kathy goes to haiti

Whenever I lament of how I have too much in the cupboard waiting to be used, I really need to think of how many there are who have too little. In order to indeed use up some stash and benefit someone else, I made this rag doll using the instructions on the Dolly Donations blog and it will be off to Haiti later this year.

The doll is entirely recycled, made from things that I had in the cupboard - the face, arms and legs are from a dress that I bought at a yard sale, the dress is from an Esprit romper, the hair is a scrap of black cotton velveteen, the face done with embroidery floss that I bought at an estate sale, and the stuffing is taken out of a cushion that didn't fare very well when I washed it.

The pattern provided on the Dolly Donations blog is very straightforward and the sewing was easy. Of course it took me weeks to complete but only because I got distracted doing other things. The most time-consuming element was embroidering the face, embroidery being, as with many of my crafting endeavours, something that I do on an as-needs basis. I have looked at a number of embroidery books over the years but this really was 'make it up as I go along'. I'm quite happy with the result and that it doesn't just look plain scary.