April Dolls

I'm a bit behind schedule with my April dolls, Daisy and Darren. But I am working on both the April dolls and the May dolls at the same time so that by the end of May I hope to have four dolls completed.
Here is some of the work in progress.

Beginning to paint faces.

I'm no artist so painting the faces has been one of the challenges however I think I improve with each new batch that I paint. I'm beginning to understand how to create the shaping through use of light and dark colour. I'm pleased with this latest selection. It was not possible to paint on the brown fabric so to create the brown faces I had to start on the pink fabric and build up the colour.

I've also been working on the hands using pipe cleaners to shape them. Here are some close up pictures.

New Fabric

When I was making the first six dolls, I used   medium-weight calico for the bodies.
For Alex and Anya, I painted just their faces however for Blake, Briony, Carole and Crispin I tried painting all the body pieces to get a flesh colour. This was time consuming and it was difficult to get a consistent colour.So I started looking for some suitable flesh coloured fabric. My local Fabric Shop didn't have anything that would do. Then I came across Pelenna Patchworks, online. They sent me some samples and I chose FLESH and CONKER.

The fabric is perfect, very strong, doesn't fray easily, so good for narrow seams and firm stuffing.I've got my eye on some other colours so I can make dolls with a range of skin colours.




Here are all the pieces cut out for one doll.

More Carole and Crispin

Here are the details on Carole's jeans with embroidered flowers and tiny buttons. I've also given Carole toes as I plan to make open sandals for her.






With these dolls I also tried something new with their hands.

I made a little hand skeleton out of pipe cleaners and inserted it into their hands and just lightly stuffed the palm of the hand. This has made their hands more flexible and realistic.

Some more pictures of my favourite Carole.

The Flower Children - Carole and Crispin

Carole and Crispin, my two little hippies, made in March. I have to say that so far these are my favourites.

Carole has such a sweet little face.

Crispin. - I found this lovely scrap of orange/green fabric to make Crispin's tiny kaftan.

More details - Briony and Blake

When I made the first two dolls, I tried painting their faces using transfer dyes, painting onto paper and then ironing the image onto the cloth. This wasn't easy as the dye colours are so strong it was difficult to get subtle shades. So when I made Blake and Briony I used fabric paints and painted directly onto the cloth face. I used fine line pens for the details of the eyes and lips. I stuffed the nose slightly to give the face more shape.

With these dolls I also tried machine stitching some of the hair onto the head pieces before putting the head together. This certainly cut down on the amount of time needed to make the hair but made it a little more tricky to attach the head to the body.

Briony's pretty underwear is trimmed with lace sent to me by my cousin, Irene.

I've had a go at making Briony a pair of school shoes but they are still coming up too small and I haven't attempted to make shoes for Blake. Briony's little socks were cut from the top of a pair of children's socks and stitched around her foot to fit.

I've made Blake a school tie. I'm very pleased with this. It was made from red bias binding which is perfect for little ties. I've made it a bit too long but can easily shorten it.

February Dolls - Briony and Blake

Briony and Blake, created in February and dressed in school uniform.

I had quite a lot of red gingham to make Briony's school dress and just had to buy the ric-rac to trim it. There are tiny tucks on the dress bodice which perhaps aren't clear in the photo. Blake's trousers were made from a scrap I had left over from some school trousers I made for my sons many years ago. I think I rather over stuffed these two dolls as they were a bit chubby and the first shirt and dress bodice that I made were too tight and I had to start again. Blake's clothes follow the patterns from Linda Carr's book but I adapted two patterns to make Briony's dress.
I found the tiny buttons on Gregory Knopp's website. I loved just browsing through all the buttons. I'm sure I'll be buying more.

Some More Pictures of Anya and Alex

 I made Anya and Alex in January 2011. I followed the patterns in Linda Carr's book as closely as I could.

The most difficult part was creating the hair. All of the yarn used for the hair was sewn on by  hand after I had completed the dolls. It took several days, especially Anya's. Then with Alex's hair I couldn't decide how short to cut it; I wanted him to clearly look boyish.

Anya's dress was made from some fabric I had cut out years ago to make a dress for myself. The lace trim was sent to me by my cousin Irene.

Detail on Anya's boots. These were quite tricky to make as the pattern in the book wasn't big enough for the doll as I had made her so I had to enlarge the pattern. I'm still looking for suitable material for making shoes/boots.

Alex