Hello friends! I’m thrilled to bring you today’s post on making a handmade rag doll! If you read part one you saw where we converted a vintage suitcase to become a “trunk” to convey this rag doll to her new mama.
Before beginning the doll I come up with a color palette, this helps give personality and cohesiveness to the doll’s face, name, clothes, accessories, and “housing”.
This sweet collection of fabric from my local fabric store has an array of colors perfect for the doll I have in mind…
Gorgeous, dreamy colors perfect for doll dresses and the “trunk” lining!
This particular doll will be a combination of the pattern my aunt used in creating my doll when I was a little girl and the adorable pattern in this book.
The main difference between the doll patterns is the hands and feet. I’ll be designing my own style face.
To begin the face I sketch the details on paper, tweaking it until it looks right. The paper is then taped to the window as a sort of light-box and traced onto the “skin” fabric.
Next the colors for the face are chosen to coordinate with the color palette and embroidered on. Here is where the personality starts to take shape and I begin getting excited!
Each doll is given a special name which is hand embroidered to their tummy. Here is Lilac with the torso complete and her legs stuffed and ready to go. Looking on from above is my doll, Lucinda, from the original pattern.
Lilac’s feet are in the new style, a bit more rounded and shorter to accommodate shoes. The original pattern has what I call “canoe” feet and they haven’t fit any shoe we’ve tried yet… I’m hoping this style will find a shoe that fits.
In the original pattern the hands are “popsicle” style without fingers. These tiny fingers are a challenge to sew and stuff!
Once the limbs are attached the body is stuffed and it’s time for hair! This doll is the first where I’ve used a wavy yarn, it was great to work with and so soft!
The quilting pins create the hairline and part to give the hair a style. Hair usually takes a day to do… and then the doll body is done and ready for clothes!
My goal is to send each doll with at least two dresses so the nieces can have the fun of changing their clothes. For this little dress I ran several rows of pintucks and some floral trim down a section of fabric before cutting out the bodice. I also added piping to the Peter Pan collar.
Pressing helps things go together better!
Here I am placing the collar to be sure it’s centered. Lilac was a good sport and sat still. 😉
Lilac is the only doll (so far) to have earrings ~ she looks so elegant! The earrings are round pearl buttons.
Now for the second dress. With the doll made and first dress down I have a better feeling for the overall style of the doll. For this second dress my aim was a dress with a bit of the Empire Jane Austen style. To achieve this I raised the waistline and lengthened the skirt.
As you can see I took care to “fussy cut” the sleeves and bodice so that the floral motifs would be centered. These special design touches are such fun!
Bodice done (the hardest part)! Next the skirt is gathered on and sewn to the bodice.
Lilac is now done and dressed! She got to meet Lucinda and spend the afternoon chatting about her trip.
Ready for her journey, Lilac is thrilled with her newly renovated travel trunk and wanted to show you her everyday dress. She especially loves the silk roses on the sleeves and at her waist.
Her hair is nice and tidy in a braided crown.
The row of buttons down the back are faux. For ease of dressing each garment closes with a strip of velcro for those hasty, little fingers!
To see the DIY process of making over the vintage trunk for Lilac’s travels see the previous post.
All packed in her “new” trunk and in her best dress Lilac is ready to begin her journey to her new home! And I can hardly wait to see the reaction of our little niece when she sees her new handmade doll!
As soon as she saw the doll she squealed “my special doll”!
Learning how to dress Lilac. Happy birthday little darling!
Here’s our little herd of nieces with their dolls!
Thank you for following along with the makings of this handmade rag doll. If you enjoyed the trip please post on Pinterest and share with a friend! If you enjoy stitching by hand, you may also love these vintage linen projects for your home.
If another post on handmade dolls or other items interests you, please leave your comment in the box below!
Warmly,
Rachel
