dolls

DIY: Customize Your Own Cut and Sew Doll

June 10, 2014

Talented designer Natitys (Eloisa) visits the blog today to share some of her sweet cut & sew doll templates with you. She’ll show you how to customize the patterns to make your own unique doll, and upload your file for printing. These templates make a quick, simple and personalized project that fits perfectly onto just a fat quarter of fabric.

Eloisa: I think handmade dolls are one best gifts anyone could receive, especially when your doll is designed just for you! In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to change colors of the skin, hair, outfits and add accessories to these pre-designed doll patterns so you can add detail and personalization that’s all your own!

Versions of my cut & sew dolls, Lili and Sylvie made up in Silky Faille fabric. For an even cozier alternative, select Fleece.

We Make Dolls book and fabric giveaway

November 28, 2012

Things are really hopping in the Spoonflower shop these days! The printing and shipping crews are working almost non-stop to get orders out the door before our shipping deadlines. Then it's home to work on hand-made gifts with the whirr of sewing machines and the click of knitting needles replacing the sounds of printers, fabric rollers, humidifiers, and packing tape dispensers. This time of year is busy–and for us, noisy!

Continuing on last week's giveaway theme of whipping up beautiful hand-sewn holiday gifts, this week we're giving away a copy of Jenny Doh's wonderful We Make Dolls book plus two yards of your choice of Spoonflower fabric with which you can make up a doll or two. My personal favorite doll in this book is Mimi Kirchner's Tattooed Man which uses a toile fabric to replicate the look of a tattooed torso–brilliant!

If you've got a special little person in your life–or even a not-so-little one–who would appreciate a lovingly sewn doll, just leave your comment below or on the corresponding Facebook post, and do include your Spoonflower screen name so we can track you down if you're our winner. Entries will close next Wednesday, 12/5 and we'll announce the winner on 12/6. Good luck to everyone, and please note that our regularly scheduled Wednesday giveaway will not be happening next week. Instead, stay tuned on the blog for the kick-off of our 12 Days of Giveaways beginning 12/7!

Last week, we gave away the winner's choice of a downloadable Noodlehead bag pattern plus two yards of Spoonflower fabric to make it up in. The winner was Alfa García. Congratulations, Alfa! We hope you make something amazing and much-loved with your prize.

Make your doll a hippie for Halloween – congrats to our latest design winner!

October 28, 2010

UK designer Sharon Turner of Scrummy Things is our winner this week with her 'honey hippy dolly love dress', an easy to make dress pattern that fits an 18" doll (& various other sizes as well if you're a determined 5-year old). The entries this week were terrific and would make very nice, affordable gifts for those whose floors are, like ours, often strewn with potential models for this sort of thing.

SEE THE TOP TEN 18' DOLL CLOTHES PATTERNS

The final vote totals were:

1. 710 votes for honey hippy dolly love dress by scrummy
2. 670 votes for "balade champêtre" by nadja_p
3. 573 votes for Mondrian_Aa by myndilee_
4. 445 votes for applepiecutie by designcamp
5. 415 votes for Critter Peacoat by mytinystar
6. 398 votes for kaylee's candy dress by rose'n'thorn
7. 371 votes for Paris Boho by chezmargot
8. 366 votes for Beautiful Dreamer 18 inch Doll Loungewear by kdl
9. 355 votes for Cookie Craving Reversible Apron, Oven Mitt and Cookie Pan by sew-me-a-garden
10. 329 votes for Make a Dress From the Curtains by narthex

Project Dollway: A design contest for clothing patterns for 18-inch dolls

October 21, 2010

This week's theme is niche even by our standards. We asked designers to create cut & sew patterns for 18-inch dolls (like the American Girl doll series). What was appealing about this as a challenge is that a pattern for doll's clothing can easily fit onto a fat quarter of fabric as a kit, and would make a lovely gift for your doll-loving friends or family.

Vote For Your Favorite Doll Clothes Kits

The participants this week are:

Doll Panels Fabric of the week winner: Jazzy Jasmine

November 12, 2009

Rosanna Bernstein of Miami Beach rounded up the most votes in the finals of our doll panels contest. She's a grandmother and this is the first time she's ever entered her work into a contest, so she tells us it's especially exciting for her to see Jazzy win. You can find more of Rosanna's work in her Etsy shop, and you can buy your own Jazzy doll kit here.

Final doll panel voting results:

Jazzy Jasmine Dolly from Japan by Rosanna Bernstein 385 20.25%
'Robot Dolls' by Jessee Maloney 291 15.31%
stuffed vegetables: roots by Joan De Lurio 241 12.68%
Little Geisha Girls by kismutt 233 12.26%
4 little gnomes by apoo 181 9.52%
Ninja Beans Panel by Mochi Studios 167 8.78%
bright owl by Mel Latthitham 130 6.84%
Humpty_Shelf_Sitter by Sylvia Ion 107 5.63%
'Dollpanel_triorio1' by Renule 99 5.21%
14"/ 35cm Kawaii Kokeshi Dolls by Gila von Meissner 67 3.52%

Thanks to all the designers who participated and to all of you who voted!

You can check out the schedule of our upcoming themed contests here.

Doll Panel Finals! Help Choose the Winner

November 5, 2009

Ok, we've chosen the top five designs from last week, printed them along with the top five designs from the week before, and it now gives us great pleasure to present the top ten finalists from our doll panel design Fabric Of the Week contest. They are:

'Robot Dolls' by Jessee Maloney
4 little gnomes by apoo
'Dollpanel_triorio1' by Renule
Humpty_Shelf_Sitter by Sylvia Ion
14"/ 35cm Kawaii Kokeshi Dolls by Gila von Meissner
stuffed vegetables: roots by Joan De Lurio
Little Geisha Girls by kismutt
bright owl by Mel Latthitham
Jazzy Jasmine Dolly from Japan by Rosanna Bernstein
Ninja Beans Panel by Mochi Studios

You can vote (once) here, and follow the results — with a one hour delay — here.

Thanks to everyone who participated. It's too bad we couldn't run the contest using photos of the completed dolls themselves, which were just fantastic. Do take a minute to check some of the great doll photos in the Spoonflower Flickr pool for examples (like Audry & Pippin here from MyTinyStar). See the previous blog entry for upcoming contests!

Ready to vote again? Doll Panels, Round 2

October 29, 2009

Just a few of the 37 entries this week are pictured here

Ok, after some good feedback on a flawed voting process last week, we've decided to experiment with the way we handle voting during weeks when we hold semifinal rounds. Instead of having to choose a single favorite design per page, you can vote for as many — or as few — as you want. This week we've spread 37 designs over three pages, and on each page you can 'check' all the designs you really like and then move on to the next page. The vote totals will obviously be much higher, but everyone will get a chance to vote for designs they like without being forced to skip over one excellent design in favor of a slightly more excellent one. That's what the finals are for, right? We still plan to take the top five designs in the voting and run them against the top five from last week for the final round. Vote here.

The contestants in round two of our doll panel-themed fabric of the week contest are:

Heidi Crawford dollpanel
Rochelle Hughes nancy_ann_drawing
Stephanie Faith This Doll Loves
Kim Niles Christmas Westie Doll Panels
mel latthitham bright owl
Tina Rose annabelle_doll
Jane Pierce aka zJayne Galley Girl
Chelsee Gobin What a Doll ! – Happy/Sad
Michelle @ Wee Folk Art weefolkart-gnome-dolls-four-colors
Jean img056
vo monkey_doll_all_tealsharpened
kismutt Little Geisha Girls
blueberryblonde Nurse Berry
Carrie Kirby Clementine thinking
connie kaiser Gingerbread Doll
susalabim doll_panel
Kim Timothy Nesting Dolls
Joan De Lurio stuffed vegetables: roots
Mochi Studios Ninja Beans Panel
Emily Hawke astronaut
Gretchen Schroeder Baby Saguaros
Kathy fronczak Gnome_for_the_Holidays_Dolls
jackie the weebotts
TurquoiseCro Pink Rose
Cate Anevski The Pact Doll Panel
melanie hamilton catrinaFatQuarter
Dawn Huntington ChristmasBoggie
Jordan Perme wonderland_flip_doll
Star Primm audrey_and_pippin
Uptown_girl Winter Dolly
Katy Tanis Teddy Bears of the World
Sarah Nussbaumer Cats in pajamas
Rosanna Bernstein Jazzy Jasmine Dolly from Japan
emily ready for play
kari DollPattern
Aliza Rich Doll Poor Doll
smilerecipe Kawaii Kokeshi

Good luck to all!

The top five vote-getters from last week, by the way, are listed below. These five doll panel designs will appear again next week in the final voting.

Jessee Maloney 'Robot Dolls'
apoo 4 little gnomes
Renule 'Dollpanel_triorio1'
Sylvia Ion Humpty_Shelf_Sitter
Gila von Meissner 14"/ 35cm Kawaii Kokeshi Dolls

And for those of you who pulling together costumes this weekend for yourselves or your little ones, have a happy Halloween.

Fabric Of the Week: Vote for your favorite doll panels (round 1)

October 22, 2009

Once again we were blown away by all the responses to this week’s contest theme. With 77 entries in the Doll Panel contest, once again we’ll be breaking the contest into two weeks of semifinal voting with a third week for the finals.

Week one has thirty-nine designs, spread out over four pages in the voting. You can vote for up to one design per page (although a vote on each page is not required) by clicking on the design you like best (a green check mark appears on the image when you select it). We’ll take the top five designs from this week and the top five from next week and run them the week after — with photos — in the final round. [note: I originally wrote to the participating designers that we’d take the top fifteen designs, but we’ve since decided just to run ten finalists]

There’s one other point that may deserve explanation. As you look
through the entries you will notice that not everyone interpreted the
idea of ‘doll panels’ the same way. That’s our fault, really, because
we failed to set out a technical definition of ‘doll panels’ in our entry
form. As usual, we’ve accepted all of the entries regardless and we’ll
leave it to the crafty Spoonflower community to decide which approach
to ‘doll panels’ it most favors.

VOTE HERE. The participants in week 1 are:

Beth Parker Obama Doll

Joysmom ‘dozen_faces’

Rochelle Fugate Birthday Girl

Joanne C. Harper Saint Nick in Green

Diana Symes dolls

Julie Shaw Curlicue Girl

Kweli Kitwana MyAffirmDoll

Renule ‘Dollpanel_triorio1’

Marie Eiriksson pigeboldlillagul

Sylvia Ion Humpty_Shelf_Sitter

Kelly Grooters monster_dolls

jennifer borrell anderson out of doors girls

peggy gatto 2_copy

katy keuter nesting-dolls

Cathy Comora ‘The_Ta_Ta_Dolls’

Jessee Maloney ‘Robot Dolls’

Laura Wilson Build Paint Bake Sew Dolls

Kelli Perkins perkinsdolls

Crittie M. Gay Sassy Dolls

Annelie Hervi Dollpanels

Lisa Rene Anderson Spoonflower_doll_panel_LRA

Cathy Bullington vudo2

Leigh Forest Sprites (Mini Dolls)

Shala Kerrigan Flower Kokeshi Dolls

Lynn Baron twobloomfairy

Stacy Campbell-Kraft Darla_the_doll

Leanna Maksymiuk gnome_grey

Linn Bodur doll1

Valorie Wilson steampunkdoll

Jen Addotta matroyshka_nesting_dolls

apoo 4 little gnomes

Gila von Meissner 4″/ 35cm Kawaii Kokeshi Dolls

Elizabeth McKenzie vincent van gogh …departed artist doll

Ginette Callaway Beauty Large

Linda Tieu Singing Doll Boy Panel

Katie Bailey Kawaii Kokeshi

Lindsay Nightingale The Extra’s

Karen cox Northern Light Dreams

Sharyl Chow Sailor Kitty

Two New Themed Fabric Design Contests: Numbers and Doll Panels

October 1, 2009

Because themed Fabric Of the Week contests are turning out to be so much fun, we're going to keep running with the idea for a while longer. Pulling from some of the stellar suggestions we received when we posted about themes a couple of weeks ago, we've got two new contest themes to announce, the first on a short turnaround and the second on a longer time frame so you have a chance to gather your creative wits. They are:

Numbers. Simple enough, right? Design a fabric using numbers. Deadline is this Monday, October 5, at noon EST. Entry form and details are here.

Doll Panels. One of the coolest uses of digital textile printing is to create dolls and other plush toys. At Spoonflower we get to see people doing cool stuff along these lines all the time. So the next contest theme — with a longer time frame for entry — is dolls. Deadline is Monday, October 19, at noon, EST. Entry form and details are here. [for an example, see the talented Jennifer Vallez of Sophie and Lili.]