This week in fabric ...

I got the new doll put together. Meet Chloe. (Please excuse the long cat hair that I somehow missed ... it's stuck to her eye during her entire photo shoot.) She's based on a hard vinyl doll that we got for Miss E, a Beedibies from Corolle. We have the brunette; we call her Lucy Beedibies. Chloe was supposed to be a gift for an upcoming birthday, but after a couple days of extreme crying fits, I have given in, primarily because *I* am attached to Chloe, too. She's made of all Amy Butler prints, and plain muslin. As I mentioned previously, I learned over the weekend that Brits call muslin "calico"; it's all unbleached cotton, and it's the perfect fabric for doll faces and arms. It's even an exact match to the off-white in the pink peony fabric I used. Just lovely, ducky! I like the flannel, but love the muslin.

I have decided that I don't like having to attach the head to the body by hand. She's a bit floppy, though that is not all bad, but I also ended up with a ribbon around her neck (sorry, a dashing scarf) to give her support and cover the stitches. I've cut out the pieces for the next doll, and this time will be sewing the face to the body prior to stuffing. Each one is a new experience, but this is darn close to what I was trying to achieve. And fat quarter bundles rock ... I just love having all these small pieces of fabric that coordinate. It makes it so easy to crank out a doll, or whatever other project comes up.

Like yesterday. I started out planning to make a robot for a boy gift, but due to the fact that I'm sick and tired of dripping iced latte glasses every day, I decided it was Coaster Day. I was going to make one coaster for me and one for my neighbor BFF, but that of course turned into two for me and four for my BFF. I am seriously addicted to my morning latte (and sometimes an afternoon or evening one, too), and in Central Texas, that means it's iced 9 months out of the year, and we just don't seem to have any good coasters around the house. It was a great way to practice cutting perfect (or nearly) squares and sewing on bias trim, not to mention sewing straight lines and doing some edge stitching. I only had to rip out one seam, and they don't look half bad! But then, you can't go wrong when you start with gorgeous fabric, can you?