A few years back I struck it lucky and found a few sets of cotton flannel sheets – definitely vintage but not yet opened from their packaging. Everyone in the family loves this time of year, when the soft and warm winter sheets come out from the depths of the linen cupboard and onto our beds. The one in the photo above is my favourite – I was lucky enough to find two of these in double size!
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One of my nieces had a birthday recently and I made her a doll. She's a garden fairy actually – made from a design by Hilary Lang (of Wee Wonderfuls fame) in the first issue of Making magazine. I didn't have quite the right fabric for this fairy's body, so I dyed some white linen with coffee to try to get a better shade, and that seemed to work ok.
It's a lovely pattern and I especially liked learning how to sew the hair on in layers, even though it was a bit fiddly. I used a ball of yellow sock yarn and a strand of natural alpaca yarn held together (I wanted the fairy to have blonde hair to match my niece's).
The face is hand-embroidered and the eyes are made from small bits of wool felt, and the entire body is stuffed with wool roving. I hope this linen fairy will be a good companion for my niece, who won't notice I forgot to attach the lace tulle wings specified in the pattern.
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I really admire the designs of Anna Graham who writes a blog called Noodlehead. I've made the 'zip tote bag' from her book a few times now for gifts. Today I found this page of tutorials she's put together for free on her blog – you might like them too?
There's lots of new music I'm enjoying at the moment – in particular, this album from Joan as Police Women. Also, this clip of Bill Callahan playing a song in a community garden. Not new, but very good.
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tiny happy 
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