I am just going to come out and say it ... I did not enjoy this project one bit. It seemed the perfect project. Rosemary absolutely LOVES mermaids and I love to sew. The moment I saw this was one of the projects in the Wee Wonderfuls: 24 Dolls to Sew and Love book, I wanted to get it. Then I was lucky enough to realize she was offering the Mermaiden pattern for free. I anticipated loving the little mermaid and then asking for the book for my birthday ... but I'm sad to say I don't even want to try it again.
It could very well be me. I have never made a doll before, so this is completely new territory. I had so much trouble sewing the body in a way that it didn't look like an alien, that I decided to enlarge it significantly. That helped, but I still wasn't thrilled with it.
Honestly if Rosemary hadn't been begging for birthday present hints and I hadn't told her I was making something, I would have given up. Time is running short (her birthday is tomorrow) and I just didn't know what else to do. I spent a lot more time on this than I intended, and sadly it was really frustrating and I'm not confident it will hold up.
I'd love to know if any of you have tried any patterns from this book and how you felt about it? I have long been dreaming about sewing toys and I am now wondering if my toy making days are over as quickly as they started.
In any case, my soon-to-be 5-year-old will have her own homemade mermaid doll tomorrow. And I can only hope it will hold up long enough for her to grow tired of it. I think I'll go take a shower now.
It turned out cute! For realz.
ReplyDeleteI didn't start enjoying making dolls until about a month ago. I loved the outcome, so I kept on, but they can be very fussy and hard to sew. I finally feel confident about making them, and really like sewing them, but it took me 3 years. ;)