Kona Coffee Festival - T Shirt and Board Shorts

Just a quick little post. Here is Reilly in a little tee shirt (dipped in coffee to give it just the right hue.... okay and a bit of brown food coloring too) So she's all set for the Kona Coffee Festival on the Big Island in November :D

The T Shirt pattern is free from Liberty Jane here

And the board shorts she's wearing are an augmentation of the fabulous Eva pants pattern here

This pants pattern is wonderful and I've used it on numerous occasions. The pattern comes with a shorts option which is very good but didn't look right for board shorts. I simply cut out both the pants an shorts pattern and used the pants pattern but folded it to match the length of the shorts. You can simply place the shorts piece over the pants piece and match them up at the top, then draw a line where the bottom of the shorts end on the pants piece. Cut it off the bottom bit if you only want board shorts or simply fold it on the line and use the pattern that way so you can unfold it later to use for making the pants (which as I said are awesome).  Happy Trails :)

The Lost Posts... and a new Beret Pattern

Okay so I knew it had been a long time since I last posted, I didn't realize it had been about a year. If anyone is still following my blog they may well have noticed that my posts became less and less frequent after I moved to Texas. The reason is this, after a couple of months in the state, my health began to tank, in small ways at first but then things became much more noticeable and debilitating as time went on. It became just too difficult to keep up with even the things I loved. As it turns out I cannot handle the pollutants in a big city. If I hadn't grown up in the wilderness of Alaska I probably would have discovered this long ago. I had visited many places but had never stayed more than a month so I had no idea that I would react so badly.

Anyway, suffice it to say I couldn't stay in Austin Texas knowing what I now know. My husband and I now live on the Big Island of Hawaii and I seem to be slowly recovering tho I still have my bad days I hope to return to some state of good health soon. Anyone inclined to prayer if you would be willing to pray for me (if that's alright to ask) please will you do so. I may never get back to where I was but I hope to at least be functional and (hopefully) a more frequent poster about the things that I love.

And now on to more fun things... this is Reilly

She's a sweet little American Girl doll I bought used on Ebay. I thought at the time that I as buying a girl with the Josephinea face mold, but realized that she is instead the rare Marie Grace mold (the face only ever used on the Marie Grace doll). I was very pleased, she has many of the features I like on the Josephinea mold but excludes some of the things I don't care for as much. You cant see it very well in this pic but she has her right hand partially chewed by dog (I'm assuming) and is missing two fingers (hence the name Reilly - for Radar O'reilly the character on the TV series MASH, the actor who played him had truncated fingers as well) She also has a small nick on her upper and lower lip on the right side. I got a very good price from her because of these little things. I don't mind her hand being different at all. I might try the 'dip in boiling water' method on the hand to reduce the chew marks on the remaining fingers... but the missing two... nah, her being differently abled is just fine. This outfit I made in anticipation of her arrival and I was just finishing her dress when she came to me.

And this is what she looks like now...

I repainted her lips and glossed them (covering the nick on the bottom lip) and I gave her freckles and a tiny mole (just on the right above the lip, hiding the other nick. Oh yes, and I pierced her ears. So far I'm quite pleased with her. I've yet to try boiling her hand but I think I've done enough for now.

And for anyone who is interested in the beret...

It's available here. Stay warm everybody! :)