Ukulele Family

© Melissa Gaggiano

Never Lonely

© Melissa Gaggiano

    In everything they do these siblings are never alone and never lonely. Even going to the toilet turns into a social event.

Snap It

© Melissa Gaggiano

    Find the source of your inspiration. When you know what it is snap it up and put it on your wall. Whether that wall is a physical space in your office, or a pin or something in your mental sphere.

    One of my sources of inspiration are flowers. Even the fallen petals call to me – like brightly coloured snow flakes decorating the world.

Too Much Coffee?

© Melissa Gaggiano

Excellent Things

    It has been a full, and very long week. I have been awaiting the arrival of 'things' in the mail. A lot of thinking 'will it be here today'. It has been a week of projects completed. Yes! It is also a week in which the wind in my sails direct me to an island I had once given up on finding. In point it is wise to never give up on the things we desire, even if the path doesn't seem obvious or likely.

© Melissa Gaggiano

    A new tutorial from moi has gone live at My Poppet. If you're into cameos and felt craft this be the thing for you.

Instagram

    This week I finished making Majora's Mask accessory for a felt crafted Legend of Zelda: Link doll. A couple of years ago I made the doll for my husband's birthday. It was quite the epic event – took several weeks to design and make. The next year I made a Deku mask to compliment the doll. This year, at my husband's request, I made Majora's mask. The mask is needle felted and hand sewn in parts. I wonder what I will make next year to compliment Link. Perhaps Epona [now that would be a massive thing] or Zelda herself.

    I sourced one of the mask materials from Etsy shop Yummy Yarns & Fiber. I was struggling to find green felt to finish the mask. But I found what I needed in this shop. I bought a perfect little 1M pack of green dyed Alpaca felting fibre.

© Melissa Gaggiano

    In other news I am returning to my illustration work in a big way. You can find new prints in my Red Bubble store. Check it out!

Umbrella Weather?

© Melissa Gaggiano

    What do you when you're in a rut? Switch to 'doing' something else. What do you when it rains? Whip out that umbrella and be like 'Singing in the Rain'. Now that's different.

The Pinky Family

© Melissa Gaggiano

    What do you do for fun? Me, I occasionally wake up the cat and herd my family in front of a wrinkly bed sheet for a ten second photo shoot.

    Click here to see more of my photographic work.

Una Momento

    A week of reflection is in order. A single goal achieved gives me the drive to want to do more. To make those other neat goals happen I need to take a moment and assess how I'm going to achieve those things. But I'm not stand still for too long, as there are lots of little-big projects that I want to draw up/learn/discover/start/finish.

    Things I am in the middle of/Things I want to do more of:

• For ages and ages I've wanted to sew a super hero blanket cover to match the Spiderman pillow cases I've previously made. I put this off for so long, but when I saw the superhero print fabric on clearance I knew it was now or never. So I spent a good whole Saturday sewing giants squares of of material, which will serve as the topside of my eventual blanket cover.
• I am considering designing and sewing a pair of shorts for my eldest. This is a maybe, maybe, maybe. We'll see.
• Writing: Lots of editing to do. Lots more writing to come.
• I am rereading passages from Pip Lincolne's Craft for the Soul. The book is what the title says. It is also 'food for thought'.
• Thinking about what I want from 'this blogging life'.

M-m-m-my Poppet

My Poppet
DIY tutorial

    Oh my Star-Lord! I have such exciting news for you. This week I am a guest blogger over at My Poppet. For all you crafty food lovers you will find a delicious DIY tutorial for a miniature felt pizza. It looks good enough to eat and will have you craving the real thing. Ch-ch-check it out!

A huge, amazing shout out to Cintia and her colourful, inspiring My Poppet site.

DIY Peg Doll

    This week I successfully taught peg doll making to children. The children were in awe of the handmade examples that I had to show, but for me the best part was watching them sit down and have a go at sculpting and sewing different shapes of felt material onto their individual pegs.
    No two dolls were exactly alike, which was the intended result. I could easily have instructed the children to make the dolls in my vision, but that wasn't the outcome I was looking for. It was more important for the children to make the peg dolls in their own personal way.
    I present to you a tutorial, which was very loosely used as a basis for the above mentioned doll making class. It is for people who want to make a peg doll and don't know where to begin. I recommend reading the notes, and you have two options: make what your see or sculpt the doll as you imagine it. Remember, there is no right or wrong of making a peg doll. There is only... the fun way!

Materials & Tools 

Threading Needle 

(1) Push the threader through the needle eye, insert the thread into wire threader loop. Pull the threader back through the needle.

(2) Bring the ends of thread together and tie a knot.

Making Doll Hair

(3) Cut 5 pieces of yarn, each roughly 30cm in length.

(4) With the 5 pieces of yarn together, wrap around the middle of the peg and bring the ends of the yarn together up above the head of the peg.

(5) Cut another length of yarn and tie this around the yarn above the head, and knotting it off.

Additional Note: You can also make hair for the doll by colouring in the head with textas, or gluing/sewing felt to the top of the peg.



Doll Clothes
 

(6) Choose a piece of felt and wrap it around the body of the peg and cut off any excess that you don’t need. Play with different lengths of fabric – to make shirts, pants, skirts and coats.

(7) Feed the threaded needle

into both sides of the fabric to close the opening. Repeat the stitch pictured. This diagonal sewing will create a row of visible parallel stitches. Tie a knot in thread when done. Cut the thread close to knot.



Doll Arms
 

(8) Cut out 2 small, narrow pieces of felt fabric roughly 4cm by 1cm. These will be the doll arms.

(9) Ensure your thread is knotted at the end. Stitch the arm pieces to the sides of the fabric wrapped peg.

(10) Your peg person is finished and ready for play.

Additional Note: Experiment with your peg doll designs. With freestyle doll making there is no right or wrong way of creating. You can draw faces, use glue, sew accessories, use buttons, feathers, or anything that makes your peg doll uniquely yours. 



Bonus Material: Reference Card