Howdy Dolls for Christmas

Usually I am very good about photographing projects as I work on them. I think I was in such a rush this year that I omitted that step for Howdy Lil Lady and Howdy Lil Cowboy panels by Stacy Iest Hsu for Moda. My 3½ and 1½ year old granddaughters from Southern California were coming north for an early Christmas visit and I wanted the dolls finished in time to give to them. Each doll and its accessories were ready under the tree, though I did have to wait for the wood glue to dry on the wooden dowels of the hobby horses. At the last possible minute I wrapped the hobby horses in tissue and added them to the doll in each package before hurriedly wrapping the boxes – in pink princess paper of course.

Here are the panels before they were sewn up. The little girl doll is named Madeline. She comes with a skirt, a bandana, a pillow, a blanket, and a pink hobby horse.

The little boy doll is named Westly. He comes with a bandana, a pillow, a blanket, and a brown hobby horse. The hobby horse illustration was a bit bigger on the boy panel so I cut it out and appliquéd it on the yellow side of the Westly's blanket.

Incidentally, those horseshoe print borders are so cute on each panel that I trimmed them off and saved them for future use – what I do not know – but I could not bear to toss them.

I gave the boy doll to the older sister thinking she would be more aware she was going to have a little brother.

The girls had already left for home with their dolls when I realized that I had not taken any project photos. I asked my daughter-in-law to send a pix of the finished dolls and here they are. She had to sneak them out of the younger girl's bedroom while she was sleeping and so the accessories are not in the photo, only Madeline and Westly, hand in hand.

A quick search of google images will bring up several options of the finished product that also show the accessories. These photos are courtesy of fabricworm.com. In addition to the apparel they are wearing, each doll has a pillow, a blanket, and a hobby horse. The panel instructions said to just push the dowel into the horse head but I had my husband drip a  fair amount of wood glue in around the ruffled neck of the horse head to keep the dowel from being pulled out. Hope it works.

The horse's main is a folded over double thickness of fabric. In my version, I also inserted a piece of iron-on fabric adhesive to bond the two wrong sides to each other, giving it a bit more body.

But even without the accessories, I think I like this photo best. It  appears that 3½ year old Vivian likes both Madeline and Westly just fine. I wonder if making another pair is in my future?

Linking up to share this project and, of course, these adorable granddaughter photos with Let's Bee Social #208.