The Doll Post

Greetings friends.

I'd like you to meet some dolly friends. Both made from FREE (well written, easy to follow) downloadable patterns found on the web.

Meet Dotty and Audrey.



Dotty is a very simple version of the Black Apple Doll, from a pattern featured on Martha Stewart. I made Dotty some time ago, before I ever thought about having a blog myself. Honestly, I forgot about her. Hadn't seen her in a while. Then I discovered she had taken a mini vacation in the space between our washer and dryer in the laundry room. Naughty girl had gotten a little dusty. She looks well rested from her holiday.

Dotty was mostly sewn using my machine, and I chose to embroider her face rather than paint or draw on. The Black Apple pattern is pretty easy to follow, and can be done by hand also. I personally have a tendency to overstuff the doll parts. Learn from my mistake!

As for Audrey -- I think she looks much more complicated to make than she actually is. As I was putting her together I was surprised at how smoothly things went. I like working with wool felt. It's cool not to have to think about fraying. And even wonky stitching can be disguised well as the right color floss practically makes the stitches disappear. (A tip, choose floss slightly darker than the felt rather than lighter, it blends better). The toughest part was attaching the arms and honestly, it wasn't that hard. The second hardest part was picking the colors to use!

Audrey is handstitched from wool felt, from a pattern by the incredibly talented Mimi Kirchner, featured on the magnificent Purl Bee website. You can see the tutorial and download the pattern here.

I think I should have embroidered the nose differently. I think the floss I used was too light, making it hard to see. But other than that I'm really quite pleased with her.

Know what else is cool about Audrey? Her legs are attached with buttons which makes her poseable so she can sit up on her own.

Even if you aren't up for making the whole doll, the dress is a great simple pattern and could be used to make an outfit for Barbie!

You can check out more versions of the Purl doll on Flickr here. Versions of the Black Apple doll are all over blogland.

If you have ever thought about making a doll - do it! Honestly it is so satisfying! And probably much easier than you think it's going to be!

Later skaters,

Janimal

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