My first 'proper' cloth dolls

Babies for my six year old grandaughter, so quite traditional.

I made the heads first, because I thought they would be the most difficult bit...




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Made in stretch velour fabric. Needle sculpted. Painted with watercolour dyes and gouache in fabric medium. Heat fixed with a hot air gun.

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The 'wigs' are knitted in fancy fur-type knitting yarn. I had several goes knitting different yarns on different sized knitting needles. (I've got a bag of 'experimental' wigs now that will probably be used to make puppets!). I used 'teddy bear' joints to fix the legs and arms to the body, so that the dolls can sit and I put empty 'plastic tubes' from polyester sewing machine thread in the necks to help keep the heads up. That's about it, really. Made in the traditional stuffed toy way. Now I just have to make two sets of clothes.

I'm pleased with these, they make me laugh. I think I'll make some more!

I had a hard job making clothes to fit these dolls. They are adapted from a teddy bear pattern, to get that 'babyish' look, but I hadn't thought ahead to fitting clothes on them. Once I realised that dolls clothes don't have to be made or fit in the same way as regular children's clothes, it became a little easier. Also, trousers had to be made very baggy, otherwise they couldn't sit. I had quite a few false starts, and there is a pile of clothes that don't quite fit!


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Here they are dressed in shorts and t-shirts, out to play.


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And here they are all dressed up to go out to tea.

I had fun making these, and I'm sure my grandaughter won't mind the mistakes! I can improve on these quite a lot..