My first stump doll

We had builders in last week so I had to stay indoors. I hid upstairs, played with my machines and made my first 'Stump Doll'. This is a doll with a 'solid' base, rather than legs and feet. I'm not sure it's a very nice name to describe these dolls, but it is the 'technical term'!


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The head, arms and body are made from my usual polyester suede. The 'skirt' is made from scraps of sari silk and other odds and ends needlepunched by machine onto a felt-like synthetic dish cloth then machine quilted with preprogrammed stitches. The frill was made by running the needlepunch machine along the raw edges of a folded silk strip. I stitched it on with knitting yarn in herringbone stitch. The top of the dress was made by wrapping the body with pieces of wool fleece echoing the colours in the skirt and fastening down with seeding stitch and padded knitting ribbon stitched down with buttonhole stitch. I added more buttonhole stitching and some beads for texture. Here's a closeup:


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She has a lightly needlesculpted, hand painted face and a knitted wig. This is what she looks like from the back:


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These type of dolls make such a good canvas for showing off handmade fabrics with lots of embroidery and embellishment. I don't suppose this will be the last one I make. I stuffed this first attempt with my usual polyester stuffing and gave it a thick cardboard base, so that it stands up without being weighted.