Dolly

I made a Waldorf doll for my youngest for her birthday last month, at the time I said I would explain how I made her and post a picture so, finally here is that post.

I bought the materials from Myriad Natural Toys and Crafts, whilst making the doll I found another website, Little Oke Dolls that sells materials to make a doll, I have not compared prices etc. so don't know how they compare. I have enough material left over to make another doll if I wanted to.

I used the instructions from the book The Children's Year by Cooper, Fynes-Clinton and Rowling as a basis. I used this to work out what and how much of the various materials to buy and to draw out a pattern.

I started with the head, personally I needed more pictures than the book I was using had, if you are ok without pictures you will do fine with the book by itself. I found these pictures really useful whist making the head and the body. I had these open the whole time I was making. I also made use of these pictures to finish off the outer material of the head. I sewed most of the dolly by hand, with a small amount on a sewing machine.   I used this blog to sew the eyes and mouth.  You need to make sure you have a long needle to do this and it is easier to go through the face part of the head to the back and then tie off the thread than to do through from the back.

To do the hair, again I needed more pictures. I spoke to a couple of friends who I knew had made dolls, but they had no advice other than to say they were not happy with the way they had sewn the hair! So I looked for more pictures and eventually found a blog with great pictures and a tutorial which I used.   The hair has turned out wild and mad but I think it gives the doll a bit of character. My youngest loves it, which is the most important thing.

I made the clothes from old clothing of my youngest's. I had no patterns, I made one on paper then cut out some scraps of lining type material to get the shape right. These were entirely sewn by hand. I made use of original seams where I could on the t-shirt, for the cuffs and the bottom hem. I used very small poppers on the shoulders of both the items, the buttons on the pinafore are for show!

I will make more clothing for dolly as my youngest gets older and is a able to take the clothes on and off easily.

Here she is: