made by mélimélo: mélimélo matriochka

You may recall from my bio that my hubby is of Russian origin. Russian dolls have kind of become the latest big craze here and you can find them on almost anything and in any style.

I thought it would be fun to make Lara her very own customized "matriochka". I looked for some inspiration on Pinterest for different styles and designs, although I did already have some elements in mind:

- I knew for sure that I wanted to use the fabric that I've used to decorate Lara's room. It's a typical Chinese red peony fabric, which includes also birds and other bright colors (pink, green, yellow, turquoise...) I find the fabric girly enough, but not too pink-girly, and the peonies to me are a strong yet beautiful flower - a bit like our little Lara actually!!

- I also have a weak spot for jeans fabric (see my Christmas stockings here), and I had already tested the combination of the two fabrics in Lara's baby room.

- The rest would be bits & bobs or ribbon & buttons etc...

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I actually used two pieces of dark jeans fabric as the basis to work on. On what would become the front side of the doll I covered the top half with the peony fabric so that it would be the scarf of the doll. Two layers of ribbon in bright red & yellow would define the neckline and cover the seam.

On the matriochka's belly I decided to use a jeans' back pocket, which could potentially hold something secret... To decorate it I delicately cut out one of the pink peonies from a piece of fabric. Since the fabric is very thin I decided to mod-podge it to make it stiffer and not quite so fragile. Then I hand stitched it onto the pocket with red thread.

For the little lady's back side, I decided to play around with the top bit of a pair of jeans, and added some ribbon for a little frilly feminine touch! My stitching isn't that great I must admit....

Now, for the mademoiselle's face....button eyes were a must and she needed rosy cheeks for sure. Again I used more jeans, stone washed this time for the face and some unraveling darker bits for the hair. A little red button mouth looked cute and for the nose I used part of a push button that gives her a shiny little nose!

Those who know about my "attention to detail" obsession, will surely not be surprised to know that the fabric I used for the cheeks is actually cut out from a small silk pouch that they put jewelery in in Asia, like below. Pink was a must, which is the color I also chose for the big fat ribbon I made and sewed on to the neckline.

I cut out the shape I wanted for my doll's body from cardboard in order to outline where to pin, pinned both parts together, sewed away, stuffed her with some foam I still had....et voilà, here she is: