Little Doll For The Take Along Fabric Doll House

Today I worked more on the little doll I made for the doll house.  I made her 2 dresses and some pjs.  It was all a bit difficult for me because it is miniature and i had to do hand sewing which as I've said before isn't my forte.  I did use one pattern I found for the pink dress I made.  I got it from here, Aux Petits Bonheurs de Sophie.  She's got a good tutorial with pictures on there.  The other dress and the pjs I just made it up as I went.  Tomorrow I want to put the rest of the house together and then I'll be done with house number one :)  Here are some pictures of what I got done today.

Pretty Jointed Dolls

After the jointed dolls I made with my own pattern I saw a picture of a doll I wanted to try and make.  I went on etsy to buy this pattern here LaliDolls.  I've made 2 dolls with this pattern.  These dolls are more cuddly than the other jointed dolls I've made.  They also have a small magnet inside their heads where their mouths are so their pacifiers can stick to their mouths.  I followed the instructions on this video to make the magnetic dummy.  The blond doll is named Ella.  Ella is a 14 in Waldorf inspired button jointed doll.  She has ivory colored mohair wool for her hair. The brown haired baby is called Abigail.  Abigail is also a 14 in Waldorf inspired button jointed doll. She has a dark brown mohair wig for her hair.  I got the wig cap here, Kemper Doll Supplies.  

This is Ella :)

Ella's dress was made from a Simplicity pattern I already had and her diaper was made with the pattern that came with the doll pattern.  You can find many patterns and tutorials for doll diapers online though.  Her little shoes were from a shop.

 

This is Abigail :)  Her dress is from a simplicity pattern I already had and her diaper is also from the pattern that came with the doll pattern.  Her little shoes are also from a shop.

 Abigail showing her bellybutton and diaper.

 You can see more pictures of them on my FB page, Etsy page, and my Pinterest.

I like this pattern.  I like the dolls I made from it but there are things about them that I'd like a little bit different.  So I'm still going to work on making my own jointed doll pattern.  That's something I want to start working on soon that and also a pattern for a non-jointed weighted doll the size of a newborn.  Wish me luck :)  

More Dolls

Today I decided to keep going with my doll show and tell :) I thought I'd shared all the jointed dolls I wanted to share here, but nope I forgot one.
Her name is Natalie and she's a birthday girl :) My wife and I went fabric shopping for her dress and we chose a birthday balloon fabric :)  I used an old simplicity pattern I already had for her dress and bloomers.  I googled for a template for a birthday hat.  You can find one here first palette.  I didn't know how to make a pom pom so my wifey took care of that for me.  Here are some instructions on how to make pom poms Pintriedit.  She's got a good tutorial and has several ways of making pom poms there.  I've got a pom pom maker tool now :D It's like this Hobby Craft.  I got mine from my local fabric shop though. She also has a birthday bag made of felt with a ballerina bear inside which is also made of felt.  The bag I just made up.  I cut 5 pieces of felt and made a basket, then added the strap.  The bear is made of felt and I got the pattern from a simplicity pattern I already had.  The little bear is wearing a no sew tutu :) I made her socks out of little kids' socks.  I just resized them and added some lace.  I made her some felt Mary Jane shoes.  I always say to google Mary Jane shoes for dolls but this time I thought I would put some links down for you.  Here are some links for doll shoes.
duitang - Cute bunny shoes tutorial.  It's in another language but it's a picture tutorial so it's ok.
craftbits - Cute felt shoe pattern and tutorial :)
Bella Online - Little slipper shoes tutorial and pattern.
iLovetoCreate - Cute Christmas shoes pattern and tutorial. They are for ornaments but can be used as a doll's shoes and they don't have to be Christmas themed either.
Wanted a new project - A very good tutorial on how to make ballet slippers :)
konfetki - Good tutorial and pattern for cute booties.
Serpentina - She's got several shoe patterns there.
Antique Lilac - She has a tutorial and pattern for making Mary Jane shoes.  Her way of making them is different to mine but I used some of her technique for making the shoes for my newer dolls. I do not glue them on my dolls' feet like she did and her dolls are small and a different kind.  So you just have to take what you can from what she's showing you.

Anyways :) here is Natalie.

Natalie

 

On my searches for inspiration or for instruction I saw cute dolls that were not jointed dolls but could sit on their own.  I read about how some dolls are weighted.  So I decided to make one of my own.  I made me a pattern for what I called a floppy baby :D and found this link on how to weight your dolls sarahsdolls.  There are several ways to weight a doll though. Emma was fun to make and she was cuddly.  I want to make another one of these :)  

Emma

This is a swaddled baby doll. I made her for a giveaway on my FB page.  I liked the tutorial on this page sarahsdolls.  I made her out of soft material, I think it's diaper material maybe. Then I covered her in the pink spotty one.  I googled how to swaddle a baby to cover her the right way :) then I sewed it up and I sewed a little cap on her head. Here is a video on how to swaddle a baby :) youtube and here is a tutorial and pattern for baby caps Make Sew Baby.  The flower applique was made with my lovely BIGkick machine.    

Olivia

These little girls were 12 inches tall.  Julia was my 500 likes giveaway doll on my FB page.  They were made with my own pattern.  When I posted my give away doll, a lady custom ordered one like Julia :)  The little dress was made with this tutorial and pattern quaint-and-quirky  I just resized it to fit my dolls.  I made them some felt shoes and used newborn mittens for their socks :D

Julia

 custom ordered doll

It was fun sharing these with you all :) I have more to show you in other posts.

More Jointed Dollies

I wanted to continue with my jointed dolls show and tell :D  In my Jointed dollies post I listed several Waldorf doll how to links for you.  I hope they are helpful :) In that post I showed you my wedding dolls, Honey the bee and some Christmas angels :) All those jointed dolls and the ones I'm going to show you were made with my own pattern.  A pattern that I'm still tweaking to make better :)

This little lady started off in a Christmas dress, then I changed her into a red outfit with hearts.

I made her dress and bloomers from an old simplicity pattern I already had.  I had gone to Hobby Lobby when my wife and I visited Texas and I found a treasure trove of printed felt squares :D  I bought myself several and used one of them to make these spotty felt shoes with velcro fasteners and a pink felt heart applique.  I also made her a small red felt purse with a ribbon for a strap and I made her red hair bows.  All the felt heart appliques were made with my trusty BIGkick machine :)

Bella

Bella's bows, purse and Mary Janes :)

These little ladies I made for some ladies who custom ordered them.  Evie was first and when I posted her on my FB page a second lady wanted one that looked like Evie doll as much as possible.  So I made Madison :) They have blue eyes and lovely blond hair with pink bows.  I love making hair bows. There is this awesome site where they have loads of tutorials for hair bows.  Here is the link for that site The Ribbon Retreat.  I  made these little girls felt shoes and tights and dungaree dresses :)  The tights were made from size 0-3 month baby tights. I just resized them.  For the dress I just made a pattern but here is a link for a good one The Silver Penny.  It's one for pants but you can just make a skirt instead.

Evie

Madison

This is Zoey and I loved her hair :) I made her tutu just as colorful. I used tulle in all the colors they sold at the fabric store :) Here is a link on how to make a no sew tutu again :) sewmccool.  She is a colorful ballerina and a couple years ago became someone's Christmas present.  

Zoey

A couple of years ago I made a Christmas fairy named Holly. She was fun to make.  I made her a Christmasy tutu in red, green and white with a Christmasy bow in front.  I googled holly leaves to make a template to cut holly leaves out of felt to put on her bows, shoes and outfit  hence her name being Holly :D  I loved her wings.  The felt they are made from was a good find in good old Banburys Store.  Her bows I made with the help of this tutorial I found here sisters suitcase blog.  They have a very good picture tutorial there and the template too :) 

Holly

 Holly's wings,Mary Janes and bows

Isabella was one of the first dolls I made with my own pattern.  I loved her hair. The yarn I chose for her hair was all crocheted into a long block. I don't even remember what I was trying to make with it. When I undid the block to make Isabella's hair it was all nice and curly.  It came out very lovely :)  I made a purple bow for the front of her tutu and I put purple gems on the tutu as well.  For this doll I chose to try and make fingers and toes.  I found a tutorial here Doing Without.  I don't have any pictures of her toes but you can see her fingers in the picture below.  I've not made fingers and toes on any of my other dolls. I don't really know why.  I might do that next time I make one of these dolls.

Isabella

I'll share some more dolls with yall in another post.  If you are making your own dolls I hope it is as fun for you as it is for me :)

Jointed dollies

I went looking for the pictures of all my old jointed dolls I made so I could put them on here.  When I decided I wanted to make a jointed doll I went on google looking for tutorials and I found plenty of them out there.  Here are several links that are very helpful :)

Fig and Me She makes gorgeous dolls and has a lot of very helpful information and tips.

Nestled Under Rainbows She's got a tutorial for making dolls and talks about how she created her own pattern, which made me realize I could give it a try as well :)

Doing Without She's got a tutorial and a free pattern.  I used this tutorial to learn how to make toes and fingers :) 

Pummbaeren This site has a great tutorial with pictures for making the head.

The Silver Penny This site has a good tutorial for the head and it also has a pattern.

Judi's Dolls She has a video showing how to do invisible jointing, which is what I wanted for my dolls.  I didn't want the buttons on the joints to show. 

Fretta This is another good head tutorial :)

Dolls Fever Another very good head tutorial with pictures.

Farmish Momma This is a link I shared in another post.  It's the tutorial I used when I started making my dolls :)  It's a good one. 

I got my jointed doll pattern from Sarahs-Dolls.  I made a few dolls with this pattern, but I decided to try and make my own pattern.  It was hard as I'd never done it before.  I measured plastic baby dolls.  I looked at how their arms and legs were shaped and went from there.  I'm still not happy with it and will continue to tweak it until I'm happy.  I want to make the legs longer and the feet as well.  I think the arms are a good length, but I want to make them thinner I think.  The body needs work as well.  I've not made one of these dolls in over a year.  When I tweak my pattern to my satisfaction I'll give it another go.  My favorite part of making the dolls is when I get to pick their eye and hair color.  My wifey helps me choose most of the time and she also chooses their names :)  I also love picking what I want to make them to wear.  I'd love to learn to knit so I could make them woolly hats and jumpers.  For now I just make them dresses, shorts, pants, underwear, nappies, socks, tights, shoes, jackets, hats, that kind of thing.  I thought I'd share some pictures of some of the dolls I made with my own pattern :) 

Honey the Bee :)  She was really fun to make.  I kept thinking of different dolls I could make and this little bee came to mind :)  I googled bee wings to get an idea of what to make her wings look like. I made her a black and yellow tutu and here is a very good tutorial on how to make your own no sew tutus sewmccool :) 

Honey

This is Noelle and Tilly.  All these dolls were put on my FB page and Etsy page, so when a lady saw Noelle she asked me to make her one with black hair. So I made Tilly for her.  They were made near the holidays so they have a Christmas angel outfit and Noelle also has a regular Christmas dress.  I love her little felt Mary Jane shoes.  If you google felt Mary Janes for dolls you'll find many tutorials and patterns.  Noelle is one of my favorite little dolls, her face to me was very pretty :)  Hopefully their owners are still happy with their dolls.

Noelle

Tilly 

One of the custom orders I had that made me the most nervous was an order made by a man for his wedding day.  He and I exchanged many messages about how he wanted the dolls to be.  In the end he was very happy and I was happy with my officer's cap! The gold buttons on his jacket were actually silver but I spray painted them gold. The groom's doll was the hardest to make but very fun :) I used these tutorials for an officer's hat to help me make mine Brass Goggles and Tracing Rainbows.

Very good tutorials with pictures.  

I didn't know if I would be able to do it but I liked how it all came together. The bride liked her surprise too :)

Officer's Hat :)

I'll share some more of my jointed dolls with you in my next post :)

   

Some other dollies

I wanted to share some other dolls that I've made.  After the first 2 dolls I made a few more using the same pattern that I found here sarahs-dolls.  I made a superboy, a schoolgirl, a pirate, some little boy and girl dolls and a little girl doll in a Christmas dress.

Here are some of them.

I think my favorite was the schoolgirl doll :)  I made some of these dolls about 3 years ago, some 2.  Most of these were sold on my FB page.  They were very fun to make, especially the pirate and the schoolgirl :) I loved making their outfits as well.  I used all kinds of fabrics and felt.  The hardest thing to make for me was the newspaper boy hat.  It came out ok though.  After I got the hang of making this type of doll I decided a jointed doll was my next project.  I'll share some of those in another post :)