Category Archives: fabric

crafts, doll making, fabric, monster doll, sculpture

Make a cute and easy monster doll

Make a cute monster doll using this picture tutorial. You’ll need fabric scraps, yarn or string, buttons, polyfill, and any other embellishments at your disposal.

I used some coffee-dyed muslin for the face. All the other fabrics are cotton or cotton blend.

I cut a random pattern of a head, wanting a flat head and some funky ears.

I sewed the pieces together on my sewing machine, but the doll can be sewn by hand or glued together with fabric glue.

I turned the head inside out and got “horn-like” ears on the side, which I stuffed with polyfill tightly. I made sure to stuff the head well, too, before I put detailed features on the face.

I cut out the features and used fabric glue to gently attach them to the face, staying away from the edges since it’s hard to sew through glue.

Using embroidery thread, I sewed details to the head. I also used acrylic paint to brush on partial features that I then enhanced with thread.

Monster doll face emerging

You never know how she will look until you have the features of the face down. Creepy or cute? This one is cuter than creepy.

For hair, I used hemp cord that I tied to the fabric, and then separated the twisted cord to look more like hair strands.

I used two rectangular pieces of fabric to make a “sack dress” with some trim at the bottom. I pulled a string through at the top and then pulled it closed around the doll’s neck. Easy peasy neckline!

I stuck a kebab skewer up the body and head after filling with polyfill. That helps the head from tilting back or forward.

Next came the legs. I cut out a pair from random fabric and stuffed them with polyfill. Tip: Use an old horse hair artist brush to push fill into narrow spaces. The horse hair pushes the polyfill through easily.

I did the same to the arms and attached them with buttons at the shoulders. Don’t overfill the top parts, or the arms will stick straight out.

The same goes for the legs if you want the doll to sit down. This doll can be hung on the wall. I attached a ring on the back of the head for easy attachment.

Monster fun!

Add embellishments. I sewed on some lace and buttons, but embroidery would look good as well, or attached patches of fabric. The doll could hold something, a bag, or a baby monster. The choices are endless. The black satin trim around her neck was store-bought.

The doll measures 12″ tall, and I love her cheeky expression!

I will upload her for sale in my etsy shop tomorrow. Check out my shop.

Apoxie Sculpt, clay, fabric, faces, textile bird

Person or bird?

Person or bird? You have to make up your own mind. 🙂 I have been interested in Apoxie Sculpt for a long time, and finally took the plunge and bought the materials needed for this kind of clay exploration. So I made a face. It looks just like my other clay faces with the exception of hardness. Wow, what a difference! You can sand and drill Apoxie, it’s that strong.

Person or bird
Person or bird?
Apoxie Sculpt face

If you want to try Apoxie Sculpt, watch some YouTube videos on the process and wear gloves when mixing the two parts. There is a safety video to watch too. The fumes are not dangerous, but you can develop skin irritation from handling the compounds. I found it hard to sculpt with gloves on! Now I have to find the best gloves to use.

Here’s another face I made, and she became a spirit doll.

spirit doll with Apoxie Sculpt face
Spirit doll

I tried my hand at armature, a first for me. Using aluminum foil I fashioned a bird and added some wire legs. Then I rolled out some Apoxie Sculpt and added thin layers all over the bird. It has 1-3 hours working time, which was tricky. It’s very soft at first, and then it hardens as time passes. I found that the little bird I made on top collapsed because it was too soft. It was hard to work with at first. The whole thing hardens to rock in 24 hours.

Apoxie Sculpt bird
Apoxie Sculpt bird

I need to work on the timing of sculpting different details. Practicing often is the key. 🙂 I discovered that it takes paint very well. On polymer clay, you can rub off the paint if you try hard, but with Apoxie, it’s solid. That made me very happy since I love to paint my pieces.

It was fun making the soft sculptures with some primitive stitching and poly fill. My sewing machine is cluttering up my kitchen table, but before I put it away, I might make some more sculptures. It’s always good to stretch creatively.

I’m tempted to make another crow sculpture as in my previous post.

I’m a bit intimidated by the work involved. The most fun part was painting, dressing, and adding the accessories. I’m not a good seamstress so sewing the body was a struggle.

Making a crow spirit doll
Crow spirit doll

Anyway, Christmas is almost here, so it’s time to close out this year’s blogging, but I’ll be back next year with more tutorials and fun stuff. 🙂

I had a lot of sales in my etsy shop for the holidays, but there are so many things to browse, and I add more stuff all the time. Take a gander: Earth and Faery.

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year. I wonder what this new decade will have to offer. I’m sure it’s not going to be boring…

Peace and love, Maria

art, collage, embroidery, exploring, fabric, fabric painting, pouch

Exploring art on fabric

Exploring art on fabric involves taking a step out of the comfort zone.  I bought four pouches with long handles online to experiment on.  They are heavy-duty canvas and would fit items like a phone, passport, a small wallet.

exploring art on fabric

I knew I needed to wash them to get the sizing out of the fabric but I was so eager to start that I side-stepped that important step and now I suffer the consequences. I wanted to make a background with inks and paint, so I did. The inks floated on top until I have kind of hand washed the pouch and got it more pliant. Note to self: always wash new fabrics….

The first exploration came out like this, and this is the back of the pouch.

exploring art on fabric

It’s not necessarily bad but the paint job came out too heavy-handed in my opinion. Another thing I didn’t like about these pouches, the handle was in two parts and tied with a knot. I had to unravel part of the seam, sew the ends together, and sew it back up again. You can see the seam in the picture. Nothing major, but more work for me.

I’m going to make some sort of applique like I did on this old art bag of mine in 2014.

exploring art on fabric

I’m thinking some sort of layering of fabric and embroidery.  Nothing too complicated since the bag is small, maybe some rustic birds…

This soap opera will continue with a picture of the finished product in my next post.

I did dye another pouch with blue ink and strong tea. It’s a more gentle approach, but I might add some more color before collaging the bag. It’s important to get all the wet parts done before any embroidery. I don’t want to contaminate the artwork with dyes and inks.

exploring art on fabric

Meanwhile, check out the items in my etsy shop. I add new things daily. For 10% off on my most popular item, the mosaic intention box, use coupon code TENOFF. The sale runs through October. EARTH AND FAERY.

Until next tine, create lots!!

Love,

Maria

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