Confessions and Creations.

Sub heading: Better worried than evil!

To better understand  my sub heading I will have to delve a little into who I am. Okay, so far you know that I love to craft and I can out-talk almost anyone on any particular subject but let me introduce you to my 'little me'! As a child I was extremely empathetic and a tear was often shed over road kill, prejudices, sad movies and the like. I always bought the ugliest teddy so that he would know what it was like to be loved and on the rare occasion, performed a heart transplant or two on a stuffed creature. I remember as a child tucking all my toys into my bed and falling asleep on the floor because there was no space for me in the bed, true story. I never kept pets and tell people that I am not an 'animal person' but the truth be told, I cannot stand out living anything and am so scared of getting attached to a creature that might not stay around for as long as I do. I never quite out grew this and even though at times I feel like I have been desensitized and that I have seen it all, all it takes is a tug on the heart strings from a advert about human endurance or a heart-felt song to get the old water works running.

Now lets get to the matter at hand and you will hopefully see where I am going with this. Remember that free spirit amigurumi I was talking about? Well many a tear of frustration has been shed over this doll and it has taken every ounce of determination to see this thing through. Since the pattern is not a local one, some of the items needed to complete this project had to be substituted with something local. For example, our pipe cleaners are half the size of that required by the pattern and while I have no idea where to find a wooden dowel for the neck, a clothes peg has worked quite nicely. There is however one thing that for the life if me I could not substitute and that is the safety eyes. All I can find is 'googley' eyes and that is definitely not going to be the look I am going for. There was only one thing I could do and it is shameful to say the least. This is my confession and hopefully not one I will ever do again. I scoured the china shops for the most pathetic teddy I could find. Why pathetic? Well , maybe because no one would buy it and what I was about to do with it is far more humane than condemning him to a life in the bottom of a manky old box in the store, ridiculed by his more attractive comrades. So I finally found a very dilapidated bunny. I bought him for ten rand, took him to the shop and put him out of his misery. (please send your children out of the room as the next part is extremely unnerving) and cut his face off. There, I said it! I gouged out his eyes and transplanted them onto my amigurumi doll. I had no choice, I had to do it. Was it worth it? Yes, I suppose. Would I do it again? Not anytime soon.

Only made one shoe. I have to figure out my camera so that I
can get better pics than my miserable camera on my phone.

Little poser! The pipe cleaners are great at getting her 'poseable'.

Why so worried little ami? Maybe it is because you only have one shoe.
Don't stress, it will get done and so will your hair.

So now my doll is almost complete and it really was worth all the heart ache and sweat. She really is a cutie and while she is a little 'off' in certain areas, I think she has loads of personality. I made eye lids for her and she had a terribly evil look on her face. I have to ability to turn any ami evil with my odd placement of eyebrows and eye lids. I took them off and replaced them with new ones, sewn at a different angle and now she has a more worried look ...but that I can live with. Her ears are off too and I am still contemplating adjusting them.

The awesome thing about this amigurumi doll (to add) is that I get to make loads of wigs for her in all different styles and colours. I am looking forward to that the most. Oh, and the the clothes making. I love making petite outfits for the dolls.
For a more in depth tutorial, look no further, here is a complete step by step photo tutorial to help you with your intructions. I found this very helpful and she has loads of amazing pics of finished dolls and hopefully one day I can make a doll that looks half as good as hers.