Wow, how time flies when you do something you really love! I can’t believe I have been blogging for one year now and making stuff for just as long. But it truly has been such a joy and I have learnt so much, and have met so many incredible and inspiring people.

I went back to my very first post (when this blog was still called “Craft Itch“) and was surprised to see that it was basically about my first real fabric purchase to start my own fabric stash. I had only been sewing for a few months at that point in time. If you had told me a year ago that in 12 months time I would actually be sewing on a daily basis, had sold a few toys or had built up the confidence to create and share a soft doll pattern, I think I would have rolled my eyes at you in complete disbelief.

And that’s probably why I started giggling like a little school girl when the wonderful Coryn sent me a link to her Ruby Doll.

How adorable is she! And seeing her yesterday just solidified how wonderful this crafting journey has been so far. I am looking forward to the year ahead with great excitement and anticipation :-)

Adding to the little celebration, my parents recently returned from the Philippines and brought back with them some of my Grandmother’s old fabric. My Grandmother was a seamstress stretching back to the 1950′s. She left the Philippines almost 30 years ago to live in the USA and left most of her fabric stash behind. So here are just a few pieces of the stash that my parents were able to take with them (plus some cute little pouches for the girls and I). I’m hoping I can go over there in the near future and rummage through the stash myself!

And finally, as a thank you for all your support, kind words, and advice, I’d like to offer up the “Squares & Apples” Mug & Matching Coaster from my One Red Robin Designs shop as a give-away for this month.

If you’re interested, please leave a comment on this post by midnight 2nd April (Aussie time). My daughter will draw a name and I will notify the winner on April 3rd.

Have a great weekend all!

I’ve received a number of emails asking me about how I got started sewing soft toys. The short answer is that I got inspired by what I saw on all the lovely craft blogs and wanted to make something for my daughter (as I was a new Mum at the time). So after a bit of experimenting with the basics of sewing, I drew up my own pattern, which was a very simple shape and the first Baby Chibi doll was born (which looked something like this).

I’ve learnt so much from other crafters and online tutorials along the way (and continue to learn) that I thought it might prove helpful for someone out there to have access to a pattern and instructions for a very simple doll. And so I came up with Ruby :-)

Ruby is made up of basic shapes and her construction is also pretty simple. The fun lies in the embellishing and finishing of the doll. I made this first Ruby with a mix of fabric including wool-blend suiting, cotton print and corduroy. You may also note in the instructions that I have tried not to be too prescriptive with the embellishments or how to do the face – this is where your creativity and imagination take over!

Every few weeks I hope to publish a variation of this basic Ruby Doll. The first two will be Yelena Ruby (a Russian/Matryoshka inspired variation) and Haruko Ruby ( a Japanese/Kokeshi inspired variation).

To download the pattern and instructions for Ruby Doll#1 for free, please click here.

And if you do happen to make one, please let me know – I’d love to see it! Please let me know of any problems you had with the pattern or instructions as well. (And if there is enough interest, we can set up a Flickr group).

P.S. Thank you for all your comments on my previous post – my laptop has been very temperamental of late so I am currently on my my hubby’s PC but will respond to your emails/comments once my laptop decides to co-operate again :-)

Baby Chibi Esme is for an order and is made from one of my favourite cotton drill prints. She holds a little teapot :-)

Baby Chibi Thea features a cute dots-and-birds Japanese print and an original pattern I call “Very Peary” :-) that I designed and printed onto a cotton fabric sheet. She’s now available in my shop.

I’ve also been working on my next tutorial, which will be for a simple and versatile small, soft doll. I’m finalising the pattern pieces after testing it out. One variation of the doll is below.

Hope you’re all having an enjoyable weekend!

P.S. You may have noticed that I have de-cluttered this website – if you come across any errors please let me know.

Just a quick post to introduce Happy Chibi Girl Maribel:

And Samba the Shmerpi:

Both are for an order. Before I get back to more sewing, have you seen the fabulous fabric designs by fellow bloggers lately?

• Lara had some of her patterns professionally printed and I was able to snap some up before it sold out
• I’m hoping Shannon will get to produce some of her patterns also (love the Deer print!)
• Amy’s digitally designed fabrics are awesome and she used Bubblejet set. She provides some great pointers if you’re interested in printing out your designs yourself. She’s followed it up with a great tutorial on silk-screening patterns.

And lastly, I picked up the latest copy of Real Living magazine. They have a feature on some Aussie Fashion Designers and their homes. I absolutely love the kitschy/vintage look of Beci Orpin’s lounge room – especially that blue chair, the prints on the wall (which she designed herself) and that delightful round rocking doll!

These two wip chibi dolls are for 2 separate orders but somehow (unintentionally) they both ended up sporting yellow. I blame Tiel’s current colour study :-)

The chibis are sitting on doll chairs that I won from eBay late last year for a total of $10. I finally got around to opening up the box yesterday and having a good look at them. They’re cute but I might have to pretty them up just a little bit.

*From “Yellow” by these blokes.

In between sewing and doodling patterns, I’ve been quietly working away on a cafepress shop. Having a cafepress shop provides an avenue to actually use some of my patterns on various (useful) items (and not just on fabric, which was my initial intention).

I’ve been able to apply a few of my patterns to some mugs, with a tote bag and infant bodysuit also available. Here’s a sample of what’s in the shop at the moment:

You’ll probably notice that I’ve also created a new print featuring some Baby Chibi dolls :-) I’ll be adding more items little by little, however I am only trialling the shop for now and will see how it goes based on response.

You can visit my cafepress shop called ‘One Red Robin Designs‘ by following this link. I have also added a link in my side bar. Please note that cafepress lists prices in US dollars and items are shipped from the USA.

I received the “One and the Same” print from Sunberst yesterday and I have to say it makes me SOOO happy!

It is truly gorgeous in person and the quality of the print on matte canvas paper is superb. She also included a beautiful postcard and some fish lollies :-) Thanks so much Beth!

Here are a few other things in blog world that are smile-inducing:

• Kids Week at Print & Pattern – an awesome showcase of kid prints, patterns & illustrations. I love the post on Shinzi Katoh and especially love those mugs!
• This toddler shirt made by Carol at Kidding Around.
• Soft Toy Show by Abby of While She Naps
• Amazing contributions from artists all over the world to the Paper Quilt Project
• Kidlet Wall Pocket by Jennifer of JC Handmade
• Small People Collage series by Marianne of Applehead

And finally, just wanted to say that the 2 puppies, Rufus & Misha, are now up in the shop, plus the brown Bib-&-Burp-Cloth set and this green set as well (which incorporates some of my bird pattern).

Well, the patterns that were printed on untreated, normal, white cotton faded even more once it was washed. So I decided to get a pack of these and despite it burning a whole in my wallet, the final product (below) was of much better quality plus the fabric is machine washable:

I picked up a pack at Spotlight during the Labour Day sale yesterday. I also had a few bolts of fabric in my arms but they were quickly discarded once I realised I had to wait at least 2 hours in a very long line before reaching the cash register. Thankfully, this package of fabric goodness arrived today from PCP. It feels good to add a little bit of Amy Butler, Denyse Schmidt, Prints Charming & Echino to the fabric collection :-)

I also took a break from making some softies to make a Bib and Burp Cloth set incorporating some of my boxed-apple pattern.

In January I think I mentioned that I wanted to get into baby accessories this year so I finally stopped procrastinating and just jumped into it. The bib closes with velcro, is backed with a thick 100% cotton towelling, and has cotton batting sandwiched in between for extra absorbency. The burp cloth also has the towel backing.

And finally, here’s another little pattern I’ve been working on:

And apologies for the dodgy photos today – having trouble with the natural lighting :-)

A few more patterns that I doodled during the past week and finally transferred onto the laptop. The first one is inspired by our wooden floorboards, which I was cleaning after Ava spilled her drink on it (yet again :-)).

I’ve also been sewing but don’t have anything really to show for it. I received a special request to shrink down some of my soft toys to a smaller size and I’ve spent the weekend trying to do so. Despite my best efforts, the end result was disappointing – wonky toys with very little appeal (at least in my eyes). It proved that I certainly work better with larger items and don’t have the skill and gift to make beautiful small things, for example, like Myra :-)

The cooler weather has brought with it a sudden craving for rice pudding – but not just rice pudding, a Filipino chocolate rice pudding known as “Champorado“.

You can find the recipe here. Can be enjoyed warmed or chilled. The best rice to use is Glutinous or Sticky Rice, which I found at our local grocery (also readily available at Asian Grocers). You can also use Jasmine rice. Sweetened condensed milk is the perfect topping :-)

Hope you all had a fun weekend – we’re hoping to take the girls to the city tomorrow and join in on the Moomba festivities.

Here’s another pup with a patchwork belly – Misha. She’s almost done with ears, collar, and crocheted flower pinned in place and just waiting to be sewn on.

She’s made from soft suede twill and a variety of cotton prints. You may also notice that I have used one of Carla Sonheim’s delightful mini-art transfers (from her shop) on the belly.

Thank you very much to those who left a comment on my last post regarding printing on fabric! I do have Bubble Jet Set on my list of options but am a little paranoid about using it since it contains chemicals including formaldehyde and I have little ones running/crawling about :-) I didn’t get a chance to go to the craft store today to have a better look at some fabric sheets or Bubble Jet Set so I tried the least costly suggestion – printing straight onto untreated fabric.

I took a piece of plain white cotton, ironed on some interfacing (to give it more weight and stability) and trimmed all the fraying edges. I tiled together a strip of my patterns onto an A4-size page using my graphics software and when setting up the Print properties, under page type options I selected “Transparency” as the printing under this option is slow and less prone to smudging. I put the fabric (with interfacing) through and here’s the result:

And a close-up:

It’s not perfect, but it turned out better than I had expected. There is a little bit of smudging but I think that can be resolved by a little printer maintenance :-) As you can see, the colour is not as vibrant as the actual image and the light blue came out as green – this could in part be due to the fact that my printer was low on a few inks. I did intentionally make the pattern smaller to test the printer’s capabilities in terms of maintaining line definition and it did quite well, with minimal colour-bleed.
I’m currently drying it out and then will heat-set it before the next test – washing the fabric. I’ll let you know how it goes.

In the meantime, I did want to share with you a picture that my 3-year-old drew of me a week or so ago. It’s all creased because she scrunched it up into a ball and gave it to me as a present :-)