Doll House: Be Bold!

So, who was excited for Star Wars VII????

Katie, you're a bit late with this post.  Yes, I know.  I got busy.

A while back (before the movie came out) I made a series of dolls psyching myself up for The Force Awakens.

And yes, during the movie I went into shock.  But 'tis a story for another day.  For now...

Meet Dorovio!  Dorovio Bold, they call her (thus the post name).  You may or may not have noticed her in Return of the Jedi.  (In the BluRay version, she is sitting down behind Lando Calrissian while he is talking to Han Solo on Home One. I don't know if the others are different, because they did take alternate scenes for some parts of the BluRay trilogy).

I read up on this particular character, and she was pretty much cut out of the movie, but it shall be sufficient to say that she is one of the unsung heroes of the Battle of Endor who didn't make it home.

I guess we could claim this doll could be one of the female pilots from The Force Awakens (I saw at least three and got super excited as I am a fan of the X-Wing book series and they had some pretty awesome ladies in the squadrons), but I think I noticed the leg restraints being black instead of white.  I shall have to investigate more.

Fun fact: this doll started out being Wedge Antilles until I noticed Dorovio while watching Return of the Jedi.  Let's say I spent an hour or so figuring out how I wanted to do her hair.

She could potentially be my favorite doll so far.

Welcome to the Doll House!

Making it My Own

A while back, my darling husband bought me the Yuna pattern by BaburuStar that we both thought was so adorable (okay maybe it was just me...)  I came home from work and found the pattern in an e-mail! (Isn't that so sweet?) I very excitedly gathered up my yarn and threw this little girl together.  To my surprise, as I am now understanding how crochet works and can work faster, I finished her in just a matter of hours.  (So much prettier than my other one).

My make of  Yuna from Final Fantasy X.

So, this pattern that my lovely and frugal husband paid for was now used up.  Thus, I figured I could get his money's worth out of it.  I decided that since I now better understand mathematically how 3D crochet works, I figured I could tweak the hair, change the clothes, and make whoever I please.

So stay tuned for my improvised army of dolls inspired by this pattern. Who knows who may appear?

CANDY MONSTER!

So in Minnesota this past summer, I bought a crochet book.  Yes, I bought something instead of scouting Pinterest for awesome free patters (which totally rocks, by the way).  This little book I found had (among many things) monkeys, a giraffe, a tiny little puppy with a bowl and food (??) and a really cool MONSTER! (with a grin and a tooth!) The pattern "Lovey the Lovely" was created by Allison Hoffman from CRAFTY is COOL.

Granted, I don't have any felt.  Thus, my monster didn't turn out as awesome in detail as the original pattern, but she is very brightly colored.  Thus I decided she was a candy monster.  I'm thinking about whipping up a few for some certain little kiddos.

This pattern worked up very quickly, and gave me some nice color-changing practice.

Isn't she adorable?  I'm not exactly sure what to name her, but she is certainly a welcome addition to my ami-crew and has a lovely spot on my desk. 

Summoner Yuna Amigurumi Doll

"Listen to my story..."

...These are the opening words to one of the most time consuming games I have played and do not regret the hundreds of hours I have poured in.  

I would like to take a moment and release my inner nerd.  I would like you to meet Yuna, the heroine of Final Fantasy X, the game that I have played four times and still cry during the ending.  In honor of the game's re-release for the Play Station 3 (got it for Christmas!...in March.  Couldn't beat pre-ordering it!), I was excited to have the inspiration to make a doll in her image.  Sure, I would have loved to have completed the adorable little pattern floating around Etsy, but I saved money from not purchasing a pattern, and had a wonderful opportunity to practice some crochet skills.  Perhaps one day I could develop my own patterns...

Yuna, modeling the DualShock 3 controller for her new system...

I used a super simple doll pattern that I found on Pinterest for Yuna's body.  I then looked to her character design by Tetsuya Nomura for inspiration for her hair and clothes.  The first thing I did was paint her eyes; I didn't have green doll eyes, so I just took a set of black eyes and some blue and green nail polish to show her heterochromia.  Her skirt is worked in the round starting with a foundation single crochet, followed by double crochet stitches all the way down.  Her top is  a long strip of single crochet stitches draped around her neck, crossing in the front, and stitched down.  She has a sash with a flower on the front (totally did that myself!) with some aqua yarn hanging out.  She also has a yellow bow on the back of the sash.  I had the hardest time with her sleeves.  So, I started with pink yarn and single stitches, experimented with increases, and then switched to white double crochet stitches. In the end, I decreased the stitches to try to make it even, and wrapped the white part around her arms, adding little purple bows.  This was my first time installing doll hair.  That was interesting, but I think it turned out well.  I just stuck it all in, then gave her a hair cut to match Nomura's design (as close as I could, that is).

So, what do you think?  I wish I would have taken notes to write out a pattern to share, but isn't art about using our imaginations?  I would love to make BaburuStar's Yuna and maybe other Final Fantasy characters, but I felt an awesome sense of accomplishment in almost completely improvising this one.

P.S. Her arms bend. (My awesome husband suggested crocheting around pipe cleaners for her arms. Genius!)

Watch Your Bananas!!

Not-So-Despicable Minion Amigurumi!

One of our new favorite movies now-a-days is Despicable Me and its lovely counterpart that we saw in the theater.  Since then, we haven't exactly gone "minion mad," but we do love the little guys, and playing Minion Rush on our iPads is pretty fun.  They're adorable, hilarious, and the Banana language is quite fascinating to one such as myself.  I've been plotting to make a Minion for a couple weeks now, and I finally just broke down and did it.  He came together really quickly, actually.

I found this pattern from Snacksies Handicraft Corner on Pinterest.  I actually just now discovered that there's now an updated pattern that should have been just a little easier to follow, but I didn't have too many problems.  Maybe I'm just used to making mistakes... 

Isn't he adorable!  He's not despicable at all!  He's completely made out of yarn from other projects (except for his brown eyes), and my darling husband actually spent hours untangling the yellow yarn for me (he's really good at untangling)!!  I'm glad he likes him so much (but we haven't named him yet)!

I'm really getting into the amigurumi side of crochet.  It's so much fun, and then you can play with your work...good for the inner-child.

Our Hippo Family

Meet Charlie and Kate  

These two were basically love at first sight, or love at first snack! Aren't they just so incredibly cute together?

I used the Hungry, Hungry Hippo pattern again from Bitter Sweet, this time using the color Turqua from Red Heart Super Saver yarn that I got way back at my hometown Walmart for Kate's body (finally finished of a skien that has been in three different projects!) She has the other set of blue eyes that came in the bag I used on her husband.  The Hot Red yarn color makes an appearance again (from the other hippo) in Kate's super cute and tiny bow.  I found the pattern for the super simple bow at Cut Out + Keep.  I didn't give her any nostrils, but she's so adorable without them!

The turquoise photographs a lot better than the red, it seems.

I've also basically finished a couple of adorable scarves (they do need some blocking and simple finishing touches though) and I've discovered cotton yarn!  Therefore, there is another scarf in progress.  I love crochet! It's so fun!

My First Crochet Toy

The Hippo

Good morning, rest of the universe.  Did you know I (somewhat) crochet?  I decided today that I would finish the hot red hippo that I've been working on. (My husband likes hippos).  It only took a few days to complete.  It's crazy, since everything seems to take me forever...of course, I was doing my stitches incorrectly up until a few days ago.  I found the pattern via. Pinterest here at Bitter Sweet.  It's called Hungry, Hungry, Hippo, and mine looks like it might be starving.  I should have stuffed him more.  Oh well!  I used Red Heart Super Saver yarn in the Hot Red shade that I found on sale at my local Hobby Lobby for $1.79.  He also has blue eyes that I snatched up at Hobby Lobby for $0.99 for two pairs!

With my camera, he looks so incredibly red! At least, if I did my stitches incorrectly or inside-out, it's hard to see.  I guess I can't complain.  I promise he's not quite this bright, however he is a very, very bright red. 

Being a crochet novice, I found a couple of awesome tutorials on Youtube to help me out a bit with fastening off and joining together the pieces.  The first was for fastening off, closing, and weaving ends of amigurumi toys by NattypatCrochet.  Then, I needed help joining the pieces together and found this video by June from planetjune. 

I am so excited to have finished my first crochet toy, and it was actually super easy!  I'm excited to move on to something else!

Isn't he adorable??