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A Matryoshka/Babushka water bottle cover! Golden!

Posted by Lydia H. • Published 12th May 2010 • See Lydia H.'s 20 projects »

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packagedxdoll added Babushka/Matryoshka Hot Water Bottle Cover to i need to create this <3 17 Sep 00:09

Step 1
So here we have my old sad red water bottle. I don't know who designs these things but they sure don't have a whole lot of style on their own.
Step 2
I set out to draw a rough stacking doll shape that would fit the bottle with a seam allowance.
Step 3
Once the pattern was drawn and cut I made sure it was symmetrical.
Step 4
Next I drew my stacking doll and all of the details that I wanted to include on the cover. Since she is obviously a very stylish Babushka I made sure to draw on eyelashes.
Step 5
I made individual pattern pieces for all of the parts adding seam allowances as needed. The back could have been a solid fabric but I decided that I wanted to keep the cover as much like a doll as possible. Thus her outfit had to continue onto the back - no cheaping out! The smaller pieces/face and hair are all out of felt as the edges can be left raw, just topstitched and they won't fray.
All of the pieces will be Cut 1 EXCEPT for the bottom style line and very bottom of the babushka, as well as the eye pieces, shawl pieces and cheek pieces.
Step 6
All of the main body pieces were sewn together first. I topstiched down all of the seams to keep the cover looking flat once it is in use. The face and hair I topstitched into place. As you can see I had to do two layers at the bottom. Turns out the burgundy fabric which matched so perfectly was chiffon. Boohoo. So I used a white cotton underneath which ended up making the colour appear more vibrant. Yippee!
Step 7
Using fusible glue I secured the face pieces in place before topstitching them down. I think this is the best way to do this type of small work as a pin can shift, especially when it is removed to stay out of the needles way. I used it for the ties on her shawl as well.
Step 8
The eyelashes, nose and corners of her mouth I drew on with thread (sewn with my machine). Very cute looking so far!
Step 9
This is officially my least favourite part of this whole project. Originally I was going to use snaps to close the bottom but after some consideration I decided I would rather put in a zipper. Too bad the bottom of the doll is curved and not straight. As you can see from the picture I used quite a few pins to ensure that the zipper did not go out of place. The whole zipper thing was a pain, but in the end the lining matches great, the colour of the zipper matches great and I think it was a better choice than the snaps would have been.
Step 10
The finished product! I am VERY happy with how this turned out. She looks a little lumpy as I already put a water bottle inside her - I just couldn't wait! Very cute and cuddly, much better than a plain old red water bottle for sure.
Step 11
And here you can see the zippered bottom which opens to allow the water bottle in/out. The lining is a dark blue colour. I was going to use white but then thought a darker colour would be better as it would add more interest, and it certainly does! I am pretty excited to be able to use this in the upcoming chilly months of January and February.
Anyways, it is getting REALLY close to Christmas and I will be heading to my parents for the holidays. I may or may not be posting for a while, although as soon as everyone opens their Christmas presents I plan on posting those for everyone else to see what I was up to this last while.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!