Crystal Madrilejos

Design & Creative

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Friends of Mine




Many a month ago, I made a doll from a pattern I found in one of my Japanese craft books. Maybe you’ll remember him as the hipster bear with his little flower-y shorts and jaunty neckerchief. I was quite happy with how he turned out, but I wanted to try to make him my own by changing things up a little bit.

Since then I’ve made quite a few, but haven’t yet had a chance to post about them. This one I made for my dear friend Chandra over at This Is For That, for her birthday. If you remember the original one I made was more bear-like. I consider this new incarnation more dog-like in the face. This one in particular is the only one I’ve made thus far that has the roundy hands and feet. I’m not skilled in the ways of pattern-making so that’s why the hands and feet are more like flat ovals than rounded balls. Ah well, next time around. He’s also more squat in the body while the others I’ve made have a body more like the hipster bear, just with the dog face I created. I have a love for mismatched fabrics which probably stems from my childhood obsession with Holly Hobbie. I’ve always wanted to dress like her. The idea of being able to get away with wearing a bonnet and brown boots intrigues me.

Here are more photos of him standing around by the window.



Fondly,
Crystal

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Christmas Present #3

Time for Christmas Present #3 given to my friends Toby and Ash: Wee’s. These guys were made from the Wee pattern from Hillary Lang over at Wee Wonderfuls. They are so simple and easily customizable. Made from thrift fabric with embroidered faces. If you want to check out of her amazing patterns you can go here for the free ones to download, and here for her shop that definitely has some stuff worth checking out.

Fondly,
Crystal

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Happy Little Monsters

It seems that my illness has abated somewhat after a couple days rest. Despite my lingering illness, last night Andrew took me to see The Nutcracker at the New York State Theater. He knows how much I love dance and my slight obsession with ballet, so he bought us tickets for my birthday back in October. It was so much fun and beautiful and amazing! I recommend everyone try to see it at least once.

And to continue with the Christmas theme, the next installment of past Christmas presents. Christmas Present #2 given to my niece Abigail and my nephew Josef: Happy Little Monsters

These guys are made from thrift fabric, felt, foam and poly-fill. The are really simple to make and the kids seem to enjoy their tossability. They are pretty much just sewn cubes filled with a big foam piece and filled in with polly-fill. The number of faces you could use are infinite. I chose to just cut out felt and glue AND sew them on for extra reinforcement, which is a good idea if you are making them for kids that are prone to pulling things off and eating them.

Fondly,
Crystal

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Crochet

My Auntie Vita taught me how to crochet a few years ago, and I am eternally grateful. She has been crocheting since she was in grade school and she is now 70+ years old which has resulted in the most beautiful and even stitches I’ve ever seen! It is truly amazing and I aspire to be that good someday.

Recently, I started a new project which is the first I’ve crocheted in a really really long time. Pictured above is my progress, but man, has it been frustrating. I seem to have briefly forgotten how to end rows which resulted in crazy uneven edges. Luckily, the project i’m working will require that the ends be folded over and sewn. I even undid the stitching more than once to attempt to fix my errors. It got to the point where every time Andrew would see me undoing all my work, he would have to look away because it frustrated him. Finally, I think I’m on the right track. I just don’t have it in me to start over again, but i think it will still turn out ok. If anyone was wondering, the yarn I’m using is Bernat Handicrafter Cotton Naturals.

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A few things…

Just a few things for today, which I have a feeling will turn into a big update. First off, it’s Halloween time again, which is also birthday time for me. Here is a picture of pumpkin I carved a couple years ago. I hadn’t carved a pumpkin in years it seems. I thought it turned out cool:

Secondly, we have a new addition to our home. I had been working on him for a little while now. Slowly but surely, and now he’s done.

The pattern is from a Japanese craft book that I bought online. I altered some of it because, even though I used the pattern for the head directly out of the book (I can’t read Japanese mind you) it was a totally funky shape.

I also altered the pants because I couldn’t figure out for the life of me how suspenders were supposed to stay up if dude has no shoulders. The pants ended up too big so I had to improvise a drawstring number so his pants stayed on his extremely long torso. He’s made out of almost all vintage bedding, except for the head and the handkerchief pattern. I had some serious problems with the fiberfill I used to stuff him. I’ve searched and searched for answers, but I couldn’t figure out why so many little fibers were sticking out through the fabric. It was driving me batty!! It’s possible that I just got not great quality fiberfill, it could be that my fabric is too thin…who know?! I’m trying not to stress it too much and i’ll just try to be more aware of it earlier on in the process next time around. I should take a cue from this guy and just chill out by the plants.

Lastly, the release date for the Toby Goodshank line is within our sights. We pretty much just have to pick a day, print out some labels, tie up some loose ends and we’re good. I’m guessing it’ll be in the next couple weeks. So make sure to check back.

Hope you all are well.
Fondly,
Crystal


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Back in Business

Yessss! The emails subscriptions are back up. And they we’re REALLY backed up. If you have a subscription, you probably got an email with the last 5 or so posts. Now you’re all up to date.

Here are the images I wasn’t able to post the other day. These are our in process images of the 2nd run of Toby prints. The set up isn’t ideal, but it’s a million times better than what we had before.

I spoke to Toby today and hopefully this weekend we’ll have all the prints done and ready for signing.

These are the two completed Mandor dolls complete with summer shorts. These proved to be a lot more difficult than I thought they were going to be, but I made it through and I think they turned out pretty good considering I know nothing about sewing.

And lastly, this is a bunny that has been in the works for a little while. I just could never get around to close him up. I followed a pattern out of a Japanese craft book. Japanese craft books have some of the most amazing things, unfortunately they are in Japanese and I can’t read a lick of it. I stumble my way through and maybe that’s why his head looks like he’s looking up to the sky, which it’s not supposed to do. It’s charming in it’s own confused sort of way. The little knit ram next to him was a present I got for Andrew while I was in France. To the very far right, getting cut out of the picture, is a the prototype for Little Johnny Muttoncakes. The next in line for the Toby Goodshank stuffed dolls.