my first doll

Today I am trying my hand at doll making. The goal is to make B a doll for Christmas that she can tote around as her little baby, and I can make little clothes for it (if I’m really ambitious I might make matching clothes for B and the doll, but that’s a long way off). I was inspired by Paula’s dolls so I thought I’d have a go at it. I cut the body out of Warm ‘n White which is the bleached white version of Warm ‘n Natural, a thin cotton quilt batting. The hair is just brown felt, the kind that you get for $0.20 at JoAnn’s.

Then I sewed the little arms and legs together and stuffed them with stuffing from an old pillow (I didn’t realize that I was out of normal stuffing, so I improvised with a pillow that was on its way to the garbage).

I also machine basted the hair to the body so that it wouldn’t move. Note that I basted it on crooked though, so that resulted in some creative snipping once the whole thing was done.

Then I sewed the head together, and then sewed the arms into the body.

Attaching the legs was tricky because I had to stuff all the arms and legs inside of the inside-out body and get that onto my sewing machine. It was a little creepy, actually. So then it was completely sewn up except for a 1″ hole on her left side where I stuffed her full of more stuffing till she was good and fat. In stitching up the hole in her side I managed to do something funny which resulted in one of her legs looking like it was dislocated. But oh well. It was my first try. So here she is, all sewn up.

I will be sewing on a face (probably should’ve done that before I stitched her together, but oh well) and making clothes later on when I get the fabric and the chance. B already got a quick peek at her and she correctly identified her as a baby, so I’ve gotten all the approval I need.