Whilst at the show on Saturday I asked when the booklet was published giving details of the categories – turns out its April. That provides a whole five months preparation time as opposed to the two days I had – my own fault I know. So the only thing I made specifically for the show was this little bunny.
Everything else was just stuff I’d made that I still had hold of at the time. Apparently the categories are mostly the same but last year’s Needlepoint Item became this year’s Handmade Toy.
The only item I started last year with the view of finishing in time for this year’s show was a lace shawl and that got as far as 26 rows so not much of a finished item there. So with that in mind I decided that whatever the categories for next year I won’t purposely make something purely for the show I’ll just make stuff I like and hopefully there will be enough suitable categories for me to win, er I mean enter.
With that in mind my biggest weakness is Handmade Toy – I don’t really do sewn toys of the detailed calibre of Auntie Eleanor…
Does this count as rag doll pornography?
A full head of hair despite the bonnet and even an additional line of wool to cover the parting
This is the INSIDE of the underskirt – which has a lined bodice and super neat finish where it meets the skirt
A couple of pin tuck pleats on the bottom of the skirt and a lace trim
I finally persuaded her to put on her dress and bonnet but she insisted on showing off her little felt shoes
And here’s her little embroidered face with felt cheeks and eyes which are surrounded by tiny, tiny blanket stitches
Heck whenever I do dresses for me it tends to be in a rush so even they don’t reach the fine finishing standard of Auntie En’s doll’s underskirt. So I’ll have to give this category some serious thought as I know full well I haven’t got the patience to produce a sewn doll anything close to this.
I would also point out that when I was little and relatives started going abroad on holiday (which was a rarity at the time) they would bring back national costume dressed dolls for me. I was given a Greek one, a flamenco dancer, a Scottish piper, a Welsh lady (okay those two are not technically abroad) and one in a pink sparkly dress. I have no idea where that one was from possibly because by this point in time dolls were confiscated before I could get me little paws on them. As we know I have a curious nature and which extended to wanting to know what was under the dresses and of course these dolls weren’t to the calibre of Auntie En’s with buttons and ribbons – they were glued so as you can imagine when I’d finished with them they didn’t look quite the same as when they started out.
