Daunting details

I've been spending a lot of time in the Treehouse getting dolls finished up for their Sunday send-off. By now, I've lost most of my enthusiasm and am just interested in getting this show on the road. This is all part of my dollmaking process. I'm seeing flaws in every one of them and feeling positive that no one will buy a single one. This is also part of the process.

I always seem to leave the hat-decorating detail till last. In my early Santa-making days, I just bought some berries and greenery and glued them on. Now that the process has evolved to include more handmade details, it's a challenge to come up with something fresh and new.

For this one I used fabric with a leaf print. I fused two pieces together and cut out the leaves. Not very innovative, but it adds some variety.

Embroidery and beading always works in a pinch. It doesn't take me long to do it since I've had lots of practice. I never measure anything; I just use the ol' eyeballs. Sometimes I do just as well as Mr. Gadget with his tape measures and his levels.

This hat belongs to Santa with the bunny slippers. The leaves are sewn out of fabric and gathered at the bottom to give them some dimension. They are green-checkered holly leaves. Anything goes in my world of whimsy. I'm not happy with this beard yarn that I purchased for a very good price at Knitter's Heaven. It sheds. Santa needs a lint brush. The best kind of yarn to use for this is an acrylic blend of some kind. That eliminates the unsightly shedding and it has some bounce to it. In Santa's world, bounce is synonymous with jolly.

So Mr. Gadget and I just received our invitation to the 2nd Annual Trim-a-Tree Party here at the condos. All of the residents are asked to bring an ornament to hang on the tree. You may remember last year my contribution was a snowman, "Snornie," that I crafted out of paperclay.

No one commented on my handiwork....which I took to mean it was so nicely done that it looked store-bought. So this year I'm planning to handcraft another store-bought snornament--a female partner for Snornie. Who knows? Next year there might be snowbabies....