FO Friday: Princess Ariel (and The Whole Princess Gang!)

I finished my final princess this past weekend :) Check her out!

It's Ariel! I think my teaser was a bit of a dead giveaway as there are only a limited number of Disney princesses with tails, but hey it was fun to keep a surprise :)

I made Ariel using the Ariel The Little Mermaid pattern by Sahrit Freud-Weinstein. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by this pattern. I'd had so many issues with the Jasmine and Cinderella patterns that I was braced for more of the same, but this pattern went off without a hitch! I am happy to say that this is a great pattern and I would totally recommend it. The pattern gives a short or long hair option and I went with the shorter since that was the photo that the request was made from. I did extend the pattern to make her longer - I wanted her to go well with the size of the other two princesses. To extend her I just added straight stitching rows: the tail has 8 straight rows, the torso has 6 straight rows, and the arms have 6 straight rows. I think it balanced her out nicely and she is still nicely proportioned :) This was a very simple change to make, so don't hesitate if you want her to be bigger.

Her hair is done in a pretty interesting way and of course she requires a star for her hair. I wish I could have found a more starfish looking star instead of just a normal one, but I searched everywhere and this was the best option. I think it still gets the idea across :)

The bra in the pattern is designed to be removable, so it has a metal snap as the back closure. How scandalous!

"Draw me like one of your French girls."

Just for those who may be curious, the yarns I used were: Vanna's Choice in Beige and Scarlet, Red Heart With Love in Lettuce (light green), Caron Simply Soft in Iris (purple), and an unknown inherited acrylic for the darker green.

Finishing Ariel mean that this set of princesses was ready to ship of to Japan! In fact, these little ladies are on their way as we speak. I really hope their new owners love them as much as I do :)

I have another item that I also finished this week, so check back here shortly!

WIP Wednesday

Well, this week has been yet another jumble of craziness. I worked on my next princess commission over the weekend, but I got so frustrated with the pattern that I angrily tossed it aside, lol. Here is how it looks thus far:

Hopefully you can tell it's going to be Cinderella. I'm using this pattern by Sahrit Freud-Weinstein. To say I'm having issues with the pattern is a gross understatement. The biggest problem I have is that the author uses steel crochet hooks. Regular hooks are very different in size, so I'm pretty much just guessing on what hook to use - this means that I've had to make each piece at least twice. I made the entire body/skirt only to realize how short it is - then I read where the pattern says it's designed to be only 5.5 inches tall. My problem is that this is going to be a set of dolls ... and Princess Jasmine is almost 8 inches tall! Cinderella would have looked pint sized in comparison, so I had to bump up my hook size in hopes of it coming out bigger. The skirt itself is still kind of short, so I've left it unfinished and I will go back to it and possibly add more rows to make it taller later on. I also have no idea how the author used the size yarn she used and got the results she did - I've used all worsted and sport weight yarns (size 3 and 4) like the pattern calls for, but the size 3 yarn was WAY too small - like it was riddled with holes. Totally not good for a doll stuffed with poly-fill. So, I've had to hole the light blue yarn in double just to get it to look right. Add to all these issues that I was watching a show so bad it was offensive, and you end up wanting to ditch the whole thing, lol. Anyway, I'll pick this up again soon once I've cooled down. Plus I have other projects that need to be finished first (*cough* zombie *cough*).

And what do you do when you have lots of other pressing projects to finish? Why, you start making a new dress, lol. I told myself I would be responsible and not start this until I finished my other obligations, but of course I was so excited about my muslin making success this weekend that all I want to do it sew it up. So Monday night I finalized my pattern tweaks and cut out the real fabric. Holy cow, what a job that was. I bought 3 yards of this fabric thinking that was plenty, but I'd never laid out the skirt pieces before - they are so wide that I would literally have needed 4 yards to fit it correctly - crazy. The Project Runway pattern (by Simplicity) itself is well drafted, but it's kind of annoying how the envelope just tells you how much fabric you need for each piece you add (i.e. short sleeves 3/8, dress bodice 1 1/4, etc). That's all fine if I'm only cutting one piece, but you can always lay the smaller pieces in the unused space next to bigger pieces (like the skirt). I spent over 2 hours figuring out a cutting layout and then cutting the pieces. I had to lay the fabric across my bed, lay out a piece, mark where it sat, then pick the piece up and repeat until I had all the pieces accounted for. In the end I made it work - only by cutting the back skirt and bodice pieces upside down. This fabric is so crazy that it's not immediately obvious the print is directional, so I'm not too worried about it. When I was done cutting, these were the only pieces left that were larger than 1":

One of these pieces is a sleeve I accidentally cut backwards - I almost cried, lol. Luckily there was enough to cut it again. I even managed to fit all the pocket and facing pieces out of the fabric. Granted the selvages are in my seam allowances, but at least it fit. Now I just have to get more time to work on this. Not only do I
Not only to I have my zombie and princesses to finish - I also have people coming over to dinner on Friday so I have been busting my but cleaning up my mess from trying to organize things. Last night I cleaned the kitchen to the cleanest it's been in months - tonight I tackle the dining room which is covered in mail.

Sorry if my tone sounds super complainy, lol, I'm actually pretty upbeat about everything in real life. I just wanted to give a proper representation of the process. It seems to be all or nothing - isn't that always the way it goes? Hopefully things level out soon :) That's all for me this week - head over to Tami's Amis' Blog to check out what others are making!

FO Friday: Say Hello To Princess Jasmine

Well, I actually managed to finish something this week :) That's one of the glories of amigurumi - they're fairly quick projects!

I finished my commissioned Princess Jasmine! Isn't she cute? The pattern certainly had its issues, but I love the design and I was able to make it work out.

Her earrings are sewn on, but her headband and necklace are removable. Also the hair is just tied back, so the hair can be let loose. I will say, the hair is kind of a pain to arrange correctly, lol. But if you perservere it will eventually lay right.

I just love her eyeliner! Also, the straps of her bodice move - all little things that make her more play-with-able for a kid, I think.

Not a great picture from the back, but it gives you the idea on the hair. To make Jasmine, I used Vanna's Choice in Beige for her skin and in Mustard for her gold accessories. The black is Everyday Soft Worsted and her clothes are in Red Heart With Love in Jadeite. I think they came out very true to the animation colors :)

Here is one thing I did change and I thought I would mention it here for anyone else who wants to try this pattern. The pattern tells you to just make an oval shape for the shoes and not do any additional sewing afterward. This would have lead to a hole in the top of the foot - it looked like a weird boat, frankly. So, I did a whipstitch across the top and it smoothed everything out nicely.

So, that's one Disney Princess finished, and two still to go :) I'm really excited to finish them all and send them on their way!

That's it around here this week :) Head over to Tami's Amis' Blog to see what other fun things people have made.