When In Doubt Get The Glitter Glue Out.........

As requested, I made two more pairs of "Crocs" for my GD's American Doll. I made another pair awhile ago and two days after there was a mishap. The strap on one shoe came off. No worries. It was easily fixed with Aleene's Original Tacky Glue. BUT.

I wasn't too happy at the time with the idea of using eyelets to attached the straps to the shoe. True enough it looked great sorta but it was really only cosmetic. 

The mishap could have happened because the type of eyelet I was using wasn't correct but as far as I know they were the only type sold over the counter in my area. 

See here is where the strap gave way. The eyelet pulled out because a) it might not be the correct type or b) the foam is too soft and stretchy to hold. Don't know but there were tears...GD's and mine :)

This little eyelet has to go through two layers of the craft foam and hold it together? May be if the shoe is sitting in a drawer and not played with.

I really didn't want to have to repair the new shoes later on so I put the eyelets through just the straps like this and then glued the straps to the shoes.

 Voila!

Looks the same to a 10 year old who really doesn't care about the finer points of shoe making. I did get a wee bit carried away with the glue gun on one of the straps. It left an ugly glob of glue and it bothered me. So annoying.

To hide it I covered the blue shoe with a thin layer of blue glitter glue. Sorry you can't see the glitter clearly in the pic but it turned out really pretty. 

So, the point of all this is that if you are planning to make crocs like these beware the eyelet and maybe buy some glitter glue. 

Take care and keep safe :) 

Little Shoes...........

I made some shoes for the GD's Wellie Wisher doll called Willa. The Wellie Wisher is another product from American Doll and in my humble opinion a much much cuter doll.

This is Willa......

And, here are the shoes I made. They are about 2 inches in length. They are fairly easy to make. I used a pattern from Pixie Faire called "Plain Jane Shoes" by Love U Bunches.

Take care and be safe :)

 

A Bit More Sewing........

A few more little outfits.

I had to shorten some track pants for a family member and used the bits I cut off to make a drop waist dress with pockets.

 

Then I made a skirt from a small piece of baby wale corduroy that I had completely forgotten about. My GD found it in my scrap drawer. It was a remnant I paid 10 cents for and I have lots left to make something else. It's so soft and a very bright pink :) This skirt is a free pattern that you can find here.

Last of all from another scrap she found I made some shorts.

Now I have a request for more shoes and a skort.  It's a good thing I'm retired.

Take care and keep safe:)

Strangers In The Park........

In these times of Covid many people are working from home and that includes my son and his wife. It's not easy when you have a 10 year old and a 16 month old in situ.

The 10 year old is pretty good at entertaining herself and she has a best friend to play with that lives next door.  The 16 month old is a whole other thing. He goes to a day care three mornings a week. When he comes home he has his lunch and then goes down for a nap. So that's 3 days covered pretty  much :)

Two mornings a week he is taken to a local parkette by my husband, myself and his other granny. It's a great place with lots to do and he loves it. And, it does take three of us to watch him as he is a runner. He runs everywhere.

The other day we had five adults looking after him...me, my husband, his other granny and two great aunts. I find that very amusing.

Now the other granny and her sisters...the GA's....are locals. They have lived in the neighbourhood all their lives and everyone knows them and they know everybody in turn. Unlike me and the husband...we are newcomers. I had noticed people looking at us but because of Covid they haven't made any advances to find out who we are.

On this particular day, the GA's, granny and myself found some park benches in the shade and had a nice little natter about this and that while my husband played with the grandson on the swings.  It was a lovely day.

So, here we are sitting on the benches and I hear this little voice pipe up........"She's the granny that sews". I turn around and see a little girl standing with a couple of ladies. She was pointing at me.  I smiled and the ladies nodded.  I think they were a wee bit embarrassed.

I guess I'm not a stranger anymore..........I'm "The Granny That Sews".

Take care and keep safe :)

Not much happening........

Except a lot of rain. What a wet summer we are having. Even tornado warnings. At the age of 16 our poor cat has developed a fear of storms. We know when a storm is about to happen as she hides under the bed. We were a bit worried about her as she stopped eating after a particularly bad few days. But, she seems to be back to her old self today. Her noisy demands for food are nice to hear :)

On the sewing front. My granddaughter has decided to play with her American Girl doll again so I have been asked to make more clothes and shoes.

This is an outfit from a PDF pattern she picked out on Etsy. It is a design called a culotte jumpsuit designed by Liberty Jane at Pixie Faire Patterns.

It's okay but I'm not in love with where the straps are placed. I think they should be a bit more to the middle of the shoulders rather than on the edge. They are placed where the princess seam is on the bodice.  Very awkward to fit right on the doll.  A re-design I think if I make this outfit again.

I made two of the three versions...the short and the long. The fabric was chosen by the granddaughter from my stash :)

I had to borrow her doll for a day as trying to guess the correct length of the long pants and how long the straps should be would be impossible without one.


Take care and keep safe :)