Little Red Riding Hood or Little Pink ?

To crafters of all sorts and passer-by, thanks for visiting my new born blog.

Warnings : pardon my grammatical errors, my misspelling and the basics features of my blog, as english is not my first language and my blogging skills are new.

My first topic is the handmade Little Red Doll, an adorable pattern from Ric-Rac, by Jodie Carleton that I bought in a patchwork shop in Geelong for $18.

I absolutely love the red cape but since the doll was to be a gift for a friend's daughter who is a pink-girl, I chose a solid salmon pink for my cape and a spotty baby pink for the lining. The dress is a springy floral green and pink patchwork fabric on one side and a red and pink starry pattern on the other side (see pictures below), all fabric come from GJ's Discount fabric, found in the $2 fat quarters baskets.
Since it was a toy which was going to be handled quite a lot, I preferred a wool felt as opposed to an acrylic felt (which disintegrates or is it because of the way my sons play with the felt balls I've made them, boys can be quite destructive sometimes, but more on that later) that I ordered from Bumblebee Designs. 

The pattern :

And Bella, my Little Pink Riding Hood on her way to her Granny through my veggie patch :

Notice the cape is embroidered with "Bella" on the left, and the hooks on the boots.

And for good measure, a selection of reversible dresses :

Back of the dress :

The reverse of the floral dress is lined with the pink and red stars pattern fabric :

And Bella is not shy to show you her underwears : 

And her Granny Basket - I must admit that I had fun making miniature strawberries and carrots and they are not as fiddly to make as I thought they'd be - you know being miniatures and things :) - .

The pattern was easy to follow but you'll have to have some few notions such as topstitching, hand sewing and hand embroidery. I am not a great embroiderer so I had to watch few youtube videos about satin stitches (for the eyes), backstitching (for the nose and mouth) and french knots (for the white iris of the eye, which I finally left out, but you can see it in the pattern). Apart from that, I made her in about a week, and that's juggling with house chores, taking care of a busy toddler and a fussy baby, so you too should be able to whip her up in a week or so ! 

Making Little Bella brought me back to my childhood and reminded me how much I loved dressing and hair combing my dolls. Such great memories.

I am making another one and will post the pictures as soon as I finish her.