Russian Doll Keyring Tutorial

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Here's a very pretty keyring made using Little Kukla laminated fabric by Suzy Ultman. You can make keyrings using novelty fabrics with large scale designs. They're simple to make and look great hanging from a school bag too!

Start by cutting out one of the Russian dolls from the fabric, leaving at least 0.5mm around the doll. You don't have to follow the shape at this stage.

Sew a heart shaped button (or other embellishment of your choice) on the laminated fabric.

Choose a matching backing fabric and cut to the same size. Right sides facing, sandwich a length of doubled trim to form a loop and sew around the edge of the doll. Make sure you're not sewing on the white part of the fabric but on the edge of the doll, this will avoid the white showing around the edge of the finished Russian doll. Leave an opening of about 1.5 cm on one side of the body, not too near the corner.

Now you can cut off the extra fabric, following the edge of the doll, leaving just a few millimetres. Snip around the neck to make the result more smooth. Turn the doll right sides out and stuff. Close the opening by hand. Add a ring to the trim to transform your Russian doll into a keyring. I made a few for Ella's end of year school concert to help raise some money, they were fun making!

You can easily make a boy's keyring using a suitable novelty fabric:

Linking this tutorial to Flamingo Toes' Think Pink Sunday. There are some very interesting tutorials and a lot of delicious looking recipes!

Girl's pinafore (apron?) - Suzy Ultman's laminated Little Kukla

I've finished my first girl's pinafore using Suzy Ultman's laminated (or slicker) fabric called Little Kukla and I'm surprised how well it turned out. It's the right size for a 3 to 5 year old and very useful for messy cooks or growing artists! Just wipe over to clean!

Can somebody please explain to me the difference between pinafore and apron. I grew up in the UK and my Grandma and Mum taught me that a pinafore is the garment with the bit that covers your chest too. An apron is the garment that just covers you from the waist down. Now I searched for photos of aprons in Google and a load of pinafores appeared. Did I misunderstand this difference? Can anybody explain this to me?

This fabric is really jolly and fun too. As I wrote in a previous post, I love Suzy Ultman's fabric and in particular Little Kukla. I have this fabric in laminated and not.

Now I'm working on some key rings made from the same material to sell to raise money at Ella's school "End of Year Concert". They're looking good too, it must be the fabric that makes everything look good! I'll have some photos soon...

I love Suzy Ultman's fabric!

Suzy Ultman's fabric: Love at first sight!

I couldn't resist Appleville:

(photo from Around the Block play mat free Pattern at Robert Kaufman)

I'm using it to make a quilt for Ella's bed. I like Appleville (the central panel) so much I'd like to cut it up and transform every "frame" into part of a mobile for a baby, but I only have just enough to make the quilt and a pillowslip Ella wanted to go with it!

After Appleville I completely fell for Little Kukla. I adore Matrioskas (or Babushkas) so how could I resist this? Impossible...

It comes in two colour ways: retro (more orange) and bright (more pink). And as if this wasn't enough, all the other fabrics of the collection are fantastic:

  

 

I've made a play mat for Lucy, that fits the bottom of her playpen (which is actually a toy deposit!), combining them with some polka dot fabric I already had in my stash. Haven't got a decent photo of it yet! For the moment I'll show you this, a Kukla garland:

When I saw the laminated version (Little Kukla slicker) I stashed that too! I'm planning on making a child's apron with it.
And now she's come out with Suzy's Dollhouse and I love this collection too!

With the panel you can make dolls: there's another free pattern at Robert Kaufman. There's one for every taste, more classic or very funky. There are twelve fabrics in this collection.

                                                                             

My favourite is this one:

I went with an Erasmus scholarship to Holland when I was at University. The Dutch are sooo friendly and they have incredible good taste, so this reminds me of Dutch houses and how I enjoyed living there. I also like architectural fabric too, which means this is another one to put on my Wish (I could buy) List, together with the whole collection!

p.s. all the photos of fabrics on this post are from Robert Kaufman.