Happy Holidays to all!

It's been a complicated few months for me. We were moving to a new apartment. Everything is packed away and will be not opened until we moved to the permanent place. 

But the holidays were coming, I missed my dolls, and couldn't resist, so I unpacked them and took a few family pictures! Also, I have a new member of my Sasha family. It was a good opportunity for a family picture. 

Happy holidays to all my Sasha friends. I wish you holidays filled with lots of happiness, peace, and love to celebrate with the wonderful company of friends and family; the ones that matter the most.

 Merry Christmas and a happy New Year! 

Never thought she would look pretty in pink!

Andriana is a relatively new doll in my collection. I did not knit anything yet for her. I knitted this dress a long ago for my first childhood doll; but I did not like it on her. Then, I made the dress longer and tried it on my Corolle doll. She was wearing it for a while. However, I made it too long and again I did not like it, but I refused to work on it again. Then a few days ago I saw a new theme in the FB Sasha group (Pretty in pink) and I decided try the dress on Andriana and finally it looked right. So I unraveled the bottom, and made it shorter again, and here she is in her new pink dress. 

Also, I would never guess she would look so nice in this shade of pink. I have a baby romper in pale pink and yellow, and it looks awful on her.As I was making pictures and trying to catch the light I figured out that a baby and a crib from my daughter's doll collection should fit well in the picture and that's how my baby girl received some new toys.:)

Secret Santa 2015 Swap Gifts (received)

A few days before Christmas when I came back home I got a big surprise, a package was waiting for me in the hall, my Secret Santa Swap gift. I knew I would receive a package one of those days, but it caught me by surprise anyway. :)

 Anthony and I were probably very good this year to get such incredible gifts. Below are some pictures with the gifts that we received. 

A pair of pants and a very pretty plaid button up shirt.

An elegant coat with a red scarf and a dear toy.

 The harmonica (that actually works) and a baseball glove with a tiny ball

And something for me. I got a brownie cast iron skillet. I already baked a brownie. We ate it with ice cream. It was delicious!!! I had in mind to take a picture but I forgot and it is too late now. :)

Thank you Santa (Julie), for the gifts! Anthony was very happy to open his presents. He received more than we ever could have dreamed for. He is celebrating the Holiday season in style. 

The pants and shirt fits very well. The colors are amazing.

Now he is interested in learning to play the harmonica next year.

Anthony's favorite game is soccer. But he is fascinated by the glove and a ball and wants to play baseball but he will have to learn the rules of baseball. I think he needs a baseball team (Yankee? or Mets?)  players' uniform and a cap too. :)

Thank you Lorraine for organizing the Swap. It was very delightful to participate.

Secret Santa Swap Polar Bear Outfit

I was participating in a Secret Santa Swap for the first time this Christmas and I was very excited about it.
http://sewingforsasha.blogspot.com/p/secret-santa-swap-2015.html

For a few days I thought about what I should knit and came up with the idea of a polar bear on the front of a sweater, looking up or sniffing snowflakes.

I was searching for a chart for the polar bear but could not find the right one. Finally, I decided to use the chart from the "Gift Knits" book by Chris Ranking. My son helped me to decrease the chart to the size I wanted.

I used ZARA merino extrafine yarn for this project.

I like when sweaters for dolls have buttons that makes it easier to take them on and off. 

For the socks I used a pattern from Sasha Doll Clothing and Patterns by Ann Louise Chandler and Susanna E. 

Anthony modeling the polar bear sweater.

The gifts that I sent to Dollmum (x)

Winter Outfit for Sophie

This outfit was created by mistake. I started to knit a Swedish Bohus Pullover (Sasha Dolls Clothing and Patterns book), but soon I realized that my yarn doesn’t fit this pattern, it’s too thick. But I liked how the two yarns blended together and I decided to proceed and see what happened. I ended up with this outfit.  It was totally improvised . The back became the front. The sleeves are 3/4 length because I was afraid to run out of white yarn. 

I used a Cascade 220 Superwash (910 A) and Playmouth Monte Donegal (5866 Flame) yarn.

Also, I think this bag that I bought a year or two ago in AC MOOR looks nice with this outfit.
Sophie wears a pair of Boneka shoes.

For the skirt I cast on 48 sts. I started the skirt with 1 purl and 1 knit, then gradually increased the purl stitches. It can be worn on either side. The skirt has two buttons on the side and I put elastic in the waist area since the softness of the yarn caused the skirt to keep shifting around. Now it stays perfectly. 

I can't say that I am satisfied 100%. But I like how it looks.

A purple drop down waist holiday dress

I knitted the dress from some scrap yarn that I bought at a knitting club yarn auction about two years ago. The color was very pretty and the yarn soft (Bouton d'Or Angora 70). I wasn't sure if there was enough to make anything. It was only 25 g of yarn. I was thinking of a blouse for a doll, but it appears that I had enough for a dress.

The dress is knitted from the top down. I decreased a few stitches to emphasize the waist line. After the drop in stitches at the waist line I doubled the stitches once. I did not have yarn to make the dress longer, but I did not want to do it anyway. I like this length. 

So Ivanka received her new holiday dress. And I love it very much.