Back in stock...our most popular TaDollie designs.

Order now in time for Valentine's Day!

Find them {here}.

 

TaDollies are now in the shop

Find these great girls and more in our {Shop}.

TaDollie Sale Tonight on Instagram! 8pm CST

We have made 12 TaDollies just waiting to be customized by you!

These will ship in time for Christmas.

For sale tonight on Instagram (not in our Etsy shop).

Find TaDaCreations on Instagram {here}. 

When you purchase, you will get to choose:

   ~skin color,   ~hair color/style,   ~eye color,

   ~word to be embroidered along front skirt hem

TaDollies are $57 (+ $8 shipping for 1 or $12 for 2)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The final four TaDollies have flown the coop.

These four beauties are leaving today. Two little boys will be adopted soon from Ethiopia, by two Moms in waiting that are good friends. I love that they will each have a built in little buddie in each other.

 

And two little girls will soon be holding their new friends. They are as cute and bubbly as I'm sure their namesakes are.

 

Thank you to everyone who has supported my little business by ordering dolls these past couple of months. You got us through a challenging time and I enjoyed making every single one of them.

 

I made 16 dolls in the past 3 months!

 

 

A few weeks ago, these gorgeous ladies graduated college together. Abby gave her best friends a doll to match their personality and her mom gave Abby one to keep as well. They have a lifetime of friendship before them. I pray that they will continue to uphold each other and be one another's biggest fan.

*Sydney, Grace, Abby and Jazz

 

Dolls are done! Next it's on to poodle skirts for our VBS play. But that's after a six day trip to Mississippi, by way of St. Louis and Memphis, with my mom for my cousin's wedding. I am looking forward to lots of great fellowship, food, fun, sun and sleep! And hearing about the adventures David and the kids have while I'm gone. ;)

Final TaDollies {In the Shop}

With only nine weeks left of school I'm running out of time for doll making. When I took them out of the shop a bit ago I had four inquaries about when they would next be available. So in an effort to not do that to you again (stop abruptly, that is), I have devised a plan to let you know exactly how many more I can make.

I have made separate listings for each doll I have time for in my schedule. They are all numbered with "sell by" and "ship by" dates in their titles. Basically I have 7 weeks of sewing time and can make two dolls per week. If any one doll doesn't get ordered by her "order by" date, she will not be made. When they are gone, they are gone. I will not be making anything custom over the summer or until after next Christmas. Life just gets too hectic over here. Plus I have a goal of making two more quilt tops for myself and then quilting all three. Sounds dreamy!

 

So, if you'd still like a doll, hop on over to {my shop} and snatch one up.

You can even order her as a mermaid.  Eeek!

 

p.s. If you have any questions, please note that my daughter is having her tonsils removed tomorrow so it may take me a day or two to get back to you, but I will. Thanks!

Another Sweet Doll...

...for another sweet girl.

 

She loves purple and her mom sent me the cutest line of purple fabrics to work with.

I added velvet ribbon (I recently bought light pink, hot pink and more turquoise) and vintage blue flower buttons. Isn't she adorable?

I especially love the addition of the extra border at the bottom. Her name would have been swalloed up by the house print so this was my solution.

 

I tell ya I get to work with some of the neatest people.
Thank you HeidiLynne for sharing your story with me!

Making a Dollie {Tips and Tricks}

This little cutie went home last week. And as I was making another one this week I hought I'd share a couple of tips about doll making.

 

 

If you've ever thought about creating one yourself, Nicole Owen's free pattern can be found {here}.

I have tweaked it some by adding the skirt, bodice bib, pocket and different hand shape. But the process is the same and the basic pattern is brilliant.

One of the hardest parts is sewing the arms and legs into the seems. The kind of hard that can leave you scratching your head wondering why you ever thought you could make a doll in the first place. But really it's only that way if you stuff the legs and arms as full as I do. I like a more plump doll. And for my own girls I didn't stuff them very much and I have regretted it to the point of redoing them.

So, if you are in to stuffing, I suggest you stuff the arms and legs to the top and then use your finger to push it way down so you have about an inch open at the top. Then pin it there so the stuffing stays down. This will make the portion that lays inside the seem lay as flat as it can. I also like to stitch those seems with my zipper foot so I can have less of my foot in the way. When the side of your foot butts up to the stuffed apendage you will be tearing your hair out and then tearing the seem out. Trust me.

{Psst...I've been drolling over this ^ sweet stack of fabrics lately. I think it wants to be a chevron striped quilt top with alternating white stripes, don't you?}

The last tip that I only just realized a couple of months ago is to attach the arms first and then the legs. I can't beleive I had been doing that backwards all these years. It seriously helps to not have the legs in the way when you are lining up the arms perfectly. Duh!

The next tweak I may give the pattern is to make the body itself 1/2-1" wider than I have been. It gets really tight around the base of my machine once the skirt has been added and I'm sewing ribbon to her waist.

Anywho...just thought you'd like to know. :)

I'll have another little lady to share with you tomorrow.

{SHOP NOTE} If you'd rather have me make your wee one a doll, I'll be taking more orders in 2 weeks. Allison is having her tonsils and adnoids removed next Tuesday so I'll be helping her recover first. Thankfully it's spring break next week, but she'll have to miss school for another week after that. She's nervouse as you can imagine so prayers would be much appreciated. After that, I'll have about 6 weeks left before school is out (yikes!) which will put a stop to any new orders for quite a while with the exception of an occasional ready-to-ship item as I have time.

Thanks for your support of TaDa! these past two months. I hadn't really intended to open up again, but because of you and some ebay sales I did, we were able to replace our stove and save for Allison's surgery. The glass top cracked recently so we were eating a lot of waffles and crock pot meals. Now my counters are clear of alternate cooking devices. Yay! ;)

Mermaids {Cuteness Overload}

 

These pieces left this morning. For a special little girls' birthday.

 

Or Easter basket if her mama can wait that long. ;)

 

I'll be making a couple of these skirt and tank sets as partial customs soon.

Each little water bubble has a bead and sequin sewn to it to catch the light.

The tail on her hat is made from fabric that sparkles a bit.

This TaDollie was really fun to make.

 

I'm glad she could see my vision just from this drawing. Hehe...

I hope I nailed it for her.

I'm diggin the new rounded head. How about you?

Love these ruffles and the huge ric rac that reminds me of ocean waves.

And of course these vintage buttons from my aunt's stash.

*swoon*

I'm exhausted! Time to clean up the tornado that is all around me.

Creativity and a neat house rarely go hand-in-hand. 

But it is sew worth it, I think.

*sigh*

TaDollie Options

You can customize your TaDollie purchase with the following...

1. Choose a skin color: peach, lt brown or brown

2. Choose a hairstyle from #1-#7

3. Choose a hair color: yellow, lt brown, brown, black or red

4. First name (or one word) to be hand embroidered along the front hem of skirt (or edge of boy doll)

So long girls!

Two little sisters are going to have a fun mail day this week.   
 

I can just see them opening the box with mom.

I hope they love all the little details that went into
making their dolls perfect.

 

Enjoy ladies!

Forever Family TaDollie and her Sisters

Now that she has arrived (you can read about it here), I can share with you the other little treats I tucked inside Sunshine's box. ;)

That's right!  Her box had not just one, but three dollies in it for the soon to be three Cooper sisters. I keep thinking about how fun that must be for Jenn as she is one of three sisters and now she will have three daughters.

Jenn knew that Sunshine's doll was coming. As soon as she announced that they were adopting again I told her that I wanted to make another one. When the time got closer, we planned it out a bit togehter. But she had no idea I was making her older daughters dolls too.

I knew right away I just had to do it. I kept thinking about how much fun it would be for all the girls to have similar dolls to play with together. My hope was that these dollies might play even a teeny tiny role in the excitement leading up to  a new sister and aid the three little ladies in their bonding together as sisters once she arrived.

So I got down to business and planned out all the little details. I have always loved the sweet bob haircut that Jenn's "Miss Middle" has sported for years. I think I first saw her in photos when she was two and that's how I'll always think of her. I know that Jenn adored that cut on her too. So even though she is growing her hair out I thought it would be fitting for her doll to have her "signature" look.

And if you know Jenn's girls, you know they can usually be seen with flowers in their hair so of course everyone got a sweet flower with vintage button embellishment. I love that along with the matching fabric to the quilt Jenn made, she also sent some vintage trim that I added to their bodices and Miss Middle's waist.  Aren't those little pink hearts just the sweetest? I was thrilled when I saw that my Moda Dream On fabrics would be the perfect addition to her vintage sheets for the knee socks and hood.

Anna has her own room with a growing pre-teen style all her own. And though I didn't own a single purple print, instead of going shopping I knew I could rock the aqua, lime and black just fine.  Check out her room {here}. I think her dollie will fit in perfectly, don't you? I also figured, with that growing style of hers, she might be a bit over the "ric rac" look. So when I added a little to the hem of her dollie's dress I made it as subtle as ric ras can be. You probably realize by now that I'm obsessed with the stuff and back in the day Jenn's clothing designs used her fair share of ric rac too. So I figured Jenn would enjoy seeing it on all of the dolls too.

I also added a felt embrodired sun to the bottom of Sunshine's dress but never did take a photo of it because I wanted to keep at least that much about her doll a surprise for Jenn since I was showing photos before she arrived. You can get a peek of it over {here} in Jenn's photos. Pinking shears made the cute little sunrays.

And yes, I even looked through photos on her blog to see what side her girls parted their hair on. Can you say OCD? As a mom of twins that's just something I think about. And wouldn't you know, just like my girls, hers part their hair on opposite sides from each other too...teehee...

I also enjoyed picking out different verses for each of their dolls. Jenn picked Sunshine's, but I got to pick the other two. I think these are verses that every young lady should have tucked inside her heart for life.

Anna's doll

 

Philippians 4:8
"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."

 

Julia's doll

 Galatians 5:22

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."

 

And a great big shout out again to Nicole Owens for creating such a fun softie doll pattern that my dolls are based on. I've tweaked it a bit over the years but the bones are still hers. Without that pattern I don't think I would have been bitten by the dollie bug. Together Amy and I made a ton and at last count I've given away 20 of the some 60 that have been made. I love that I have been able to bless some 20 prescious children through my love of crafting.  A lot of joy comes from giving of your talents and these have been no exception.

Thank you Jenn for allowing me to be even a small part of your journey to your "Sunshine."

 

Matthew 25:40

"The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'"

 

Proverbs 31:13

"She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands."

 

Support Small Businesses Saturday {25% off in the Shop!}

The final two TaDollies of 2012 are on sale!

 

25% off today only. 

 

Prices go back up tomorrow.

 

Find them {here}.

Final TaDollies of 2012 {New in the Shop}

Gnome Girl
 

Miss Meadowsweet

 

Find them {here}.

 

 

TaDollies in the shop for a limited time!

Get a jump-start on your Christmas shopping!

Find them {here}.

Oh the cuteness!!!

This little cutie is on her way to the Easter bunny.

{hop hop hop}



I hope we get to make more TaDollies with glasses.

She was super fun to make.



p.s. Her mom sent us the gorgeous Matilda Jane {scarf} to use for her dress.