HOW TO MAKE SOFT SCULPTURE BABY DOLLS

The doll show was such a success that it was held over for another two weekends. This Saturday, at a workshop, I’m going to show the visitors:

HOW TO MAKE SOFT SCULPTURE BABY DOLLS










WHAT YOU NEED

• Stretchable fabric – bathing suit lining, tee shirt fabric skin tones
  
• Stuffing –fiberfil


• Heavy duty thread – quilting thread to match stretchable fabric


• Long needle


• Two kinds of flannel, one for a hat and one for a blanket


• Black magic marker
  

HOW TO MAKE THE HEAD AND BODY

Make a tube from the stretch fabric about 2” in diam.

Tie the top of the tube with quilting thread

Turn the tube right side out Tie the bottom of the tube with quilting thread (It should look like a sausage)

Tie off a neck about 1/3 down from the top. (Now it should look like a sausage with a head)

HOW TO MAKE THE NOSE
Thread a needle through the top of the head and come out through the head to about ½ in the middle of the head. This is where the nose will be.
Pinch a little fabric and filling.
Make a stitch from one side of the pinch to the other side of the pinch.
Do this is the same spot about three times. This secures the stitch.
A little further down the ‘nose’ and a tiny bit further apart, do it again.
Keep doing this until the’nose’ is as long as you want it.
Take a tiny stitch where you want the right nostril to be, Do this 3 times, too
Go through the nose to the other side to make the left nostril.
Go back in the head and out through where you want the baby’s mouth to be. Take a stitch about 1” long and pull tight. Do this three times.
Then take the needle out through the back of the doll’s head. (No one will see the back)



HOW TO MAKE SLEEPING EYES
With the black magic marker, make two stretched ‘u’s. (Easy?)

HOW TO MAKE A NEWBORN CAP

• Cut about a three-four” wide swatch of flannel and as long as the dolls head plus an inch allowance for a seam.
• Make a tube.
• Tie the top of the tube with quilting thread
• Turn the tube right side out and roll up the end (Voila!) A cap for the doll
• Either glue or sew this to the doll’s head
  
  

HOW TO MAKE THE BLANKET
Lay out the baby doll kitty-corner on the other piece of flannel. Measure a square of this fabric so that the doll can be wrapped in a bunting.(By pulling up the lower end of the blanket to the doll’s chin and criss-crossing the side s of the blanket from left to right, you have a baby bunting. (This was once called a swaddling cloth)
Either glue or sew this to the doll’s body. (That way no one will know the baby doll doesn’t have any arms or legs.)

OPT: The top of the blanket is now sticking up like a thick flannel feather. Tip this down over the doll’s cap. This completes the lovable cuddly baby.

Rag-A-Mama Dolls Workshop at the Beloved Pecos Gallery

I’ve been under the weather for the past few days. Now I’m experiencing allergies. It did not affect my participation in the doll show last weekend.









For me, the highlight of the show was teaching some gallery visitors how to make rag-a-mama dolls. Here’s how.


















You’ll need:

Neutral cotton fabric scrap
Small ball of fiberfill
Two pipe cleaners
Yarn or string
Scissors






Directions:

1. Rip or cut a piece of neutral fabric about 4” x 6”.


2. Hold the fabric flat in one hand and stuff a piece of fiberfill into the fabric and tie it with a piece of yarn or string to make a head. At this point, it should look like a ghost.


3. Rip or cut a piece of the same fabric about 6” long by about 3” wide.


4. Wrap that fabric around a pipe cleaner.


5. Tie each end. This will be the hands.


6. Pick up the ‘ghost’ head and slightly pull apart the ‘neck’ of the ghost. Place the arms between the two parts of the ‘neck and tie in place with another piece of yarn or string. At this point it will start looking like a doll.


7. Repeat steps 3, 4 and 5 but this time the wrapped fabric will become the doll’s legs.


8. Rip or cut a piece of colorful fabric about 2’wide x 3” long and crisscross the pieces of fabric over the chest of the doll. This becomes the shoulders.


9. Rip or cut another piece of colorful fabric matching or complimentary to the shoulders about 4” wide that will wrap around the doll at least three times.


10. Gather the fabric around the dolls waist and tie with another piece of yarn or string.


11. Tie another contrasting triangle around the dolls head as a scarf.
    
    
    It’s not as complicated as it sounds. The 8 year old made a fantastic “radio-girl” doll. Instead of tying a bandana around the doll’s head, she took another pipe cleaner and fashioned a headset from the pipe cleaner. The 9 year old chose a flowing silk scarf for a skirt. The 4-year old son made a boy doll with Dad’s help. The boy doll quickly became airplane doll. The other adult went “out on her own”, did not follow the rules and concocted a wonderful, artistic creation. She should be an artist.
    
    The visitors chose this form of rag-a-mama doll because the primitive folk art doll can sit. An easier way to make a doll is to follow the directions of a corn-husk doll but instead of using corn-husks, cut or rip fabric pieces.

WHO NEEDS ARMS? LEGS?

Another difficulty for me when making dolls, besides them standing on their own, is making arms. But like I explained to some kids that I was teaching doll making to, making dolls is like making magic, not real magic – slight of hand (excuse the pun). The only part of an arm that shows on a long sleeved art doll is the hand. So I merely sew hands onto the long sleeves of the dress. It looks like she has arms.

The legs are the same. If the doll doesn’t show her legs, perhaps wearing a gown or robe no one needs to know she doesn’t have legs.

One way is to form a body around a dowel and wrap the body in a robe. If you wrap the robe tightly, she

doesn’t have to show her arms either. Stick the end of a dowel in a drilled 2x4 and it looks like she is standing on her own two legs.

Another trick is to build the body over a tube (paper towel), let the robe or the gown cover the bottom of the tube. By weighting the tube, it stands by itself.

Baby dolls don’t show their arms or legs either. The soft sculpture dolls are wrapped in bunting blankets. The magic is that they look like their arms and legs are secure.

Magic – I love it.

To see more of the magic, look at my site on Etsy