CE testing stage 1: what everybody who makes toys should know, and do.

Good morning all and welcome.

Hello especially to new readers, hope you find this an interesting and informative blog. (I assume you're here because I'm going to talk about CE testing and how I make my dolls so they will pass)

Firstly what is CE? good question. This is what www.ce-marking.org say:

Experiment with a doll face

Good morning all you lovely internet bods,

Firstly let me apologise for misleading anyone. When I posted this little snippet on Instagram yesterday, I was just showing that is was an old head and that is why it had a neck hole instead of a mouth, it never occurred to me that people might think I was making a two headed doll. My bad.

Red Roses, cause its almost Valentine's Day

Hi Everyone,

Hope you are all happy and content in your worlds.

Myself and Dr. J. have just returned from a few days out in our camper van, to the coast, and I am feeling very content because of it. I love the sea, in fact all water, and since we live in the centre of England more or less I don't get to see it as often as I'd like. So we combined a trip with some work Dr. J. needed to do and had a very nice relaxing time.

Some bits and pieces about my dolls' hair and techniques I've tried

Welcome everybody, hope you are all well and keeping warm out there.

So today I thought I'd tell you a little bit about how I do my dolls' hair. Obviously I am still learning and there are always new and improved techniques out there, but up to now most of my dolls have had crocheted wigs with wool or cotton latched on,

Needle Felting a Teddy - this is how I do mine.

Good Morning All

I know I haven't been in touch for awhile, but I did say I was going to stop just posting for the sake of it and only post when I had something to say. Well I have been busy while I've been away. I launched my dolls range which I guess would really have been something to say, but I've been saying it in lots of other places which you probably all read anyway, so I'm sure you know. If not then you best start following me in Facebook too. The dolls page is called Bees Knees Art Dolls and here's a link so no excuse. LINK.

Well it's doing really well, lots of interest and really nice comments, so I thought I'd do a giveaway to say thank you for all the people following me. And I thought a little needle felt ted would be good, and then I thought well what about Instagram and all the lovely people on there, so I thought I better do two.

Anyhow I made the first ted and posted up a picture to show people and I got asked how he was made, so I thought I pop up a few photos of the process I go though on here. This is not the be all or end all of needle felting and there are loads of other methods, this is just how I chose to make teddies.

 Firstly I take wool roving, a block of foam covered with hessian and some needle felting needle, I use 2 sizes a large to start and a smaller one as the felt starts to form.

 I pull of two pieces 1 small and the other around twice the size, for the head and body, and pull them around a bit. Then I start to poke, turning the piece very regularly so it doesn't just go flat,

 Once its a small round ball, I concentrate pokes in the center to start a muzzle area. Sorry about the colour felt, now I look back at these it's a bit close to the colour of the hessian.

 Then I do the same with the larger piece but make this into a tear drop shape.

Then come ears I take a real small amount of wool, you will be surprised at how small it needs to be, and felt it kinda flat, and round, with wispy bits hanging out the bottom (for attaching to head), just practice really.

Hold them in place on the head, one at a time, and needle felt into place, really poking well into the head so that the loose fibers from the ears go right into the head and hold firm.

 Next arms and legs, pull 4 bit apart, 2 slightly smaller and try to get the arms and legs about the same. Make the arms like sausages.

 Holding a leg piece a bit like a sausage shape, work on one side, trying to make it really look like a sausage by turning very regularly. Then when it starts to take shape turn it 90 degrees and work on the other end, the foot. this give you a nice sharp ankle area.

Don't worry that if the leg seems ridiculous big just keep felting and it will get smaller. 

 Keep an eye on proportions and try to make things even, again practice helps

Next take some embroidery floss and sew on a muzzle and mouth, hiding the fastenings under the muzzle area and loose threads through the head.

Eyebrows can be cute too.

I like to use watercolour pencils, the ones I use for dolls faces to add a little colour to paws and ears and sometimes their belly.

Then using strong thread I attach 2 black glass beads for eyes, threading the cotton through the head coming out the neck area and then down through the body to attach the head to the body too.

Arms and legs are attached by threading using the same method; thread through an arm, the body, the other arm, a bead and back again so the bear is sandwiched between 2 beads, pull hard and tie firmly, hiding threads inside the felt again.

So there you go, amazingly no fingers where harmed in the making of this blog, but remember if you fancy giving this ago the needles are sharp and barbed and hurt on the way in and way out, I have stabbed myself many time and eventually got better at missing me and hitting the felt, but be warned you will hurt yourself. On brighter note though you will end up with a cute little critter that is just yours and unique. And visit YouTube, there's load of really good tutorials out there.

But if you don't fancy trying then tune into my Facebook page or follow me in Instagram for chance to win one of mine, or even think about buying one from me. I will be getting some up in the shop now I realise the demand, originally they where made as accessories to the dolls, (who love them by the way and don't want to let them go.) or if you cant wait, order a custom-made one.

Well that's all from me for now. Next time it will be about the HSF 15 challenge blue, almost done sewing that up. So till next time.
Hugs and Kisses

Ally

A new angle on ties

Good Morning all you internet lovelies.

Well I've been working more on those 'groomsmen' ties, although not all the groomsmen are men and not all the ties are for that side of the wedding party if you see what I mean. Groomsmen is a good enough term for you to know what I'm on about.

Suit-along: The Pockets on Your Jacket.

Well morning all

This morning Dr J. has returned to work after 2 weeks off. And it seems a little quiet here apart from the teenage boys, my son has had some friends stopping, but they are all still asleep. So it is just me and the dog for the moment and all is peaceful.  Not that it wasn't lovely having the Doc around and we did get so much done for the wedding plans, but now I feel I need to concentrate on a little bit of internet stuff and get some new items up on the website and Etsy store which I have kinda neglected of late. I also feel that I should re-vamp my blog so, hopefully, you are reading this with a new layout. And I hope you like it.

1916 in the honey pot today

Morning all

Well steampunk was fun and there were loads of marvelous outfits and creations to marvel at as the day wore on. If you look at Steampunk Doncaster facebook page you be able to see lots of good stuff. And then to round of the weekend in splendid style on Sunday the lovely Dr J. took me to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the Electric Cinema (the Birmingham one), which is the oldest working cinema in the UK and always a treat.

But now it's back to reality which is infact 1916 for me this week as I'm back on the Wearing History 1010s sew along.

Did I mention to you that I was guest blogging on a few post for this sew along?
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I did the first one a few weeks back now, but as I prepare to finish the top half on the shirt fully and then move on the the jacket, I thought I'd share with you the post I wrote about hemming....


 Well Hello Everyone, I’m Ally from Honey Pot Creations, primarily a milliner, but a dabbler in anything and everything sewing based.  I’m so pleased to be able to write this guest post. When Lauren put out the call for help with the sew-along I was a little nervous and at first didn’t put myself forward but then I thought well why not, what’s the worst that could happen, and to be honest it will really spur me on to complete the sew-along if I’m involved in both sides if you see what I mean. Do bear in mind though that this is my first guest blog and be a little forgiving on me if I make any blunders.   Well I thought I would help Lauren out by taking 3 small sections of the construction.  I picked

• Hemming the skirt
• Pockets on the jacket
• Collar options

to write the blog posts for and very kindly Lauren agreed. So today is all about hemming and we will get to the jacket all in good time.   The original instructions that came with the pattern tell us to “underface skirt 3 inches” and Lauren goes on to explain this as; ‘No hem is allowed for skirt. The longer length will work for earlier periods, since it is quite long. You can either turn up the hem, if you desire shorter than the pattern is given for, or face the hem.’ She goes on to say that she likes to face in a stiffer fabric to give extra body to the hem and I have to agree with this and will be using this method on my skirt, but for the sake of completeness we will cover both methods. As the skirt we are dealing with is not straight, we will have to look at fullness with whatever hem style we choose, so let’s look at that first. Some fabrics can be shrunk in a little and some will just need to be pressed as flat as possible, either way starts by marking your hem line. The easiest method I find is just to run a very large running stitch around the hem line in contrasting cotton.This thread will be removed later.  Also run a gathering stitch close to the end of the fabric (the white one in the pictures) Turn up the hem and baste (or pin if you are lazy like me) close to the turn.  Next pull up the gathering thread to fit the curve, on a skirt as big as this, you will find it easier to do this in sections possibly each quarter.Once all the gathers are evenly distributed you can iron. Don’t slide the iron along the hem line, as this can stretch it, instead lower the iron onto one area, steam and then lift the iron and move along to the next area. This advice is good whichever style of hemming you choose.To finish, overcast the raw edges and blind stitch the hem up.   With this skirt though, I chose to underface the hem by this method.

• Cut the underfacing to size. By using the bottom of the pattern piece you draw round the outline on your facing material, I chose calico for a medium stiffness.
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• Draw the bottom line and 4 inches up the sides.
• Move the pattern piece and then measuring up 4 inches from the bottom line draw another line parallel to it making a curving rectangle shape.
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• Cut around the shape to give you your facing.
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• (Rather late in the day I got round to ironing the calico, I did say I was lazy) Turn over a short hem on the top edge of the facing.
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• Now I chose not to join these strips together instead preferring to attach them to the skirt in separate pieces that overlap and then if there is any problem with the sizing I can increase or decrease the size of the overlap to compensate, so iron  down the short edges on two of the pieces.
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• If you would rather join the facing together and then sew it on to the skirt just sew up the short sides and continue as before.
• Pin the facing to the skirt right sides together, placing one of the folded over edges down first.
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• Place the next facing over lapping this piece and pin in place, when they are turned back over the neat side will be showing.
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• Sew the facing on to the fabricand iron, I always iron the seam as is first and then open, can’t remember who told me but I know it’s important. 
• Turn the facing to the inside and press again. I like to roll it in a little further so you can see a little of the skirt fabric on the inside.  
• Blind stitch in place.

Ok this is where I need to make a confession, you may be thinking that I was using a cream facing on a dark fabric to make it easy to see in the photos and I probably would have dyed the facing if I thought it might be seen, but you see I decided that the skirt was a little too long for me and for some reason I decided 6 inches had to come off, well I did a bad thing and just folded up the pattern pieces to get the reduction. The real problem came when I folded up 6 and down 6 too (not up 3 and down 3), so I end up cutting the pieces 12 inches shorter than the originals, oops. I realised as soon as I held up the cut out fabric. Although the skirt is too short you can see the calico gives a nice fullness. Well there had been a thread in the facebook event page discussing this very problem, and some very clever person suggested putting a ruffle on the bottom, so that is exactly what I decided to do. I cut out 3 straight lengths of the fabric, joined them into a tube, hemmed top and bottom and then attached to the bottom of my skirt with small pleats.From this you can also see the other option for hemming which is to turn the raw edge over twice and sew down. 

I hope that you may have found something in all that useful, I have to say I enjoyed doing it and it’s interesting thinking about each step, rather than just doing them, so I’m looking forward to the jacket now. Oh and once again thanks Lauren for letting me join in. Hugs and kisses Ally

So that's what I wrote and now you're up-to-date, I'll share more later in the week. oh and if you want to see the rest of the posts on the sew along they can be found here, on the sew along facebook page.

catch you later.

Hugs and Kisses

Ally