On the Moor

 

This new addition to the flock on the Craggy Moor was “born” and adopted right away!

A big hello and goodbye to you Alecia Woolfelt! Enjoy your new home.

 

We’ve had a few new bunnies and lamby’s born on the Craggy Moor!
We just love these little guys.

They would make such a cute addition to an Easter gift or spring basket. They are all natural-made of repurposed wool sweater material, and stuffed with original purpose, super soft wool roving. Each little face has its own unique and endearing personality. Each one is individually hand made in the Waldorf style. Waldorf dolls are wonderful for babies and little children. Their sweet, open, simple faces inspire creative play. Little children are focused on softness, faces, and portability.

Our bunnies and lambies will creep into any heart.

   The Wrap Around Skirt is our favorite here at the Craggy Moor! We’ve made this style for years, and now we are excited to offer one to you for the first time!

Lovely springtime fabrics come together to give you a two in one reversible skirt! One side is peach with delicate lighter peach flowers. The other side is white with peach tulips, cornflower blue and slate grey accents.

Our Wrap Around skirt has a homespun loveliness and a nice swingy feel as you walk! It’s gentle A-line shape and flare have a timeless feminine look that looks great with most any coordinating shirt, jacket, sweater or blazer. The Lightweight Wrap Around Skirt is not bulky. It lays flat and flatters most any figure.
This skirt is wonderfully practical. It adapts to many sizes from S-XL without the need for buttons, zippers or snaps. Generous ties allow you to secure it easily and comfortably wherever at your waist you’d like.

It’s a great addition to your maternity wardrobe too!

There is no fear of the Wrap Around Skirt skirt blowing open! Even at the XL size, our it wraps completely 1 1/2 times. On smaller sizes Wrap Around Skirt will wrap 2 times.

Skirt was machine stitched with reinforced seams. A subtle decorative scalloped edge was added to the hem and sides for durability and a little whimsy too. Waistband was securely hand and machine stitched.

Skirt hangs 27 1/2 inches from waist.

If you have any questions or need more pictures please convo us, we’d be happy to provide any information you need to help you make your purchase.

Care instructions will be included with purchase.

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We made a new Waldorf bunny this weekend with a few different details from the others. She was made with lambs wool and cotton. I added some more bunny-ish detailing to the smile too. We called her Hoppy also because she really looks like a Hoppy. This afternoon we were overjoyed to see she sold! Praise the Lord! It’s such a blessing and a joy to see other people enjoy these little critters too. Thank you so much!

 

Today we put another sheep on the Craggy Moor today too. Ana Blackwelsh is a cute little grey sheep made with lambs wool. She is wearing the cutest little hand knit brown sweater with a red wool felt heart on the front. She has neat looking unfinished wood buttons at her leg and arm joints. She’s a real cutie.

 

Stop by and take a look at her and the other things at the store. More is added often, so don’t forget to take a peek!

 

 

A little History on how we got started:

 

There are so many beautiful and “forgotten” fibers we find in our travelling about our local area, from appealingly warm and huggable wools and cottons to decadent and irresistibly soft Angoras just hanging on Thrift store racks waiting for their next home. 

 

Most of our finds have barely been worn one time-evidence of the blessed country we live in. We ARE truly blessed here!

 

Most of the time we’re in thrift stores to look for things other than artistic medium however. We have 8 children and 3 of them are high spirited boys who love to run and play. There are so many times we walk out of a thrift store with a bag full of jeans for the price of one designer pair! Our sons can run and play without fear that Mom is trailing along behind with her watchful eye! I don’t mind if they get holes in their jeans if I’m getting them for a few dollars.

 

We view that as responsibly using resources such as money and clothing -something we are trying to do more of in our life in many areas. 

 

Back to sweaters: it was on one of our clothes shopping forays that I took the girls by the toys section (our agreement is if they are good while Mom does her serious shopping, we will take a stroll by the toys to do some window shopping). Now it was right after the winter holiday season, and the last thing on my list was toys. Still, its fun to watch the little girls oooh and ahhh over these days-gone-by-treasures. I watched as they gravitated towards the stuffed animals and and games. They would ask for this or that, and I dreaded it because I just didn’t want another electronic, or polyesther stuffed toy in the house. We already have too many that we’re trying to get rid of ourselves.

 

My thoughts wandered as they played: When I was young, my grandmother made me a stuffed lambie for Easter. It was lovely-homemade, handstitched, white fleece with black hoof and muzzle. She added eyelashes to the heavy lidded blue eye-but the rest of the lamb was delightfully simple-and inspired hours upon hours of imaginative play. “Sootie” seemed to feel just what I was feeling-her friendly, neutral face reflected my thoughts it seemed. There wasn’t anything like that here. Or now, I thought as I scanned the box of animals.

 

“Why don’t I just make you something special girls!” We can work on it together I thought. This idea excited them and we began to discuss just what we’d like to make.

 

Coincidently, a friend of ours was making handmade dolls for her girls, so we gathered supplies and joined in on the fun. This led to a summer/autumn of enjoyment and fellowship. We even met and got to know our local yarn shop (yes! We have a local yarn shop!! I was the proverbial “kid in a candy store” haha!). By Christmas we had a new 18” waldorf style doll for each of our 4 girls for just what we would have spent in toys for Christmas for them. It was the most enjoyable project I’d ever done with my girls. We got so much from the experience. It was my first try at three dimensional sewing too which I found to be surprisingly relaxing. It was also my first experience making a toy from totally natural products. The doll skin was cotton, and it was so very soft!

 

Softer than any doll I’d had growing up. The hair was wool yarn-and it looked more real than other artificial hair, and hung so nicely. The stuffing was wool roving-what?

 

I found out what that was too, and found out the many benefits of wool. I fell in love with wool too. (that will have to be a post in itself!).

 

We were simply sold on natural simplicity!

 

What else could we make?

 

Online resources are great! We found a basic stuffed animal pattern and began altering it to suit what we like. I didn’t know one could do this, but stuffed animal patterns are delightfully pliable and open to artistic interpretation, if one knows how to sew already. I love sewing.

 

I’ve sewn dresses and skirts for years. Patterns make sense. I’ve altered dress patterns many times to suit my growing girls.

 

We made patterns we really liked and got an idea in mind as to what we wanted our furry or fleecy friends to look like.

 

We went to the local fabric store. My spirits sank as I saw the prices on the synthetic animal fur fabrics. How much would natural fibers cost??

 

Then my mind flashed back to the thrift store!

 

I’d sighed over many lovely sweaters that I couldn’t justify buying, even at their discounted prices. If I didn’t “need” a sweater, I should use the money for more responsible things.  Their lovely fibers floated back to the front of my mind….I wonder…..

 

The thrift store was nearby, so we made another trip. I scanned the racks for all the luscious fibers I remembered the heirloom bears online being made of. “Hey, I wonder if I could make an angora rabbit” I smiled to myself, letting my hand linger over the sweetly soft material.

 

Lambs wool, Shetland wool, mohair,cotton, angora all came home with us that day. The sweaters we found were barely used, some still with tags were obviously never worn.

 

Carefully cleaned, I cut them out and began our journey.

 

I have to tell you, not only did my children love these items (was it because they were made by mom? Was it because they saw the construction of their new friend?…) but they played with them much more than the other items in the toy box.

 

This got Rob and I talking. Weren’t all toys homemade at one time? Didn’t someone have one dolly back “in the day” they loved and cherished for years instead of boxes and boxes of toys? What makes a toy special is not how many noises it can make or how flashy it is.

 

Right before our eyes we saw that what makes a toy special is the life that you breathe into it.

 

 The natural wools and cottons of the animals we made felt nicer in the children’s hands. The wool roving kept the dolls we made cool to the touch in

 

the warmth of the late summer, but then warm to the touch as the weather got cooler. They felt more real than the cold plastic of the store bought dolls. They loved the simple Waldorf style hand stitched faces. And then, the pinnacle of it all: Our toddlers would bring the dolls and animals to us and say “this one is happy!” or “this one is sad” just like I remember doing with my lambie! I hadn’t told them how to do that…they just did it on their own!

 

 It was another great eye opener for us as we were already trying to more things in a homemade way.

 

 We really wanted to share this with others, and now suddenly here we are, living life on the Craggy Moor, with a little store. Sometimes we prefer to use brand new fabrics for things, and sometimes we repurpose materials. We like merging our art with practicality.

 

 We really love making these little soft hand made friends. It would be a blessing if they could make some other person as happy as they’ve made us.

 

Being responsible with resources and reaching out to others just feels good too.