Doll Making - Hair

Thanks for all the comments on my doll making journey so far!
You can read about her eyes here, and her lips here. 

I have been quite excited about her hair since finding a few balls of Alpaca and Merino blended yarn with a beautiful natural twist.  I was hoping it would give her hair body and a natural springy bounce (and which girl wouldn't want that...) and it really did!

The instructions from the original 1940's pattern from which I am basing my doll were somewhat brief although the illustrations gave a good indication.

I started with a center part as per the instructions, but she looked kind of 70's hippy or rag-doll or something, so unpicked it (eek... this takes about 3 times as long as stitching it in the first place) and moved it to the side which gave her a softer and perhaps more sophisticated look.  Once she had the side part, the bangs from the pattern just didn't happen!

So here she is pictured before and after...

The simple version of the process is:

* Her hair is stitched onto her head at the parting 

* Then tied into bunches with some tiny rubber bands 

* A few strands wrapped around to disguise bands

* Lastly the bunches are stitched onto her head.

There were a few things along the way I would do differently as the individual strands of hair are all slightly different lengths etc. but I'm sure I can get that under control with a bit of tweaking!  

Once I have mastered the hair basics - I am hoping to build on my hair repertoire so to speak, with a classic bun, french twist and perhaps even some Princess Leia style buns :)

Stay tuned for the next update which will be her clothes.   xx

You can now read about my entire doll making journey here:

1. Doll Making 
2. Lips
3. Eyes 
4. Colouring the Eyes
5. Hair   (This post)
6. Clothes