My Journey

As promised, here are two of the latest dolls that I have done.

I have changed the way that I make the dolls, and have found a style that I like. The faces were inspired  from Annies Cupboards. I love the faces of her dolls. I changed the eyes to buttons instead of embroidered. I have tried four hole and two hole. I really like the flat buttons the best.

This is my pigtail girl. I want to try a different style of pigtail, but thought this one was cute for this doll.

This is my blond doll. I like the crimped hair, but I think I will try to find a yarn that doesn't get as fly away as this.

so, here is my latest creation. What do you think?

Measure 9" X 7" for the bloomers, cut two. Fold material in half and cut a slit down the middle.

Sew sides and middle

Fold down and sew a small seam at top, leave a small opening at the end. Weave elastic through.

Turn the bloomers right side out.

Now, I started working on the body again.

I sewed all of the pieces, and then turned them right side out.

 Next I stuffed.

These are the tools and stuffing that I used. My turning tools are just simple dowels in various sizes. The stuffing is poly fill.

These are what the arms look like stuffed.

I sewed the arms and legs on, painted a face and dressed my doll.

Now, this is my first doll, but since I've finished her, I have created several more. I finally found a face that I liked. I'll have to post the new doll later, when I get a picture of her.

Making the dolls is trial and error, but after making the first and then the second it gets easier with each one. On my first doll, I didn't like the cheeks barn red, and opted out for a bright red color. I also decided not to paint the white under the eye with the next dolls that I used.

I also put a box bottom on each doll so that they can sit easier. The way that I do it is different than the way most people do it. You can do a search using google for making a box bottom, or even doll making, and they will show you how to do it the correct way. I just basically sewed across the body of the body, then stitched diagonally, like a triangle, and then clipped close to the stitching. You can also add poly pellets in the bottom of the body to give it a little weight. I put the pellets in the first three dolls that I made and then didn't put it in the next three. I haven't decided yet which way I like better.

Paint and embroider your dolls face, paint the shoes, and a red ring around the leg. I added a red ring later on this doll, along with a white larger ring for socks. Lastly, I sewed on the hair. There is a really great doll and hair tutorial here: http://www.bowls-n-annies.com/pages/Makingaprimitivedoll.htm

So, here is my first try at a doll.

My next doll looks totally different. I will post her when I get her dressed. Right now, she and her other four "sisters" are naked waiting for a cute dress to wear.

*NOTE* One of the first things to do after staining your fabric is to find a doll pattern. I did a search online and found a wonderful pattern from Annies Cupboards. You can do a search at Ebay or Etsy. There are many really wonderful doll designers out there. I also bought two dolls from Annies Cupboards. I wanted a finished doll to see how they looked once they were done. You can make and sell the dolls as long as you give credit to the designer.

Once I bought my pattern. I went to Office Depot and had them copy the patterns onto the thickest card stock so that I could use them for templates, and put the original pattern away. I cut out the templates and using a mechanical pencil traced around the templates onto the fabric. A mechanical pencil is much easier to use because you don't have to constantly sharpen it.

I then cut out my fabric pieces for my dolls. The marks on the fabric are from the tea and coffee staining, which will give the doll a bit of a grungy old look.

I then took a large needle and using my face pattern poked holes through my pattern. I tried two methods; one pinning the material to the face pattern and poking the holes right into the fabric. The other method I used was pinning the face pattern to the fabric and using a mechanical pencil marked through each hole, and then connecting the dots together.

This is the mouth before I connected the dots.

I set my body pieces aside, and began making the dress.

I bought some white craft tissue paper and measured 18" X 6". I used a fine tip magic marker and a ruler to make the pattern. Then cut out the pattern, just around the edges of the marking so that the magic marker was bold and I could see the edge of the pattern. I then used this pattern for the skirt.

I also cut out a shirt pattern.

Taking the skirt material I hand gathered the skirt, and then, pinned the skirt and top right sides together.

This is the gathered skirt pinned to the top.

Flipped over to show the top.

Sew the pieces together and then lightly iron the seam down between the top and skirt. Once you have sewed both halves pin the two pieces together.

Sew the two pieces together. Leave open an area in the middle at the top, for the dolls head to go through.

Turn right side out, and lightly press, I turned under the section that I didn't sew and lightly pressed.

Here is the almost finished dress. That's about it for today. I'll be back with more tomorrow.

Well, I have been experimenting. First, I tea stained my fabric, then dried and ironed it. I did cut out some dolls, then, I realized that I wanted the color a little darker. The fabric already smelled good from the tea, but the shade just wasn't dark enough. So, I tea stained it again.

I stayed up late last night, drying, ironing and folding my newly tea stained material, but it still didn't have the color that I wanted. So, this time, I decided to coffee stain it. I was told that the longer it sat in the coffee the better the stain. With the tea, I had let the material sit for about 2 hours in the solution before drying. Today, I tried the same thing with the coffee.

I didn't really have to leave the material in the coffee as long.

Here's an example of the coffee color.

The material is now the color that I like it. Notice the veins. Some of the material had marks that looked almost like dirt smudges, which give the material more of a grundgy look. The smudges came from the spice that I had put into the coffee when I was brewing it.

However, I learned a valuable lesson. Don't put spices into the coffee when you are going to run it through the automatic drip. I ended up with a great big mess. The spices clumped altogether and plugged up the water hole. So, I had to take the whole thing apart and clean it. You can mix the spices on the fabric after you sit it in the sink to soak.

I did add clear vanilla to the coffee. I just love the smell of the fabric. So, now, I am off to the next stage. I need to finish ironing and folding my material. I already cut out a whole lot of cute little dresses. I have tons and tons of fat quarters, and also found some material that I didn't even know that I had. I am in fabric heaven. LOL. After ironing and folding my coffee stained material, then, I will go to making the dresses.