...Sewing, Sewing, Sewing...

Sonia and I have been sewing our little tails off and I thought I'd drop in for a sec to share our joy at having completed our first Christmas order.

These little cuties are presently on their way cross country to Edmonton where they will be Christmas gifts for a slew of lucky cousins. I have images of Clara and her cousins sitting together on Christmas Eve playing with their dolls in The Nutcracker.

Busy Little Sewing Elves

Sonia and I have been busy sewing our little elf slippers off these past couple of weeks.  I'm pleased to say that the last of our Christmas orders is complete and awaiting pick up!!  In between orders we've also been working on handmade Christmas gifts for our family and friends.  Unfortunately, my big plans to make a puppet theatre and puppets for Funny Guy, Alright and Big Squirt (and Dream Girl by association) has been put on hold.  This stinks - and I know that if I didn't sleep or eat between now and Christmas I could probably get it done.  Maybe.  Of course all of our Christmas creations are still secrets (coy little elves that we are) but we will share some of them after the holidays.  Mainly so you can all tell us what nice work we've done!!!  But seriously, the stocking Sonia made for Dream Girl is brag worthy, not to mention blog-worthy.

Plus we've been listening to lots of Christmas music while we sew.
Fa la la la la
La la la la
This is the one time of the year that Sonia gets to pick out the music we listen to.

Yes, Sonia - I know you were the one who told me about Sarah McLachlan coming to Halifax in the Spring.  Yes - you got us our tickets.  Yes it will be awesome. 

You do not have bad taste in music.  But you do frequently have bad taste in radio stations that I have to remedy whilst sewing so as to prevent myself from sewing my ears to the table.

And don't pretend that listening to Christmas music isn't just your sick way of making me listen to Michael Buble and co. 

Only 4 more sleeps til the big day!!!  How will you be spending your time?

Last Christmas I gave you my heart......

Sonia is trying to kill me. 

Call
the
police!

Rock Star Cloth Doll by Third Street

I am in love with this new Third Street Rock Star doll.

Decked out in his Dad's hand me down jeans and dress shirt, this little dude is totally rockin' his own hipster style.  His ill-equipped seamstress girlfriend (humbly known on Third Street as The Machine) went into chain stitch overdrive on this one.  Tightly HAND EMBROIDERED chain stitches offer up bold lines for the star, the 45, and the steel glasses.  The fine detailing, frames and lettering are done BY HAND using a back stitch and his gorgeous Third Street eyes are done in our characteristic satin stitch.  Which was also done A LA MAIN. 

Is my redundancy irritating?  Yes.  But - I have an ulterior motive fueled by only a wee bit of resentment .... Which I will not allow myself or the lovely readers of this blog to be bothered by any further, as its cause is not even worth mentioning in the company of true appreciators of handcrafted goods ... and people who are insightful enough to recognize inherent skill when its achievement is justly earned.  Painstakingly, in fact.  But let's get back to the doll, shall we?

Once he was finished according to the custom order criteria, I felt this doll was still missing something. Then I decided the little dude's inner child was just screaming for some vinyl.  Aren't we all? So I kicked it old school and payed homage to the black circle.  

I think this little buddy is going to look sweet in Jack's Rock Star nursery. 

So let's hear it for all the Rock Star babies out there:

Apparently I've taken an unexpected break from blogging .... 

... sorry 'bout that ...

Here's a quick glimpse of what's been pleasantly distracting me. 

Distracting me amongst many other things, which of course goes without saying...

This is a custom doll we made for a friend of mine from university for her new baby girl Kate. 

I was so pleased with how the hand embroidery on the dress turned out, I was eager to share.  

I think Kate is going to love her new friend when they meet on Christmas morning.

Pull up your candy cane pantyhose and come visit us at the

Christams Craft Village

next weekend at Exhibition Park.

It's a three day show with over 100 vendors!!

Friday, Nov. 12 from 10-9

Saturday, Nov. 13 from 10-6

Sunday, Nov 14 from 10-5

  

We're in booth 105 in the second room near the performance stage.

Binkies

Soft Play Balls

Baby and Toddler Bibs

Bean Bags

Lady Lou Cushions

Hand Embroidered Onsies featuring original TSH designs

Doll Quilts 

Christmas Tree Ornaments

Hand Painted Christmas Sleds

Quilted Patchwork Christmas Runners

And of course,

Oodles and Oodles of Original TSH Dolls

Including Special Edition

 Chinese New Year Dolls and Santa's Little Helper Dolls

As well as Dad's Handmade Wooden Doll Furniture

Plus we will be available for custom ordering!

For a complete listing of participating vendors, please chick here.

See the Third Street Handcrafters Facebook Page for a chance to win a free pass to the show!!

Market to Market and Custom Dolls

We now have one Dartmouth Farmer's Market under our belts.  Unfortunately, Saturday was a miserable, soggy-cold day in these parts which lead to a slow day at market.  All of the regular DFM vendors were quick to assure us that this was unusual and that such absurd market-goer behaviour could only be explained by the cruddy weather. 

Nevertheless, Sonia and I had a great time.  We haven't done a show since May and it was fun to be back.  We were pleased to see the fond reception with which our witches were received (unnecessarily overly complicated way of putting it...  Don't laugh, I do this for you.)  Plus we got to use the new display stand that Dad put together for us.  It worked great - thanks Dad!  I've decide to paint it a turquoise colour and hope to have this done before the next show.  

Speaking of shows, we are hoping to attend a few more Dartmouth Farmers Markets during the fall and leading up to Christmas.  These markets are held at Alderny Landing from 8am to 1pm every Saturday. 

Our next day at market will be October 30th.  Maybe we'll see you there?

In addition to the DFM, we will be participating in the Christmas Craft Village - a 3 day craft extravaganza which will be held at Exhibition Park on November 12-14.  I'll be talking more about this as the date draws closer, so stay tuned.

In the midst of preparing and participating in craft shows, we are presently working on an exciting slew of custom orders.  Most recently completed were these two dolls we made for my friends and co-workers, Imtiaz and Elena. 

Believe it or not, they are even cuter in person!

What do you think? 

Elena loved the dolls; when she took them out of their bag, she held the Elena doll beside her face and said, "It's me!" 

It is so thrilling when people get excited about or dolls!

New Inspiration

Summer is winding down and my life is filled with the joys of my new daughter.  This weekend we celebrate her baptism and her first birthday.  (pictures to follow)

Andrea and I are in full swing at Third Street, amping up production and getting ready for the Holiday season.  We celebrated our forth sale in our Etsy store and received another order for 3 dolls.  It feels great to be getting "back on track", as I've been saying I needed to do for a while now. 

This fall we are creating some Halloween themed dolls.  They are at the embroidery phase, so watch for them in the coming weeks. Inspired by my trip to China, we've begun working on a new collection of dolls that will be available later this fall, Chinese New Year Dolls. These little lovelies will be wearing traditional inspired Chinese gowns, dressed and ready for a party!

Back To School Girls

It's getting to be that time of year again. 

Are you like me and still get the faintest of knots in your belly when 'Back to School' approaches?

I love school supplies.

In fact, it is a challenge for me to visit a Staples store and leave without a new pen.  And a scribbler.  I'm still waiting for my bouquet of sharpened pencils...  Remember the old Hilroy exercise books - the ones with the big black circle?  Ah, nostalgia.

Why do people always give grading presents?  Shouldn't kids get presents for going back to school? Isn't that the part that should be celebrated and encouraged?

Colleen over at Curtains are Open is having a special Back to School season this year, with her eldest daughter heading off to university.  In an effort to assist her daughters with the impending separation, Colleen asked Sonia and I to make each daughter a doll reflective of their gorgeous images. 

Here are the sweet results, a Big Sister and Little Sister, freckles and all ...

 

I hope these two little sweeties help with the transition happening over at Colleen's.  I'm sure everyone there has bellies that are filled with more than a few knots. 

Good luck!!

... especially to Mom ...

Sew... Delicious!! :: Third Street Salvage Yard

-Huge sewing night at Sonia's house tonight. We've had a break with Sonia's recent trip and adoption, but tonight we went at 'er full swing.

-A few dolls made it to their final stage of assembly and we made a big dent in the severed-limbs-stage with the dolls-in-bags pile.  If this sound gruesome, believe me - it is!!

-Two current orders are nearing completion.

-A new order for two RED SOX boy dolls.  Exciting!!

-Plans for Halloween and Christmas/Winter themed dolls in the works.

-Plans for a Sewing Machine Day sewing project tutorial (Sept 10th) - stay tuned!

-Oh, and I have to work on that giveaway I mentioned...

Soakin' Up the Sun

Thanks to Colleen from Curtains are Open, we recently recieved a commission to do two dolls dressed for the beach.  Colleen's good friend Kim was looking for a special surprise for her two little girls upon arrival to their cottage following the end of the school year.

These are the two little beach bum-ettes:

Polka dot bikinis!!!

Complete with hand embroidered bikini straps, anklettes, toe nail polish, and yes ... as promised ... belly buttons!!!

Turquoise and green.

Pink and orange.

I think that Kim's little dolls are going to love their surprises when they get to the cottage this summer.  What lucky girls!!  

We're linking to:

Blue Cricket Design

Baby Shower !!

We recently had an order for a baby shower present.  We were super excited for a chance to use this new 'wolf in sheep's clothing' flannelette which makes lovely burp pads, bibs and tag binkies.  And of course our always favorite alien robots got to play a part too.

This gorgeous flannel also made for cozy PJ's for the baby-to-be's Sleepy Time Doll.

I think the baby will love this sweet little soft play ball with its enticingly vibrant ribbon tags.

But a sweet little dolly sized bed finishes the set, as this little guy is tuckered out from a morning of playing ball with mom.

Sweet dreams,

Little One.

Note:  we will be adding bibs, binkies, burp pads and more Sleepy Time dolls to the Corner Store over the next while.  Please stop by at your leisure! 
We are always looking for new friends, so feel free to add yourself as a follower or to subscribe to our feed for frequent updates.

I'm linking to:

Jaxin's Thai Doll

 We recently finished this little guy for a friend's son, Jaxin.  Jaxin's mom grew up next door to us and her mother was my Brownie leader.  

Jaxin is a beautiful little boy who came to his family from Thailand in the fall of last year. 

Needless to say, it was a real delight making this doll for Nichole's little boy.

Like Jaxin, Thai likes to wear overalls.  His hand-me-down work shirt is one of his favorites because it's just like the work shirts his Papa Manny wears around the yard and in his workshop.

Before giving the doll to Nichole (which was intended as an Easter gift, but was given to Jaxin on the drive home by his super excited Mom!) I embroidered a few cross stitches for the strap fasteners and over the hips to signify the overalls side closures.  This little detail made a really nice finishing touch, but unfortunately, I took these pictures before adding the stitches. 

Silly me.

Jaxon reputably loves his new BFF (Buffalo Firefighter), whom he tenderly named

Thai 

I'm linking to:

   

Show and Tell @ Blue Cricket Design

Third Street Corner Store

We are very pleased to announce that our Etsy store is now up and running. 

Yay!

 

Third Street Corner Store currently have 9 dolls listed for sale, and plan to list new things regularly, so check back often. 

 We will soon be listing a few monster plushies, baby and toddler bibs, hand embroidered onsies and undershirts, soft play balls and binkies. 

Stop by and let us know what you think!

Hurray!

You are my Sunshine

I recently completed a custom embroidery piece that a friend ordered for her son.  I'm quite pleased with the final product.  As I have mentioned this project in several posts  I thought it would only be fair to share some pictures.  Those of you who know me will of course understand that I do not function in real time and am therefore chronically tardy.  Thus the delay in producing said pictures.  As usual, I digress... 

What Sherri specifically wanted for her son was a picture featuring the phrase 'You are my Sunshine.'  I had previously done a painting for a friend's daughter with this phrase (which you can view in our flickr group) however this piece was a little, shall we say ... girly? 

Always a fan of the children's book author and illustrator Oliver Jeffers I used his artwork as inspiration for the piece.

For anyone as taken with Oliver Jeffer's work as I am, please do further delight yourself by checking out this You Tube teaser for a movie adaptation of his book 'Lost and Found'.  The DVD is available through amazon.  Again, I digress.  Sheesh, what's your hurry? 

On with the pictures!

Planning the layout.

The fabric is 100% linen from an old shirt of Sonia's. 

Plotting.  Yes, I was rubbing my hands together and snickering to myself.

Of course.

Planning the embroidering. 

The wonderful part of the project where you look at your vast expanse of embroidery floss colours (seriously, how many shades of blue do you really need?) and hope that you're not about to ruin the whole thing by picking the wrong colour ... 

Tree trunk.

Okay, I admit - that was self explanatory. 

Sorry about that.

You are my Sunshine.

Adding depth. 

And flowers.

Well it is embroidery!

More depth and definition.

And the Final Product

(drum roll please!)

We really liked that there's some semblance of the shirt remaining in the final product; the hem line of the shirt is at the bottom right, we added the green wedge for interest and to keep everything square.  We thought about leaving the button holes, but alas, we did not.

Now for the one person who made it to the end of this post

(thanks Mom, you're a trooper!)

I hope you enjoyed this painfully long post.

Maybe I should have placed a 'time warp' disclaimer at the start? 

I did say at the start that I don't generally operate in real time. 

It's not my fault you didn't take me seriously and got caught in my digressions.

Or wait, maybe it was my captivating prose....

I'm linking to:

Note added by author 2010/04/20:  custom order fell through, picture was sold in April at the Halifax Crafters Spring Fling.  Emroidery pictures are available through custom order.  Please contact us with any inquiries.