Last of the Line: My Little Pony--and the Police!

This last of the American Girl doll wrap skirts that I've listed on my etsy shop is actually the first style that I made for Syd, based on her current absolute favorite cartoon: My Little Pony.

I've got a ton more American Girl doll patterns that I want to try out--pants, shirts, doctor's scrubs, a party dress--but I've also got some commissioned pieces and etsy orders that I need to be working on, so more American Girl doll crafting may need to go on the back burner for a bit.

In other news, I have to tell you about the AMAZING field trip that my Girl Scout troop went on yesterday! I was so engrossed in the trip that I didn't take a single photo, so you'll have to bear with my wall of words instead:

When we first got to the police station, the receptionist looked a little surprised to see this large gang of children and assorted adults in attendance, and we had to wait for a really long time before an officer came to get us--I imagine that the conversation in the back went something like "Oh, crap! who forgot to put a FIELD TRIP on the calendar?!? Okay, everyone, short straw has to lead the tour."

I was also a little leery when a parent who was dropping her kids off with me asked the officer, "How long do you think this will take?" and he answered, "Oh, about 15 or 20 minutes." At that point, I figured, "At least there's a playground behind the police station!" A twenty-minute tour followed by an hour on the playground--that could work, I guess.

I like to prep my Scouts well for our activities, so I'd asked each child to bring a notebook and pencil, and to write two questions for the police officers in that notebook. Our tour guide, Sgt. Forston, led us to the briefing room, sat us down, gave us a little lecture on what a briefing looks like, then said something like, "Okay, before I show you the rest of the station, does anybody have any questions?"

Little hands rose into the air! Sgt. Forston, in what is surely the greatest display of patience ever seen by humankind, answered question after question after question. Are you in charge? (No.) Who IS in charge? (The chief of police.) What kind of crimes are most common? (Theft.) What kind of things do people steal? (Money, bikes, electronics, really anything.) If someone stole a computer but it has a password on it, what would they do? (Throw it away.) Have you ever been shot at? (No.) Do you ever feel like you're in danger? (Yes.) Do people call you on the phone here? (Yes.) What do they call you about? (They want to report a crime, they're not happy with something a police officer has done, they have a question about a law.) Do they call other people on the phone here? (Yes.) Is 911 here? (No.) Where is 911? (At the central bus station.) Do people ever fight you? (Yes.) What happens if you think that someone committed a crime but you don't know for sure? (We keep looking for evidence.) Do they get to go free while you look? (It depends on what kind of evidence we have already.) Is there a police dog here? (Yes.) What's his name? (Ike.) What kind of dog is he? (German Shepherd.) Can we see him? (Maybe. I'll call his handler and ask.)

For each of these answers, also imagine a thoughtful explanation. Every time Sgt. Forston came to terminology that he thought that the children wouldn't understand, such as "bond" or "chain of command" or whatever, he would reword it so that the children understood. It was perfectly suited to an audience of children.

By the time this flurry of questions had calmed enough that we could keep moving, we were already well past the twenty-minute estimate of the entire trip, but Sgt. Forston seemed totally in the groove, and never hinted that we were taking up too much of his time or that it was time to finish up. In fact, he kept thinking of even more awesome things for us to see and do! We saw an interrogation room, where children and adults were both kind of thrilled to see the chain that attaches to a suspect's handcuffs. We saw the room with the breathalyzer and a line painted on the floor for people to walk; everything in these two rooms is videotaped. We saw the evidence lockers, which are actually just lockers! They are literally evidence lockers!

A guy came by as we were standing in front of the evidence technician's door, and Sgt. Forston was basically like, "Look! The evidence technician! Show the kids your light!" So after the technician put away all the evidence that he was bringing back from the lab (Sgt. Forston gave us an excellent lecture about this and a lecture and demonstration about how to properly handle evidence), he showed us how his black light showed up hairs and such from clothing and other surfaces.

Imagine, of course, that all through this children are just peppering Sgt. Forston with questions. Does each locker have its own key? (No, they all use the same key that the evidence technician has.) What goes in the little locked refrigerator? (Blood. Long pause. Just blood. Good editing for a child audience, Sgt. Forston!). What's in that jug? (Distilled water.) What's the distilled water for? (If you flush a syringe with it, you may get dried blood that you can then get DNA from.)

We covered DNA swabs and how to bag evidence, and then Sgt. Forston set the children up with plastic CD cases that he'd touched, fingerprint powder, and brushes, and he let the children actually dust for fingerprints! It was the coolest. Thing. EVER! He talked the kids through gently tapping the brush into the powder, and then just sort of gently swirling the brush along the surface. You still have to really look to be able to see the fingerprint, but if you hold it up to the light, there it is! It was so great, and the kids were really into it. I mean, of course! We also saw how to use a piece of tape to lift the fingerprint off the surface, although apparently it's preferred now to take a digital picture of the print, rather than lifting it.

We saw the undercover police officers' office and where the detectives work, the conference room where those in charge talk strategy, and then Sgt. Forston got ahold of the K-9 officer and found that although he was in the middle of a training session across town, he could leave then and be with us in 10-15 minutes. Sgt. Forston looked at me and asked how we should pass the time. "Tell the children all about first aid!" I said.

And so he did. Bless that man.

On the way outside to meet the police dog, I got the children's attention and said, "Now, Children, when the police dog shows up, I want you to..."

"Remain calm," many children finished for me. They know me so well!

Officer Keaton pulled up to the parking lot where we were, and he gave us a little lecture on police dogs and how and why they're used, and got to experience his own flurry of questions, himself. How old is Ike? (I don't remember the answer to this one--I'll have to ask my troop!) What happens to Ike when you go on vacation? (He goes to a special kennel in Indianapolis where they're used to police dogs.) Does he ever go inside the police station? (Not usually, because he's trained to defend Officer Ike, and could bite an officer who was just roughhousing with him.) Why isn't he neutered? (Because he's never out of his officer's supervision.) Do your kids get to play with him? (No, but sometimes they're allowed to pet his back.) We found out that Officer Keaton gives his dog, Ike, commands in German, we passed around his special remote control that shows him what the temperature is inside his car and has a panic button that he can press when he needs Ike to come rescue him. It opens the door on the right, which Ike only uses when he needs to chase down somebody.

We got to examine the special police car that Ike rides in, and then we sat in the grass while Officer Keaton showed us how Ike finds drugs. He'd hidden a little magnetic box inside the wheel well of a car, and as we watched, Ike sniffed all around, then sniffed back and forth in the same area over and over again, then got low and sniffed, and then finally scratched at the exact spot where the drugs were. As a reward, he got a tennis ball on a rope, and he was so happy!

At exactly two hours and 17 minutes after we first arrived at the police station, Sgt. Forston asked, "Anymore questions?" and for the first time, nobody raised their hands. I told him, "I don't think that ANYBODY has ever run them out of questions before!" And then we thanked the officers VERY wholeheartedly and all the children ran off to the playground.

Seriously, this was service WAY above and beyond the call of duty. Can you imagine the patience of someone who had originally intended to spend 20 minutes with a group of children, and then went on to indulge them for a full two hours, never hurrying them, never saying "Just one more question," going out of his way to find them interesting things to look at and do? It was one of the most impressive adult-child interactions that I have ever seen.

I know a certain couple of police officers who are going to get handmade thank-you letters and a big delivery of bagels and doughnuts sometime soon!

American Girl Goes a Little Bit Goth: A Pink Skulls Reversible Skirt

Here's the latest listing in my Pumpkin+Bear etsy shop: a pink skulls American Girl doll skirt!

I started off by making one for Syd, of course, and then made a second one for my shop.

I LOVE this reversible wrap skirt because the Velcro makes it super simple for the kid to use.

On the reverse side the skirt is plain pink, because you don't always want to wear skulls.

My next project is to see how this skirt works with jersey knit, because I'd love to upcycle T-shirts into doll skirts.

Here are the couple of doll skirt types that I've made so far:

• Doctor Who reversible wrap skirt
• postage stamp quilt reversible wrap skirt

Sense a pattern?

American Girl Meets Dr. Who: My New Hobby

Syd loves playing with dolls, dressing them and taking them on adventures and changing their clothes and taking them on more adventures. She has a large collection of vintage handmade doll clothes from a great-grandmother, and she loves to make her own temporary fashions, using scrap fabric and lots of tape and rubber bands, but when we visited the American Girl store for her birthday in May, I could tell that Syd also longed for REAL clothes for her American Girl doll.

Clothes that fit the doll perfectly. Clothes that were well-made and didn't need rubber bands or tape to keep them up.

And so what is a Momma to do, but start an entire new hobby of creating American Girl doll clothes?

I don't love fussy sewing, so I actually do appreciate sewing for a larger-format doll such as the American Girl (I know that Syd wants "real" Barbie clothes, too, but I dread the eensy seams that would come with that sewing, so I'm putting it off), and in that sewing, I'm consciously choosing the least fussy patterns available, ones that also allow for a lot of customization, such as this reversible wrap skirt.

The skirt pattern comes with a copyright that allows for personal use AND sales of finished skirts made using that pattern (which is AWESOME!), so while I made skirts for Penny, Syd's own American Girl doll, I also made a duplicate of each skirt for my pumpkin+bear etsy shop. Here, for instance, is the Dalek reversible wrap skirt--it's also my favorite:

I also "made" the shirt in the last two photos, if you can call cutting a single straight line "making" a shirt. Can you tell what that shirt USED to be?

Yep! It's a newborn onesie!

I'm a little (LOT) surprised at how much I'm enjoying making these doll clothes. But again, Syd has always been the kid who stretches my interests into outlets that I'd never have explored without her, whether it's dance or fashion design or hairstyles or makeup or, yes, doll clothes.

Barbie Fashion Photography

One of Syd's grandmas gave her new Barbie dolls and clothes for her birthday--just take a moment and visualize my child's glee at that gift. Now multiply it by a power of ten, and you've got it about right.

Syd loves dressing up her Barbies, loves making clothes for them, loves having fashion shows for them in all their outfits, so I suggested fashion photography as something else that she might like. Would she like to try it?

She would.

We only did a couple of photos, because I wanted to look at them on the computer and see what I needed to change about the set-up before I let her loose to do all that she wanted, but here's what she shot:

Yeah, I think this activity is a winner.

I'll share a tute another time, when I set it up again for Syd to use, but the basic set-up is a big sheet of paper for the backdrop, something unobtrusive for the Barbie to lean against, and a REALLY low tripod already set up so that the kid doesn't have to do a lot of camera fiddling to get her perfect shot. I actually don't have a tripod that goes so low, so I used a couple of cinder blocks, which wasn't totally ideal since it wouldn't hold the camera at an angle, but it clearly worked. 

Next time, I can also guide Syd into thinking about poses, and the difference that it makes when your subject is looking at you vs. looking away. It'll be a nice little hands-on photography unit, don't you think?

And maybe I'll do this one, myself!

Doll Dress Designs

My fabric scrap bin gets a lot of turnover, as this is one of Syd's favorite activities:

This garment is cut from a single piece of quilting cotton, with tape to fasten the back and a ribbon around the waist.

Syd sewed the bodice and skirt of this outfit together on my sewing machine. It's held closed at the back with the belt cut from scrap fabric; the garment also features a matching ascot and half-sleeves held on with tape.

This pipe cleaner doll features a dress made from a single piece of scrap fabric, fastened just below the bust with a ribbon tie. Brown flannel hair is held in place with masking tape.

This simple garment is one piece of vintage scrap fabric with a masking tape belt.

I've been brainstorming how to enrich Syd's interest in fashion design--it's MUCH easier to find resources to teach kids computer programming and pottery making than it is clothing design! Once we're a little more settled in our new house (I'm currently writing this post while sitting on a mattress in the bedroom of our old house, a place that I now refer to as my "bolt hole," while Matt makes phone calls from work to try to find a plumber to repair the main line in our new house. I'm pretty sure the toilets aren't supposed to back up into the bathtubs there...), I'd like to set up my older sewing machine for Syd, as well as teach her a couple of simple clothing patterns in her size that she can use independently. I've also got some more larger white play silks to dye for her, because play silks make really versatile costumes. We should continue our drawing lessons, as well--I want to add Waldorf form drawing into the lesson schedule.

Because this is definitely a kid who could be wearing only her own home-sewn creations by high school. Perhaps she'll sew for me, too!

Barbies and Building Blocks

It's snowing again. I knew that there was a 30% chance of snow last night, but when I woke up and saw the white demon littering the ground, and more despicable little fluffy-fluffs spitting down, I barked out a VERY attractive something like "GLAAHGH!".

Fortunately, the day has been well spent. We had baked oatmeal for breakfast, I may have had cheesecake for lunch, which I blame entirely on the white demon, and I have cleverly concealed yesterday's pasta leftovers into tonight's "Pasta Bake," which I think will go over well, and which contains flaxseeds (Shh! Don't tell!). The house is as clean as it's gonna get with two kids in residence--I have a groove for this now, and I feel really good about myself every time I think about it. I forced myself a total of twice to look out the window at the snow and think, "Pretty!". Then I kicked the kids out into it, and they're out there now, chasing each other, their startlingly shrill pony neighs disturbing the neighbors. I have let the power of being an admin this month for CAGW (my boss had a baby! Insert squee here) go to my head. Speaking of my boss, and my friend, AND my half-sister, I cut out WAY too many baby bibs to sew for their new babies, humming happily to myself as I worked in a way that would bring a cold sweat to Matt's forehead if only he'd been home to witness it. I did a mile on the treadmill while watching Call the Midwife; I *almost* want to hop back on just so I can watch some more. I set up the computer for Willow's Magic Tree House Club meeting, then dug out my wedding scrapbook so that she could see our photos of standing next to flowing lava--it was Vacation under the Volcano this month, you know. I made a note in my planner to do some planning/price checking for a future Hawaii family vacation. 2015? Definitely not 2014, because in 2014 Sydney will finally be old enough for the Children's Museum of Indianapolis' Family Dino Dig program in South Dakota. I have been waiting for her to be old enough for us to all go to that program since...she was born, I guess? Miss Sydney has also had a great day, listening to Magic Tree House audiobooks, drawing a cheetah, other assorted animals, and a personalized badge for every member of the family, complete with our age and a personal message from the artist, and playing and playing and playing and playing with her sister.

I've mentioned before how clearly the girls' indoor play has been continually evolving this winter; for the past week, rather than the indoor sandbox or the Wikki stix or the Xbox Kinect or the Legos, it's been nothing but Barbies and building blocks, working together in happy concert:

Both girls love to mine my (overflowing) scrap bin--

--both for costume choices--

--and for crucial dramatic components of the scene in progress:

I have to say that I love watching my reluctant writer muscle those molded plastic arms into those teensy clothes. Yay, finger strengthening!

And yes, that is the Waldorf doll that I spent most of last summer making for her being ground into the floor:

At least it's well-loved.

Waldorf Doll Head Made Easier with Wool Yarn

I don't usually permit myself to get stressed out about the children's birthdays and the resultant parties--it's tacky, in my opinion, to play the put-upon drama queen about something that I, myself, chose to make a big deal out of--but nevertheless, this has been an unusually stressful week or so. The kiddos are again testing the boundaries with schoolwork, I haven't been feeling well (cancer or allergies?), most of the homeschool playdates and groups that make up my social network have been canceled because of this heat wave we've been having, my treadmill is busted, one of my best friends has the audacity to be planning an imminent move AWAY from me, the water heater is also busted, blah blah blah, which means that the fact that I do most of the kids' birthday prep and much of the party prep without assistance is, frankly, stressful this week.

And yes, I WOULD like some cheese with my whine. Brie, please, because since my treadmill is busted, I might as well give up entirely.

I've been making Willow a Waldorf doll, one that I needed to have finished for her by her birthday, and whose outfits I needed to sew up and photograph and review by this weekend for Crafting a Green World. I'm glad that I'm getting a Waldorf doll made for each of my daughters, since I've always wanted them to have one, but I'm also quite glad that after Willow's doll, my Waldorf dollmaking days will be over until I have grandchildren--I'm finding Waldorf dolls to be a fussy project, and the embroidery and hand-sewing are not my specialties.

Thank goodness this Waldorf doll has been a little simpler to make than the last one--between the two, I discovered this method of using wool yarn to form the doll's head, instead of wool roving, and it's a terrific trick!

I'm using stash wool yarn from Knit Picks

starting the ball

The ball of yarn should measure 10" circumference

 It was a GREAT tip, making the process of forming the doll's head so much less fussy and time-consuming. I also tried to tie the inner head strings using the same yarn, to make it sturdier than it was when I used thread--

--but that was a mistake. I'm using a light skin fabric to match my daughters' complexions that they inherited from their father (you can't tell from photos, but I'm darker than Matt is, especially in the summer), and of course the blue showed through.

I also shouldn't have wrapped the wool yarn ball quite as firmly as I did, because I don't think that I was able to get as much definition with the inner strings as I could with the roving, but I think it made up for it in the fact that the head itself is much firmer, and so I think it still looks better and has a more pleasing heft: 

Now, I don't want you to get me wrong with all the griping--yep, this doll project is fussy, and time-consuming, and challenging, but it IS do-able. In addition, a handmade Waldorf doll, even springing for a store-bought pattern and doll-full of wool roving, is vastly cheaper than a purchased one, and both my kiddos, even at the ripe old ages of six and (gasp!) eight, LOVE their dolls, which I honestly don't think they'd do if I'd simply handed them a store-bought one. So, make one! I've even got a Waldorf dolls and dollmaking pinboard that I'm still adding to, in direct contradiction to my claim that I'm not going to make another one for many, many years. 

Okay, now I'm off to start making Willow's treasure map brownie cake, and to see if she's still pitching a fit about her report on Indiana (in response to my insistence that several random facts strung together does NOT a report make), and to put the skull crayons in the oven to melt down, and to mow the lawn, and to find the face paint...

...or maybe I'll just take a shower, then get drunk and eat brownie batter.

A Finished Waldorf Doll

A purchased pattern.

Lots of wool.

SO much hand-sewing (don't look too closely!).

The consultation of a very many Waldorf doll web tutorials and walk-throughs.

Another purchase:

Hair that already needs to be mended (sigh...).

Hallelujah, a massive wardrobe taken entirely from a collection of doll clothes previously owned (and sewn?) by the children's great-grandmother.

And the day before her birthday, her Waldorf doll was finished:

Sydney really, really loves her, in that kind of love that makes you carefully pack away the extras of the fabric and yarn that you used, because you know there are going to be some serious repair jobs coming your way one day soon.

Waldorf Doll WIP: Second Round

Nope, I'm not counting how many hours it's taking to create my first Waldorf doll. But...let's just say I've been making a lot of progress on my Hulu queue.

Yep, Syd is watching me work. Her opinions change by the hour about the prospective length of her doll's hair (no matter what she eventually "decides", the doll's hair is going to be down to its feet, to commemorate Sydney's greatest wish to have the longest hair in the world).

Nope, I'm not pleased with how it's turning out; my hand-sewing is SO amateur-ish! But it does help that every time Sydney pops by to check in on my progress and spies her doll, her eye light up, she smiles a huge smile, and she exclaims in happiness and excitement. SHE doesn't think my hand-sewing is ugly.

beginning to embroider the eyes and mouth

finished face, with features both embroidered and drawn with beeswax crayons

machine-stitching to form the arms

arms sewn across the back of the shoulders

tracing the pattern for the body and legs

the torso pinned into place, ready to hand-sew

I'm hoping that it looks less like it wants to eat my face off after I add a full head of humanoid hair and put it into a homemade dress.

Waldorf Doll WIP

For the girls' birthdays this year, they are each going to receive (hopefully) one Momma-made Waldorf doll.

I could have made the same claim three years ago, because that's how long this project has been in my head, but I mean it this year. If I procrastinate much longer, I'll have lost the chance entirely to give Willow the doll during the period of her childhood when it can be a real playmate to her, and for Sydney, I think this is going to be a magical present.

If I get them made, of course.

The project, which I would have told you up until I actually began it was prohibitively difficult, is actually not so bad. It's complicated, yes, and my results are clearly far from perfect so far, but it's do-able, and the doll is turning out, if not perfect, quite acceptable.

I'm using the Magic Cabin doll pattern, but Cotton Waldorf Doll Skin Fabric from Weir Crafts--

--although if I want to make more Waldorf dolls beyond the three that I currently have the materials for, I'm hoping that I can source the fabric locally. This first time, it was just too hard to figure out exactly what to buy, so I bought the stuff specifically labeled for Waldorf dollmaking.

Using the pattern and a huge variety of online Waldorf dollmaking tutorials, my first doll has been coming together!

gathering the top of the head 

tucking it in

laying out a piece of wool to wrap the wool head stuffing in

forming a wool ball to stuff the head

head and shoulders ready to tie off

skin fabric stitched over the head, and pins to mark the features

skin fabric stitched over the top and back of the head (it will be covered by the hair)

Now all I have to do is sew the body, piece it together, stitch the details, embroider the facial features, construct the hair and sew it on, sew a dress, and ideally dye Sydney a pink play silk (one of the few colors she doesn't already have!) to wrap it in.

Oh, and her birthday is on Sunday.

P.S. I do have a Waldorf dollmaking pinboard, where I've been trying to collect all the good tips and tricks and tutorials and ideas that I come across, if you'd like to check it out.