Having been hugely impressed by the beautiful Matryoshka doll bags that Rosehip (July 12th post) had made, I had a go at a couple of Matryoshka appliques myself this weekend.
The first one I made is this blue one - everything, including the thread, is thrifted materials (except the tiny bits of red felt for her rosy cheeks, and the brown felt for her hair - they were from my off-cuts bag). I was quite pleased how she turned out but the blue wool material was a bit of a b*gger to sew around her face (it kept slipping out of place).
So I had a go at this pink version. The main body of the doll is made from 100 per cent wool felt (sadly, not thrifted) although everything else was thrifted (again, apart from the felt for the hair and cheeks). This applique was much easier to sew using the felt as it somehow had a lot more body and a lot less 'give' in it. Also, second time around, I'd realised that I needed to make the opening for the face a lot smaller than the actual face so that there was plenty of material to play with when it came to sewing it all together.
The appliques each measure approx. 7 1/2 inches high, and I'm hoping to use them on a winter-weight bag or two in the near future.
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