Today tech support (husband) has uploaded Florabunda’s page to the website. Everything on this page is free. You will find new beginning hand sewing patterns, craft ideas, and my Florabunda stories on the new page. We decided that this was a good spot for the free global pincushion pattern. The free sundress pattern, the free quilt patterns, and the Tools, Tips, and Techniques download are still on the pattern page.

To go to Florabunda’s page, click the button at the top of the page, or “Florabunda’s Page” in the box to the left of this post. Or you can click here.

The new page has required a few changes on the patterns page. All the website pages have a new button at the top. Please check out the changes, especially Florabunda’s page. I hope that you will share Flo’s page with any children that you think will enjoy it. Thank you!

Free Children's Stories, hand sewing, learning to sew

When I wrote the fairy tale about Princess Florabunda and her friends, I kept hearing the story’s dance music in my head. After singing it in the shower for a few weeks, I sat down at the piano and worked out the basic melody and harmony. My piano teacher showed me how to make the harmony more interesting.

My attempts at writing the music out by hand, however, were illegible. When our efforts to produce a clean copy of the music failed, I turned to my ever patient tech support (husband).

He found a program called MuseScore to use for typing music scores. With his help I laboriously typed the music in, note by note. After the work was over, the fun began. We were able use the program to experiment with tempo and with different instruments playing each section of the piece. The program offers all sorts of ways to play the music from the harpsichord to a variety of human voices. When we had a sound that we liked, my husband made a short video using two pictures from the story and the sheet music.

You can find the story by clicking here: “Princess Florabunda and the Dancing Sleepover” or at the bottom of my pattern page.

If you would like to hear the music and see the video, click the picture.

Click the sheet music for a pdf.

Free Children's Stories

Last week I explained how Florabunda got the dress that she is wearing on my newest book’s cover. This week I want to explain why she is on the cover of a book that contains only patterns for an eighteen inch (forty-five centimeter) doll.

I wrote this book for elementary students to use with an adult. I tried to write clear instructions for a consistent progression of skills. To make the book more interesting, I wanted to include some light humor. I also wanted to explain some techniques in a boxed area of the text rather than with the general flow of instructions. I decided to use a cartoon version of Florabunda for humor and to introduce the technique boxes.

I tried to draw a cartoon Florabunda, but I do not have the artistic skill. My husband helped me turn photos of Florabunda into cartoons.

First we photographed the doll in several appropriate poses. Here is the first photo that we used:

Then my husband experimented with photo-processing. After some frustration, he found that he needed to shrink the photo before working on it. Then he used line detection on the smaller picture to make a black and white image. One program that does line detection is call “Charcoal.”

His drawing program contains cartoon balloons that will accept text and change shape. Now I have a cartoon version of Florabunda.

Florabunda has many jobs. She is a cute little doll that is fun to play with or collect. She can also be a doll that belongs to a larger doll. She stars in a story about modern little girls and another story about princesses. (For a free download of the stories, check the bottom of my Patterns Page.) Her newest job is to teach sewing skills.

Remember that you can download patterns for Florabunda and her friends on my Pattern Page. If you are only interested in Florabunda and would like a hard copy of her patterns, you can order a book with all her patterns from the My Books Page of this blog or from Amazon.

blog, Free Children's Stories, My books eighteen inch doll clothes patterns

Tech support (husband) has uploaded a fairytale that I have written. It stars my small dolls. You can find it on my pattern page at the bottom of the page. It is next to my children’s Chlristmas story.

The story is called “Princess Florabunda and the Dancing Sleepover.” Here is the first illustration from the story:

Free Children's Stories

Dolls and storytelling go together. Stories can inspire dollmakers to create characters from the story. Famous dollmakers like Madam Alexander offer many dolls dressed as storybook characters. I was inspired by children’s books to make four different character dolls.
Instead of being created to illustrate a story, dolls can reverse the process and inspire storytellers to write stories. Children often use dolls in their imaginative play to create interesting stories. This year I have written a Christmas story to go with the dolls that I designed. It’s called “Problems with Babysitters.” I also have ideas for several more stories and have almost finished a second story about princesses.
If you would like to read the story, please go to my patterns page. Click on the story in the red free downloads box on the right side of the page or simply scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the story.

Displaying Dolls, Free Children's Stories Doll Stories