My Doll Making Journey

Christmas 2012 I attempted to make dolls for the four granddaughters.  I waited too long and had some trouble with the pattern.  The dolls were huge!  Especially their heads and the first two had major cellulite issues.  Only one doll was marginally acceptable so I gave it to the oldest granddaughter since there is no way she will ever accept a doll as a gift when she’s 12.  Not even from me.

Courtney's Doll for 2012

The first two dolls still sit in the grandkids room.  Andrew says that they can suck your soul out of your body and refuses to stay in that room unless I hide them in the closet.  But, really, if they are going to suck your soul, what is the difference if they are in the closet or on the toy box?

Scary Dolls

The fourth doll still lies in pieces in a box.  Poor thing will never get made!

This year I decided I wasn’t making dolls for Christmas.  (Especially since the oldest said “no dolls please”.)  But doll making was not going to defeat me.  Two of the granddaughters have birthdays in December so guess what they were getting?  And I started early.

I searched pinterest and all of the sewing blogs I follow but couldn’t find any dolls that I really liked until I came upon the Wee Wonderful Blog.

Wee WonderfulsI bought the pattern and it showed up in my email as a PDF.  It included the instructions and patterns for the dolls and all of the clothes–even underwear.  Adorable.

The pattern was relatively easy.  I changed some things.  Like I’m not very good at embroidery so I used a fabric paint pen for their eyelashes and eyebrows. And you’re supposed to put the face on after the doll is all sewn up.  I did the face and a sweet little heart on the bodies before I cut the pieces out–nothing worse than getting the doll all done then giving it a really ugly face (see scary doll above).

Doll Pieces

Happy Doll
This is Happy Doll.

 

Sunshine Doll
And here is little Miss Sunshine.

 

They are best friends
They are best friends

 

And here's Rocker Doll
And here’s Rocker Doll.

 

The best friends are a wee bit afraid of Rocker Doll
The best friends are a wee bit afraid of Rocker Doll.  Is it the black lace dress?

 

Could be the tatoos
Could be the tattoos

 

Or the black silk underwear
Or the black silk underwear

 

The girls were happy with their birthday presents.

Happy AddyPiper

But not as happy as Jes was when she found Rocker Doll in her stocking!  And Jes wants a matching dress!  Gotta get on that!

Rocker DollI had a lot of fun making the dolls–especially Rocker Doll.  The Wee Wonderful pattern was good but the arms, legs, and hair had to be sewn on by hand.  Even though I used hand-quilting thread which is supposed to be stronger and triple stitched all appendages, Addy only played with her doll one day and I had to sew them all back on.  So I plan on designing my own doll pattern this year.  Yeah, the journey continues.

Jes’s sister-in-law Pam already wants her very own Rocker Doll.  Hmmm, wonder what tattoos I should put on that one?

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