not exactly paper dolls

I have mentioned here before, and shown photos, of how my friend Carol, cuts figures from paper doll printed fabric to make "paper" dolls.

I thought she had a great idea, and since my mother is a paper doll collector, I wanted to try Carol's technique to make a set of the fabric paper dolls for her.

First, you rough cut around the dolls and clothes....

Next, using a hot iron, press the dolls to a stiff fusible interfacing...using freezer paper in between your iron and the fusible so it doesn't stick to the iron....

And iron fusible fleece to the backs of the clothes...using the freezer paper again.

Then, all that's left to do is to cut out all the dolls and clothes.  I had actually taken this project along with me on vacation - thinking I would do the scissor work in the hotel rooms each night, but the lighting was never good enough to do such precise trimming.

There were 4 dolls, 16 outfits and 16 hats.

I wanted to give them to my mother for her birthday, but I didn't have them finished in time.

Aren't they the cutest things?

I was going to sew a little pouch to store them in also, but then I saw this plastic envelope at W-mart.    

It's the perfect size and will keep them nice and flat.

I think she likes them....

Belated Happy Birthday, Mother!

While I was there for a visit, I noticed that she had gone back to the store and buy that turquoise cow creamer to add to her collection...

It looks like her shelf is pretty full, so the herd is probably complete.