Thanks to the magic of Facebook, I have reunited with my childhood best friend. Jill and I became besties (before that was even a word) at the age of 6. Aren't we adorable? We were basically inseparable through elementary school until I moved away after 5th grade. I only moved 25 or so miles away, but these were the days before cell phone and email, so we lost touch.
Fast forward to a few years ago, Jill and I reconnected when both of us had our first babies within 6 weeks of each other. Olivia was born in February 2011; Henry in April.
This past weekend, Jill invited us over to Olivia's 3rd birthday party. I was super pumped. A special friend deserved a special present. I asked Jill what Olivia wanted (and what Jill didn't want any MORE of), and she suggested a doll. Bingo.
Henry has this adorable felt lumberjack doll that I bought for him before he was born. I got it from an Etsy Dallas event, but I don't know from who. I would love to give them credit, but I have no clue who made it. Sorry, anonymous Etsy vendor.
At any rate, I thought this was something I could fairly easily recreate. I wanted the doll to look like Olivia, so I used ol' Jack as a template and got going. This could be very easily adapted to be a boy or girl doll in basically any outfit. Here's how I did it.
The goods:
- 2 sheets of 8x10 skin colored felt
- 1 sheet of 8x10 baby pink felt
- scrap pieces of black and brown felt
- scrap pieces of ribbon
- polyester fiber filling
- coordinating threads
- sharpies for drawing on the face
2. Stitch hair on head. I used a matching thread so it wouldn't show as much. This will come in handy when you close the doll up in a later step.
3. Stitch legs together.
4. Turn legs out using a fancy turning tool (aka - Sharpie) thusly.
5. Stuff the legs with fiber filling. I wanted the doll to have a little give (somewhere between sturdy and rag doll) so I didn't fill it to the brink.
6. Attach the clothing. Mr. Lumberjack didn't have this issue because he wore long sleeves, but my ballerina had a few less clothes. I wanted the stitching to show up in this case, so I did a zig zag stitch in a pink thread. Attach clothing to the front and back.
7. Sandwich your pieces together. The right sides (clothes and hair) should be facing each other, with the legs sandwiched between. This photo looks so gross (like clogged arteries or something...worse) but I thought it would be helpful to show what this should look like. What also would have been helpful would be to let the legs stick past the body by 1/4" or so. I had to re-sew my legs a couple of times because I didn't get all of the layers. It was annoying. I adjusted the PDF pattern to reflect longer legs to allow you to do this. You're welcome.
8. Starting near the head, begin sewing around the body. I used an all purpose white thread so I wouldn't have to constantly switch the colors back and forth. It gets turned out anyway. Backstitch over the legs a few times. You really want them attached well. I totally forgot to take a photo of this step. Sorry. Leave a 2-3" gap at the top of the head. Turn your doll right side out using your fancy tool (Sharpie).
9. Isn't she pretty!? I needed to attach her straps (because I couldn't figure out how to do this before turning her out). A attached a ribbon to make it pretty (hide my stitching). Stuff her with the fiber fill until you're happy with the feel of the doll.
10. Stitch her head closed. I did this by hand. I hate sewing by hand (so tedious) but I couldn't find a way to make the machine do it and have it look the way I wanted. Coordinating thread is really important on this one. And the monitor showed that Max was still asleep, so I kept on going!
11. Create the skirt. You could use tulle here, but I had some ribbon laying around, so I used that. This was about a 12" piece. I adjusted my machine to create the longest stitch possible and stitched along one side of the ribbon, like so.
12. I held onto one of the strings, and GENTLY started gathering the ribbon, working all the way down, until you have the right length for the skirt.
13. Pin the skirt to the doll. Using a needle and thread (ugh, I know) attach the skirt to the doll.
14. So great, right! Time for a face. My husband at this point said "If the doll was Amish, you'd be done now." I seriously considered converting, but ultimately decided it wasn't quite worth it. It's tough to be an Amish blogger.
I used Sharpies for this. You could embroider by hand, but you guys know how I feel about this. I practiced on some scrap felt first to be sure I was OK with the look. I was.
Then I got to drawing. I kept it simple, which I think worked the best.
The party was fabulous, and Henry and Olivia hit it off. I think we have a budding romance. Their date looked as intense as Ballerina and Lumberjack over there. I know it looks like Henry is about to make out with Olivia, but I promise, he didn't. Totally G rated up in here.
Not to difficult, right? You can totally do this. I really want to make a whole mess of them, but I have boys, and they won't play with them. Unless the doll looks like Superman.
I did make these guys awhile back (which is why I had all the scrap felt in the first place). Henry has played with those a bit. Anyone interested in a tutorial on these? Any other felt projects that you guys have attempted?
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