Christmas Craziness!
I won't go into the details of each doll. But I will point out these first ones. How stinking cute are those glasses!? Loved this brother+sister pair!
Christmas Craziness!Oh goodness me. I can't believe it's all done (well, almost. I do have a doll in my lap who I should finish embroidering but hey, it's close enough). This Christmas, my first as a Maker, I took on FIFTEEN dolls and had a wait list with 10 on it. It breaks my heart that I didn't get to those orders, but be looking for a special discount coming if you were on that list! The orders I did get to were so much fun. I couldn't have ever done it if I didn't have some really wonderful friends who helped watch my kids for me. So a huge thank you to Andrea and Ashley! You guys really saved my behind! I won't go into the details of each doll. But I will point out these first ones. How stinking cute are those glasses!? Loved this brother+sister pair! but especially the boy 😍 I love when people get creative and ask if I can do something different. This fancy giraffe made my heart grow three sizes for sure. And this girl? Doesn't look like it but that is 3 yards of tulle right there! Amanda was really involved in picking out the outfit for her nieces doll and loved her choices!! Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight. er... Morning.
0 Comments
Not too long ago I told you guys about a big order (FIVE dolls!) that went to South Korea. Well my friend Marcie shared some pictures with me and it looks like they have been having some grand adventures in their new home city of Seoul! Here are Ian and Yuna on the banks of the Han River And Lena and Andrew who went to Gimpo Foreign Language High School in the northwestern part of South Korea. And here is Corrina who is just visiting before going off to her new home in Italy (lucky girl!) She went to the N Seoul Tower and to the locks of love ❤️ Thank you Marcie for sharing these photos! It was so much fun putting this order together for you and I know you've had fun with this too. I hope each of the special kids in your life enjoys their doll! My daughter and her friends are all at the age where they are discovering and falling madly in love with Disney Princesses. So when I found out her BFF, Stella, was having a Tangled birthday party, I knew I wanted to make a special doll for her. I can't tell you how much time I spent just playing with her hair. It is so soft and sooo long. I knew I wanted to make flower clips so I could recreate the braid she wears in the movie. And Stella and her sister can wear them in their hair too. Rapunzel is high on my list of personal favorite princesses (along with Anna and Merida), so this was especially fun for me to make! (Watch for a certain Ice Princess sometime in October!)
It's so much fun to me watching Amelia & Stella together. One of my very best friends, is someone I have known since I was four, and it excites me to think she could be forming those long-lasting friendships now. I want my dolls to be affordable. I look at etsy, and I see beautiful handmade dolls, and price tags that make my jaw drop. It's not that they aren't worth it. I know how much time I put into each one of my dolls. I spend a weeks worth of nights on each doll, often staying up until 1am sewing away. But I couldn't afford to buy one of those dolls for my children. Let alone multiples.
I have been told many times by many people that I should raise my prices. That I'm not charging enough for my dolls. But I just can't bring myself to come anywhere close to some of the other dolls. That being said, I have added and changed so much about the dolls that, despite getting faster at sewing and constructing the dolls, I needed to increase my prices a bit to help cover the cost of additional time and materials. As of today the price has gone from $35 to $40. I still want to make sure there is an affordable option. Because honestly, even $40 is steep for me these days. So I've created a listing in the shop for a Discounted Handmade Doll. These dolls will not be of a lesser quality than my other dolls. The only difference will be in the clothing. Currently the regular dolls all feature removable clothing (tested by my 3 year old to make sure it's easy enough for little fingers to do the dressing without yelling "moooooommmm I can't do it!") If you purchase one of these dolls the clothing will be a part of the body, with bits sewn on (sleeves, skirt). The bonus to this is that there are no pieces to lose! These dolls are $30. Link to the listing: https://www.etsy.com/listing/241964170/ Example (leggings by special request): I know it's been quiet around here but its for a good reason. I have been busy sewing away on these dolls! They are all bound for South Korea where my friend Marcie will distribute them to the wonderful babies, kids, & expectant mamas in her life. The blonde girl on the right is the only exception, she's headed to Italy (I'm a bit jealous, do you think I could just squeeze myself into the box with her?) I just can't go any further without addressing something major; Hello Boys! I was so so so excited that I finally had an order for a boy! They were so fun to make too! And I learned so much in the process. After I had constructed the first boy, I made his pants, which I knew I could do because I had made leggings for Amelia when she was a baby. But then he sat around shirtless for a week, because I just couldn't wrap my head around how to construct a shirt. I finally found a good YouTube video of someone making an American Girl doll sized shirt, and she generously provides a free pattern, which I was able modify and use to fit my dolls. This is great not just for the boys, but for the girls too! It opens up the options of shirts for them, or I can modify the pattern to create new dress styles. Brother & Sister: Ian & Yuna These two are for expecting Mamas. Such a fun thing for me to be able to help provide a special gift that their babies are going to treasure for (hopefully) a lifetime. I am seriously in love with Corinna! Her hair is just so gorgeous and soft. I used two different shades of blonde to create more dimension, and I will definitely be doing that more in the future. And her dress? Gorgeous. Love that floral print and eyelet trim.
Curly Hair Now Available!When Samantha and I were brainstorming for her daughters doll, I knew I was going to have to figure out a method for curling the her hair. Ellie has gorgeous blonde curls and I was so excited to make a doll in her likeness. Seriously, how adorable is this girl? After a bit of Pinterest searching I found a tutorial that involved wrapping the yarn tightly around wooden dowels, soaking them in water, and then baking them in the oven for an hour. It is a looonng process. And I've struggled with trying to decide if I was going to charge extra for it. In the end I've decided not to. I don't want to penalize girls for having curly hair, and if it means spending a night in front of the TV instead of at my machine, and every once in awhile I'm ok with that. It is my goal to keep the cost of the dolls as low as possible, while still creating well-constructed, and lovingly detailed dolls. Ellie's curls are soft and bouncy and so stinking cute! While I was making them I kept thinking of the book Ramona the Pest, and when she desperately wanted to pull one of Susan's boing-boing curls. The other amazing thing about Ellie is her dress. Hands down this is the best dress I've ever made. I learned so much making this one, and I am so much more confident in my dress-making skills going forward. One of my future hopes for the shop is to add additional ready-to-ship dresses and pj's available to buy. I hope you love Ellie as much as I do! But most importantly, I hope ELLIE loves her!
This summer marks 10 years since I graduated high school and left Bellingham. And of course that means our first reunion is in the works! So between helping to plan that, and all the dolls I've been making for former classmates I've been thinking a lot about my high school years. Not going to lie, I LOVED high school. I wish I could go back. I'm sure not everyone feels that way about their teen years, but I miss getting to see my friends everyday, and the amazing teachers at Meridian, and just the whole wonderful adolescent experience in general. One of the most humbling parts of Sweet GracieLou Dolls, has been the support of my former classmates. I would guess that close to 90% of my orders have come from Meridian Alumni. It means the world to me that they love what I do and want to help support me. So when Jen asked me to make a pair of sisters for her nieces, Claire & Hadlee, I said yes immediately. I love making sisters! I do one doll just a bit smaller than my standard size so there is a clear big sister and little sister. Hadlee (big sister) has just a hint of strawberry blonde to her hair. It was fun dying the yarn to get it just the right shade. Claire's dress ended up being a little on the short side, so I made her a little pair of undies! (Hadlee got a pair too. Couldn't make them for one girl and not the other! So sweet! These will be a new addition to the shop as an add on for $2. I hope to add extra dresses and nightgowns to the shop soon! One last thing to share with you. I wanted to take a photo that shows the size of the dolls. I chose Barbie to help depict the scale. I love, love, LOVED making sister dolls! These dolls are for Emily, an old friend from high school, who asked me to make them for her girls, Raegan and Ember. I haven't seen Emily since high school, but I'm kind of obsessed with her kids on instagram (Ember always falls asleep in the funniest places!). Not only does she have these two gorgeous girls, but she's got twin baby boys too! I don't know how she does it! Justin and I are always joking that if we decided to have another baby we would be hoping for a girl, but we would end up with twin boys. Raegan's birthday is next week, and Emily is saving these as a gift for the girls. I can't wait to hear about their reactions! Next up, another set of sisters! Yay! Meet Layla! Layla was described to me as being very whimsical, and a lover of all things purple. Layla turns 3 next week and I hope she loves her special doll! This week my mom came for a visit and to help learn a bit more about how I make these dolls, so that she can help me when I get overwhelmed with orders (not a bad problem to have!). Together we created a template since, until now, I've just been winging it each time. She also took home some fabric to cut and sew arms and legs at home. I also started on the Layla doll so she could see how they came together. Together we made the body, and then shopped for fabric for her dress. I thought this batik print was a perfect fit for a 'whimsical' girl. The dress, her hair, and her embroidery all came together so quickly which is great because I knew I had close deadline with this one! My daughter loves that the dresses are now removable. She thinks its so fun to be my tester to make sure it's easy for little fingers to get the dresses on and off. Next up is a pair of sisters! I have had overwhelming love and support for my new adventure & alongside that comes many questions! If I didn't address anything you might have been wondering about please let me know in the comments!
Q. When do you have the time to do this? A. This is the number one question people have had. I have two kids, Amelia (3) and Emmett (2) and being mom to them certainly takes up most of my time. But they sleep. Sometimes. And when they do, I sew. When business picked up in my shop I moved my sewing machine out of the finished basement and onto the dining room table. I sneak away when I get a few minutes and do little bits here and there. Often they come in and sit with me and we talk about the dolls, and the little kids that they are going to. Amelia loves when she gets a turn to do a bit of sewing. She's already asking for her own machine. At dinner time I push it all to the side and we eat amongst the fabric scraps. Q. How long does it take to make one doll? A. I'm honestly not totally sure. I'm usually working on multiple dolls at a time. One night I will cut and sew all the limbs, another night I'll attach them to the bodies, then dresses, then hair and faces. I estimate each doll takes about 6 hours. Though that varies depending on the level of detail, and somehow I keep increasing that on each new doll I make. Q. How much do they cost, and how did you decide on that price? A. Right now I have them priced at $35. I looked at similar dolls on etsy, and most were priced considerably higher. So much so that it wouldn't have ever been something I could have considered buying. I wanted my dolls to be affordable. I would rather sell two dolls at $35 each and spread twice as much joy, then have one order for $70. Q. Do you make a profit? A. I do. This is the first time I've had any spending money for myself in 3+ years! But if you were to break it down to an hourly wage it would be a sad little number. But that's not why I'm doing it. I do it because it makes me happy. If it stops making me happy, I will stop. Q. Do you make more than just girl dolls? A. Yes! In theory I can make boy dolls too. I just haven't had an order for one yet, and I haven't had the time to make one for poor little Emmett yet :( In addition I have made mermaids, a horse & a cat that all turned out super adorable. I do charge a bit more for these ($45+) since they require more time and detail. Q. What about different skin tones? A. I have some beautiful dark brown fabric that I am dying to use! I just haven't had an order that requested it yet. As soon as I have a lull in orders it's the first thing I want to make! Q. How many dolls have you made? A. 16 to date. But the majority of those were made for my daughter or her friends that came to her birthday party. Q. What materials do you use? A. Soft ones. I have textural sensitivity and I can't stand fabrics that aren't soft and loveable. I use 100% cotton for the fabric on the bodies. The casual dresses are also cotton. The fancier dresses are usually jersey knit fabric & chiffon or tulle. They are stuffed with Crafter's Choice Polyester Fiberfill. The hair is made from 100% cotton yarn, but as I venture into more hair color options I may try different yarns as well. Q. How should I care for my doll? A. Lots of snuggles and kisses. And spot cleaning as necessary. Removable dresses can be hand washed and air dried. I have been told that one doll did survive a trip through washing machine, but that her hair "got a little crazy" Q. How big are they? A. Confession time. I don't use a pattern or a template. I really need to make one, but for now each doll is going to be a little different. They are approximately 15"-17" tall. Q. Where did you get your gorgeous logo? A. The supremely talented Alex at AlexHunterDesigns.Blogspot.com She's amazing to work with, incredibly gifted at hand lettering and she's got such an incredible spirit. She's only 19 but you would never guess she was so young. Seriously people, check out her gorgeous artwork in her etsy shop. |
AuthorWife, Mother, Seamstress, Owner of Sweet GracieLou Dolls on Etsy Archives
December 2015
Categories |