Summertime: Part 1 – Tree Trunks

Posted on July 3, 2024 by Salley Mavor

In this Part 1 of the series about making Summertime, I share photos and commentary about how I created the tree trunks, which provide the framework for the whole composition. In this post, I reveal what’s inside the trunks and show how I covered them with felt and embroidered embellishment. Future posts will discuss other elements of the piece, including the treehouses, plants, raspberries, wee folk, and the Baltimore Oriole. So far, I’ve written an overview of the piece, Part 1 – Tree Trunks, Part 2 – Tree Houses, Part 3 – leaves, stems & branches, Part 4 – Baltimore Oriole (body), Part 5 – Baltimore Oriole (head and feet), Part 6 – rose vine, Part 7 – raspberry plants, and Part 8 – stitching flora.

Summertime is the summer scene in a series of four seasonal landscapes that capture the wonder and magic of the natural world. Posters, note cards, prints, bookmarks, and jigsaw puzzles of Summertime and the other scenes in the series (Frosty Morning, Mossy Glen and Harvest Time) are available in my Etsy Shop.

See the Four Seasons Series and dozens of other works in my exhibition, To Every Season: Works by Salley Mavor at the New England Quilt Museum, Sept. 9 – Dec. 31, 2025.

Before threading the first needle, I pictured the scene in my head for months, mostly while taking walks or riding on the bike path. During this early stage of the process, I made a lot of thumbnail sketches and worked out the basic design. Once I could clearly see a path forward, I enlarged a drawing to the full 19″ x 24″ size and used it as a simple guideline. All of the color choices, design changes, and stitching details would come later, as the piece evolved.

I formed the structure of the tree with insulated electrical wire of different thicknesses that I found at the hardware store. To make forked branches, I stripped the plastic coating at the ends and wound the exposed copper wire around the adjoining branches. The whole idea was to make an armature that was flexible and strong enough to bend and manipulate as needed.

To build up the thickness of the tree, I wrapped the wire with cut strips of cotton quilt batting, which I roughly stitched in place.

The next step was to cover the padded wire with wool felt. I started by stitching felt pieces to the back of the tree trunk and branches, making a flat surface that would eventually be sewn to the background sky.

Then I stitched pieces of felt over the curved front. The photo below gives a view from the back, as I overlapped the front strip of felt over the back piece. The messy seams will all be covered with embroidery and hidden in the back.

After covering the tree with felt, I stitched a zigzag “bark” texture up and down the branches with pima cotton.

At first, I liked how the pink and tan variegated thread looked, but soon realized that it alone was too subtle and needed more saturated accent colors to help it pop in contrast to the sky background.

I added bright turquoise and then decided to go even further with hot pink, which I also used to create a cross-hatched effect along the sides of the trunks.

I used finer gauge wire to form the smaller branches and wrapped them with embroidery floss.

I sewed some glass beads that have been stored in my stash for 20 years to the tips of the branches. It felt so good to finally put them to use!

Stay tuned for future posts in this series about Summertime. In Part 2, I will show how I made the thatch-roofed treehouses nestled into the tree trunks. If you want to receive email notices when I publish new posts, please subscribe to this blog using the form below.

To keep up with new posts, please subscribe to this blog. Your contact info will not be sold or shared. If you’d like to see more frequent photos tracking the projects in my studio, please follow me on Facebook, Instagram and BlueSky.

Summertime overview

Posted on June 2, 2024 by Salley Mavor

With warmer weather approaching, it seems like a good time to begin a new multi-part series about making Summertime, the fourth of my seasonal landscapes. It feels so good to have completed all four seasons in this project! I started making them during the pandemic as a way to focus on something positive and healing. UPDATE: So far, I’ve written Part 1 – Tree Trunks, Part 2 – Tree Houses, Part 3 – leaves, stems & branches, Part 4 – Baltimore Oriole (body), Part 5 – Baltimore oriole (head and feet), Part 6 – rose vine, Part 7 – raspberry plants, Part 8 – stitching flora and Part 9 – moss, sky and stone wall.

Over the coming weeks and months, I will share photos, videos and commentary about different aspects of the project, from raspberries to tree houses and their inhabitants to a life size Baltimore Oriole.

Summertime is the summer scene in a series of seasonal landscapes that capture the wonder and magic of the natural world. See the Four Seasons Series and dozens of other works in my exhibition, To Every Season: Works by Salley Mavor at the New England Quilt Museum, Sept. 9 – Dec. 31, 2025.

Posters, note cards, bookmarks, and jigsaw puzzles of Summertime and the other scenes in the series (Frosty Morning, Mossy Glen, and Harvest Time) are available in my Etsy Shop.

The following video shows how I arranged different parts of the scene before sewing the pieces in place.

I know that you like to see my fingers in action, so I took videos of different parts of the process. Sometimes I weeded the garden and stitched on the same day, so I hope that my dirty fingernails aren’t too distracting! Here are 2 previews of making the bird’s beak and sewing raspberries. There’s lots more to show, so stay tuned! If you want to receive email notices when I publish new posts, please subscribe to this blog using the form below.

Upcoming Events

Posted on May 12, 2024 by Salley Mavor

I’m excited to announce some upcoming virtual and in-person events that you may be interested in attending. Please read ahead for details.

May 29th at 2PM EDT – Textile Talk, Textiles in 3D (online only)
June 14th at 1PM – Slide Talk, Once Upon a Stitch: The Artistic Journey of Salley Mavor at the Osterville Village Library in Osterville, MA (in-person only)
July 27, 2025 – March 2, 2026 – Exhibition, Enchanting Threads: The Art of Salley Mavor at the Albany Institute of History and Art (in-person only)

TEXTILE TALK – May 29 at 2PM EDT (GMT/UTC-4 Textiles in 3D with Salley Mavor, Barbara Schneider, and Jean Sredl

Join us for an engaging discussion with three artists creating with fiber in 3D! Link to sign up: www.saqa.com/textiletalks
Textile Talks are always free and open to everyone. They are presented each week by Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA), International Quilt Museum, Surface Design Association, and Quilt Alliance.

Once Upon a Stitch: The Artistic Journey of Salley Mavor
Osterville Village Library in Osterville, MA on June 14th at 1pm.
I will give a slide talk about my life’s work and offer some insight as to where it came from, how it’s evolved and why I do it.
A book signing will follow the presentation.

UPCOMING EXHIBITION
Enchanting Threads: The Art of Salley Mavor
Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, NY.
July 27, 2024 – March 2, 2025
Opening Reception for the Artist – Fri., July 26, 5:30 – 7:30PM

Opening reception with the artist on July 27th. Artist talk TBA later in the fall.

Starting this summer, The Albany Institute of History and Art will host a major exhibition of over 80 bas-relief pieces and sculptural objects from my collection. Enchanting Threads: The Art of Salley Mavor will be on view for 7 months, from July 27, 2024 – February 23, 2025. The show will include a large selection of my artwork from the past 30 years, including Bedtime Stitches, the touring exhibit of original illustrations for my most recent picture book, MY BED: Enchanting Ways to Fall Asleep around the World. Also on display will be recent works that explore cultural diversity, migration, fashion, the natural world, and a range of social narratives, from the everyday to topical subjects.

Bur Oak Fairies

Posted on April 25, 2024 by Salley Mavor

After a 4 year delay, I’m finally sharing photos, videos and commentary about how I made a pair of larger than usual fairies. A while back, a fan from the Midwest kindly sent a boxful of bur oak acorn caps. They are humongous compared to regular run-of-the-mill acorn caps that I used as hats for the 3-inch tall dolls in my how-to book Felt Wee Folk.

I really liked the hatlike quality of these caps, but to use them, I had to adjust my design to accommodate larger 5 to 6 inch figures with 1 1/4″ heads. To start, I painted faces on a bunch of wooden beads and ball knobs, until I was satisfied with a few impish ones with upturned pointy noses.

I increased the size of their pipe cleaner bodies and made hands to scale. It was also an opportunity to use larger faux flower petals from my collection for the skirt.

I made a peplum jacket pattern and cut it out of felt, which I embellished with a flower petal collar, beads, embroidery floss, and metallic thread.

Because these fairies have nice big feet, I could more easily cobble shoes for them. This pair of slippers are made out of felt, with a bit of wire reinforcement to give them a pointy elfin look.

Here’s a video of my work table that I shared on Facebook and Instagram in 2020. The response to the video was mixed. Some people were uncomfortable with the disorderly jumble, while others were relieved to see another creative space that looked as messy as theirs.

I attached felt wigs to the bead heads using the same techniques that I teach in my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk. This doll’s hair is made with variegated single ply Merino wool. I created tangled ringlets by stitching yarn up an down the long tresses.

Just as with the smaller fairies, I made wings out of faux flower petals. But because of the increased scale, these wings were too floppy. I gave them extra support by sewing wire along the outside edge, going around a few times until the wire was completely hidden by thread.

In this video, you can watch over my shoulder while I stitch wire to the outside edge of a wing and embroider a felt tailcoat.

I dressed one of the fairies in an embroidered felt vest and leafy cravat…

and a green felt tailcoat embellished with metallic thread.

At 5 and 6 inches tall, they are the largest and best dressed fairies I’ve ever seen!

The Bur Oak Fairies’ permanent home is in the West Falmouth Library, downstairs in the Moira Shea children’s room. You can find them hovered over a fairy house made by Andrea Riggillo.

Eddie’s Baby Banner

Posted on April 10, 2024 by Salley Mavor

I’m happy to share the news that our new grandchild Eddie was born on Feb. 15th, 2024. He’s named Edward, after his maternal grandfather, but his parents, Mary and our son Peter, call him Eddie. So, that’s the name I put on his baby banner. Our family is growing so fast, I can hardly believe it! Little Eddie and his cousin Elias were born 13 months apart and we hope they become good buddies (see Elias’s banner here).

MAKING THE BANNER
Read ahead to see photos, videos, and commentary about making Eddie’s baby banner. I’ve divided the post into different sections, including wrapping wire letters and embellishing felt borders, which are are some of the more distinguishable features of my banners. To see posts about this and other celebratory banners I’ve made over the years for family and friends, scroll through the archives here.

WRAPPING WIRE LETTERS
After choosing a color scheme and picking out pieces of felt and thread, I wrote out Eddie’s name in cursive handwriting with a pencil on paper. Fortunately, his name could be written in one continuous line, which doesn’t always happen. I then wrapped a length of DMC memory thread (a kind of wire) with 3 strands of variegated embroidery floss (see video below). Using the drawing as a template, I bent the wire to form his name and stitched the letters together where they touched.

In this video, I demonstrate wrapping DMC memory thread with 3 strands of embroidery floss to create numbers and letters for Eddie’s birth weight. I thought it would be easier to see the process using contrasting wire and thread colors. Of course, using the same color wire and thread is better for hiding gaps and inconsistencies. It takes a lot of practice to get the hang of wrapping the wire. If you’ve learned to wrap arms and legs for the wee folk dolls in my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk, you’ve got a jump start on mastering this technique.

EMBELLISHING FELT BORDERS
I love embellishing with blanket stitching, especially with variegated thread. It’s a simple, but effective way to create an edge that looks clean and assertive, while also displaying a handmade quality. For me, it’s important to show that a real person made it, not a machine. For this banner, I created layers of felt pieces, which I blanket stitched with pima cotton (Watercolours by Caron).

In this is a video, I demonstrate embellishing borders for the banner.

The border around Eddie’s birth date needed perking up, so I added beads.

CANDY CANE STRIPES
When I finished making numbers for the year 2024 and laid them out, they looked kind of plain. So, I decided to wind a single strand of orange embroidery floss around the wire numbers (see video below).

I looked through my driftwood collection and found the right sized stick that would work as a hanging bar. I braided cord to make a strap and drilled holes in the stick big enough to thread cord through.

This video shows how I chain stitched spirals on the scalloped flaps at the bottom of the banner.

We’re pleased as punch with little Eddie and look forward to getting to know him as he grows!

Cover Madness at The Horn Book

Posted on March 25, 2024 by Salley Mavor

UPDATE: I just received word that my 2012 cover was voted the winner of The Horn Book Magazine’s Cover Madness contest in the January/February category! As part of this year’s centennial celebration of the magazine’s founding, this “very-subjective, not-serious event” will continue with more contests to pick covers from previous issues published in March/Aril, May/June, etc. By the end of Cover Madness, 6 different covers will “emerge as winners”.

What a wonderful surprise this is! Even though the children’s book community has always been very supportive, I sometimes feel like an imposter because of my singular vision and nontraditional illustration medium. So, I’m especially honored to have my work recognized this way. Of all the groups my work is lumped into, from embroidery to doll making, the storytelling genre of children’s books is where I feel most at home. I hope that you enjoy this account from 2012 about how I made the cover!

This is an edited and republished version of a post that was first written in 2012.

The Jan/Feb 2012 issue of The Horn Book Magazine is out, with my illustration on the cover. This issue has many wonderful articles and book reviews, including the 2011 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award speeches, which were delivered at the colloquium on Sept. 30th, 2011.

In this post, I share the process of making The Horn Book cover illustration, which I worked on for about 6 weeks this past summer. The original size of the scene is about 12″ wide and 18″ high. The original piece was purchased by an art collector who is connected to the children’s book world.

As the Horn Book Award recipient for Pocketful of Posies in 2011, I had the honor of illustrating a cover for the magazine. You can find out more about my award here. Signed copies of the book are available in my Etsy Shop.

THE TREE
I first found a twisted vine to use as the central tree and made a sketch with the Horn Book logo and child characters. I then drilled holes on the vine where wire branches would go.

To form the branches, I covered wire with felt and embroidered them to match the real vine/tree trunk. This coiled branch has thread-wrapped wire thorns attached.

The Horn Book logo was rendered in wire branches and found objects. For one of the O’s, I sawed the back of a walnut-shell, so that it would lay flat and not stick out too much. The O in the word Horn is a nest-like acorn cap from an oak tree in Iowa and the B’s spiky acorn caps are from northern California.

THE FELT BACKGROUND
I thought that a solid color background would looked too plain, so I stitched together scraps of naturally dyed wool felt to make a more interesting field for the action.

I made a little fairy to fit in the walnut-shell.

THE CHILDREN
I didn’t want the characters to be animals, but children dressed in animal costumes. So, I made every effort to make them look like children by giving them bangs, ponytails, hands and shoes. These figures are made with similar techniques found in my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk.

During the process, I changed some of the characters in the original sketch and substituted a boy in a dinosaur costume pulling an acorn cap wheeled wagon full of books.

I printed out the words on acetate, so that I’d be sure to leave enough room at the bottom edge. I then embroidered plants and leaves to the felt background.

This little child/mouse is getting red shoes.

The Horn Book staff suggested I include a reading child, so I made a felt book for the face-painted mouse.

All of the parts piled up as I worked. It’s a miracle nothing got lost!

It was really fun thinking up costumes to make for these kids. I wanted to create a scene of children immersed in imaginary play and story.

I added a sun to the upper left corner and embroidered a wavy chain-stitched border. Then, I sewed the felt background to a sheet of foam core board, pulling it flat and straight.

Then, I stitched the tree, characters and other props in place, right through the foam core board. After everything was in place, I took it to the photographer, so he could take its picture. After that, I removed it from the foam core board and remounted the felt background and all of the parts on a cloth-covered stretcher. It is now framed behind glass and was recently bought by a collector. It was a joy to work on this project with Lolly Robinson at the Horn Book Magazine! Having my illustration on the cover will be a great opportunity for many people to discover my work for the first time.

Here I am with Roger Sutton, editor in chief of The Horn Book.

Inuit Doll remake

Posted on March 12, 2024 by Salley Mavor

In 1985, I made a velveteen Inuit doll with a seal appliqued on its parka for my son, Peter. When you make something for a toddler, or anyone for that matter, you never know how it will be received. Will they actually play with it or leave it in the corner? I needn’t have worried, because Peter loved this doll to the point where its arms and legs had to be sewn back on several times. All these years later, I have 2 really good reasons to make dolls for a new generation, because a few weeks ago Peter became a father! So, it seemed right that little Eddie and his 1 yr. old cousin, Elias would each have their own Inuit doll to love.

I found the original sketches and patterns for Peter’s doll in my files and unearthed pieces of cotton velveteen left over from my doll-making days. The only material I needed to buy was some sherpa fabric for the fur trim. This post includes photos and videos that show the process of making the 2 new dolls for my grandsons, one decorated with a snowy owl and the other with a fish.

Back in the 80s, when practically every checkout line at the supermarket had a rack full of homey women’s magazines, I designed sewing projects for Better Homes and Gardens. Sewing projects are conspicuously absent from today’s version of the magazine, which is limited to home decor ideas, gardening, and recipes.

I mostly designed cloth dolls, including one with a prairie bonnet that they styled on the cover of their December 1982 issue. You can also see a crèche that Better Homes and Gardens published in 1981 here. When I submitted a photo of Peter’s Inuit doll to the magazine’s crafts editor, they asked me to design 3 dolls, which were included in the December 1986 issue.

During this early phase of my career, I enjoyed coming up with project ideas and making prototypes, even though the pay was dismal and I signed away my design rights (I was young and inexperienced). By the end of the 1980s, I was ready to move on to children’s book illustration, which came with its own suite of challenges.

When I was designing projects for the magazine, writing out step-by-step instructions was my least favorite part of the job. Describing what I’d done in words felt overly analytical and thoroughly anal! It took years to learn to show and tell how to make something in a way that intuitive and visual learners like me could understand. Then, I was ready to write my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk, which combines visual diagrams and step-by-step instructions for making little dolls. To find out more about my philosophy of sharing knowledge, please read this post.

Nowadays, I’m relieved to not have to explain in detail how I make something. Demonstrating my process through photos and videos is much more natural than describing every step in words.

I hope that you enjoy the following photos and videos that show how I embroidered the doll’s face, stitched and appliquéd the snowy owl, and sewed on the arm.

Rabbitat revisited

Posted on February 25, 2024 by Salley Mavor

With the coming of spring and Easter, I think it’s a good time to revisit Rabbitat, which I completed 13 years ago. The piece was an experiment of sorts, for the purpose of reintroducing a sense of play into my working process. At the time, I was transitioning from the all-consuming 4-year job of researching, illustrating, and launching Pocketful of Posies and I felt the need to make something that wasn’t restricted by size and textpe placement specifications. I also wanted to be free to change things around as I went along.

When I set out to make Rabbitat, I had just 2 elements in mind — a driftwood house and a rabbit topiary. I let the landscape evolve as I worked on it, adding rabbit characters and a garden details as the imagined scenario unfolded. I told my husband Rob that I was making a habitat for rabbits and he immediately said, “Oh, it’s a Rabbitat!” The scene is available as a note card and a children’s jigsaw puzzle in my Etsy Shop.

RABBITAT note cards and a children’s jigsaw puzzle are now available in my Etsy Shop.

TOPIARY
I frequently draw thumbnails sketches of visual impressions that pop into my head. For years, ideas for animal shaped topiaries kept showing up in my notebooks.

In Rabbitat, I wanted to expand the topiary concept that was introduced with the cat and bird in the “Molly, my sister and I” rhyme from Pocketful of Posies.

RABBITS
To make the rabbit figures, I used the same methods taught in my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk, with furry adaptations, including long pointy ears sewn on top.

RABBITAT FILM
Before the piece was finished and all of the parts sewn to the background, I asked local cinematographer (and friend of my son Peter), Daniel Cojanu to make a short documentary about how I work (see the Rabbitat film below). We had such fun coming up with different ways of showing my art, from stitching closeups to gathering driftwood to stop-motion animation. In the years since then, Daniel has gone on to build an impressive career producing science and environmental documentary films.

DRIFTWOOD HOUSE
To make the house, I combed through all of my driftwood and selected pieces which I could see as a roof, side beams, and a doorway. I carved them in spots, so that they fit together and lay down as flat as possible.

I decorated the house walls with an embroidered chain-stitched vine pattern on felt. This was the first time that I made mossy patches using lots and lots of French knots.

RABBIT TOPIARY
For the rabbit topiary, I cut separate parts out of dark green felt and embroidered branches and leaves. The eyes, nose, mouth and whiskers are wire wrapped with embroidery floss. I also sewed wire along the scalloped outside edge, so that the pieces could be bent and shaped. Two glass leaf beads make the eyes.

The piece is large compared to my book illustrations, measuring 24″ x 30″ , with a depth of 1 1/2″.

SLIDE SHOW
I hope that you enjoy this slide show of details from the piece.

BRIAR BORDER
At some point, I decided to add an arched border with a curved and thorny briar made of felt covered wire.

EXHIBITION
The next opportunity to see the original Rabbitat will be July 27, 2024 – March 2, 2025 at the Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, NY. Bedtime Stitches and Social Fabric will be displayed together.

Exhibition News

Posted on February 18, 2024 by Salley Mavor

Good news! There will soon be 2 opportunities in different parts of the country to see my original artwork. The Bedtime Stitches touring exhibition will be in South Carolina and 4 pieces from Pocketful of Posies will be included in a group show in Illinois.

Salley Mavor: Bedtimes Stitches, the touring exhibition of original illustrations for MY BED, keeps chugging along. Since its debut in 2020 at the Cahoon Museum of American Art in Cotuit, MA, five large boxes packed with the show’s framed artwork and information panels have crisscrossed the country about a dozen times. Every time they’re shipped off, I hope and pray that everything arrives safely! I feel that it’s worth the risk because how else are people from different locations going to have the experience of seeing the detail and 3-dimentional quality of my original pieces?

The next opportunity to see Bedtime Stitches is coming right up! The exhibition will be on view March 2 – May 5, 2024 at the Upcountry History Museum in Greenville, SC. This is the third time that my work has been exhibited there and they always put together a beautiful display.

Bedtime Stitches exhibition at the Upcountry History Museum in Greenville, SC

I’ve spent much of this month in Rob’s workshop, customizing new extra sturdy, multi-layered cardboard boxes for shipping the framed pieces. The first set of boxes were reused so many times that they were practically held together with multi-layers of tape. These new boxes should hold up for a few more trips back and forth. Doing this kind of work isn’t as peaceful as sitting and stitching, but making sure my art is packed safely is an important part of the job!

If you have time to get totally lost in the wee world, please visit this page, which lists dozens of links to posts about the process of making the artwork for MY BED. The book is available worldwide where books are sold. Signed copies are for sale on my shop.

The Bedtimes Stitches exhibition has been such a success that I’m open to extending the tour into and perhaps beyond 2026. I do not send proposals, but inquiries and invitations from museum directors and curators are welcome. Upcoming locations for Bedtime Stitches are listed below.

SALLEY MAVOR: BEDTIME STITCHES Touring Exhibition Schedule
March 2 – May 5, 2024, Upcountry History Museum, Greenville, SC
July 27, 2024 – March 2, 2025, Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, NY. Bedtime Stitches and Social Fabric will be displayed together.
April – July, 2025, Mariposa Museum and World Culture Center, Peterborough, NH

A is for ART: Highlights from Past Exhibitions
Feb. 25 – April 28, 2024

Four original bas-relief illustrations from Pocketful of Posies will be included
in a special 50th anniversary recap exhibit at the
Cedarhurst Center for the Arts
2600 Richview Rd.
Mount Vernon, IL

TTo keep up with new posts, please subscribe to this blog. Your contact info will not be sold or shared. If you’d like to see more frequent photos tracking the projects in my studio, please follow me on Facebook, Instagram and BlueSky.

Baby Polar Bear Suit

Posted on February 5, 2024 by Salley Mavor

Last December, I made some small gifts, including a little version of my grandson Elias in his polar bear snow suit. I’m looking forward to making more mementos like this and hope it becomes a yearly tradition! These days, it seems that practically every children’s hat and hooded outfit comes with a pair of animal ears on top. That’s fine with me – the more playful, the better!

I also made new Inuit dolls, which I’ll write about in a future post. They are a redo of a project I originally made for my kids and designed for Better Homes and Gardens magazine in 1986.

Baby Polar Bear Doll
The 4″ doll is based on the figures in my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk, only I used wool needlepoint yarn (regular knitting yarn is too bulky) instead of embroidery floss to wrap the hands and feet on the pipe cleaner armature.

As usual, I painted multiple faces on wooden beads and picked out the one I like best. Even after painting thousands of faces, I still mess up sometimes.

The suit is made with some really thick wool felt that I was given years ago. It is probably manufactured for industrial purposes rather than little polar bear suits. The video below shows how I wrapped the feet and hands and sewed on the suit.

In the past year or so, I’ve used a hands-free phone/light stand made by Canvas that makes documenting my process a lot easier. I used to have to bug Rob to stop whatever he was doing and come film different steps with his camera. Now, I can take photos or videos whenever I want to. The downside is that I can’t get into the flow because I’m always thinking about recording some aspect of how I work. And there are times when I’m so engrossed that I skip entire sections of the process. That’s why my demonstration videos aren’t really tutorials. They’re more like peeking over my shoulder while I work. You might not see every detail, but you can get the gist of it.

After sewing on the suit, I made the hood – ears and all. The hood is made from a lighter weight wool felt.

The following video shows how I glued on the head and constructed the hood.

After the doll was finished, I got the idea of chain stitching Elias’s name and the year on the back. Yes, this will definitely be a yearly tradition!