felt wee folk :: blog tour

Today I am excited and honored to be participating in the blog tour for Salley Mavor's new book Felt Wee Folk: New Adventures... And please read to the end of this post because there is a *give-away.*

So, let's talk about Salley's new book. I was expecting an update of the first edition of Felt Wee Folk, but the variety of doll designs in Felt Wee Folk: New Adventures goes far beyond the first book; in the new edition there are doll house families, wedding cake toppers, a nativity scene, nursery rhyme & storybook characters, plus a wide assortment of elfin folk and fairies. The array is enchanting.

And now I have an embarrassing confession to make.  I've owned a copy of the first edition of Wee Felt Folk for nearly four years. I regularly pulled it from the shelf to admire Salley's use of color, the intricacy of her embroidery, and the fanciful scenarios in which her dolls were posed.  I loved the book to bits, but had never made anything from it!  When Salley invited me to participate in her blog tour for the new edition, I knew it was time to get down to brass tacks and actually make a doll (or two) in the style of Salley Mavor!

After my embarrassing confession, I will say right up front that Felt Wee Folk: New Adventures is not just a book to look at -- it is a craft book to be used and loved. These little figures would, indeed, be perfect for a dollhouse family, a pocket friend for a child, or for anyone who would like to add a bit of charm and magic to their surroundings.  

Truly, the most difficult thing about this book was deciding which character(s) to create!  I was drawn to the fairies and elfin folk, but even then, there were so many choices.  I finally settled on creating a pair of elfin brothers, modeled after my own two boys, and narrowed my color choices down to tones of green with some brown embroidery.  Once these decisions were made, all I had to do was follow the clear, step-by-step directions from the book. (And an important note to anyone who might feel intimidated by delicate embroidery; these dolls could be made without any embroidered decorations to their clothing at all, and they would be just as sweet!!)

According to the directions, I used embroidery floss to wrap the wire bodies, and I am pleased to tell you that wrapping the little arms & legs was a much easier process than I had anticipated.  The bodies are quite tiny, so not only did wrapping the limbs require only a small amount of embroidery floss, the process of wrapping took almost no time at all.

Then I moved on to my favorite parts -- painting the faces and embroidering the clothing.

And here is the result -- two tiny elfin brothers!

Posing their wire bodies was a lot of fun, and their mischievous faces makes it appear that they will be up to some naughty pranks at any moment...

Now for details about the *give-away*: please leave a comment below for an opportunity to win a copy of Felt Wee Folk: New Adventures. And just for fun, in your comment, you can state which doll/ character you would choose to make first from this delightful book.  If the winner is a USA resident, they will receive a hard-copy, and if outside the USA, the winner will be sent an e-book version.  The winner will be chosen by random number generator after one week.  Good luck to all!

COMMENTS FOR THE GIVE-AWAY ARE NOW CLOSED.  Congratulations to Ginny who wrote, "Love how your little elfin guys came out.  I would make flower fairies to start. Have a request for fairies from the grands!"  Ginny, please email me your address so C&T can send you a book!

If you are too eager to wait for the results of the give-aways, you can purchase a signed copy of Salley's book here through her etsy shop (and with book purchases through her etsy shop, Salley will also include a poster, notecard and faux-flowers for fairy-making).  Additionally, books and all supplies for making dolls can be purchased at A Child's Dream (this craft basket includes a copy of the book and has everything you would need to make dozens of dolls). And, of course, Salley's book may also be purchased from Amazon.

Below is a list of blogs participating in the tour.  There will be a book give-away at each blog plus new insights and perspectives on Felt Wee Folk: New Adventures during the journey, so you might want to follow along. C&T publishing is generously supplying books for every stop during the blog tour -- hard copies for winners in USA and e-books for international winners!

March 3 :: Mary Corbet - Needle n’ Thread

March 6 :: Mimi Kirchner - Doll 

March 10 :: Margaret Bloom – we bloom here 

March 12 :: C&T Publishing Blog 

March 13 :: Kimara – Wee Folk Art 

March 15 :: Phoebe Wahl