From My Little Hole in the Wall: A Hot Air Balloon Ride with Grace and Dolly

Where's the Alice? Well, she's coming. She's in the hopper. When I finished Paloma the Puppeteer, I took a few days to monkey around with trying to make mermaid costumes for dolls. One in particular, my Belinda, an 8" Ruby Red Galleria doll. The second costume I made came out well, but the first I wasn't happy with. I'd really like to have three for her.

I purchased almost $200 worth of metallic fabrics off Etsy, as I kept trying to find the right scale and texture, and most of it I can't use. Then the May Club Grace box arrived and I put all that aside as Dolly Dingle needed a matching dress for the Hot Air Balloon ride, which was the month of May's theme.

Its funny, but one of my "before I die" wishes has always been to take a hot air balloon ride. My husband says they're too expensive and he has no desire to go up in one, and that's where the dream sits to date. How important is this to me? Its a dream.

We need our dreams, and Grace seems to be fulfilling many of them to date. And, I just adored the multi-colored dot dress we received for her wardrobe. It came with these darling multi-colored strappy sandals that Rachel Hoffman had special made just for the dress. Between her and Diana Vining, the creativity has no bounds.

I'd been "hot air balloon" dreaming since the last Club Grace. The image of the Wizard of Oz as he takes off in his balloon without Dorothy, has stayed with me since childhood. What a wonderful way to travel! I'd even considered making Grace a purse of that very balloon with the words "Omaha State Fair" stitched on it, but didn't. It was beyond the effort what I was willing to put into it.

So, yes. This months' Club Grace box was a delight to receive. I immediately started looking for fabric with tiny multi-colored dots, and received a half yard of dot fabric

that just wouldn't do. Way too big, A quarter inch dot didn't sound too big, but it was. So I tried again and found a vintage cotton - you know, that lovely thinly woven cotton that was never intended for quilting - on Etsy, and hit the BIN on it. When it arrived I was thrilled. Its so delicate and was the perfect size dot for Dolly Dingle. The best thing about this vintage cotton is that there is plenty of it left to make something for another doll some time. Rare is the time I come across a fabric I'm in love with, and this was it.

I made her a little summer dress with shoulder straps and flounces. I still haven't quite figured out the length each flounce should be, so I simply gather and pin and cut off the length if its too long. The rule of thumb was three times the width of the bodice edge, but you can't do that with the second flounce. I don't even enjoy making ruffles and flounces, but I do enjoy seeing them on my dolls.

I was tickled to find a box of Dots candies in the Club Grace box as well. Rachel always includes candy. Chocolate most of the time, but the warm weather is here and chocolate melts. However, it was brilliant to think of Dots candies. I haven't had those since I was a child. Gummy Bears are much better tasting, but the novelty is rich.

Diana Vining had created and included a printable page of paper toys where you could make Grace a Dots purse. Included was a cut out of a tiny Dots candy box to make for the dolls. Now why didn't I think of that?! I'm so glad she did because I had so much fun with them, and the idea.

Since her files are pdf files and I've not been real successful turning them into jpegs, I searched online for Dots and found an image of a 17oz. box that would be the right format for a back pack for Dolly. Have to have some originality!

Like with Grace's first Summer Fling tote, I printed the image on printer fabric and made it from that. Its not the greatest fabric, but is perfect for totes and back packs.

Thinking as I write, I might have created Dots candy earrings for Grace, but then I would have had to look for beads that looked like little high-crowned domes. Now that I've had the idea, I may just make her pair and pretend they're Dots.

The real challenge was making these sandals for Dolly to match Grace's heels. I'd just made red sandals for her so it wasn't a great stretch, but I wanted the multi-colored straps on hers like Grace's. The process is a bit like braiding or weaving, took a little effort, but they came out cute. As I'm getting better with shoeing those tiny feet, I may remake her original black Maryjanes. I was never happy with the way they came out. The height of the back heel form needed to be longer. Shoes take a long time to make.

Then of course, Grace finally got her hot air balloon purse. The basket hangs from little chains. I used the same technique for this that I used for the baubles hanging from Paloma's cornette.

I pursued the Dots paper toy page a little further. The candy boxes were the last things I made. Grace needed one for her purse and Dolly needed one to hold in her hand. It was such a darling little box and looked adorable tucked under her fingers, but I went a step further and made it into a wristlet so it would display better.

I now have a festive and spring-timey display for May's Club Grace. I've added lots of fun and beautiful images below for you to enjoy, some with notations. I've decided to tackle one more mermaid costume for Belinda and if that goes well, I'll make the third, then share them with you.

One of the reasons I've been hesitating with the new Alice is that my doll shelves are so crowded, I won't have a place to display her. I can't stop creating though, so I must start letting go of some of my dolls or putting them away for a rainy day.

Before I sign off, I have to let you know that Blogspot is messing with me again. They want me to export all the subscriptions to something called CSV. I read their instructions and looked for two hours for this "analyze" thing they wanted me to start with and couldn't find it. Even my husband, Mr. Tech, tried and couldn't find it. There is no online support help for this blog either. I'm going to keep trying as YOU are as important to me as my keeping this journal. Their changes start in July. From what I've read, if I don't figure out how to export the subscriptions, you'll no long get an email when I write a new post. This bothers me a great deal, but if I can't find out how to do this, I hope you'll find me again and re-subscribe. Taking you with me on this creative journey has been my inspiration. The blog is not going away. I'll keep writing and sharing. Its just the current subscriptions that will go away if I can't export them. I hope you'll continue to follow me for years to come. If you don't get an email from me in July, please look for missemouse.blogspot in an engine search.

If any one of you can give me a clue about this export thing, please write in and help me out. I am so technically challenged. And, I'm just learning how to use my first smartphone, too.

Wishing you all the best and most out of this glorious time of year! Up, up and away!

Love, Melissa