting...

I'm not happy with it really as it's too shallow for them once the cushions are on and the armrests and back are too low but never mind, it'll do for now I suppose.
 It's more of a loveseat than a sofa but meh.

The table was a quick make using a rectangle of balsa wood, some cork sheeting, paper straws and some plastic gems painted silver for rivets to give it a kind of industrial feel. The background and flooring is all scrapbook paper and I really want some more as it's really effective!

I also made a quick cushion from some scrap fur fabric I had knocking around.

You'll get to meet this newbie in a future post!

That's it for now, though Juno is a total enabler and when I saw these socks in Poundland the other day I knew they only had one possible future!

Yes, Max, you will be made to wear at least one of them, sorry!