End of the chestnut story: DIY tutorial and beaded trees showoff

This past week I have been too busy to post, although I managed to do two blog-worthy things at once. I'm pleased to announce that my chestnut tree I wrote about a few posts ago is done! It is now time to talk about my beaded trees and how I make them.

Quest for doll fabric

I don't know what other people are making doll clothes from.

Someone, somewhere, is sewing doll clothes right now and I have no idea where they find that perfect fabric. Whatever they use, it's always so perfectly in scale. Me, I have a bag of fabric scraps and a box of lace trims and ribbon. Everywhere I go, I keep an eye out for stuff that could work for dolls but still my stash is missing many crucial items that other people seem to find with ease. Stuff like small prints and tiny lace. This is getting really frustrating, so I decided to do a serious check on all the fabric sources in my city before I head to ebay...

New life for an old shirt (project)

I have these pink shirts that stretched into shapeless rags. I have been taking them apart in my head for a while; I love the colour, the fabric, and the print, but couldn't think of a way to make it work in a doll garment. Now I know what I want to do with this:

Botanical beading: a spring race with Mother Nature

Right from the start: this post isn't doll-related. This week I've been working on an idea that popped in my head last spring, when I was very busy buying furniture and stuff for the house. This year I was set to do what I had planned.

What is this project, you may ask?
I like to make trees and bushes from seed beads. I've made like eight and they are pretty different from each other (I'll write a post about them). So this time I decided to introduce a new species. Can you guess what it is?

It's not weed. It's totally not weed.

First complete shoes (for Monster High)

At last! I made shoes, complete and functional, and there are two of them!

My quest for doll shoes began eight years ago, when mom bought my first Barbie. It was from a beach series and didn't have shoes, so I wanted very much to make them myself. These were my attempts:
 - court shoes from paper, with nail polish and silver thread (disintegrated)
 - velvet boots with no heel and no shape, assembled in 5 minutes (terrible)
 - boot from a fake leather belt, almost finished but couldn't get the second to match and I didn't like it anyway (in the garbage)
 - proper boot, first successful footwear, but I have yet to make the other one...
I will dedicate a detailed post to these, especially that last boot. Now let's see how my MH shoes came to life.

10 panel corset for Monster High

I finished this corset.

*takes deep breath* 
A ten panel corset, laced and lined, for Monster High.

Whoa.
These are some words I never thought I'd use in the same sentence - except maybe a sentence like "It's impossible to sew a lined corset for MH" ;)

It all started with a piece of lace trim

The current state of my dolls: Monster High

I wrote about my Barbies in the previous post. Monster High are the newest addition to my collection. I didn’t like them at all in the beginning, but became curious after seeing several repaints. I did a little research to decide which one to get and started to look for them in toy stores. After opening my first MH and playing with it, I grew to love them more and more.