Well y'all know how I've become this paper addict. Seems like papercrafting has taken over my life. It's like I'd rather be creating with paper rather than most other things.
Well, I've joined a few papercrafting groups/clubs/swaps and as a part of what you do (in case you don't already know) is post a "profile." Usually a part of your profile can/does include any website, blogspot, etc. Well, same as my "about me" on here, I mention that although I am a current paperholic, my first love is fabric and that I am a dollmaker.
Well ... I'm saying that a lot, aren't I ... oh well, anyway ... I've gotten several requests to see my dolls (which are on another blogspot), so I'm going to figure how to dupe that info onto here, so that those who care to see can.
My most recent request though it what really put the "fire under my butt" (hope that wasn't vulgar) was someone who mentioned making fabric bunnies back in the day. Well, oh my goodness, do I remember the bunnies. I was already a sewer - I made clothing and sewed things for the home, but boy did I go crazy buying fabric and Simplicity, McCalls, Butterick and even Vogue patterns to make those cute little things. I even bought the separate patterns for their clothing. And it wasn't just the bunnies that I thought were cute, I especially liked the elephants and the piggys. I bought patterns and fabric. I even took a part-time job at a local fabric chain (not Joann's - that came later when I moved to Maryland) and I think that's how my "fabri-holism" all started.
In my town in Westchester, New York, before I opened my own store, there was a little "ma & pop" fabric store where I purchased my fabrics after the local chain closed. I bought so much material I inevitably struck-up a relationship with the owner. Many weekend-days, rather than staying home and creating, I would go to that little shop and she and I would sit in the back and make "dolls" (mainly the bunnies, bears, elephants, kittys, monkeys and piggys) with complete outfits. And then the owner switched to making quilts. And so did I. By then I had emassed tons and tons of fabric, so much so that when she closed her shop, I opened my own - supposedly geared to quilting. (....) Why the dots? Well, because they represent another story in itself to be told at another time. Let's just say that circumstances quickly redirected the "theme" of my store from quilt shop to gift shop. Not a bad redirection in the long haul, just an unexpected twist of things.
Anyway. Over time, the more I learned about quilting, the more I learned and wanted to learn about dollmaking. It was an area of fabric crafting that I readily took to and I grew in my abilities to a level I believe (and I've been told) good enough that I could adopt the title "dollmaker." I made dolls regularly - most times having more than one in the works at any given time. But thinking back to the "bunnies," I realize that I haven't made a doll in the manner dollmaking was first introduced to me in years. My current dollmaking is more along the lines of "art doll" making, although since being bitten by the paperbug (almost 2 years now), I've only created two as a gift for a co-worker to give to her two granddaughters as an Easter present.
Lately though, there has been much cause for talk about my dolls, and I've begun to feel the pangs of missing creating in that areana.
I am actively in the process of trying to make my craftroom, which has totally been taken over by paper, more user friendly - paperwise that is ... but I don't know ... I may just have to designate a small area for my fabric again. Maybe it's time I made another doll. LOL
Wow! I hadn't thought about the bunnies for some time. That was back in the early 1990s. Wow!
Thanks Elsa for memories and encouraging my trip back down memory lane.
Wow!
Demarys
Have a Great Day! and thanks for stopping by ...demarys
Well, I've joined a few papercrafting groups/clubs/swaps and as a part of what you do (in case you don't already know) is post a "profile." Usually a part of your profile can/does include any website, blogspot, etc. Well, same as my "about me" on here, I mention that although I am a current paperholic, my first love is fabric and that I am a dollmaker.
Well ... I'm saying that a lot, aren't I ... oh well, anyway ... I've gotten several requests to see my dolls (which are on another blogspot), so I'm going to figure how to dupe that info onto here, so that those who care to see can.
My most recent request though it what really put the "fire under my butt" (hope that wasn't vulgar) was someone who mentioned making fabric bunnies back in the day. Well, oh my goodness, do I remember the bunnies. I was already a sewer - I made clothing and sewed things for the home, but boy did I go crazy buying fabric and Simplicity, McCalls, Butterick and even Vogue patterns to make those cute little things. I even bought the separate patterns for their clothing. And it wasn't just the bunnies that I thought were cute, I especially liked the elephants and the piggys. I bought patterns and fabric. I even took a part-time job at a local fabric chain (not Joann's - that came later when I moved to Maryland) and I think that's how my "fabri-holism" all started.
In my town in Westchester, New York, before I opened my own store, there was a little "ma & pop" fabric store where I purchased my fabrics after the local chain closed. I bought so much material I inevitably struck-up a relationship with the owner. Many weekend-days, rather than staying home and creating, I would go to that little shop and she and I would sit in the back and make "dolls" (mainly the bunnies, bears, elephants, kittys, monkeys and piggys) with complete outfits. And then the owner switched to making quilts. And so did I. By then I had emassed tons and tons of fabric, so much so that when she closed her shop, I opened my own - supposedly geared to quilting. (....) Why the dots? Well, because they represent another story in itself to be told at another time. Let's just say that circumstances quickly redirected the "theme" of my store from quilt shop to gift shop. Not a bad redirection in the long haul, just an unexpected twist of things.
Anyway. Over time, the more I learned about quilting, the more I learned and wanted to learn about dollmaking. It was an area of fabric crafting that I readily took to and I grew in my abilities to a level I believe (and I've been told) good enough that I could adopt the title "dollmaker." I made dolls regularly - most times having more than one in the works at any given time. But thinking back to the "bunnies," I realize that I haven't made a doll in the manner dollmaking was first introduced to me in years. My current dollmaking is more along the lines of "art doll" making, although since being bitten by the paperbug (almost 2 years now), I've only created two as a gift for a co-worker to give to her two granddaughters as an Easter present.
Lately though, there has been much cause for talk about my dolls, and I've begun to feel the pangs of missing creating in that areana.
I am actively in the process of trying to make my craftroom, which has totally been taken over by paper, more user friendly - paperwise that is ... but I don't know ... I may just have to designate a small area for my fabric again. Maybe it's time I made another doll. LOL
Wow! I hadn't thought about the bunnies for some time. That was back in the early 1990s. Wow!
Thanks Elsa for memories and encouraging my trip back down memory lane.
Wow!
Demarys
Have a Great Day! and thanks for stopping by ...demarys
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