In the background

Ladybug - a 50cm high natural cloth doll by Puppenka

Although everything is quite here, and even on my Isnta and Facebook page, there are a few things happening in the background. First of all I have attended a sewing course, to improve my doll clothes making techniques. I learned a lot, really. Small trick and tips, that helps to make my finished dollclothes cleaner. However, I have to say, the most important thing I learned, is that I have to be much more precise and patient, by eminence when cutting out the little pieces for the clothes. This is difficult for me, since when I finally have some time to sew, I want to do twice as much as I can or even more! But that won't work of course. So I have to slow down a bit, ease on the urge I feel, and admit to myself how much I can do during a given period of time.

Netti - a 25 cm high natural cloth doll by Puppenka

Currently I'm working on a little boy. He already has a future papa. It is going to be a long and slow process I know, since I have only 5 weeks left before my baby is born. Working on him helps me to be relaxed, such a pleasure to see a little one forming in my hands, and knowing that a little one is growing inside me as well.

Ladybug a waldorf inspired doll in her apple apron by Puppenka

Lonka and Simon will get new clothes. A little collar dress with cherries and berries for Lonka, and a comfy fishing set for Simon. This time I bought the patterns, and I'm very exited to see how these will fit on the favorite rascals of mine.

I have 4-5 minidolls started, I plan some of them are going to be strawberry-babies, but not everyone for sure. Somehow I want the to reflect the seasons, so there are going to be summer dolls as well.

Netti - a waldorf inspired doll playing with her animal friends by Puppenka

I do have baby sewing and knitting projects as well, I have to finish some bedsheets, baby-socks and baby-hats as well. I'm trying out patterns that I would use later on to create accessories for clothdolls as well.

The photos of Netti and Ladybug helps to make this post more pleasure to the eyes, they really deserve proper introduction, I hope you can read about them soon.

Have playful days!

My babies

I know everything was quiet here for a while. It is time for me to initiate you into a little secret of mine, our second little son is on his way! He will arrive among us by the end of June. So this little new baby I'm expecting, and his 1,5 year old brother kept me away from my wool-children, and I fear it's going to be like this for a while. I decided to take no deadlines at all, just make a stitch here and there, when I have a tiny bit of time. So hopefully I'll be able to make one or two dolls and also can find some time to show you them in appropriate blog-posts.

Before Christmas two little rascals were made. I hope by now they have proper names, for me they just go by the beautiful names of their mamas. I hope in some time, I can introduce them properly, here in the blog.

Ladybug (in Hungarian Kathlin can be fondled like that) is a 50 cm high blond little girl, with a great enthusiasm over color red.  

Netti is a small doll, she is only 25 cm high, has a beautiful light hazel-nut hair (my first ever Dolly-Mo mohair wig), and steel blue prying eyes, Netti is an always inquiring little girl.

Since I have a huge motivation, that roots deep inside me, to create dolls, you will always find some little natural cloth dolls here for sure. Making dolls is the most charging activity for me to satisfy my creative thirstiness, which means it's a must for me. I just can't promise a schedule now, I want to work on these little fellows without pressure on me, while my main focus is on my two little sons. 

I hope you will hear more about these to girls soon!

Have playful days!

Little Snail Lover - a handmade, natural doll by Puppenka

Little Neele - a waldorf inspired doll by Puppenka

I call this little rascal Neele, but I know it isn'ther name, this beautiful name belongs to her little mama. Still, I just can't help myself thinking about any other name for her. 

Neele - a handmade natural doll created by Puppenka

She is a mystery for me, fast as a wind, smart and cunning, and you never know what is on her mind. She smiles all the time, but it's impossible to decide is it a "everything is OK, I'm happy" smile or "I have a great idea, but it's better if you don't know about my plans" one. She never breaks the rules, or do anything dangerous, just loves to have her own ways. 

How careful she is, watching my little snail climbing the walls - a kind natural cloth doll from Puppenka

She is a friend of tiny ones, my little old snail-whistle found a confident in her. They learned some poems about snails, made up some undersong and sang out loud all around. 

My little snail whistle, bought some time ago at a so called "Valley of Arts" festival from a kind potter man

The snail is very odd and slow.

He has his mind made up to go

The longest way to anywhere

And will not let you steer him there.

Today I mat one in the grass

And hadn't time to watch him pass,

But coming back at sunset, I

Discovered him still traveling by. 
                                       (Unknown author)

Miss Little - a handmade fabric doll - playing hide and seek with a tiny snail

Their other little song is a proper tongue-twister:

Slippery slimy slugs and snails 

slide along on silvery trails.
                               (Unknown author)

A little girl and a tiny snail sunbathing in the golden rays of the afternoon Sun - a one of a kind natural doll by Puppenka

Some days ago, this little snail accompanied her to a late afternoon walk, and this Little Miss show him as much as she can. Traveling in her comfy pocket, my little snail can get much further, then sliding on his own. By the way, he has a name of course, he is called CsiGusztáv, which makes sans in Hungarian, but cannot be translated to English, what I'm really sorry for. It's a mix of the word for snail in Hungarian 'csiga' and a not so frequent male name 'Gutsztáv'.

The little snail got collard hiding among the leaves

So my little Neele showed him flowers, old baileys, parks with scented grass...so lots of perfect hide-and-seek places. She knows, this is the favorite game of my little snail.
 

Neele and her little friend in the park - a handmade natural doll by Puppenka

While she is my 13th doll, I still feel that I'm just at the beginning of a beautiful, miraculous journey. I have to learn so much about everything, from sewing to taking photos, about different fabrics and fibers, new ways of knitting or crocheting, designing patterns and so on. This Little Miss was a great help for me to develop my skills a bit further. She is an important step for my dollmaking,  I hope lots of other ones will follow. I'm so thankful for all the knowledge, shared by talented dollmakers, which help me to get better from doll to doll.

Neele - a natural handmade cloth doll - sitting on the top of a wall

 
Creating her, I have tried out a new stuffing method, which I learned from the selfless dollmaker behind Fig&Me, Fabiola, who introduced her technique in a wonderful tutorial. This time I got a clue, what 'firmly stuffed' means, and I'm really happy about the result I could reach!

Neele - a waldorf insiperd doll - and her little friend in her pocket

For the first time, I made panties for this little girl, based on a free patten by Juliane Strittmatter. It is a clear and detailed pattern, therefore super easy to create.

A little cloth doll girl, stuffed with wool by Puppenka

This is my first hand-knitted cardigan as well. To be honest, this is my biggest knitting project ever. This is a simple top-down piece, I didn't follow a pattern, just enjoyed, that I can knit anywhere, and anytime I have to minutes to pull out the needles from my bag.

This little girl enjoys the last warm summer afternoons - a waldorf inspired doll by Puppenka

She also has my first eyebrows, ans I have to say I really love them. I hope eyebrows will let me make my dolls face more expressive.

Neele lying on the grass - a natural handmade doll from Puppenka

My little dolly Neele is 40 cm high, her skin in made out of cotton jersey, stuffed with clean wool. She has embroidered eyes, and mouth, and she has my first ever eyebrows. Her hair is made of brown mohair yarn. She has ears, elbows, and knees, and a little bellybutton. Those rosy cheek are blushed with beeswax.

Neele - a little fabricdoll - and her little snail on the old brick wall

Her wardrobe consists of a purple, polka dot, linen dress, closing with a foliaged metal button, a matching purple, linen skirt with cotton lace hem, a beige, linen peasant blouse, a hand-knitted pale-pink cotton cardigan, white cotton-jersey underwear with a little bow and a pair of crocheted gray shoes.

The wardrobe of a little fabricdoll by Puppenka

An other first thing, I made her a little moths repellent pillow, from matching fabrics. From now on, I will make one for every doll, since I like moths, just far away from my wool-friends.

The little moths repellent pillow, made for Neele.

Have playful days!

Lulu

A mini doll - say 'Hello!' at Instagram

This little Spring Fairy was my Mother's Day present for my Mom, and I share her photos with you to announce, (tadadadaaaa...can you hear the drums?) that I created an Instagram account for Puppenka some months ago. 

It seems that Instagram is the platform where I can share glimpses of my dollmaking the most frequently, somehow it feels more comfy and friendly for me to share bits ad pieces of my planning, sewing, crocheting, and sometimes, everyday-life-beauties as well. I also found lots of inspiring makers there, checking their photos always means a creative push for me. So if my dolls rouse your attention and you have an account as well, you can follow Puppenka at Instagram to be informed at first about new posts, as well as other little bits and pieces of my creative journey. 

Spring Fairy - a natural handmade mini cloth doll by Puppenka

My little Spring Fairy is 8,5 cm high, her head and hands are made of cotton jersey, her green dress is made of micro-corduroy, and her crocheted mohair scarf closes with a tiny wood button. Her mohair wig is braided into little pigtails, with tiny chenille chords on them. She also have a little white, wool-felt flower in her hair. She was a complete joy to work on!

Spring Fairy - a natural handmade mini cloth doll by Puppenka

Spring Fairy - a natural handmade mini cloth doll by Puppenka

Spring Fairy - a natural handmade mini cloth doll by Puppenka

Spring Fairy - a natural handmade mini cloth doll by Puppenka

Spring Fairy - a natural handmade mini cloth doll by Puppenka

Spring Fairy - a natural handmade mini cloth doll by Puppenka

Have playful days!

Majorane and Laurel - two little handmade natural dolls

These little babies had to wait so long to introduce themselves.

They are cousins, Majorane is the older one. She is a secret - fairy. Her ears are elfin-ears, but she prefers to hide them under her braids. Majorane keeps it a secret, that she is a fairy. She lives at a small village, a farmhouse with a large vegetable garden and goats, chickens, goose, pigs, rabbits, dogs and a cat. She loves to play outside and always hums when she catches a glimpse of a birdie.

Laurel lives in a small town, but he loves to visit Majorane at the countryside. He collects leaves and little flowers, and loves to press them down, and keeps them in a secret scrap book. He loves books, although he didn't learned to read jet, but he loves turning over pages of any books, especially picutre-books. When Majorane visits him they love to go to the playground, because they can play with the sew-saw!

Majorane and Laurel were gifts for my niece and my little son. The photos were taken at their last weekend together, when they were strolling at the nearby forest. It was such an exciting learning process to create them. They are my first little dolls, I planed this pattern to fit in the hand of the smallest ones.

They are just 23 cm tall, they have a simpler body, made of brown cotton-jersey, stuffed with clean wool and their facial features are embroidered with cotton threads. Majorane has a mohair wig, shining brown eyes, and a double sided apron dress. Laurel has an embroidered hairdo (my first one) from merino, dark brown eyes and double sided dungarees, matching Majorane's dress.

I'm planning to create these small dolls with colourful or patterned cotton jersey, with much more simple hairstyles, permanent hats or caps and just some symbolic clothes in the future.

Have playful days!

Valais Black Nose Hairdo - handmade wool weft for Lonka, a natural doll

I have mentioned before, that Lonka is a special doll for me. I tried out several techniques, while creating her. Creating her hair was one of the most significant experience for me. This is not a tutorial, but you can follow more-or less the whole process from cleaning the wool to sewing on her wig.

The wool, I made her hair of, was originally the possession Pimpa, the Valais Black Nose Sheep.

When I started working with the wool, I cleaned it from plant - pieces and other contaminations. It means I picked every single dirt by hand, paying attention not to damage the beautiful curly locks. During this process, I also made groups from the locks, separating the too short or shaggy ones. To be honest, I watched a million tutorials, and searched as much info as I could, but it was more difficult, than I had imagined.

 

After a long long time, I managed to get a queue of semi-cleaned locks. 

Then I heated some water (it was not boiling), put in some detergent (I used shampoo), and rinsed the locks in it.  Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture on this step. I tried not to agitate the locks too much to avoid felting. I picked the locks out and laid them carefully on a towel.

The next step was dying. I used red and normal onion-skin, approx. the skin of a dozen onions. I boiled them in not too much water, turned off the heat, and soaked the locks in it. As far as I remember, I re-heated the liquid two times, to make the process faster. To fix the dying, I used approx. 1 dl vinegar. When I was satisfied with the color of the locks, I laid them on a towel again, and let them dry. This part was maybe the most exciting, I didn't go for a color, since I never painted wool before. I used onion-skin t paint easter eggs or a few times, but that was all my experience. I love that she turned out to be ginger!

When the locks got dry, I sewed them together, to create a long weft. I crocheted a cap to serve as a base for the weft. Since I couldn't find wool-yarn in a matching color, I dyed the yarn as well.I used 100% wool one stranded yarn, what got the color much faster, than the raw wool. I crocheted the cap, and hand-sewed the weft to it. It is possible to crochet the weft into the cap, but I was not sure, whether I had a long enough weft for this. As a final step, I sewed the cap on Lonka's head. However I really love how she looks, I won't do self-made wefts too often, I'm sure.

Following these steps you may be able to create your own weft, but as I mentioned, this is not a proper tutorial, I neither I took proper photos of each step, nor wrote detailed instructions. If you have any questions concerning Lonka's hair, I'm happy to answer, if I can.

Have playful days!

Round eyes of a little rascal - challages of creating doll face for natural dolls

Two little dollies forming in my hands in the same time, a boy for my son and a girl for my nice. Finishing the eyes of a doll is a key movement of dollmaking for me. When the facial features are created, the little personality reveals itself. This is a precious moment, when somehow a doll comes to life. That is my favorite moment of creating cloth-dolls. So intimate, so touching moment...

But if the features doesn't work out, the eyes remain cold, that is everything, but my favorite. Sometimes it happens, and my beloved moments change into the most annoying and frustrating ones. And it happened again, of course when I'm making the first doll for my little son. It seems, when working for someone real close, dolls make me to take a roundabout way.

Eye-embroidery was always a mystery for me. I could plan the position of the eyes, the color and the approximate size, but the exact shape, it was determined by someone or something else, maybe by the doll herself. Embroidering on such an elastic, and unforgetting fabric is no picnic, but it belongs to the magic of these handmade natural dolls, I think.

While creating the face of my son's doll, after the long-long eye-positioning procedure, I pulled in the fabric, to create little pits for the eyes. I wasn't happy with the pits, but I couldn't tell what was wrong, since I liked the positioning, so I went on. I embroidered the eyes, and I couldn't see the personality. Such a frustrating thing to happen. I decided to re-do the eyes. And I realized, I accidentally cut the fabric with the threads. So I had to cover the head again. Since the tubing also broke, I decided to restart it from the very beginning, I was completely finished with a head, but I had just a big pile of clean, soft wool before me again.

So I was struggling with eyes, when something marvelous happened, the help came from Fabiola Perez, who is a gifted dollmaker (Fig and Me), in form of this great blog post. She shares sometimes here experience in great mini tutorials, which I'm really thankful for. This time the idea of embroidering the two eyes simultaneously meant the breakthrough for me. I tried two follow her method when creating the doll for my niece, and it worked! I love her eyes! I also found super little, and flexible embroidery needles, with which these satin stitches are much easier. 

However, the little boy triked me again. I tried this method when redoing his eyes, but he insisted on me to add one more layer embroidering since he wants to have round eyes. But working with to needles, creating the two eyes simultaneously gives me much greater control forming them.

These two little dolls are being created based on a brand new pattern. They are going to be approx. 20 cm high, and will have simpler body-structure and hairstyles, to fit better in the hands of the smallest. Wish me luck, so I can find more time to sew, to be able to finish these dollies soon.

Have playful days!

p.s.: Besides eye-embroidery, as you can see, I tried out myself in hair-embroidery for the first time, and I love it!

The First Noel

The First Noel, the Angels did say
Was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay
In fields where they lay keeping their sheep
On a cold winter's night that was so deep.
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel
Born is the King of Israel!

 

The time has come to share some moments of our wonderful and cozy Christmas Eve. This was Lonka's and Simon's first Christmas with us, and for me it ment such a heart-warming gift, to be a witness of their awaiting. 24...23...22... they were counting the days from the beginning of December. 

When Christmas Eve arrived....

- Shh! Can you here it! Some bell was tinkling!- whispered Lonka

All lights, but the ones on the Christmas tree were blind, when she and Simon came into the room. The red-golden tree bewitched them. For minutes they were just pore upon it. 

Singing Christmas Carols before opening the gifts is a tradition in our little family, and  their duo were happy to join us! One of their favorites was The First Noel.

There were two similar small packages, wrapped in carmine paper, tied up with white strings, with little cards on the top. Of course, in a second, they found their presents. Lonka was the faster, the little itchy hearted girl, she opened her package, and found out, that whatever she got, it must be something just for her. Something very special, since her favorite flower peeped out of the carmine cover. Simon, the always calm little fellow, found a little red boat on his present. But he also realized, besides these little personal details their presents are matching! 

- Cloaks! - exulted Lonka.

With a great hush, she tried her brand new winter cloak on. Simon seemed to be more touched, and I was wondering why.

- The red boat - he said - I didn't want to wear anything warm, because my boat on my dungarees won't be visible, but this cloak has a replica! I love this cloak!

He also tried on his new favorite piece of clothes. This smart boy pointed out, that it is great to have so similar cloaks, since everyone will know, that they belong to each other, but it is also great to have their personal details, which makes it easier to find out which cloak belongs to whom. He turned to Lonka, and the two little dolly started to plan, what winter adventures they will make wearing these comfy, warm cloaks. I'm pretty sure, you will hear about some of these wanderings. 

Simon's and Lonka's cloaks are made of tweed, base on a self-prepared pattern. Their hoods in lined with fabrics matching their outfits, I used the fabric of Lonka's trousers and Simon's shirts. They closing with little black loops and large unfinished wooden buttons. The flower petals and the little boat are made of wool-felts.

Have playful days!

ps.: The lower branches of our Christmas tree are lacking decoration, to avoid any damage, that a far-too-curious little bunny can cause.