doll restoration – Ari October Art

*Present for Grandma:* *Kitty cat keychain, a collaboration with my daughter Birdie* *(Censored text on the tag is Birdie’s real name*, *which she wrote herself.)*

*A drawstring* *gift bag for the kitty keychain*! *Grandma loves the ocean and pastel colors.*

*A drawstring pouch with beads on the string for Birdie! She picked the fabric.*

*Birdie modeling one of my homemade scrunchies!*

*Two sock dresses I made for dolls I restored, featured in* **this YouTube short.**

*A dress I sewed entirely by hand for my niece because my crummy first machine crapped out on me right before my flight to go visit her!*

These examples are not at all in chronological order, nor are they the full catalog of everything I’ve done! They’re just some recent projects I’m proud of.

One of the biggest regrets I had about quitting blogging was that I had nowhere to document my sewing endeavors! Solo pen on paper journaling has never worked for me in adulthood, blogging holds me accountable to a schedule, and sharing on purpose makes it feel more worthwhile.

Learning machine sewing on a bad cheap machine (Singer Esteem ii) was unbelievably frustrating, but free is free. Our ex roommates left it behind. I think in the end it made me a better sewist, the biggest problem with cheap machines is that they don’t tolerate mistakes.

Now I have since upgraded to a slightly better machine (Babylock Joy. NOT sponsored btw.) and in comparison it sews like a dream. I can see a lot of ways in which an even more expensive machine would be better, but this does everything I need it to, and it does it consistently.

Sewing is not for the faint of heart, but it is for anyone who is passionate about textiles. It can be really frustrating, but it is so unbelievably rewarding. I encourage anyone with any curiosity about it to just give it a shot. If you love the process, you will overcome any obstacle that comes your way, just for the satisfaction you get when you succeed at making something. It’s addictive!

I am by no means a patient person, and learning is very difficult for me. My passion overrides my shortcomings in this instance. If you’re afraid of just getting started, see if maybe that will be the case for you. It might not be for everyone, but if it’s for you, once you pick it up, you’ll never want to stop.

I will definitely write more about this topic in the future. But for now I need to let good enough be good enough and just publish something. It’s been a really long week, and I’ve been putting off a lot of creative projects because of other responsibilities. I want to at least publish two posts a month here, if not on a weekly basis.

Until next time, take care! Have a great weekend!

I found that I miss blogging about my art and crafting endeavors very much, and I’ve considered returning many times, but I haven’t set aside the time to do so.

The “cocoon project” as I called it, in which I stopped posting any art online for a year, did have its benefits, but it went much further than the one year I planned on. In the end there was a point in which it stopped being beneficial, and I found myself needing to share my work again. Maybe that means it’s finally time for me to break out of my cocoon and try out my new wings.

I restored most of my old posts, culling only what I truly didn’t want in my archives anymore. I had thrown them all into my drafts. I couldn’t bring myself to really delete all of them, and I’m glad that’s the case. I painstakingly made sure to keep them in their original post order, though unfortunately in some cases the true original publishing date or time is off by a bit. WordPress makes it a little too easy to mess that up!

Recently I have found myself becoming a little bit of a YouTuber. I’ve been making videos about restoring dolls, which includes some sewing. Machine sewing is a new skill I took on in the last year. I found while learning sewing I felt a strong desire to blog about the process of learning this brand new skill I have wanted to acquire my whole life.

I’m also taking on a 365 day No Buy challenge of certain 5 categories of items, which includes art supplies as well as dolls and toys. The need to blog about this has been eating at me! Sharing my journey strengthens my resolve and gives my challenge purpose.

So yeah, I’m back. I have to be! This blog is the closest thing I ever had to a consistent journal and in retrospect I can see the tangible benefits of maintaining this blog during the time I did. I deeply regret that I ever left. I know I was feeling overwhelmed, but a simple smaller hiatus would have sufficed.

More to come, hopefully quite soon. But for now… I need a nap! See you later!

Tag: doll restoration

Adventures In Sewing

The blog is back!