I will admit from the start that this project has been a struggle. I have wanted to make another soft bodied doll for many years, but somehow never got around to it. I was inspired by so many folks recycling and up-cycling things they had in their homes and closets, (that I have been watching on youtube) that I decided to give myself the challenge of making a doll from my own household contents. This is my humble attempt.
My first inspiration was from this old vintage pattern. I actually had this very pattern in High School, but managed to lose it with the passing years, so I was fortunate to find this one on Etsy. I thought it would be so nice because it would certainly have a pattern for cutting out a nice shaped cotton head. How wrong I was! I was sorely disappointed to find that it called for a sock to be stuffed. This was my first point of discouragement, because I already knew how to do sock heads and I hadn't wanted to do another...sigh! There was no getting round it, so into the sock drawer I dove.
I have several pairs of these lovely fleece socks that the climate of Hawaii utterly destroyed the elastic in, so was happy to sacrifice one to the project. I cut the sock as seen above and stuffed the toe section with polyfill.
I knew I didn't want the rough texture of the sock for the finish of my dolls head, nor the bright pink color, so into my drawer I dove again. This is actually the lining to the bottoms of a very lovely pajama set. It was covered in heavy knit lace and had a wonderful wide band of elastic at the top. Did I mention Hawaii's climate kills elastic?! Well yes it did, so this too went under the scissors. It was the perfect fabric to cover the sock with, and give my dolls head a soft skin color and texture.
To make the eyes for my doll I like to use a round felted wool ball and cut it in half. Once the head is sculpted to my liking I put on the eyes, carefully stitching them in their proper places. I do not glue anything as I don't like the feel of hot glue and the smell is bothersome.
In my stash I have lots of different colored wool felt, which comes in really handy for many things, but for this project I thought it would make perfect eye shadow and eyelids.
The old vintage pattern called for button eyes, but I chose a blue wool felt ball for her eyes. Once the felt ball is cut in half, and you put the first stitch into the center of the eye, and pull it through to the back of her head, it creates a small divot to place the tiny black felted ball in. A couple of tiny stitches with black thread hold it in place, and another couple lightly stitched with white sewing thread, give the doll her little iris reflections. Using single strand of regular sewing thread, I stitched around her eyes in a ziggedy pattern to simulate eye lashes, but didn't like how they looked exactly, so filled in around the bottom of her eyes with a fabric pen in black.
I cut the pink felt into the shape I wanted and stitched it down close to the eyeball and then again at the felts upper edge. Thus creating her eyelids and makeup. I'm sorry I forgot to take pictures of the under-sock being stitch-sculpted before I put on the outer layer of fabric. This was such new territory for me that it took all of my concentration to figure out each step as I went along.
As you can see here some of my stitch work comes out the side of the dolls head. This is to help sculpt the shape, but also hides your stitches under the hair later.
I used a small felt ball over the sock, but under the pajama layer, then I stitched carefully around it in a "U" shape to kind of replicate the dolls nose in the old vintage pattern. I stitched her lips and eyebrows also with single strand of regular sewing thread. It isn't that I don't have tons of embroidery floss, it's just that I wanted a non-bulky look to the dolls details, like the old vintage pattern.
You can see here just how messy the back of the head looks at this point. Trying to get the fabric to go smoothly over the head and lay down nicely was a challenge. Luckily it will all be covered by hair.
At this point I thought that I would make the body of the doll out of an old poly-cotton bed sheet that I have. It no longer fits any bed size I have, so under the scissors it went too. Its label says it was made by J.P. Stevens & Co. in 1982. I guess I just sacrificed a vintage sheet.
I drew up a pattern of what I thought I would like for the dolls body and proceeded to cut it out of an old roll of heavy white paper, I used to use for making patterns in the 1980's - 90's. I guess that makes it vintage too.
Here I have cut out all the pieces and was pretty happy that everything seemed to be chugging right along. However, this is where things just ground to a halt. First of all I hated how stiff the fabric felt. It wasn't soft like I wanted, and the body shape was too long and didn't fit the idea I was going for, which was something similar to the doll in the old vintage pattern. I know you are wondering why I didn't just use the old pattern itself? Well to tell you, the pattern called for a child's sock, a child's sock from 1973 when the pattern was made. I had no such thing nor easy access to one. So when I made the head from one of my socks it came out bigger than the old pattern. Thus my rethink on body style and size...sigh!
When I tried to get the neck of the body to go into the head of my doll, even using a chopstick for the purpose, it just wouldn't comply, and I hated how it looked. So I gave up on that and decided to stitch up one of the hands.
See what a nice hand I had drawn up and cut out?! I knew from experience that turning the hand was going to be difficult, but I had no idea that it would be simply impossible! ARGH!!!
Not only did it completely fail at the fingertips, it wouldn't except stuffing to save its life, and the hand turned out looking like this! I hated it! In fact I was so upset by the whole thing going sideways, that I put the entire project away and didn't look at it for days. It wasn't just the fabric that was a problem, it was also what to do for her hair? I had lots of yarn for projects but nothing suitable for hair for this size of a doll. I was just about to give up in despair, and even had my son ask my daughter, (when he was on the phone with her), what to do about my dilemma? She is a professional and has her own yarn business, and is very knowledgeable when it comes to all things yarn and textiles. She had some very good suggestions, but after giving it some thought, I knew it would be outside my rules of making this doll, if I went and bought anything to complete it. I was truly stumped! So it was back to the drawing board for me.
Sometimes, it is good to just let a project cool off, take a step back and relax a bit. Let it mull and cogitate in your brain as it were. After a few days of letting things just go, it occurred to me that in my doll collection, was this doll that I had, that just might do for an up-cycle. I had bought her at GW for very cheap, and at the time had thought I would some day modify her, as I simply didn't like the face. I has stashed her in my shop and wasn't even sure if her body was the right size, but went and retrieved her just in case. I was delighted to find, she had just the body I wanted. Here she is. She is a, "Sweetie Pie Kids", doll named, "Chloe."
Soon I was happily busy with my seam ripper. Fortunately she was designed with a seam at her neck that just fit my dolls head, and they went together beautifully, like they were made for each other. I decided I would not take pictures of poor Chloe being decapitated, nor the fact that I had to scalp her too. They had made that part of the dolls head, holding the hair, like a skull cap. After seeing that I could just remove her hair and apply it over my dolls head like a wig and stitch it in place, I did. The beauty of using this dolls body was that it took no time at all, her yarn hair was just what I wanted, and all the clothes that came with her already fit. YIPPY! SKIPPY!!!
Here is my finished doll, complete with a little face powder to give her rosy cheeks. I am so much happier with the look of her face, and I have renamed her Chloe Cherise. I am looking forward to designing and drafting up patterns for making her some more clothes, in the Holly Hobbie style like the old vintage pattern, and am well satisfied with how she turned out.
This project has given me a whole new respect for all those talented doll makers who make such fantastic looking dolls, and all the other super creative folks doing and making wonderful things, and creating content for us to watch. I don't know if I shall ever take on another doll like this for a project, but hopefully I can begin again to enjoy the creative process as I once did. Making this doll turned out to be such fun!
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