cynthia & tig

I posted before about the wonderful Wee Wonderfuls book by Hillary Lang. I have made three dolls using the Tag Along Doll pattern - which is a joy to make, but I also attempted a couple of others when I first bought the book. I dug them out of Hesper's toy box as I thought they deserved a show and tell. This little lady (I call her Cynthia) was made following the Sleepover Pals pattern - the actual pattern is for three of these little dolls who all fit nicely into a roll-up sleeping bag. My idea was to make them with small magnets in their arms so that they can all "hold hands"... well, I made one back in October and she  remains a billy-no-mates. Her magnet arms are quite useful for holding onto H's hair clips that she discards throughout the day...

 

Next is "Tig", made from the "I Heart You" pattern. I used red corduroy for the heart-shaped head, blue gingham for the body, legs and skirt back. I made the front of the skirt from a section of vintage embroidered linen that I picked up from a charity shop. The linen and lace were small scraps that I had stashed away and the rest of the fabrics are all recycled from charity shops. In the book, she is made from a printed, folksy fabric but I wanted to experiment with making a doll from these embroidered linens as they are too pretty to be kept hidden away.

 

two new dolls

In the past month we lost our lovely dog Taos to cancer (I was too sad to blog about it at the time), we had a lovely log cabin + hot tub break in the New Forest, plus some bouts of illness thrown in, getting all Christmassy and... taa-daa! here is another doll I have slowly, but steadily been making. She is a gift for one of Hesper's friends. Made following the Tag Along Doll pattern from Wee Wonderfuls, which I used before here:

Because her recipient is part South-African, I used orange and purple South African fabrics for her dress and legs. She also has green felt eyes and curly wool, hair instead of felt as in the original pattern.  I worked out how to do the hair by looking at various techniques online and then just sort of making it up a bit. I wanted her to have long curls and found this kinky- textured wool gave the right look. I stitched it into side bunches as I used a lot of wool and did not want it to look too wild.

With the left over pieces of fabric I made her a quilt, backed with some lilac and white print fabric that I had squirrelled away. I also covered a couple of buttons with the purple fabric and added these to the quilt with orange elastic loops, so that the quilt can be wrapped around her and buttoned up into a sort of sleeping bag-cocoon! For finishing touches, she has a hand-stamped linen gift tag with metal eyelet and a chocolate coin in her pocket!

...and here is doll number two for another of Hesper's friends. Again, using the same pattern I made her body from organic, fairtrade linen. The dress is from the lilac & white fabric that I used for the quilt backing above and her hot pink cord legs are made from a pair of Hesper's old trousers (thoroughly washed!) She also has curly wool hair, tied in bunches with strips of felt. 

I hope they love these dolls as much as Hesper does!

// Wee Wonderfuls doll making book by Hillary Lang here //

// African fabric bought online here //

mini hesper doll

I made a doll! I treated myself to Hillary Lang's beautiful Wee Wonderfuls book, after coveting it for a long time. Hesper is so attached to some old rag dolls that I had as a child (they have had more attention from her than they have ever had in the last 30+ years), that I wanted to make one for her too. I was just going to make it up as I went along, seeings as they all seemed to have a pretty basic design to them, but thought it might be useful to have some more technical help. This is a lovely book and I did spend some time pawing over the designs, choosing what to make.

I decided on the Tag-Along Doll as I was drawn to her round, happy face & sweet dress. She is also  similar to the dolls that Hesper has which inspired me to make one. I plan to make one with African fabric for Hesper, but thought I should practice first with fabric I already have before buying anymore.

The pattern uses wool felt for the body, but I like this organic linen that I already had. I used vintage pillowcase fabric for her legs and the dress is made from a vintage tea-towel with a retro apple design on it. I bought three of them from a charity shop a few years ago and made cushion covers For Hesper's room with two of them, so she now has a doll to match her room! I even think she looks a bit like Hesper!

Hillary Lang's wonderful Wee Wonderfuls book is available here