Lasso The Moon

How to finish your baby dolls -- faces, bows and other tips

I have had a few detail questions that I thought you might all like the answer to as you are working on your baby dolls for Haiti. 

Find the printable pattern here.

1. What is the best way to put the dolls together? 

First, read the tutorial made by the designer.  I put all of my baby dolls together the way she suggests, with only a few minor adjustments. One change that I made is that I don't pin the arms to the sides of the dress.  I found that they were bunching and shifting too much during the sewing, so I tacked them to the sides (stitching close to the edge) of the front piece before sewing the front and back together:

I also did the same with the stuffed legs, before stuffing the body.  This time I used the full 1/4 in seam allowance, so it makes a guide for turning under that last seam after stuffing.

Another small thing I changed is that I am hand sewing the last seam shut, because no matter what I did, I could not make that one look good using the machine.

Finally, when cutting out the boy body pattern, I divided the body into two pieces, cutting about 1 1/2 inches from the bottom, to form separate pants and shirt.  Then I added a 1/4 inch seam allowance to each side of the split so the finished doll would be the same size.  I think the boys look adorable either way, though.

2. How are you doing the faces? 

Since I am much more adept with a needle and thread than with a paintbrush, I am embroidering the faces.  But I say, do whatever you are good at.

Here are the two simple face styles I'm using for the girl dolls:

Use just two strands of embroidery floss so it looks nice and tidy.  For the satin stitched eyes, outline your oval in a neat back stitch, then fill with the satin stitch, keeping your fill stitches inside the outline.

Here are the boy faces:

I hid my knots under the hairline or along the side seam, and then poked the thread back into the doll to bury the tail end.

3. How should I finish them off?

I am sewing a simple felt pocket to the boy shirts, before I sew the front and back pieces together.  This could also be added at the end by hand. (See above)

For the girls, I'm switching between three options:

A simple ribbon bow, a felt flower, and a yo-yo rosette with ribbon "leaf".

Overall, I just want to send as many baby dolls as we can to Haiti next month.  So if you can make one, please do.  And please send the dolly drive info to someone else who sews, too.  We had a dolly-making party yesterday, and added several more to the group:

We got the total up to 26, with a few more that just need finishing touches.

Send your baby dolls to:

Baby Dolls for Haiti

c/o Faith Bible Church

1437 W. Pleasant Run Rd.

DeSoto, TX 75115

Remember, the deadline is July 28th, so if you are mailing them, you'll need to get them in the mail by the 25th to get here on time.

If you have already made dolls for the drive, and would like to add a tip, please leave it in the comments.

 

 

I've Been Told I'm A Character

There is a new interview up at the Spud and Chloe blog.  Seems they have added a new member to Chloe's family in the form of a cartoon character.

That's me!  Or more accurately, that's Aunt Anna, the one who makes all the up-cycled project bags.  Never in a million years would I have thought I'd be part of something like this.  I'm totally flattered.

So, if you feel like it, stop by their blog and check out the interview.

And don't forget--there are only nineteen days left in the Baby Doll drive for Haiti. Find details here.  That is plenty of time to make one or two dolls and stick them in the mail. It's a great way to use up some scrap fabric you may have around.

My own little row of dollies is growing bigger, but it will happen so much faster if you pitch in!

Can you make one rag doll? Baby Dolls for Haiti

Do you sew?  Do you know someone who does? I have a little project I want you to help me with. 

Donnie is leaving for a mission trip to Haiti on August 1st. He's taking several kids from our youth group, and while they are there, they will be helping with a local ministry, learning about the culture, playing with Haitian kids, and getting their feet wet in global missions. 

There are more than 400,000 orphans in Haiti, and hundreds of thousands more children living in poverty there.  I want to send as many baby dolls with Donnie as I can--something to hug when life gets scary or lonely.  Every child needs that.

I made one!

And then I made a few more.

I made 7 dolls in just a few days, and I'm going to keep making them.  But since the trip is only about 3 weeks away, I thought you might want to help me out. Here's how:

If you sew, commit to making ONE doll to send with our group to Haiti.  Just one.  You might want to make more after that, but even one doll would make a difference in a little one's life.

If you don't sew, consider donating some supplies (solid brown cotton fabric, black thread, stuffing...) or even just a few bucks to the cause.  We figured that the dolls cost about $2 each to make, so just a little could make a big difference.

Whether you sew or not, make it your goal to tell three people about our Baby Doll Drive.  Send them the link to this post, share it on facebook, however you can get the word out.  I will probably make about 25 dolls before the group leaves, but imagine how many more we could send if we all pitched in just a little! (We can't send too many.)

(Aren't they gorgeous! Can't you picture them holding on to their own baby dolls! Haiti photos by Amanda Towns.)

I got the pattern from here. The Dolly Donations blog is full of ideas, patterns, tips, and tricks to make doll-making easier.  Download your pattern here.

There is a list of supplies on the site above, but basically, you need brown cotton fabric, black felt, and patterned fabric for the "clothing". 

We are looking for girl AND boy dolls, with brown to dark brown skin, with any color hair.  Get creative and have fun with it!  Ask a child to help you stuff your doll, and use it as an opportunity to teach him/her about children in other countries.  When you are working on the hand-stitched parts, or picking out your fabric, take a moment to pray for the child who'll get your doll.  Maybe this child has never been prayed for in her life.  You don't know her name, but God does!

Send your babydolls to:

Baby Dolls for Haiti

c/o Faith Bible Church

1437 W. Pleasant Run Rd.

DeSoto, TX 75115

Please send your dolls early enough that they arrive before July 28th.  They'll need a couple of days to figure out how much they are taking and get it all packed up. 

If you have any questions about the drive, please leave a comment on this blog post, or email me.  lassothemoonshop (at) gmail (dot) com.  Thanks so much for helping!

And here are a few pictures from the last trip our group took to Haiti.

That's my little brother Jon playing guitar.

Thank you, Amanda for letting me use your photos!  I hope we get to send lots of baby dolls this year.

 

 

An Art Show

I have been sucked into a spiralling vortex of adoption sites and fund raising ideas for adoptive families, and I have Jen Hatmaker to thank for it.  Ok, maybe not just her.  This has been weighing heavily on me for a while now. 

So when my dad asked me to enter a piece of art into the 2012 Southwest Dallas Arts Festival, I didn't have to look far for inspiration--especially since the theme this year is "Discarded / Reclaimed."

Here's a shot of the finished piece, right before I popped it in its frame.

But the finished piece isn't really the whole picture.  I treated the canvas as a prayer journal and layered thoughts, prayers, hopes, fears, and more onto the surface while I prayed (and wept) over them.

I've done this a couple times before, and I've always been a little sad that the first layers are forever covered by the later ones.  So this time I took photos along the way--a lot of photos--and compiled them into a video.  I'd love for you to take a look!

Throughout the process, I noticed a circular effect of overwhelming grief followed by hope and rejoicing.  Over and over the Holy Spirit took me through this.  I found I was spending a lot of time looking at the faces of waiting foster children in Texas. And when I told some people this, many of them told me I needed to stay away from that sight--it's just too sad.  But doesn't that seem a little strange?  Is avoiding the problem ever going to help find families for these kids? If I look away, it might prevent some pain in my heart, but those children are still living it every day. 

Finally, I realized that this was the final message I wanted to get across concerning the orphans and adoption.  Don't look away; don't close your eyes.  In fact, do the opposite.  Seek out an orphan, find out a little something about her, and pray your heart out.  Ask your adopting friends how you can help.  Maybe you can have a garage sale in their honor to help with legal fees? Lastly, don't let yourself forget that they exist.  They do, and we are responsible to help.  Deuteronomy 16 talks a lot about feasts. "...and you shall rejoice in your feast...and the orphan and the widow who are in your midst."  Don't you know that we are all sitting down to our own feasts--yes even in this difficult economy--and we all have something we could share.

Here are a couple of resources you might want to check out.

Show Hope

Texas Adoption Resource Exchange

Jonathan's Place

H.E.L.P.

The Miracle Foundation

 linked to:

hmcw, primp, FJI, bdan, TDC

 

Thank You

I am humbled.  When I decided to donate some money to Davis' adoption fund last week, I hoped that maybe maybe I'd be able to squeeze out 50 bucks from the week's sales.  But with the help of customers who chose to shop during our fundraiser, we were able to raise the 50 PLUS another $20.35!

I don't always share the details of our family's giving, but when I ask for the help of readers and customers, I like to show that the money went where I said it was going.  So here it is!

It says, "Thanks Anna" but it should say thank you to all of you.  Thanks for coming by the shop, and thanks for helping make a difference in this family's life.  It is truly an honor when He lets us see some of His work, isn't it!

And we were just a tiny bit of the efforts.  The Jupin family has raised over $6000 from donations, and I can't wait to see that number climb higher and higher.  Remember, until little Davis is home with his new family, 5% of sales will go to this project.  So, thank you in advance for that!

Oh, and that melty-bead heart with the initials in it up there?  That was the souvenir my husband brought me from camp last week. LOVE him!

 

Purpose

pur·pose --  the reason for which something exists or is done, made, used, etc.

There are few questions in life that will keep a person awake at night the way these will:

What is my purpose?

Why am I here?

Why do I exist?

If you are a believer, you may have been told that your purpose is to glorify God--to make Him known.  But what does that mean from day to day?

If you are a parent, you know that your purpose is to prepare your children for adulthood.  But that is a seriously long-term goal.  Is there something you can complete now, accomplish in a shorter amount of time, that gives you purpose?

It's funny that this question has come up several times in the last few weeks. 

And in my life, the answer is always the same:  Serve others.

One of my favorite projects is a fund-raiser.  I don't have a lot of money to freely give, so if I want to give BIG, I have to find a creative way to do so.  A couple years ago it was for Heifer International.   (We raised $500 for that one!) And then it was breast cancer research. ($325 and still climbing!) And there have been a few little projects in between.

I have to say, there is nothing like the feeling of giving.  There is nothing like the way I have felt when I finally am able to sign over that big check for someone in need.  To give without the promise of getting anything in return.  The feeling of purpose is enormous.

I know I'm not the only one out there continually asking myself, what is it I'm supposed to be doing with this life, so I feel compelled to share this with you. For the next couple of days, I'm dedicating 25% of the sales from ROPE to the Jupin family fund-raising effort.  If you have not read their story, please do so now.  But in short, they have decided to adopt a little boy from Russia who has down syndrome--the same age as their birth son, who also has down syndrome! 

Their story is about doing something BIG for His kingdom.

Something you cannot do of your own power. 

Something WITH purpose, ON purpose. 

Something that might even hurt a little. 

And I'm fired up and inspired to do the same.  And at the very least support them in their efforts!

Through Wednesday, I'm giving them 25% of the sales from ROPE.  But I want to do more than that, too.  So!  Every time you buy something from ROPE or LASSO THE MOON, I'm going to give 5% of that sale to YOUR CHOICE of the Susan G Komen foundation, OR the Jupin family!  They have a huge amount to raise ($25,000!) before they'll be able to bring home their little boy, and until he's home, I want to help out.  Thank you in advance to all my customers who will help me do this.  And please also consider donating directly to the cause. Imagine how quickly their financial burden would be lifted if each of us pitched in 10 bucks.  Who doesn't have 10 bucks?

Here's the link.

Where do you find your sense of purpose?

**the photos from this post are all links to The Adopt Shoppe.  The jewelry is beautiful, and all of the proceeds are going toward their own adoption!**

 

Sleepless

It's about 1:35 am here at the Lasso house, and I cannot get to sleep!  So I thought I'd let you in on some of the things that have been going on around here. 

This is a project I've had under wraps for a couple weeks.  I haven't sent it to its new owner yet, so I'll just share a peek or two:

 

It has a handle.

And a cell-phone pocket.  Any guesses? 

My crafting style is a bit all-over-the-place.  Figuratively and literally.  Ahem.  Anyway, I like to have something simple and mindless to work on while I give my brain a break from a detailed project like this one.  Sometimes the simple project is dishes, but not if I can help it.  This time it was these:

 

These are little poppy pins that I'm adding to the shop as another Susan G. Komen fundraiser.  I get that not everyone can throw down $20 for a pin cushion, so this is for everyone else.  They are $6 apiece, and I'm donating a whopping $5 from each to the cause.  Wouldn't this make a sweet gift for Mom this mother's day?  I think so.

Now before I give sleep another try, I have to share this gift I got recently. 

 

My friend Amy moved into a new house with every original retro detail still intact, including the crazy-cool shelf paper.  I told her to save me a little piece if she replaced it, but she did me one way better.  She found an entire roll of it in her garage!  With the original price tag still on!  Part of me really wanted to cherish the packaging and keep it in its perfect roll, but that part of me lost.

 

I love 60s graphic design!  They hadn't started putting adhesive backing on in the 60's yet, so this paper makes great gift wrap. 

Thank you, Amy!  What a delicious surprise!

And in case you have hung around through this never-ending post (I hope you have!) I thought I'd let you know that since it is March, I have officially begun my annual month of no spending.  I love how this challenge seems to reboot my system and remind me to use what I have.  You can read more about past challenges  here and here.

Goodnight! ~Anna

Valentine Banquet

Every year our church youth group holds a Valentine banquet as a fundraiser for future youth activities.  Everything is done by the students in junior and senior high.  They help decorate, serve the food, clean up, and provide entertainment.  Each year they also chose a theme, and stick as closely as possible to that theme.  This year the theme was "My Funny Valentine" so they focused on the funny things about love.

I had been involved before as a student, singing in the show part of the evening, and I had also taken on the talent part as a whole several years as a college student.  But those roles were already taken when I was asked to help out this year.  And when they mentioned that no one had yet volunteered to decorate the tables, I thought that would be a nice fit.  The event was a great success, even though it had to be postponed due to huge snowfall.  Here are some highlights:

 

Unlike the hand-cut circles in the original tutorial, we opted to use a flower-like punch since we had a large number of tables (24+) to accommodate. We then folded them into 8ths to give the petals their shape.

 

An army of paper flowers.  We used paper that I already had on hand, since the plan was to sell the centerpieces as part of the fundraiser.  Along with this grid vellum, we used pages from an old German novel I had, and pages from a 2007 road atlas.

 

Since I estimated that we needed more than 400 flowers for all the tables, I enlisted the help of my friends, Carisa and Lauren.  They assembled almost every flower at the banquet.  Thanks, ladies!

 

Instead of vases, we used cylindrical drinking glasses, which we found for a steal, and wrapped them in patterned paper and twine.

 

Each place had a place card with the name of the banquet on the top and a surprise inside.

We folded 200 of those origami hearts from the Martha Stewart website.  I was really disappointed in the instructions on the site, since there were only verbal steps included.  I might have to do a visual tutorial since I pretty much have it down now.

The only photo of the room that turned out since it was so dark with mood lighting.  Overall, it was a huge success. We raised almost $2700, which was amazing with the postponement.  The bottom line is, our church loves its youth ministry.

And I'm already getting ideas together for next year's tables.

Starting a new project

 

Now if I could just find my sewing machine...

Chicken Carving

It's been a productive day.  I did some sewing, added some things to the shop, and finally got around to this:

I carved this little chicken stamp for the top of my thank you notes.  These are included with the purchase of a chicken pincushion, just as a reminder of the project.  I think they make everything feel complete and official.  Here's the card, all stamped and thank you-ed.

The chickens have already started selling, so if you're sure you want one, order quickly.  They would make such a sweet mother's day gift--even for someone who doesn't sew.  Find them here.  I'll be adding more as I finish them!