Catchup on Things from a While Back: Sandals, Doll

Wow, it's been quite a while.  I got out of the habit of posting when I was Christmas elfing, then just had a long creative break.  Well here are a few thing I've done since.  I'm sure I've made tons of other things, and done a great deal of mending-type things, but they don't have photos, so I don't know. 

Back in March, I made a pair of summery sandals for F.  They're based off the same idea as the solid winter shoes I made him, in that they wrap around and snap at the ankle to keep them securely on.  I wanted his toes and heels to still be well covered, since the ground here is so unfriendly, but I made the sides of the shoes out of strips of leather in order to allow airflow, and also have cool colors.  The artificial sinew seems to be much sturdier than my previous stitching methods, and so far so good.  The only thing I'll improve is the width of the blue straps going through the tongue, they were a wee bit too narrow and seem to be stretching a bit there, which makes the snaps not quite tight.  The way the strap threads through the tongue means they're a slight bit harder to put on a running away toddler than the winter version.
 

A while back I saw a tutorial on thebabywearer for making a Waldorf style doll.  I like their simple facial features and calm endearing looks.  So back when I ordered my dye from Dharma, I also ordered their cotton knit fabric, wool felt, and the color "chamois".  I dyed up the jersey knit, and it looked perfect on my very first try.  Which is good because I shortsightedly dyed up the whole yard all at once.  The wool felt was actually meant for another project which was too much of a failure to even think about salvaging.  So I used it as the stuffing and the fabric for the base layer (in lieu of the tubular gauze the instructions called for.)  Then I also used it as the final skin layer.  For the hair, I purchased Paton's wool yarn from my local JA, and started trying the vinegar method for dyeing protein fibers with procion dyes.  I tested a bunch of different lengths and colors, with interesting results.  I ended up using the yarn that was solid natural colored (rather than white or mixed white/natural) to give the hair a more natural and less vibrant colored hair.  The dyes I used were bright yellow and deep orange, with maybe 3/4 or 5/6 of the dye being yellow and the rest orange.  It really turned out so much better than I expected or imagined it could.  Once I finished the body and facial features, I had to wait a while to get the hair materials.  I think F might have liked it just fine without hair, but the knots and tails for the face stuck out the back.  And the skin has to be folded like a wrapped present at the top of the head.  The hair took forever, and I broke some needles before I figured out a rhythm to the thing.  But it's thick as a carpet, and I decided to leave it loopy.  If I need to, maybe one day I'll trim it.  Anyway, without further ado, F's doll:

Well, I've got tons of projects rattling around in my head, so assuming I can keep up the momentum on photos and blurbs, I'll attempt to get back to posting.