Carpet Bookmarks

One of the vendors at Costume College (in 2011) had these carpet bookmarks. I'm not actually sure why they had them, but I happily picked up a few of the designs.

Below Germaine and Stephanie model some dresses on one of the carpets.

I decided at some point that I should put together a workbook of crocheted clothing for Sylvanian Family figures. These two dresses were probably the start of that idea. The plan is to have increasing levels of difficulty, from a fairly simple dress in size 10 crochet thread down to items in size 80 thread or single strands of floss. I have some of the patterns figured out, but I haven't gotten around to writing them up nicely yet. You can follow some of the progress on Ravelry: Workbook Test Dresses.

The Slipper Project

One of the Sylvanian Family marketplaces is a shoe shop, and some of the available outfits also come with shoes. I don't recall ever seeing shoes for them when I was younger, but I did try and sew my own slippers and shoes back then. They were pretty poor attempts however.

Inspired by "Crochet Moccasin Slippers" by Sue and "Baby Mary Jane Skimmers" by Sylvia Heddwyn, I decided to try making a pair of slippers with my size 14 hook and embroidery floss.

The sole was crocheted with two strands of floss, and the sides and top were crocheted with one strand of floss. (link to Ravelry project)

Based on the success of the first pair of slippers, I decided all my Sylvanian Families needed new shoes. So I started "The Slipper Project". So far I have completed two additional pairs of slippers, and Coral now has shoes to match her dress:

I made these based on a pattern diagram I quickly sketched out on some paper. I need to double check that I didn't make modifications after the initial diagram, and then I plan to post the pattern.

Sewing Revisited

At some point I decided to once again try sewing clothes for my Sylvanian Family members. I figured with my substantial increase in sewing knowledge and practice since I was 12, maybe I could sew something that actually looked good.

I sketched out a pattern for a dress, a pair of pants, a skirt, and a top. The dress was probably the simplest and consists of a bodice and a skirt. The bodice is a pretty typical Sylvanian Family shirt, but the skirt is a partial circle.

The pattern came out relatively well, but I had some difficulty turning the edges under to finish the hems nicely. Hence the blanket stitch along the edges.

The pants required several iterations, mostly because Sylvanian Family members have fixed feet, so the waist hole needs to expand large enough to go over their feet.

For the skirt I was aiming for a Late Victorian or Edwardian style skirt with a slight train. The fabric I was testing this with was far too bulky, and the waistband came out a bit small. The first attempt is in the picture below and has the pink waistband. I revised the pattern by making it slightly larger, and making the train longer. I also added an elastic band to gather the train at the center back, which enabled the skirt to stretch over the feet while pulling it on. I picked a lighter weight cotton (probably quilting weight) for the second attempt, but the ribbon I chose for the waistband was still too bulky.

To go with the Edwardian style skirt, I wanted a shirt that was more bodice like. The shoulder strap sizing was a little off, and there was no good way to place snap or button closures.

Despite the problems with this shirt, I rather like it. I will be making an attempt to fix it in the future.

Crochet Hooks for Fine Threads

I mentioned in the prior post that I picked up some crochet hooks along with the knitting needles, which means I can now crochet with a single strand of embroidery floss. One of the patterns in my Ravelry queue was "Cindy" by Helga, so I decided to modify the dress to fit Coral.

The bottom edging was "Tiny Treasures 8-130" from Traditional Edgings to Crochet by Rita Weiss [GoogleBooks,B&N,Amazon]. Rather than a belt, a small tatted edging is attached around the waist. Other changes and details are on Ravelry.

Knitting Needles for Fine Threads

After "Quick Rewards #1" and "Quick Rewards #2" I decided size 10 crochet thread was really much too large and thick for my Sylvanian Family characters. So I moved down to a Perle 12 thread for "Quick Rewards #3". Unfortunately the smallest needles I had at the time were 000 (#3-0), which were a tad large for the Perle 12 thread. For the bedspread and vest mentioned in the last post I used a Perle 8 thread and three strands of embroidery floss, respectively, which seemed to match well with the #3-0 needles.

Getting into this miniature knitting adventure a little more, I started browsing other sites showing examples of minitature knitting, such as Mini-Mum and Lesley's Miniature Knitting. I learned that needles finer than #3-0 exist, but I wasn't sure I was ready for miniature knitting, so I cut myself two lengths of #19 gauge wire from a spool I had sitting around, and filed down the ends slightly using a sharpening stone. Then I knit myself a mini gauge swatch in size 80 cotton thread (2nd from the right on the bottom row):

The swatch went well enough that I decided to start on a skirt. I used a single strand of embroidery floss and two stitch pattern from Nicky Epstein's "Knitting on the Edge" [GoogleBooks,B&N,Amazon]: Petite Shells for the bottom hem in a dark pink, and Peasant Ruffle for the rest of the skirt in a light pink. By the time I was mostly finished with the skirt, I decided it really was time to get some real needles. So I made a trip to Lacis and picked up #5-0, #6-0, and #8-0 double pointed needles, and size 12, 14, and 16 crochet hooks.

I finished the bodice of Patty's skirt using the new #5-0 needles, then tatted a couple shoulder straps (more details on Ravelry).

Although I was excited about starting new projects with my new needles and hooks, I remembered my sizing failure on the purple vest; I made a few mini gauge swatches using one and two strands of embroidery floss:

Prissy still needed a top to complement her skirt, so my first project with the new needles was to make the rest of her outfit. I decided to try a 'Bramble' stitch pattern; this time I made a gauge swatch first, shown in the upper left of the picture:

Since the vest doesn't close in the front I also made her a small bib front, in a 'Florette Pattern' (according to The Complete Encyclopedia of Stitchery by Mildred Graves Ryan [GoogleBooks,B&N,Amazon]).

Here she is in her complete outfit (again, more details are available on Ravelry):

Eventually I got around to blocking the skirt, and found out it was now too large for Prissy. Instead, it fits a small adult, such as Tilley, better.

So now I need a new skirt for Prissy, and a top for Tilley.

When Sizing Goes Wrong

I picked up Nicky Epstein's "Knitting on the Edge" from the library [GoogleBooks,B&N,Amazon], and I really wanted to try out some of the stitch patterns from the book. So I decided to knit a bedspread from one of the cable patterns, Diamond With Chain, in the book:

After I finished the top, I started on two 'bedskirt' side pieces using the Arbor Lace pattern. Well, the first two edgings I knit came out vastly different sizes, so the larger of the two became a skirt for a Sylvanian Family member, and I knit myself a new second bedskirt edging to match. Here's the bedskirt edgings with a veil stitch to go across the bed (I was running out of thread, so I didn't want a dense stitch pattern):

Prissy is wearing the first bedskirt edging which was too loose and large compared to the second piece:

Since Prissy now had skirt I decided she needed a complete outfit to go with the skirt. So I decided to make a knitted shirt, which came out as a vest. Unfortunately I didn't check my gauge, so the purple vest came out too small. Luckily it fits a baby almost perfectly. I also tatted a small edging for the collar.

Clothing: A Different Approach

I joined Ravelry at some point in 2008, and rather quickly became entranced with the doll group. Well, my 'dolls' have always been Sylvanian Families (or stuffed animals), and crocheting them some clothing sounded like fun. My thought at the time was something like "they're so small, it'll be fast."

I found out that Kelly doll patterns are sized somewhere in between a kid and an adult Sylvanian Family member. (At least, that's what I recall.) So I started with Wendy Squires's pattern for a 'Ruffle Tank Top', and of course modified it in all sorts of ways to make it fit. Here is "Quick Rewards, #1", as I have called the project on Ravelry:

It was made in a size 10 thread with a 1.5mm crochet hook. I couldn't figure out how to close the back for the longest time. Then eventually I decided to make a chinese button knot. I found instructions on Chinese Knotting, and after numerous practice attempts with larger cord and many failed attempts with the size 10 thread, I eventually managed to create a button knot closure.

The first dress went together so fast I moved onto "Quick Rewards, #2", an outfit for Fern Timbertop. I used Wendy Squires's "Victorian-Style Outfit", and again modified it. This time, however, I kept track of my modifications (more or less); they're written up in my project notes on Ravelry.

For "Quick Reward's, #3" I decided to try knitting instead of crochet. I pulled out the smallest needles I had (at the time), 000 (3-0), and some DMC Perle 12 thread, and attempted to make a pair of underwear using "Undies for Barbie" with the usual modification creativity for fit. Modifications are again listed in my project notes, but I was starting to keep better track of specifics by this point so they may actually be complete enough to duplicate this.

I concluded from this project that I needed smaller needles, and I needed to use finer thread.

My Early Wardrobe

These are examples of some of the clothes I made for my Sylvanian Families back when I was approximately 12 or something.

Simple skirts from trim and lace, as described in the prior post:

In the picture below, Prissy (on the far left) is wearing another simple skirt, and a felt vest. Daisy has on a ridiculous hat I made, a simple shawl, and her skirt is simply a gathered rectangle of fabric (since she doesn't have a tail, it doesn't even have a snap). Bud and Bubba are wearing a couple attempts at pants. Bud is also wearing a cape (or maybe it was originally supposed to be an apron, I don't actually remember).

The baby crew. They are nearly all wearing more attempts at pants; these attempts at pants were based on the (now) standard baby outfit. Hoss, on the far right, is wearing my attempt to duplicate the clothing he came with. I also let my brother draw on the front of it.

Grandma Timbertop wearing another simple skirt (made from slightly wider lace). I'm not quite sure what I was attempting for Bobby Bear.

In the following picture Prissy is wearing an overall dress. It's still a piece of gathered lace for the skirt. Then a piece of braid was sewn on top of the lace for a waist band, and two pieces were sewn on as overall straps. In the center front a small piece of flat lace (binding lace probably) was stitched on between the straps. Coral, second from the right, is wearing a combination skirt and vest: its a small piece of bias binding with two armholes cut out for a vest, and a narrow piece of lace is sewn along the bottom edge of the vest. Daisy is wearing one of my pants attempts using binding lace; the lace makes it look like underwear.