Karen Holshouser

Hi there, dolly friends!

I featured Karen Holshouser on my beady blog, and you should check her out. She makes gorgeous doll clothes and embellishes them with two of my favorite things... beads and sequins!

You can also find her Facebook profile here, and her website is here.

Much love,

Sarah J Sequins

(and dolls)

Check out my rack!

By which I mean, the rack for my beaded doll purses. I hope you're not too disappointed.

Dolly friends, we got the photo of the purse rack taken sooner than I thought.

I helped prepare for the Idea Store jewelry sale again this year, and while I was setting up the earring table, something shiny caught my eye, the way it inevitably does. But this time, instead of beads (don't worry, I bought plenty of those, too) I saw this wire jewelry rack.

I took one look at it, with all those tiny little hooks, and I knew that I had to have it. So the next day, when it was almost time for the sale to start, I asked my friend Carol, who is in charge of beads and jewelry, if I could have dibs on it. And because she is wonderful, she told me I could. So it quickly went into my pile... along with some cute stuffed bunnies I'd found.

I'm not sure where I'll put my rack, but I do know that I plan to put plenty more on it. Beaded bracelets. More bags. Necklaces. The dolls are excited, and Melina and Mara, who have elected themselves as the Accessory Planning Committee, are full of suggestions. And by suggestions, I mean strongly-worded commands, because they obviously run the show around here.

Did you notice the blue and purple striped bag? It's new. I'm proud of that one. As I type, I have another bag in the works. As usual, I'm going to do something different for it, but what that will translate to... remains a mystery. Maybe I'll use some of the chain I bought at the jewelry sale? I will have to ask The Bosses if they approve.

Much love,

Sarah J Sequins

(And rack)

(And The Bosses, who have approved this post.)

More beaded doll purses!

Dolly friends, I have three new beaded doll bags to show you!

You might have caught a glimpse of one in my previous post, worn by the adorable Mindy:

 
Here it is again, along with two others: 

I like to try something a little different with every bag. One has two handles, one has a thicker shoulder strap, and one has... a flap!

 I'm very excited about the rainbow messenger bag, both because it's a messenger bag and because it was easy to make. After I made the bag using a circular peyote bead weaving stitch, I continued with a flat stitch on one side of the top edge. I just kept beading until The flap was long enough to close.

I was going to save this post until I had that last photo of all the bags together on the metal handbag rack (jewelry display) I bought at the Idea Store's jewelry sale, but Uncle John and I have been busy lately, so it could be awhile. But rest assured, as soon as that photo is taken, I'll post it here with a silly title like Check Out My Rack. And it may or may not have one more beaded purse on it.

Much love,

Sarah J. Sequins

(and dolls)

Beaded Doll Purses!

Dolly friends, I have a confession to make. Yesterday I stayed up until 6 in the morning, working on a new project. If you guessed that the project was two shiny new handbags of the beaded variety, you're either psychic... or skilled at reading titles. Either way, here they are!

If you follow my Saturday Sequins blog, you know that I'm a beader. I started out making jewelry for people, but recently I've been interested in making things for my dolls, including the beaded bag I shared in this post.

Lately I've been focusing more on sewing and re-rooting, but the beading bug bit me a few days ago when I saw the gorgeous statement necklace the Fashion Doll Stylist made for her dolls. I wanted to make a necklace of my own, but then I remembered that beaded bag. I looked at the book shelf across the room from me and noticed that there were two beaded rings right at my eye level. Two rings that couldn't be worn, because while they were pretty, they were also huge. Uncle John couldn't even wear one as a thumb ring.

Just like a ring is a tube, a bag is a longer tube with the bottom edges stitched together. So I added a few rows of beads to each side, added some handles, and by the time the sun came up, I was exhaustedly weaving the remaining thread tails into the beadwork. And then I fell asleep until sometime in the afternoon.

When I woke up, one of the first things I did after gasping at the clock in horror was look in my doll room for the right clothing and models. Here are Melina and Mara, holding their new accessories and excitedly planning a new set of beaded goodies. If they have their way, there will be many, many more in our future.

"I love this zigzag pattern," says Mara. "I want a belt to match. And a bracelet, and a necklace, and an anklet, and...."

 

"Look at all the space on those shelves," says Melina. "I think there's room for a boutique! We'll put some purses over there, and over there, and over there. Beaded belts will go over here. And what do you think about beaded hat bands? Does Mom make hats?"

"She can learn," says Mara. Both of them burst into maniacal laughter.

Oh, those girls! So spoiled, but so cute, which is why they get away with it. Both are sporting new hair, since both came with heads full of glue and are founding members of Glueheads Anonymous. Mara has some maroon highlights in her dark brown hair, and we're thinking of giving her a boil perm as soon as I perfect my technique. I like Melina's hair just the way it is.

Melina is wearing a pair of the pants I made. Stretch velvet leopard print, made from material I had in my collection for so long that it's practically vintage. She's also wearing a felt shirt I made by loosely following this post by Almost Unschoolers -- one of the first shirts I've ever made.

Mara is wearing a dress I made out of hand-painted fabric. If you're interested in painting your own fabric for doll clothes, I go into a little detail in this blog post. I also added some sparkly fabric paint after the dress was sewn. It makes the fabric a little stiff, but... sparkles. Enough said.

I may not actually bead enough bags for a boutique, and Uncle John's books probably wouldn't appreciate the dolls moving in on their territory, but I will definitely make more. As I type this, I have my supplies out, and I have an idea for an even crazier bag. I might even try a different beading stitch. I'll keep you all updated.

Much love,

Sarah J Sequins

(And dolls)

When dolls meet beads...

Sooner or later, I'm going to have to get my own camera.

For the past few years, Uncle John has taken photos of my jewelry work, and he's done a great job. The problem is, he doesn't have a lot of free time these days, and I know I'd overwhelm him with dolly photos. So even though I'm not a naturally gifted photographer, (understatement. One of these days, I'll show you the amazing photo I accidentally took of his mom's neck during his graduation) I'm going to give it a go.

Until then, I have a couple of older photos I can post here, starting with my favorite. Here's a beaded doll purse I made last year, complete with a beaded strap and a sequin flower as an embellishment.

If you want to make your own beaded bag, the beading stitch is an off-loom technique called peyote stitch, or more specifically, even count circular peyote stitch. When you're done, just pinch one end of the tube and stitch the bottom row of beads together. They fit together like zipper teeth. Use regular peyote stitch for the handle. I used size 11 seed beads from Whimbeads and Beyond Beadery, and to string the beads I used crystal Fireline, the 8 lb version, which you can get in the fishing section of certain stores. Other kinds of thread work, too; I made my earliest version in 2000 with sewing thread (doubled), and it's still holding together.

(Also, here's another great tutorial. I love Youtube, don't you?)

To give you an idea of the scale, here's a photo of one of my Birthstone Beauty dolls, Mona, holding the purse. She's standing with Lexi, Alison, and Corey. Each doll is wearing a dress I made, which is a simple elastic waist skirt hitched up wayyyy above the waist. I love easy sewing projects!

If you look closely, you'll see that Lexi is wearing a necklace and bracelet I made using my favorite itty bitty Chinese crystal beads, and the bottom of Ali's dress has been hand-embellished with beads and sequin flowers. That's about as much as I've ever beaded a dress, but I'm hoping to do more. Just as soon as I finish a few more re-roots and make a few dozen pairs of doll pants (my current obsession).

Here's a beaded necklace I made using a circular netting stitch. It was an experiment, and it needs to be refined a little. For starters, it doesn't have a clasp! The doll's head needs to come off before I put it on. Not very convenient, and a headache for the poor doll. I also want to make one using smaller beads -- size 15 seed beads make everyone else's eyes cross, but I love them. They're more proportionate, and they look so delicate in jewelry projects.

And that concludes the first edition of Dolls Meet Beads, as well as my first real blog post. Stay tuned for more!

Much love,

Sarah J Sequins

And dolls