Stuff 'n Fluff

I have been working on two projects that are very different for me. A lady I know bought one of those rocking chairs that sit outside of all Cracker Barrel restaurants and she bought seat and back cushions for it, but her husband was getting really uncomfortable in the chair because his arms are long enough that they were pushing hard on the arm rests. Anyway, he wanted a cushion for the arms of the chair, but they couldn't find any. She asked if I thought I could make some. I've never done anything like that before, but I thought I could try. I didn't find any type of pattern for it, so I just went and traced the chair arms at my local Cracker Barrel and made it all up as I went along. It's the wrong shape for my chair here in the picture, but you get the idea. I think it turned out pretty nicely. It will be comfy, too. In fact, I think I'll make some for my chair too!
I have another friend whose husband died a little over a year ago. She has a young daughter (7 or 8) and she wanted to make a doll out of one of her husband's shirts for her daughter. She cut it out and sewed it up on her machine, added painted lips and button eyes. But she wasn't happy with the sewing because it was uneven and the stuffing was lumpy. She asked if I could remake it for her and make a jumper for the doll out of a pair of her husband's jeans. So I took her doll apart and decided to sew it by hand to keep it more even. I re-stuffed it, using the great techniques that Jo taught me to keep the edges of the puzzle balls smooth! I had never made doll clothes either and it was a bit tricky to sew something so small, and it has been forever since I made a dress so I had to remember the order of doing things, but I think it is cute! I added a decorative stitch across the bottom too. I think it is really nice. I don't think I would have done fabric paint for the lips, but that was already done, and I wanted to do whatever I could to use the one she had already cut out so that she would have also "made" it for her daughter. I think that is such a good idea to make something for her out of the clothing. The daughter will probably treasure it for a long time to come. On a completely unrelated note, Ethan peed in the potty for the first time ever today!!! YEAH! We'll see if the trend continues, but usually he won't even sit on the potty and today he is willing. So we're going with it.