Scraps & Hitty

Yesterday I hit a milestone of sorts. After filling both arms of the new Raggedy Ann I'm making for a little girl's birthday party next week, I realized the bag was about empty. So I went downstairs where I store all my stash and such, reached into the huge box of polyfil only to discovered I had one bag left. The last bag of polyfil. Which is kind of monumental for me because I had purchased this huge amount about 9 years ago when I was really making a lot of dolls. Then when I switched gears to just making doll clothes and quilts a while back, I thought I'd have stuffing to last me the rest of my life. This is the last bag, so I guess I'll have to start watching for a sale.

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Monday this past week was Hitty Club. Hitty is my little wooden doll that I like to sew clothes for. She has a history and everything, and there are collectors who go bananas over her. I don't really collect her per se, but I do enjoy getting together once a month with some friends to play with her, and divide up our fabric stashes. Also to snack. It is my duty to bring the tea cookies each time. I always stick to this same recipe 'cause everyone loves them...

Lots of times we have a project planned where someone shows how to make something. But this month we just dumped fabrics on the table and spent the day cutting out little dresses. The theme was Strawberry Festival, so there were a lot of strawberry prints. Of course my Betsy McCall always attends to show off watch, and she brought her new cousin Barbara..

You can see some of the Hitty dolls standing around watching too. After all.. it is Hitty Club. Those bags hold teeny tiny snaps for the backs of the dresses. I really loved some of these prints. Especially that yellow one with the little irons.. and the one above with the tiny birds.

One of the girls brought a treasure for show and tell. She found these handmade dolls at a flea market.. for a very good bargain. I forget now exactly who the figures are... but they are Liberty of London dolls made between 1930-1960. I found just a little bit of info here.

Anyways.. we were to be drinking coffee and talking/laughing and seeing what everyone brought to show cutting out Hitty dresses. The girls took care of me and cut some for me.. so I brought five of them home to sew up.

It was specified that we must all complete at least one of the dresses before our next meeting.. which is a shopping spree to Charm and Berlin Ohio at the end of June. We will each take one of our dolls dressed in a new outfit..(I know you can't see me right now.. but I am totally jumping up and down with joy just thinking about this trip!!) I chose to finish this green and black one with the little strawberry print. Think I'll appliqué some circles of fussy cut strawberries to the skirt to make polka dots. I've got the freezer paper cut and ironed onto the fabric to make the appliqués, and one dot cut.

The girls are so good to me. I know they hate seeing me dig through the trash.. so they piled up their scraps in the middle of the table in baggies for me to take home.

Lovely scraps!!! I can use them for all sorts of things.

And no one ever heard of saving selvages.. so I educated them a little bit on that. I have never done anything with them.. but I know some people who do. ☺

Tomorrow I want to show you a new park we found to take our dog for a walk. So come back if you want to see a lot of green. ☺

P.S. I couldn't leave without showing you my rose bush this morning.

Hope you're having a lovely weekend!