Briar and her wee clothes

I know I say it every time but oh my,  how I love making dolls....

Meet Briar, a lover of animals she gentle and kind, yet courageous and determined.  She adores spending time outdoors with her animal friends in the woods and the little bay near her house.  Climbing trees and observing the world from up high is a favourite pastime.  She is often stopping to collect treasures along the way...

Briar was started about a year ago, not long after finishing Fleur - she has had a long gestation period, which coincided with a little human gestation!  Although Briar was born a wee while ago, her clothing has come together more recently...

After dinner as part of our evening wind down, our little girl and I have been working on her wee clothes.  Our girl takes an age to eat her dinner, so it has become a nightly ritual for me to make a start at the end of the dinner table while she continues to munch whatever is left on her plate  (It is amazing how much faster she eats when distracted..)

Opinions on design and fabric choices are tossed about - My girl was quick to point out to me that as much as Briar loves being outside, she is still rather fond of sparkles, so it only seems right that Briar's garments be reversible, that way she can decide if it is a day for sparkles... or not :)

So, Briar sports a reversible woodland wrap top which ties with ribbons at the side.  Woodsy on one side and a pretty floral on the other!

A pair of classic pantaloons (a mini-me version of the children's ones!)  which of course can be made extra pretty with lace or trim.

But her favourite garment of all is her new "Animal" cape.  Briar loves her animal friends so much this seemed a fitting tribute - and it is reversible too.  Briar's is a sparkly gold on the reverse side, you know, because why not?!

So much love has gone into Briar, over a long period of time, and I think I am finally ready for her to venture out into the world.  Although I'm reliably informed that both Briar and Fleur are likely to be requesting more clothes options soon!  Briar  and her entire clothing bundle is available as a pdf pattern in my shop -  I can't wait to share both Briar, and some tips I have learned along the way with you.

Be prepared - doll-making is so enjoyable and they make such wonderful gift for little ones in your life.

Introducing Fleur

I'm so excited to share with you the release of Fleur my very first doll pattern!  A beautiful and sweet vintage-style cloth doll with hand stitched features, who can be made from entirely natural materials.  She has taken three or four years to put together... and I am so proud of her :)

She has a braided/plaited hair style, wears a sweet crossover dress with matching French knickers, and little shoes.   Fleur is a modified vintage pattern - I don't claim to have designed her from scratch, rather given her a makeover and some tweaks here and there.  My work lies in the detailed instructions and tutorials for her construction, facial features, hair and of course clothes!

Fleur is suitable for someone who has used a sewing machine before, and has an interest in creating a magical doll for someone they love.  She is not a whip-it-up-in-an-evening project, rather she can be easily achieved in little pockets over time... nap times, evenings and spare 10 minutes here and there.

You can purchase your own copy of the pattern in my shop here.

I simply can't wait to share her with you.  I hope she fills you with as much joy as she does me.

Starting tomorrow we will be taking a wee tour of all the dolls made by the wonderful group who helped me test this pattern.  I'm sure you are going to love meeting some new bloggers and seeing their beautiful work.  There will also be a wonderful GIVEAWAY for a lovely doll starting tomorrow, so be sure to stop by and check it out.

xx

A Very Special Doll - Pattern Testers Required

Meet Fleur, the little one who has been keeping me company these last few weeks.  She gives the appearance of being quite prim and proper but she loves to sneak into the garden and have her feet in the dirt.  Strawberries are a favourite, although we do have to remind her to only pick the red ones!  Her little hands are just the right size to help wind the new pea shoots onto the trellis so they can grow tall and strong.

Of course she loves flowers too, hence her name.  Despite her disposition for being outside in the dirt, when she comes inside her first stop is to make a nice cup of tea for her friends.  There is nothing more civilised than a well made and freshly poured cup of tea she tells me.

Fleur is a 15 inch cloth doll.  She wears a sweet crossover dress with puffed sleeves, trimmed with vintage ricrac.  Underneath she sports a pair of sweet wee French knickers with a tiny bow.  Fleurs shoes are made of felt, although she only likes to wear them for best:)  Fleur's hair is a braided up-do which was inspired by my great grandma Mabel who used to always wear her hair this way, she was also a keen gardener.

Fleur is my very first cloth doll pattern and I am so proud of her.  The basic doll body pattern itself is a copyright free vintage pattern which I have carefully digitised and modified to accommodate my personal preference.  I don't claim to have created her from scratch, rather given her a tweak here and there!  My work lies mostly in the comprehensive tutorial for her construction, how to create her facial features, detailed hair instructions and of course her little clothes.

The pattern for Fleur is ready to be tested.  I am looking for both beginner and more experienced sewers to help me with this.  You can fill in the testing application form here if you would like to test her.  She is suitable for someone who has used a sewing machine before and is willing to pay careful attention to details such as lining things up perfectly and taking the time to enjoy making her.  Embroidery experience is not required as everything is covered in the tutorial.  She is not a whip-it-up-in-an-evening project, although there are lots of elements which can be done in a spare fifteen minutes here and there so she does come together nicely.

She will make an utterly magical Christmas gift for a special little one in your life.

If you would like to test her please fill in this form, and you will be notified via email by Friday evening (21st Nov) with an invitation to a private Facebook group.  Testing will take place in four stages: doll body, facial features, hair and clothes.  The entire doll needs to be completed by Monday 8th December which is about two and a half weeks. Please only apply if you can complete within this timeframe.

I truly believe that when it comes to dolls for children, being handmade with love is totally where it is at.  I can't tell you how excited I am to share these delightful dolls with you - I hope they fill you with as much joy as they do me!

xx

A Return to Doll Making

I made my first dolls when I was about eight and fell in l.o.v.e with doll making.  They were knitted dolls, a boy and a girl in little winter outfits.  I discovered them recently when my parents delivered the last of my boxes which had been lurking in their garage.

But you know how it goes - sometimes it takes a while to rediscover your passion for something.  A few years ago when our little girl was just a baby I embarked on a doll making journey which gave me so much pleasure - a vintage style cloth doll with embroidered features.  I was in the earlier years of recovering from a severe hand injury and every stitch was a concerted effort.  It was a slow and sometimes painful process, but oh my, when that little doll's personality began to shine through, I proved to myself once again that hand stitching truly is such a wonderful therapy - I could create something beautiful from my heart and with my hands given perseverance and patience.  I was hooked.  You can read about her here.

Since then I have made a bunch of dolls.  A few in a similar style, and also some traditional Waldorf-Steiner dolls which I love for their beautiful simplicity and tactile nature. 

I have played with doll hair - making crochet wigs, stitched hair and even wefted hair (that was a steep learning curve!)  Doll making is something that our little girl loves to be a part of too.  I often find her fossicking in my button jar or choosing wool for hair.  She tells me about the dresses she would like for them and more recently is coming up with wonderful names and stories.  It has been so much fun experimenting and I have learnt so much along the way.

Although I do fully intend to take things easy for the next wee while, dolls for me are a completely different story.  The allure of being able to pick up a wee doll and work for a few minutes here and there is very appealing.  Gently hand stitching facial features in-between little tasks throughout the day, stuffing limbs while watching a little tele in the evening - now that I can do!

After my original blog series on the doll I made, I received a bunch of emails requesting advice and information.  It seems the instructions on vintage doll patterns are notoriously scant, assuming considerable sewing knowledge and experience.  Often less than half a page of the doll body, face, hair and clothes instructions combined!  So over the years I have been making notes of what I have learned along the way.

This has led to the creation of "Fleur", my very first cloth doll tutorial.  She has literally been years in the works, and I am very proud, somewhat nervous, but mostly very excited to share her with you soon...

I'll be looking for pattern testers - so stay tuned!

xx

Warm Feet

Our little girl has a doll I made for her second birthday.
She had bare feet until today, but in this cooler weather - isn't it so much nicer to have warm feet?

A friend came over who was willing to teach me some crochet skills.  Although things take me quite a while, it was very exciting to say that by the end of the day she had warm and toasty little feet.

How cool is that!

I'm so proud of them :)

xx

Linking up with Show & Tell

Doll Making - Clothes

Welcome to my doll making journey.  

If you are just joining, my goal is to create a classic vintage style cloth doll, giving her a slightly more modern look while keeping those lovely vintage elements.  You can ready previous posts on her eyes here and colouring them here, lips here, limbs here and hair here!

I have never made any doll's clothes before - so I thought I would familiarize myself with the proportions by making the dress from the original doll pattern I am basing my doll on.

It was a relatively simple pattern, with a bodice and little sleeves joined onto a ruffled skirt.

  

The original pattern actually had three tiers of layered ruffles on the skirt, but I changed it to a simple single layer of gathering.  The back joins together with ribbons and I added some antique lace around the neckline which I salvaged from an old doily which was in disrepair.

I forgot to take a pic of her petticoat, but you can see the bottom of it, to which I also added the lace, poking out from under her dress.

Her little shoes are very cute, although I have lots of ideas for new shoes...

So here she is in her entirety so far!

I love the red and gold fabric of which a lovely length was gifted to me from P.  I hope she likes what I have made from it ;)

As I mentioned earlier - these clothes are just a trial to get me familiar with the sizing etc, and over the next few weeks I hope to make her more clothes with a more relaxed and adventure-y feel to them from recycled fabrics and maybe a spot of embroidery too.

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
6. Clothes (This post)

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

Doll Making - Colouring the Eyes

UPDATE:  You can now purchase the pattern for my doll, including detailed tutorials for her hair, eyes and facial features here:  "Fleur" Doll Pattern 

In case you are just joining in on my doll-making journey, my goal is to create a classic 1930-40's style cloth doll, giving her a slightly more modern look while keeping those lovely vintage elements and clothing.

So far I am up to embroidering the eyes.  After deciding on the style of the eye I wanted for my doll here,  I then needed the colour.  

Aiming for as realistic as possible, I decided to photograph my daughters eye and use that as a guide.  Alas she was asleep (for an unusually long period) so my eye had to suffice.  Bit humbling seeing your own eye up close - I didn't realise I had that many wrinkles!

After studying the colours in the photo, I chose thirteen shades to make up the green, grey, brown and golden hues.  Working with a single strand of thread, I started with the darker ring around the outside then adding lighter more golden colours towards the center.  

Proportions of the pupil were made a bit larger than mine, as I figured I was looking into the light when I took the picture.  Lastly the light/highlight in the eye was added for the finishing touch. 

I am sure more experimentation and practice will see some improvements - like how the iris started off perfectly round but was a bit wonky by the end... but for my first attempt I am really happy:)   Yay!

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

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

Doll Making - The Eyes have it

I'm so excited about making my vintage-style cloth doll - she is turning into a real little person! You can read previous posts on my doll making journey here.

Today's discovery is when making something with a "soul" the facial features really do make or break the overall "feeling" of the person or creature.

I wanted this particular doll to have very striking eyes and tasked my honey with helping me come up with some ideas.  He draw a number of very different eyes including square ones and ones that might look in place on a Jim Henson creation, but I wanted something a little more realistic.

We sat together on the couch whilst I explained I wanted her to look sophisticated, happy yet serene, pretty and friendly.  (Not much to ask from a pair of eyes is it?!)

I liked the realistic version in the first photo, and really wanted her to have luscious eyelashes, so stitched five lashes.  They looked great, but when I did the second eye they started to look a bit much.  Rather like a stick insect had crawled onto her eyelid...

It was unpicked and replaced with something halfway between the original and the slightly pared down version below - She did retain half the line underneath and ended up with four lashes!

Yes - There was a lot of stitching and unpicking going on today!

Will report back shortly with a pic of the result (when the air erasable marker has disappeared).
Update:  Click here to see her eyes finished :)

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

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

Doll Making: Lips

My vintage style, doll making journey continues...  I am starting on the fun part, working on her facial features. She is really starting to come to life and it really is so thrilling!  Posts on making her limbs and body can be found here and here. 

Her lips are the first feature I am to embroider, so once again the sketchbook came out...

I wanted lush lips, but not too pouty.  Smiling but not cheesy.  Happy yet serene. 

With a sketchpad full of lips and armed with an air erasable pen I marked on her little smile.  When I came to stitch, however, I did learn a few things.

I found out that a single stitch on the edge of the lips can completely change the feeling of the smile. After a bit of stitching and unpicking I discovered two more things.

• Lips look a lot more natural if they are not completely even from one side to the other.  Best to have one side of the lips neutral - as in quite straight and the other with a little upturn.  When I say little I mean just a single upwards stitch.

• Although when drawing the lips on paper the line where the lips meet is in the middle but when stitching it seems to look better slightly higher. 

Next up will be her eyes - stay tuned!

xx

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

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

Clue Answered - Doll Making!

I have wanted to make some dolls for the longest of time, and finally have started along the journey.  I'm taking it very slowly, doing little bits and pieces here and there while the poppet is asleep,  and am just loving the process.

After searching for quite some time for a pattern to purchase, I still couldn't really find exactly what I was looking for.  A vintage looking doll, with the classic full cheeks and life-like contours. 

Eventually a month or so ago, I purchased an old 1940's pattern and have spent time readjusting it somewhat to give the proportions and contours which I had in mind. After quite a bit of sewing, unpicking, re-drafting etc. I am now really happy with how the head and body are looking.

In time I wouldn't mind changing the hands and giving them actual fingers, but for now her little "lobsters" are still very sweet!

Next up I'll be working on her little facial features.  As everything is done during the poppet's "sleeping hours" it could take a wee while - but stay tuned for how they turn out!

xx

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

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

Clue 2

Lots of trial and error with the sewing to get some nice contours and lovely chunkiness.

  

Have you guessed what I am making yet?

Clue

Have been working on something for a wee while, which is now starting to come to life.  I'm so excited to share it with you soon!