I made a new doll....

A really new doll.
 I got out my freezer paper and worked out a new design for my dolls. Some of the pattern is based on the critique, some on a doll buyers input and some on myself and changes I've wanted to incorporate into my design.


I took my time with this dolly. I could see her in my head and she just kept coming together, and when finished...she really looked nothing like the picture in my head but she very much fits the impressions and feelings I had in my head while I was dreaming about her. She has been over 3 weeks in the making. There for awhile I thought about not making dolls any more, but I say that this doll has revived me. I think that is why I named her Ember.

One change I had been wanting to make on my doll pattern is longer, huggy (read curved) arms. I also wanted the arms to be more "floppy." It seems to me that a doll with more floppy arms and dangly legs, make for a more playful doll. I also lengthened my dolls legs just a bit and slimmed out her shoulders.
When I started to put Ember together, on a whim, I decided to try my hand at making a nose. I've always been mildly resistant to putting a nose on my dolls because I REALLY like the simple faces of Waldorf style dolls. It seemed right to give her a nose...new pattern, new thoughts on doll making...new face :)

Her hair is made out of a thick boucle yarn with a bit of a twist...haha, I wound the boucle on knitting needles, wet it down and put it in the oven at a low temp to let the heat set the curl. Boucle alone gives a curly look to a dolly's hair but wrapping it gave it just the right touch. I can't really take credit for the idea though. I've been helping a friend from church make a doll. She has some of this thick boucle too and was trying to figure out a way to make the ends of her dolls hair with a softer look instead of a blunt cut. She wondered about wrapping the hair the way I do and my mind went into overdrive fast. It had never occurred to me to wrap boucle...but what a lovely look it gave her hair.



It was then just a matter of making her clothes. Love Love Love making these little cardigans.

The Wonderful World of Waldorf Dolls

I love babies. I love little children. Sometimes its easy to forget that they are experiencing everything for the first time with eyes of wonder.

Sometimes if I'm working on a doll wondering if she is going to come out like the idea I had in my head, my daughter, Livia or my little Silas will walk by and with a voice fraught with excitement, will say "Oh mommy, she is so pretty" or "I like your baby, momma" and suddenly it doesn't matter if she comes out like the picture I had in my head.

I made a few dolls for my children and they loved them, bless their hearts. They have played with them and drug them hither, thither and yonder.


My husband is the type of husband that while he encourages me in every way as a mother and home maker he likes for me to have a little bit of industry. For several years I sold tamales on Saturdays at a local farmers market. That was a lot of fun. I met lots of interesting folks and made a some extra money. For different reasons, farmers market became not doable anymore and I was looking for something different to do.

I had been learning to knit and could already sew and somehow or another I got the idea in my head to open an Etsy store to sell dolls and doll clothes. I still remember the feeling of selling my first item....


I sold another doll outfit and was super excited. Then I sold my first doll.


This is Gracie and I've made her two more times....excepting that I find it literally impossible to make an exact replica of a handmade doll. Once she had brown hair and flew with her grandma to Japan to meet a sweet little girl.

Gracie the Brown

And once she was supposed to be a totally different doll with curly hair but on looking through my sold orders on Etsy, the Little Miss decided she wanted a doll like Gracie and I didn't mind because Gracie the First is my most favorite doll ever.

Gracie the Third
I took off most of 2010 off. My husband was gone for a total of 6 months working with the BP Oil Spill way down south in Louisiana. During that time my oldest daughter met a wonderful man and within a 6 month span was courted, fell in love, got engaged and was married in January of 2011. They are now expecting their first baby in February of 2012 and I can hardly wait.

Back in February I was itching to get back into doll making so I started with a new dolly, Missy.
Since starting back to doll making I've sold 13 dolls and many doll outfits. I'm not looking to be a huge business. My dolls are made by me using my hands, sewing machine, crochet hook and knitting needles. I can't mass produce dolls and have no desire too. I enjoy the process of making a doll. If I felt I had to make a bunch or in a manner of speaking "keep up with the Jones" doll making wouldn't be any fun.

There is a verse in the bible that reads: 1 Thessalonians 4:11 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands , as we commanded you;

I think of this verse when making dolls and when working around the house. I've often quoted it to my children who, at times have been too chatty or rambunctious during our work times.

I felt a bit melancholy today. When I first started making dolls I had no idea there could be contention, hurt feelings, accusations and in general, plain ill will in the doll community. Actually, I had no idea there was a doll community. I was ignorant and it was bliss. I'd been making dollies, expecting little girls and boys to play with them till they were dirty and worn from lots of love and fun.

I think my fellow doll maker  Little Jenny Wren said it best when she said in this blog post...

...thinking about how very strange this on line world can be
and that it is so much better to live most of your life in the real world and make real things
than live in a virtual world and not make much at all.

Cinnamon Sugar

My oldest daughter was the cutest, little, freckled girl with hair that curled when it was short or she was hot.

Her daddy, because of her freckles, affectionately dubbed her "Cinnamon Sugar."

I miss that little girl.

I named this doll "Autumn" after my daughter and gave her a sprinkling of "Cinnamon Sugar."

Curly Girl Goodness For Dolls

I've been getting ready to make a couple new dolls so I've been thinking about doll hair.

I happen to really like Little Jenny Wren Dolls and the way she would make curly hair on her dolls. I adore curly hair on little girls and Little Jenny Wren does quite the job of creating the essences of little curly girl goodness. When I began creating my own dolls I wanted to make curly hair on my dolls. So I laboriously knitted doll hair several times for dolls and most of the time I discovered I didn't knit enough so had to knit more. It was a trial to me because at the time I was a slow, beginning knitter and I also knit English which is slower yet than the Continental style of knitting. Needless to say, curly hair was quite the project for me.

A swatch of knitting for doll hair might looks like this.....It is knitted, wet down or "blocked" as it is called, dried and then unraveled.

This is one skein of black yarn minus the cap/wig that has been crocheted for stitching to the dolls head. I wanted tight, kinky black curls for a doll so I knit this yarn, which is a DK weight on size 4 needles. I've been working on it when I sit and listen to the children read or when I have a few minutes here or there. It didn't take long for me to knit. I've gotten faster at knitting. That is what happens...the more I knit the faster I get.

Anyway, back in the day, I couldn't justify taking the time to knit doll hair. It just took me too long! So I had to devise a way to make curly doll hair. It didn't occur to me at the time to search the internet. I wish it had. It would have saved me time and yarn with troubleshooting how to make a curly yarn quicker.

I laid in bed one night thinking about it. In bed at night is where I do my best thinking. I lay in bed and solve whatever problem I'm having. Lots of times I pray about whatever is rolling around my pea brain and try to figure out a solution. I've done this for years with sewing and then with knitting and then with doll hair. And just FYI this method of problem solving also works for husband troubles, children troubles, family troubles and life troubles in general.

I decided to try wrapping my yarn around pencils. That made nice curls but they were big and it was easy to see that they needed to be tighter. Also the type of yarn made a difference. I found that a 100% wool will hold the curl really good while a wool/mohair blend doesn't hold as well even when its blocked.

I began looking around my house for something small and round and thought of my old metal knitting needles that I had given up in favor of wood needles. (the yarn does not slip off the wood needles as easily as it does metal) I wrapped yarn around the needles and Viola I had found what works for a nice corkscrew type curl. A small dowel would work well too but it didn't occurred to me until a commenter said something about it once.

Any yarn that has been blocked and unraveled will lose its curl if it wet down again. It doesn't matter if its been knit or wound on needles. When I mail out a doll, I attach a card that tells how to care for/clean a doll and on the card I give instructions to not wet a curly haired dolls hair or it will lose its curl.

A cap/wig is sewn onto the dolls head and I cut my yarn to the desired length and hook the hair into the cap. Its a sturdy method of attaching the hair and works well.
I also wanted to show this book. I bought it several months ago and wish I had bought it a couple of years ago when I started to make dolls. It would have saved me a lot of time and failed attempts at what I was trying to accomplish.

The book has simple pencil drawings through out that for me make it easier to understand the construction of a doll. There are lots of ideas for making doll hair in this book, including knitting the yarn and unraveling for curly hair. In the coming months I'm going to be trying some different ways to make hair and see if I like it. I almost exclusively do the cap and hook method because that is what I know and what I'm comfortable with. But its good to expand and stretch and reach beyond our comfort zone.

Apron Love

Today is Labor Day. We don't have a whole lot going on. My husband is working and our 3 oldest boys will be working with him today.

My good friend is coming over for lunch. She has three daughters that my children enjoy playing with. On the menu....BBQ meatballs, twice baked potato casserole, corn, salad and biscuits. Watermelon later in the day.

I've been on an apron kick. I've made 2 more this last week.

This apron went to a friend at church. It was kind of hard to part with. I like the blue and brown together. (every apron is kind of hard to part with. much like a doll :) )


This apron is mine :)



I've been sewing up a storm for my Etsy shop. I have a planned upload on September 21. These will be among some of the new items in my shop.

Adrianne, Katie Beth and Her Dress

Adrianne was one of the first 12" dolls I made. She and Katie Beth were originally intended to be the first dolls in my shop. After looking at them for awhile I decided I needed to improve as a doll maker before attempting to sell a doll. I love this little doll. In my eyes she is perfect. She ended up being gifted to a special set of sisters who still love her and make doll clothes for her out of all their moms fabric scraps.

Katie Beth is the other first 12" doll I made. When I first made her she had mohair ponytails. I used her a lot to model doll clothes for my shop.

My little Livia, played and played with her. One day my older daughter decided she needed new hair and made her some wool yarn hair. She has sat in my window, keeping me company as I sew and work on different projects. A few days ago I thought she needed a bit of gussying up so I got into the top drawer of my fabric dresser, where I store what I consider to be my knitting or sewing goofs that aren't up to my standards to sell but are good enough to keep for some other suitable reason.


I pulled out this little red dress that I knit last year. I was going to put it on a doll for my shop but I made a mistake on it. I had wanted the whole dress in stockinette but somehow or another the top came out garder stitch and the skirt was stockinette. AND when I turned it inside out it was the opposite hehehe.
Anyway I put the dress on Katie Beth and now she is a cheerful little girl in red with a snazzy blue polka dot ribbon around her waist.

Amazing what a change of clothes will do.

Meet Maggie and Jenna

This last week has been a nice hum of living life and creating dolls. In between taking care of children, hanging out the laundry and cleaning here and there, I worked here and there on making these two dollies.


The first is Maggie. I call her carrots. She is very loving and sweet so she needed a cardigan that said something about Love.

I spent a couple of late evenings after the children were in bed working on her hair. I wanted braids but sometimes a doll in the making does something else in its creators hand and out she came with curlyish red hair.

Jenna is like my friend Jenny. She LOVES purple and has a cute crooked grin.

She is even sporting purple Mary Jane shoes, which she is showing off in the picture below.


Both dolls are in the shop.

Life and Dolls

I woke up this morning and turned on my computer to find my computer isn't working. I used a good part of my day delivering my computer to the Geek Squad.

I'm now using my husbands computer. He uses IE and I use Firefox so I'm having to adjust myself to IE and all the ads I never see. I uploaded three new dolls to the my Etsy store today. Two of my dolls are sporting wool cardigans made from wool sweaters that I felted. I hand embroidered the cardigans and am pleased with the results. I like to free hand embroidery and these little cardigan are the perfect canvas for such handwork. These little cardigans will be making regular appearances on my dolls, each with their own unique, one of a kind design.While I was cropping, resizing and editing the pictures, I thought I'd try my hand at making a collage.

When I first started making dolls to sell my older daughter, who has a fancy shmancy camera, did all my pictures for me...including the editing. It saved me lots of time...and she is good at it. Now that she is married, I've had to learn to take my own pictures and do my own editing. I've been thinking about more creative ways to take pictures and tried to stage some different areas in my house to take cute pictures of my dolls. But on my little camera which is neither fancy or shmancy but does do a nice job, outdoor pictures always come out the best and need little editing as far as color or light goes. For now I'll stick with the "outside on the front porch" pictures.

May the Lord bless you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you. God is good all the time.

Anatomy of my Waldorf Style Dolls

There has been a little bit of hoopla in the doll making world about what a Waldorf doll looks like under the clothes. Apparently some are unhappy with the quality of the doll and feel they have been deceived by a pretty dress that hides a poorly made doll.

I personally think that no one would set out to make a poor quality doll and sell it for a high price to scam a potential customer . Hand made dolls, like all hand made items are in their own right a work of art. There is much joy and satisfaction to be had in the creative process. It is stimulating, productive and tends to feed itself with such good food that the creativity only expands and gets better and more creative.

I know when I look at my first dolls and then look at the dolls I make now, my doll making process has went leaps and bounds and turned several corners. I like those bends in the road when my creative process is changing and I can't quite see what is ahead.

I want to do a show and tell about my dolls. Making a doll is an interesting and captivating process. No two dolls are alike.

I start with the head.
I put the "skin" on the head and sew it shut down the back of the head. This is what the head looks like after the back has been sewn shut and the face has been put on the doll. The hair covers the seam line and embroidery floss.



I pull the top and the bottom of the head closed like this:

I like to sew the head to the body with firm, tiny stitches.


I do the same with the arm/shoulder seam.

When it comes to my dolls legs I hand stitch the seams. I like leg seams because without them it is difficult to get a doll to sit. I like a doll that can sit and be more limber.

And then the feet. The bottom part of the leg is bent up and sewn together. I like my doll feet to actually look like feet and it took me many dolls to figure out a good way to accomplish getting feet the way I wanted them to look.

Little Jenny Wren has been a huge source of inspiration to me when it comes to doll hair and dolls in general. For years she has been making beautiful curly doll hair. This hair is made curly by knitting the yarn and blocking it and then unraveling the yarn. It is beautiful.

Wende, has hair that has been knitted and unraveled.

They say necessity is the mother of invention and I believe it. At the time I started to make dolls, I was a slow, beginning knitter. Knitting doll hair took me a lot of time. It takes a lot of yarn to give a doll curly hair like this especially if long, curly hair is desired. So I played around and devised a way to make "corkscrew" type curls.


Gabby

Libby

Hattie

Carly

And while the next doll does not have curls I could hardly leave her out. She is the doll that started it all. The doll that I finally got my nerve up to start a little store and put her in it. The first doll that I sold. She tells the real story of her maker.


When it comes to my dolls, I like to make them and dress them as I like to see children dressed and made over. I like side parts and bows. I like simple cardigans and sweet dresses. I like rosy cheeks and freckles. I like red heads. I like color. I like black and white checker boards, cherries and polka dots. I like Mary Jane shoes. Notice her feet :) they do not "stand up" like my doll feet do now.

I've been looking at dolls for over 3 years now. I've gotten to where when I see a picture of a child with a doll I can usually guess the maker. Doll makers all have their own flair and style and for some reason their dolls while all are different, are identifiable. One day I hope my dolls will be known for their own flair and style as "Folky Dot Dolls."

Meet Wende

I've been working on Wende for 2 weeks. I made her and then she sat in my knitting basket, amidst yarn and needles and several half finished projects, one of which is a rather large shawl that I've been knitting on for a year out of a delicious malabrigo yarn, while I set myself to thinking on what she needed to be a modest, pretty sort of girl. I like to look at my yarns to get an idea for colors. Greens and blues were speaking to me. I took several skeins and some fabrics and laid them around Wende until an idea formed in my head for her clothing. This right here is the reason I can't really put out more than one dolly a week. Too many times I have to let the doll and her clothes simmer in my mind and sometimes that takes days.

I played around last week coming up with my own version of a felt flower clip for another special dolly and the result was that I sat on the couch for an hour cutting out leaves and flowers and made a very many of these sweet, simple clips to grace my doll's hair.
Wende comes from one of my favorite fairytales, Peter Pan. I liked the girl Wendy in the story and her way with Peter....Sewing his shadow back on was quite clever of her. :)
Wende is in the shop.

Busy

I've been busy making a few dolls here. Two put together and I'm knitting up some hair for one of them. I'm creating another in my mind as I knit.

I had an awful thing happen yesterday. I put together the sweetest little doll, and just as I was almost finished, I snipped a string and cut a hole in her foot. There was no way to fix her and make her foot look good, so when I got home from church last evening, I cut her out a new body, sewed it up and put her back together and she is mighty cute....

A sneak peak of my fixed up girly girly,
I still have to make her clothes. We borrowed these from my growing pile of doll clothes that need to be listed in my Etsy store.

I still haven't thought of a name for her yet. Part of the fun of making dolls is getting to dream up a name for them. :)

Meet Rowan

Rowan, I love her name.
I made up the pattern for the overall construction of her vest. There is supposed to be a zig zag type pattern in the middle section of the vest and there is, its not easy to see though. I'm still learning about what types of yarns go with patterns and stitches. I found the zig zag pattern in a book I checked out from my local library, The Complete Book of Knitting. It must have over 100 different stitch patterns in it. At this point a lot of my made up knitting is trial and error. I end up hoping a lot that my knitting falls on the side of a successful trial instead of an epic error.

I made up the hat pattern too. I was attempting to go for more of a beret look but it didn't come out that way not sure what I need to do different to get the right look. I added the button holes around the ribbing just in case the hat was too big I could add the ribbon to cinch it up a bit.. I was guessing on the amount of stitches I needed to go with. I have a doll beret pattern but it is knit flat on straight needles and I wanted to do something in the round and it didn't have the beret look I was going for. Also it called for sport yarn and I was using worsted which would result in a bigger stitch. So I guesstimated AND it came out. The hat fits fine without the ribbon and it is so stinkin' cute on her.
Rowan is ready to go in my store, Folky Dots.

Meet Mary Beth

What fun I had making this sweet dolly.


I learned something new about knitting too. I learned that when picking up stitches along the front edges of a cardigan...one must pick up about 20 stitches, not 15. 15 stitches cause the front edges to curve a bit. It looks good and gives her cardigan a bit more character than it already had.
The black floral fabric in Mary Beth's jumper is some of my favorite fabric EVER! I had used every last scrap of it and was weeping and wailing every time I opened my fabric cupboard door when one day, one glorious sun shiny day, I found it online while browsing through fabric at Joanns.com. I promptly ordered 5 yards. A girl has to have her favorite fabric!

Mary Beth is in my shop. :)