During September and October I blogged about a doll I made from my Kitty pattern. I made the doll as a Christmas present for a very young lady.

This month I made a draw string bag from two fabric fat quarters and strips of contrasting fabric to wrap this Kitty doll for Christmas. Here is a photo of  the bag turned wrong side out.

I folded each piece of contrasting fabric in half; sewed the contrasting fabric to the two fat quarters; sewed across the top of each piece of contrasting fabric to form a casing; and then pinned and sewed the two sides together. I started and stopped sewing at the casing openings so that I could insert ribbon drawstrings through the casings.

Here is the doll and her book ready to go inside the gift bag.

The doll is now inside the gift bag and under a Christmas tree, waiting (fairly) patiently for Christmas morning.

Christmas Sewing eighteen inch dolls

I have started making a Christmas Kitty doll for a very special and very young lady. I would like to make a Twinkle doll for this new Kitty doll, but I’m afraid that Kitty’s future owner is too young for a doll as small as Twinkle. I’m going to make Twinkle anyway, because I want to see how difficult it is to make both dolls at the same time. I think that I will be able to find this new Twinkle a good home.

I plan to use my new Brother CS60001 sewing machine for this project. I have made a garment from each of my patterns using my Brother machine, but I have always used my Bernina for making cloth dolls. I’ll share my progress on this project and any new ideas for doll sewing as I go along.

Today I’m going to write about printing and coloring the face. I printed the face page of Kitty’s pattern on to fabric using the techniques described in my doll patterns. The page also contains a face for Florabunda and Twinkle.

I colored all three faces, but I am only making Kitty and Twinkle at this time. This detail shows a smudge left on the face fabric by the printer.

This smudging has happened to me before when I have printed faces on fabric and it is seldom a problem. Even if the smudge had been at the top of Kitty’s face it would have been covered by hair on the finished doll.

Removing the backing is easy.

If the paper still feels sticky or waxy, save it to make another face sheet.

Here is my face fabric after it has been colored.

The picture shows the pens pencils, and paint that I used. Tech Support (husband) came in while I was working. He noticed that I was holding the section that I was coloring between my left hand finger and thumb to keep the fabric smooth as I colored. He suggested that I keep the paper backing on the face page until after I have colored it. I think that he made a good suggestion, but I will have to wait until the next doll that I make to try it.

Christmas Sewing eighteen inch dolls

Here is Kitty, my new 18 inch (45 cm) doll.

I am happy with the pattern. All I need to do is finish writing the instructions for sewing the doll and I can publish the pattern on line.

The doll can be made with lots of details such as fingers, toes, and ears.

I also think that this is an easy pattern to sew.  I am especially proud of how easy it is to sew the head together and join it to the body.

I hope that it will be available in a month or so, but things sometimes take longer than I plan.

my patterns, Pattern Making eighteen inch dolls

I am finally satisfied with my eighteen inch (45 cm) doll pattern. Here is the doll with a purchased wig.

Next week I will show you her picture with a yarn wig. I plan to sew at least one more doll soon to make sure that I have accurately drawn pattern pieces.

my patterns eighteen inch dolls

I’m still working on an eighteen inch (45 cm) doll pattern. Here is a doll with braids.

She is wearing another outfit from Learn to Sew for Your Doll. I have made more changes to my pattern since I sewed her. It always takes longer than I plan to design a new pattern.

my patterns, Pattern Making eighteen inch doll clothes patterns, eighteen inch dolls

I am currently working on a pattern for an eighteen inch (45 cm) cloth doll. I made a cloth doll pattern for my own use several years ago. I decided to revisit my pattern  and turn it into publishable pattern. I ended up making a lot of changes. I have now sewn four test dolls in muslin. This week I plan to sew a doll out of my favorite cotton broadcloth with colored in facial features and sewn fingers and toes. I’m making two small changes in the body pattern without making a practice copy of the doll body. I have adjusted the body front and back  to take a small amount of fabric from her tummy and hips.

Here are before and after patterns for the body back.

The horizontal double pointed arrows are the same length in each pattern. The pattern on the left is slightly wider than the newer pattern on the right.

A close up of the hip area of the patterns shows that the newer pattern is about half a grid box narrower than the older pattern.

One half of a grid box is about one eighth inch or 3 mm. In doll design, small measurements are important.

When I have finished a doll that I like, I will post her picture.

my patterns, Pattern Making eighteen inch dolls