THE COLONY EXPANDS

- INTRODUCING BEE BEAR

I used a baby gro pattern to make a black felt onesie and added yellow felt stripes...

NEW - the sensational "HIVE"

featuring at the  moment "BEE CAT"

for this outfit I used scaled down patterns for baby clothes for the hat, top and trousers, with felt trim and felt antennae..

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net
Honeycomb Petr Kratochvil

Brides and Fairy Wings

Wedding days and fairy babies...

Removable wings mean these little flower girls can be used as fairies as well...

These were all made by gathering ribbons after neatening the cut ends and making a running stitch waistband and threading the elastic through it.


The wings are made by folding ribbon and gathering it.

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net

Fancy Dress - Sylvanian Bear Sister/Brother in a Cat Outfit

 You can buy super cute Sylvanians in fancy dress...

There is something very strange and very appealing about Sylvanian cats dressed up as a chick and a rabbit...

However, Farrah wants a cat fancy dress outfit so Nana has spent quite a bit of time working out how to do this....





And voilà! We have a - slightly scary*? - cat outfit worn by a bear...


* yes scary - my daughter (grand-daughters' mummy) says the cat looks like a serial killer lol

The cat face mask is stitched onto a hood which can be worn up or down

I could not work out how to make a kind of hooded romper suit all in one,so it has ended up as a hood, which can be worn fastened at the back as shown or at the front as a kind of scarf.

It is worn over a jacket which was cut all in one including the sleeves,

then there are little pull on elasticated waist trousers with an added tail.

I will probably try again to make an all in one now I have had a go! I have found some baby all in one patterns so may try to scale those down.
I used fabric glue for the felt applique and embroidery silk for the features.

TECHNIQUE I USED 

I used this fabulous pattern from http://www.246.ne.jp/~jr1vvc/sylvanian.html and adapted it for a cat suit, re-drawing the sleeves to make them wider and shorter.

The cat suit is for a sister/brother so it was very small to work with .

The all in one sleeves took several goes as they were very tight at first - so I might go back to separate sleeves next time,  or try a very wide all in one sleeve - I widened it several times on the pattern  but may try flaring them out more...

Sewing this outfit  was not helped as the fabric was quite bad for fraying (and I had not used fray check as I did not find this out until it was too late :(). Also it was cut on the bias so I thought there would be enough give in the fabric... 

I tried a tip I found on a doll dress making site that suggests using kitchen roll to cut out templates and fit them on to the figures before cutting out the material - this was great except the kitchen roll was fray proof and the fabric wasn't-  still I will know next time...:) 

The fraying was also a problem for the cuffs as I just could not stitch inside the hems so they are blanket stitched a bit scruffily... however I am living and learning!

Party Balloons by Petr Kratochvil   

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net 

School Uniform...

Finished Hettie's school uniform now so here are the girls in uniform...


I copied the school logos using ordinary sewing thread; I have blurred the words as I am not sure what you can show on the web re children... 

Farrah and Hettie waiting for the school bus





http://www.publicdomainpictures.net


School Bus by Peter Griffin

School Days

Farrah Badger in her school uniform T-shirt and skirt...

School motif was stitched with ordinary sewing thread and lots of patience!:)


Playground by Peter Griffin
http://www.publicdomainpictures.net

Baby Bear Goes to the Ball

This is one of the tiniest Sylvanians, a little baby, so the sewing was a challenge for this.

I used wide gold ribbon and used fray check on all the raw edges.

I cut one strip and doubled it over before threading it with elastic for the skirt; the 2 layers made a nice full skirt.

The bodice was also cut from ribbon, sewing was tricky as it was so very small, so I ended up blanket stitching the edges with gold thread and trimming all the neckline with gold seed beads.

The ribbon bow was a half width of ribbon stitched together and  sewn to the back of the waistband to hide the elastic; the cross over for the bow is also trimmed with camouflage of gold seed beads.


http://www.publicdomainpictures.net


Fairy Lights And Webs by Sharon Apted

Fairy Tale Outfit

 WOW!


Molly Mouse is modelling Hettie's design 




...which is a full skirted princess dress with an optional hat




The dress is purple and lilac duchesse satin.

It is trimmed with pink binding, lace and hologram-style pink flower beads which swathe the back of the dress...

Underneath the dress Molly 
wears a full lace underskirt 
edged with more pink binding and a pair of very smart peep toe white party shoes

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net
Fairy Lights And Webs by Sharon Apted
Pink Feather by Petr Kratochvil

More chic spring tailoring

The tailored double breasted coat shown earlier now has tiny tiny tiny little buttons...thank you ebay!... but they have normal size holes, genius!!

background http://www.publicdomainpictures.net Woods by Sue Sheen

Spring fashion on the catwalk...

 And introducing our new stable of models in a beautiful and appropriate woodland setting....





wearing co-ordinating outfits in a purple and maroon print, she has a high collar, waistband and sleeves in purple...





while his fetching dungarees have tiny tiny purple buttons and a useful tail opening...


and  baby has got a smart new duvet cover to keep him snug against the spring chill






http://www.publicdomainpictures.net Woods by Sue Sheen

Chic Spring Tailoring

Sadie Persis wears a tailored coat with a subtle print, double breasted front and gathered sleeves.

It has a flared "skirt" section which is a contrast with the flat front of the coat.

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net 

lSilhouette Of Colored Smoke by Lebin Yuriy

Olga the Oscar Winner

Oscar Winning Olga is ready to appear at the awards ceremony in her stunning butterfly print outfit, with assymetrical ruffles and a butterfly trim fascinator.

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net - Golden Fireworks by Petr Kratochvil

Salome Persis dressed for spring

Salome Persis is dressed for spring and models in front of a beautiful rose garden.*






This pretty outfit  has a rose pink colour scheme.


The dress has a softly pleated skirt enhanced with a rose trim and matching embroidery, while the hat is a riot of roses.


Salome thinks it will be perfect for garden parties and maybe a day at the races too.


It is feminine and flirty and suits Salome's artistic nature to an "a".


http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=6325&picture=rose-garden&large=1

"Sylvanian Families Persian Cat Family.


Septimus Persis is a master craftsman, making the most beautiful, colourful rugs that Sylvania has ever seen! Septimus creates his masterpieces in delicate coloured silks and cottons on sturdy jute strands. Salome Persis is an artist and draws her inspiration from nature. She creates a lot of the intricate designs that her husband Septimus uses in his rugs. Sitting at her easel in the woods, drawing and painting for hours, Salome feels at peace with the natural world that is all around her. Nolly Persis idea of the 'purrfect' day is to play in the garden, only returning to the house at mealtimes. Sadie Persis likes nothing better than to curl up with a good book in the sunniest part of the house. She can spend hours reading romantic novels in the suns warm rays, oblivious to the world around her."

Family trip to Suizenji Park, Kumamoto*

The Polar Bear Family have been on a fabulous trip to a park in Japan, called Suizenji Park 
(Suizen-ji jyojyuen, Suizen-ji Kouen).


Suizen-ji Jōju-en is a tsukiyama - a japanese garden - located  in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. The main tsukiyama is a representation of Mount Fuji. Lord Hosokawa Tadatoshi began construction of the garden in 1636 as a tea retreat. The park was named after a no-longer-extant Buddhist temple called Suizen-ji. (Wikipedia).

Mum Pati and Dad Benjiro have taken the children out to see the garden.


 Botan Bear, also known as peony ( a beautiful flower) is wearing a kimono made of pretty Japanese fabric with lilac pink trimmings.




Bishamon Bear ( who has taken after his easy-going father as his name means "help") is wearing a Japanese kimono over a trousers and top combo edged with tan braid.

*Photo by by Chibotan.
lovefreephotoe.blog126.fc2.com

Benjiro the Bear

Benjiro the Bear is wearing a red kimono with a grey sash and headpiece.


His clothes are genuine Japanese material, the kimono is in two parts and is edged with thin bias binding.

Benjiro is a Japanese boy's name and it means peaceful/enjoy peace.


Because he is such a good natured bear he always lets Pati have the first choice of the fish.


He is standing in front of Mount Fuji (Fujiyama), a famous Japanese mountain.


This lovely picture comes from a site with great Japanese photographs at  http://homepage2.nifty.com/hsuzuki/english/

Here Pati the Polar Bear is wearing a kimono and traditional sash in genuine Japanese fabric...



Her name is a Japanese girl's name, it was from Finland and means "basket of fish".


Pati loves fish!






The kimono  is cut in one piece and edged with bias binding; the sash is japanese fabric mounted on a strip of bias binding. It is all fastened with velcro.


















She is standing in front of
Seiryuen Garden Nijo Castle, (picture from http://www.citypictures.org)