Building a better elf

I seem to be remaking some of the old ornaments that I have sold on Etsy, I think I've finally got the hang of "up for retail" before the holidays. Did you know the Halloween candy is already discounted in the department stores? Ha! Just joking. This is Peter and Paul, you can see the original post here.

They are from a pattern I made when being inspired by elves, I don't think I wanted them to be so skinny but I went with it anyway. I cut the first ones larger than my paper pattern and then forgot which parts I enlarged, remaking them is going to be a challenge but this time I corrected the pattern.

These are a bit tricky to do, the face seam is in the center of the body fabric and you really have to know what you are doing when it comes to turning them right side out.

This is the stage my husband make fun of me about, the body parts laying around. Each piece is stuffed and hand stitched, the bottom of the body is weighted. Can you see I made a major foe-par I made from the first pair? I never wrote the color of the fabric on each pattern piece and I assumed the hands were white. They aren't, they're red.

I got my cheese box full of buttons and I hoped to find eight matching shanked, I did, all of them.

These ended up taller than the others but I'm pleased with them. Attaching the legs are hit or miss since the bottom has aquariums rocks in it, it tends to shift while inserting the 4 inch doll needle.

I had wanted to put bells on the shoes and this time I did, it works well.

One thing that has always bugged me about these is the shifting in stitching, since it needs to be partly stitched in the hat and fully in the face before sewing it to the body, the hat gets pushed while turning my stitch direction and the fabric ends up overlapping, try as I might I can't get this to stop in this small area.

Luckily I had my felt out (what a handy material!). The trim around the hat is perfect but would not be in any other place. I think it would take away from the primitive aspect of them.

So I tried to get a few photos for Etsy, I used stuffing instead of batting but it was windy on this day and some of it blew off, argh! I'll do them over on a calmer day.

This photo is nice, I think I'll use this one but that's it. When I looked at the original pair I discovered I forgot the eyebrows also.

Whoops. C&G Design

Words and photos by Dawn,C&G Design.

I'm in the Treasury!

Tuesday night, while typing my post for Raggedy Wednesday, I received a email on a Etsy conversation. Well!

I'm always excited to get questions from a potential customer, I even got a conversation while away at 6 flags, yip-ee for free wi-fi!

Anyway, imagine my surprise when I found another Etsy artist had chosen one of my items for The Treasury that is entitled "Maine made", she commented about how hard it was to narrow down the items to a few favorites. I am psyched! So psyched I missed the ending of the new reality show.....The Colony!

I'm not going to mention the artist who selected me because I don't have her permission but I will link The Treasury so all of you can comment if you'd like.

The Treasury is a outlet where Etsy people can post their likes for shopping. The next step to getting a featured item on the home page is, placing a item in the Showcase in hopes you will be picked. It's a purchased amount of about 1 hour for $7.00. I've not done that yet because I realize you can be picked for the homepage without buying time, of course purchasing it narrows it down.
The homepage elevated your traffic considerably.

Here's the link:http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c61feedf7528eef1827fcb5/maine-made?index=37

C&G Design

Words and photos by Dawn,C&G Design.

Annie Applebee

I just went through my handmade crafts, relabeled them, and repacked them. Storage was a issue for myself and my husband. The crafts were upstairs but now they are stacked up in my bedroom closet. My husband has issues we me placing boxes in the knee wall, since we have blown -in insulation everything has to be placed on the supporting cross boards of the trusses, which are at a angle. I guess that makes everything leaning on the back of my shelving. Oh well, we shall figure it out.

Anyway, Annie Applebee is going on Etsy. I found her amongst the other things that are already listed on Etsy, I must of missed her.

She is 14 inches, made from burlap-hand stitched with the running stitch, along her outside seams. She has jute bows for hair.

She even has primitive bloomers and a five inch, time worn teddy.

ABC and the apples on her apron are fused and that is where her name comes from.

She's sweet. C&G Design

Words and photos by Dawn,C&G Design.

2 Back to Back Sales!

I was getting a bit discouraged with Etsy, I love being on there and having my own shop but it just seems slow lately. In reality, I keep forgetting I MUST continue listing items each week to get my shop in the fount of listings. Look what happened when 10 items came up for re-enlistment. One day I sold this green Rachael Rags......

And the next day I sold my rain stick!

Coming along with the craft studio but it can't be quick enough. C&G Design

Words and photos by Dawn,C&G Design.

Just a quick update

I thought I'd give you all a quick update about current going ons. I'm done with all the elephants and the grey one didn't turn out to bad, it's sooo soft.

Can you see how the trunk is twisted on the blue elephant? I'm not sure how that happened, I think it slipped for the stitching. It's kinda neat.

The mother who bought my elephants are very happy with them. I made a rattle and a ball for her boys, after all she waited for the storms to pass before I was able to mail it. If anyone needs help with their blog visit Scadesign on Etsy, you can find her in my sold items under the elephants.

Belindy is on Etsy this week, I made two of her and I'm keeping one for my collection.

She will be sad to pack up and mail she is such a little caregiver!

Oh well, she will go to a good home I guess.

C&G Design

Words and photos by Dawn,

C&G Design.

Elephants

A little while ago I had a nice mom ask about my blue polka dot elephant I have on Esty, he/she has several favorites and it is cute. She asked if I offered other colors and I pretty much said I did and could as long as I could get the pattern. After showing her some of my colors and after she purchased her own fabric for me (which is nice!), I was hired to make 2 of these stuffed elephants in grey and camouflage. The buyer's husband was in the military and they are going for camo which all boys like. Oh, I forgot to mention, boy one is 2 years and and boy two will be born in June.
THE CHALLENGE:
Make the two elephants from another pattern........I could not find the pattern. :( I thought I had time to really tear everything apart (that's how I found the pattern for yesterdays post) and I did tear everything apart, even the ole' camper which I still have some crafts in. Nada....I found everything else, the horse, the teddies, and the bunnies but no elephant. Drat! It should of been in the pattern box with all the aforementioned but.....sadly , no.
I resolved to create another from the blue elephant.
I sat and I traced and I measured and when I was happy I prototyped a grey flannel elephant, here is the results:

Okay, maybe if I made it in brown I could glue strings of brown yarn around the head and make it a woolly mammoth! The forehead was to high, the trunk to close, and the legs to skinny. Madame wants me to finish it for her, oay vey.

Here is the second attempt after alterations:

Okay, I like this one, the forehead is perfect, the trunk and the legs are too! But, but it IS a skinny elephant, HA! I still may post this on Etsy, I haven't decided yet. Everyone likes it except my first critic, my husband.

Fortunately I know what I did, I shortened the sides of the tummy gusset. Gussets are very touchy and my elephant has 2, the other is the forehead of all places......go figure.

What do you think? I added a little bulk to the behind to make more of a curve and the ears are not exact but we like this version better.

I also made sure I was rested before painting the eyes, if you notice on the brown one, I see eyes to high and that bothers me more than the weight issue. We should all have that problem....these two are a pair of Bobsy twins.

I also did the tail differently, I made a camo tail with grey yarn sticking out of it as if it's the hair on the end of the tail, The old one was braided yarn and I was never happy with that.

I think I copied this pattern from my MIL and threw it away when I was done, or I loaned it to a friend and never got it back. I have it now, stored with all the rest.

This is why I don't copy other people's work, I semi stink at it.

I can't even do my own! C&G Design

Words and photos by Dawn,

C&G Design.

Etsy Bound

These are two items that went on Etsy this weekend (just in time for snow).
The above photo is what appears to look like a angel singing but hubs believes it looks like a mouse, right! Anywho, I'm selling a set of 12 for $6.75 plus shipping. They are made from a wooden egg of that size.

These little beauts finally made it, I dropped the white ornament on the left, see the snow packed in it? These are retailing for $20.00 plus shipping.

Check me out by clicking on my Etsy banner located on my sidebar. C&G Design

Felt Ornaments

Just a quick refresher to show you what will be going on Etsy shortly, I made these last Christmas but I didn't complete them in time to sell them. They will be going for 3 sets of 5 and a price for all 15. The first group is items, Gingerbread house,

Wreath,

Poinsetta star,

Christmas tree,

purple heart. The next group is animals,

cardinal,

rocking horse,

butterfly,

teddy bear,

kitty. Then the last group is people,

angel,

Raggedy Ann and Andy,

Santa,

and finally, Mrs Santa Claus. C&G Design.

African American Raggedy Ann

I had a inquiry on Etsy this week, it was about my African American Raggedy Ann, the perspective buyer wanted to see some pictures of her. It occurred to me during this photography session, that I had not featured them! I opted to not forward this photo because I'm still getting use to the camera settings with the different lighting. All the photos were taken in late evening when the sun was barely visible from my skylights and this photo picked up the red focus dot, Ann looks severely sunburned!

Ah, much better. I can tell I didn't send the first photo because the next photos were shrunk to blog size using my hp image zone. Seems Etsy is telling my my photo files are to large now!? Go figure, I'm not sure what I've done differently except a different camera.

I love the hair on this Ann, I used a chunky yarn and it really shows the layering. I think I'll do the same for the redheads, least a few.

Well, my would be buyer purchased another doll she "couldn't resist" in the time it took me to unpack this couple, get the photos and send them. It took about a hour and all the while I was thinking that might be the case.

Got to get that craft room done! C&G Design