Another pregnant friend, another little sack doll!
I don't know the baby's gender yet, so I picked fabric that has blue for a boy and purple for a girl! The body of this doll is made from an old tweed jacket.
Instruction time!
1.Cut out shapes to the sizes written in the photo:
The body is folded in half, a rectangle of 5.5inches x 4.5 inches wide
The head piece is 3 inches long x 1.75 inches
The hat is folded in half, a triangle of roungly 3.5 inches x 2.5 inches
The skin fabric is cotton interlock, you could us an old flesh colour T-shirt. The body fabric is pure wool. Any fabric would do, for instance flannelette or corduroy, as long as it is mostly natural. A baby would probably spend a lot of time chewing and sucking on it!
2. Sew the head and body with a sewing machine, turn them right side out, and lightly stuff the body with fleece. I use sheep fibre (the fluffy stuff before it gets spun into wool) but I guess any sort of filling would be fine. The culture in making Waldorf toys is to use natural fibres as much as possible.
3. Stuff the head very firmly. If you are wondering if you need to add more stuffing, you need to add more! Use the back of a wooden spoon or a thick stick to compress the stuffing. I was able to stuff mine to a circumference of 4.75 inches. Stitch up the bottom of the head.
3. Tie a neck about half and inch up from the where you sewed the bottom up, and tie an eyeline an inch up from the neck. I added a little nose by making a few small stitches on the face.
4. Cover the face with another small piece of interlock over the face to hide the eyeline-string and stitch it down around the top of the head and at the back. Pull this fabric fairly tight so it gives the space made by the eyeline a bit more definition.
Stitch on the eyes and mouth. I use 3 strands of embroidery cotton to do this, and a pair of pliers to pull the needle through the head. Push the needle as far through as you can, and then grip the pointy end with pliers to pull it out.
Many people put the eyes too close together, so use pins to mark the features before you stitch them on.
5. Put the completed head through the hole at the neck opening and stitch it on very very securely. I can't think of a worse image than a baby who has chewed the head off a doll!
6. Stitch on the head. I put a little bit of stuffing in the hat to plump it up a bit.
7. I like to colour the cheeks of the dolls that I make. I use a standard red colouring pencil and colour in a red circle on the cheek area. This will come off over time, so you may need to top up the colour every now and again!
Let me know if you have any more questions or comments!!
Jo
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