March 27, 2018 

Make beautiful Easter and Passover gifts for your dolls with FREE craft printables and projects from Lee & Pearl™!

For Easter this year, try one of Lee & Pearl's most popular craft projects!

When craft-meister "Lee" accidentally wound up with a collection of brightly colored 1/8" ribbon spools, she realized those ribbons would make perfect doll-scale versions of the weavers in brightly colored children's Easter baskets.

An experienced human-scale basket weaver, Lee set to work, turning a complicated process into an ultra easy, doll-scale printable craft — and one of our fans' favorite FREE downloads.

Over the years since we debuted this craft, we've added new sizes and weaving materials and techniques, so you can make a whole range of wonderful baskets for your dolls — perfect for the holiday, and beyond!

If you have a little more time to spend — and at least three skeins of coordinating embroidery floss — why not try this faux-willow version of our largest, widest basket shape?

We used glue to attach the handles on this one instead of the usual double-stick tape. The glue makes the handles sturdier, for a basket that will stand up to gentle play well beyond the holiday.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD OUR EASY WOVEN EASTER BASKET PRINTABLE AND TUTORIAL PACKAGE

Chag Pesach Sameach!

At sundown on March 31, Jews around the world — and the friends they have welcomed into their homes — will observe the festival of Passover, a celebration of freedom from bondage.

An important part of the Passover ritual, matzo is an unleavened flat bread that represents the haste with which the Jews left Egypt and slavery: we packed up so quickly, we didn't even have time to let our bread rise!

If you've never had matzo, you should try it. It's not exactly tasty — but it's strangely addictive. Once you've opened a package, good luck eating just one wafer. Or just two. Or just six — !

Your dolls will LOVE our easy "matzo" printable, which includes plenty of perfectly-scaled individual matzos for fake snacking. All the fun of matzo without those pesky calories!

Doesn't that look tasty?

Go ahead and click on the text below to download the printable, then we'll tell you how to use it to make amazingly realistic matzos. Hint: we aren't using paper!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD OUR FREE MATZO IRON-ON PRINTABLE

Here are the supplies you'll need:

• One piece of thin craft felt. We're using inexpensive Creatology™ felt from Michaels in "Copper Canyon," a caramel brown color;


• One page of DARK T-Shirt Heat Transfer Paper that works with your printer.

Print the matzo printable on the heat transfer paper and apply it to one side of the felt following the manufacturer's directions. Cut out each matzo — and you're done!

If you'd rather use paper to make two-sided matzos, print the printable page on white cardstock. Cut out the matzos, keeping the top six and bottom six separate as they are mirror images of each other and can be used as the fronts and backs. Use rubber cement or tacky glue to glue the fronts and backs together and trim the edges so they match perfectly.

These matzos will look great and will have two realistic-looking sides — but they won't have the depth and perfectly irregular texture of the iron-on felt matzos.

Felt matzos are marvelous. Lindsey approves of felt matzos!

And if you LOVE Lindsey's beautiful silver candlesticks in the photo above, we have a FREE TUTORIAL to make those as well, using readily available beads and jewelry-making findings from your local big-box craft store.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE SILVER CANDLESTICKS TUTORIAL, WITH A COMPLETE LIST OF THE JEWELRY FINDINGS WE USED

Would you like more FREE tutorials and fun printable crafts like these, delivered directly to your inbox? Would you also like to receive a FREE pattern for 18 inch, 16 inch and 14 1/2 inch dolls?

Lee & Pearl Pattern 1025: She Blinded Me with Science Unisex Lab Coat and Safety Goggles for 18", 16" and 14 1/2" Dolls is our FREE gift to Lee & Pearl mailing list members through early 2018!

Don't miss out — sign up today!

Click here to sign up for the Lee & Pearl mailing list!

Look who's making Lee & Pearl Pattern 1075: Ballet Slippers for 18 Inch, 16 Inch and 14 1/2 Inch Dolls

The Lee & Pearl testers outdid themselves with our latest Pattern 1075: Ballet Slippers for 18 Inch, 16 Inch and 14 1/2 Inch Dolls, and we just had to share some of their marvelous creations with you!

Let's give a round of applause to the perfect pleated toes on these three slippers, made by Jozel W., A Bee Line and Rhonda A., respectively.

Our pattern makes such perfection attainable by all with a series of easy-to-sew preparatory steps that take the free-handing anguish out of doll shoe-making!

Who says ballet slippers have to be pink, black or beige?

The ever-imaginative Amy S. of DenimRose on Etsy made these glorious red/orange brocade slippers. Howabout that fabulous pattern placement on the toes? We're just dying to see the outfit that goes with these marvelous shoes.

Lesley T. made this perfect pair of polka-dot slippers for 14 1/2" Wellie Wisher dolls. Flexible fabric shoes like these must feel awfully nice on wee doll toesies, after spending all that time in hard, rubber boots!

And we're SO THRILLED that Melangell chose to match her ballet slippers to this gorgeous, just-like-the-real-thing classical tutu and bodice ensemble, made using our Ballet Performance Bundle patterns — available HERE in the Lee & Pearl Etsy store.

Want to give doll shoemaking a try, with all the ease and reliability of a Lee & Pearl pattern behind you?

Click the links below for this pattern as a three-size bundle (for the price of two sizes) or in the individual 18 inch, 16 inch and 14 1/2 inch sizes:

Pattern 1075: Ballet Slippers for 18 Inch, 16 Inch and 14 1/2 Inch Dolls

Pattern 1075: Ballet Slippers for 18 Inch (American Girl and similar) Dolls

Pattern 1075: Ballet Slippers for 16 Inch (A Girl for All Time) Play Dolls

Pattern 1075: Ballet Slippers for 14 1/2 Inch (Wellie Wisher and similar) Dolls

See you next time!