Making dolls

Jenny Stacy's dolls for sale in Handmade Happiness

I love to paint the faces best. And I love the way each one is different. The centre doll has the prettiest face but it's just luck. The lady in green has a haughty, looking down her nose expression which I also love.

 It's also fun to chose scraps of fabric and ribbon for their clothes. I don't buy anything new, just use what I already have. The green and the yellow velvet ribbons for instance are ribbons I had as a child when my mother used to tie my hair back with a different ribbon every school day. I made the felt and the knitting on the right was to have been a mohair heart warmer cardi for Juno but the pattern was so complicated I abandoned it. The treasured piece of Liberty fabric, far right was given by my friend Yvonne who's given me many nice things to make with.

Traditionally we've made with what we have to hand. And it's  satisfying to find a use for a pretty scrap saved for many years. Nearly all the women I meet seem to have magpie tendencies when it comes to yarn or fabric. I didn't like to use my favourite pieces I don't know why, but now I want to use everything up. To make good use of it - that's my resolve. To turn all of my hoarded stash into nice things to sell during the next year.