My Brave Attempt at Making Disney & Pixar's Brave's Merida! (18 Inch Cloth Doll)

Hello Craftster friends!!! Man oh man...it has been a LONG time since I have been on here. Too long.
My life has been quite full of a lot of life-changing events that prevented me from being involved in anything- my blog, here, facebook, ect. It's a long story and I do plan to share it with all my friends here since you guys have always given me love and support, but I am actually working on a project that represents the whole story so I will save it for that project post. I was going to wait to finish said project and use that as my first "welcome-back-to-Craftster-and-normal-life-Alexz" post but then I completed this project this weekend and had to share! I thought she was worthy of such an occassion.

When Brave was coming out, I was excited to see it simply because it looked cute and I am obsessed with all things Disney. But I had no idea how much I would fall in love with the movie after seeing it once. It started with the three little cub bears- (I won't say anything specific about them for those of you who have not seen the film). I saw the bear cubs in a few previews and fell in love with them instantly; it came out around my birthday and before I had even seen the movie yet, I saw a set of all 3 bears in mini plush form at Toys R Us and bought myself a little birthday treat.

When I did see the movie finally, I not only fell in love with those dang bears even more, I fell in love with the entire story! The setting, the plot, the characters- everything in it is amazing! The animation is flawless and gorgeous, and Merida's hair captivated me. You get the picture- I LOVED this movie! So since doll-making is my favorite art right now and I already had the three bears, I knew I had to make Merida! Who wouldn't want to make her into a doll with all that hair!

So let me just quit yacking and just show the dang doll! Everybody, this is Brave's Merida!

I tried to match her as closely as possible but still make her a classic Spooky Pooky style doll.

For her hair, I cut all different lengths of two different yarn types into pieces and then sewed them down the middle. I then sewed that to her head and I unraveled each piece differently to give it lots texture and color variation. I added the coiled ribbon by hand lastly, to give it even more texture. It was pain-stakingly tedious but I think it was worth it in the end!

She has her bow pack with a belt and fastener, leather booties that can come off and lots of pizzazz! lol. My dad is actually making her a bow today! He is in a different town though, and I didn't want to have to wait to get it to post her so when I get the bow and arrows, I will add more pictures!

I made her 30% bigger than my normal cloth dolls so the bears could go with her. She is about 18 inches tall, and her hair makes her look even bigger in person.

As usual, I went really picture happy. Sorry for so many. I just like her and I like taking pictures and I can't help myself. lol

Welp, I hope you like Merida as much as I do! If you have not seen the movie, go watch it! It is a wonderful film and has so much to offer! When I get her bow and arrows, I will add a couple more photos. Thanks for looking and I am so glad to be back on Craftster with all you wonderful people! I missed ya'll