April 11, 2019 

The first photos are here — and they're gorgeous!

Patternmaker "Pearl" has been hard at work resizing and redesigning our fabulous Ballet Performance Bundle patterns for the lovely, graceful 16 inch A Girl for All Time® dolls, and the charming 14 1/2 inch WellieWishers® and similar dolls.

Yesterday, Pearl did her first photoshoot for these COMING VERY SOON new sizes. And today we get to share those images...

Wow.

That's our A Girl for All Time Lydia, making her debut as Stravinsky's Firebird in a brilliant red Pattern 1073: Prima Ballerina strapless bodice and Classical tutu.

Lydia's bodice and detachable basque and panty are made from red silk dupioni, lined in muslin with a flesh-tone Kona cotton inset in the faux-plunging neckline. Her bodice is studded with multi-sized Swarovski crystals in flame-inspired tones of red, gold, amber and violet.

We chose similar tones for the tulle in her Classical or "pancake" tutu, with alternating layers of deep crimson, bright orange, cool violet and sparkly metallic gold adding depth and richness — making the "flame" inspiration vividly clear.

Creating such layered and ombré effects is something real ballet costume designers do, and because these tutus are constructed using real-ballet-tutu techniques, you can too!

We loved this outfit so much that we made Lydia the perfect finishing touch — matching silk dupioni ballet slippers! These shoes were easy to make, using Pattern 1075: Ballet Slippers for 18 inch, 16 inch and 14 1/2 inch dolls, which is available in the Lee & Pearl Etsy store.

For the Pattern 1072: Corps de Ballet Fitted Bodice and Romantic Tutu redesign, we decided to turn our soulful A Girl for All Time Matilda into the ultimate Romantic ballet heroine — Giselle.

The beautiful curved seams and wide neckline of our Corps de Ballet bodice and long, floaty layers of the Romantic tutu are perfect for this fragile, otherworldly heroine.

Though Giselle and the ghostly Wilis she overcomes are famously clad in white (the second act "Ballet Blanc" of legend), our bodice is made from a very pale blue-green silk, while the tutu is layered to match that shade with a very soft, off-white crinkly netting over layers of pale yellow and robin's egg blue tulle.

This is a trick Pearl learned during her years as a costume designer: "white" stage costumes are often made using pale, near-neutral colors instead, as true white can appear harsh under bright stage lights, while a pale color adds depth and interest.

NOTE: We found the tulles and the very soft crinkly netting at our local JoAnn Fabrics. And if you were one of the lucky few who snagged the "Frost on the Royal Crescent" collection during our epic 2017 Silk Sale, you have the bodice fabric in your stash!

The very soft, crinkly off-white netting made a great Wili veil for our Giselle as well. Ours is a 22" circle, cut using a rotary cutter with a wavy, decorative blade — the same blade we used to give Giselle's tutu an appropriately ragged look.

We knew that the willowy 16 inch A Girl for All Time dolls would look stunning in frothy ballet outfits, and we wondered if the adorably tiny WellieWishers would look equally marvelous...

We wonder no longer!

Now we're about to die from the cuteness.

If you're curious, that's Play Zone Style Girl Skylar with her friend, WellieWisher Camille. Isn't it great that both dolls can fit in the same outfits?

Pearl will be spending the rest of today finishing up the 14 1/2 inch doll-size Prima Ballerina strapless bodice and classical tutu patterns. We've picked out great fabrics for those samples and can't wait to share them — and the finished patterns — with you soon!

If you just love these patterns, make sure that you're signed up for the Lee & Pearl mailing list and we'll let you know as soon as they're available in our Etsy store.

NOT A MEMBER YET? CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE LEE & PEARL MAILING LIST!

As a subscriber, you'll also receive our exclusive FREE pattern for mailing list members. This year, it's Pattern 1038: The Gift Bow Front Dress for 18 inch, 16 inch and 14 1/2 inch dolls. Don't miss out — this pattern makes perfect dresses for all your dolls' spring celebrations!

Speaking of spring celebrations...

Get holiday ready — 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 most popular 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.

Want more great tutorials and printables delivered directly to your inbox? Click below to join the Lee & Pearl mailing list:

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE LEE & PEARL MAILING LIST.

Chag Pesach Sameach!

At sundown on April 19, 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 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 shabbat 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.

Want more great tutorials and printables delivered directly to your inbox? Click below to join the Lee & Pearl mailing list:

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE LEE & PEARL MAILING LIST.

See you next time!