I am so excited to be a part of the Twig + Tale Welcome Blog Tour today sponsored by Art Gallery Fabrics. All the amazing fabric shown in the post was so generously provided to me by Art Gallery Fabrics! Thank you Art Gallery!
I first found Twig + Tale, formerly Big Little, when they were looking for testers for their Wild Things Coat Pattern and I have completely fallen for their patterns! I made several Wild Things Coats (a mouse, a cat, and a bear) and a Pixie Hat last winter. My Mom (who sews clothes for my kids as well) also made Lucy some Pixie Shorts this summer and they were adorable!
I have been wanting to make a doll for awhile now, but have always been scared to…I tried to make a stuffed hippo one time a few years ago because Sam wanted me to and it was a total disaster…it was sad. So, my track record with stuffed things wasn’t the best, but I took a chance and chose the Fleur Cloth Doll & Clothing Bundle Pattern when I was asked to be on this tour because the doll patterns at Twig + Tale are gorgeous and my experience has been so good with their patterns in the past. And, successs!!! I’m so glad I chose to make Fleur and I’m so glad I got this opportunity to nudge me into doll-making! I am hooked! The instructions were seriously amazing and I needed amazing instructions because I am a total beginner in doll-making and all the skills it takes to make a doll…like hand-sewing and embroidery…but the instructions made everything so easy even for me! I spent quite a bit of time on the doll, so I wouldn’t say it was a quick sew, but I had it finished in a week and I spent very little time at the sewing machine, so it was all work I could do just in small spurts while watching tv at night or while sitting outside watching the kids play or while the kids were sitting and doing homework. I could pick it up anytime and do a few stitches of an eye, then pick it up later and do a few more, etc.
For the doll itself, I used Art Gallery Soft Sand Premium Linen Blend and it worked perfectly! I find Art Gallery Fabric to be especially nice and easy to sew with…and this linen was no different!
The Fleur Cloth Doll & Clothing Bundle Pattern comes with the cutest wrap-bodice dress pattern, knickers, and shoes for the doll. I didn’t get around to making the knickers or the shoes but I made the dress that came with the pattern using the beautiful Art Gallery Mother’s Garden Rich Cotton from the Lavish Collection designed by Katarina Roccella.
I also made a coat for Lucy using the Twig + Tale Wild Things Coat Pattern and Art Gallery Scarlet Brick Solid Textured Denim.
I did make a few modifications on the coat…I shortened the body and sleeves quite a bit as I wanted a shorter jacket with non-cuffed sleeves (the sleeves are intended to be long and rolled-up). I ended up shortening the sleeves a bit too much…eeeeek, I hate when that happens 😦 I also added a hidden zipper, which was actually very easy with how the jacket is constructed.
I originally intended to make a Pixie Hood Coat, which has the same body pieces, but a different hood and square pockets instead of rounded, but I switched at the last second because I thought the pieced Wild Things hood would look awesome in this denim with some top-stitching! I used the square pockets from the Pixie Hood Coat because I already had them printed and cut 😉 I added the pocket flaps using the pocket pattern, but cutting it shorter.
I lined the coat in some sherpa from my stash. I had originally intended to line it with the Art Gallery Mother’s Garden Rich Cotton, but I made the mistake of making the doll/doll dress first and my daughter insisted she neeeeeeeeeded a dress just like her dolly’s dress…so I had to improvise to make the customer happy 😉
For the matching doll dress, I had a really hard time finding a dress pattern that was the same as the beautiful dress pattern included with the Fleur Doll (wrap bodice with a gathered sleeve and empire waist). I couldn’t find that exactly, but I finally settled on a similarish BurdaStyle Wrap Dress Pattern. It comes with a sleeve pattern (although not a gathered sleeve like I was looking for).
I used the same Art Gallery Mother’s Garden Rich Cotton from the Lavish Collection designed by Katarina Roccella that I used for the doll dress…such amazingly gorgeous fabric!!!
This is one happy child!!!
Head over to check out the new Twig + Tale site and enter the awesome giveaway!
Twig + Tale Blog Tour Announcement Page
Art Gallery Fabrics is kindly sponsoring 2 yards of Art Gallery fabric of your choice. To make the prize extra sweet, we are also adding a collection of 5 Twig + Tale patterns of your choice.
International entries are very welcome. Our bloggers come from every corner of the world to celebrate the global nature of Twig +Tale too.
Enter using the rafflecopter below.
(The winning entry will be checked to ensure all criteria are met).
sewshellysew.wordpress.com 
This is soooo stunning! Love the coat and the doll is amazing…hard to believe it’s your first one!