I had been designing doll clothing and cloth dolls for years, when my husband and I started publishing doll patterns. My husband is an electrical engineer and natural problem solver. He observed how much time I spent carefully cutting out each doll. He noted that I sometimes ruined a carefully constructed doll when I made a mistake on the face. We had tried several solutions to these two problems that worked fairly well, when my husband discovered Spoonflower. Anyone can upload a design to Spoonflower and have it printed on a fabric chosen from the Spoonflower fabric selection. I found it was much faster to make a doll when the pattern has been printed on a Spoonflower fat quarter. The printed faces were wonderfully reliable. We had such a positive experience with the printed patterns, that we decided to make the printed fabric pattern available to the public. When someone buys fabric printed with one of our patterns, we are compensated a small percentage of the sale. We usually take the credit toward a fabric purchase. We don’t make much profit from the fabric sales. We made them available as an extra feature for people who enjoy our patterns.

At first we put out a fat quarter with a trio of dolls patterns and a selection of faces and a work area for the arm and leg templates. We filled extra space on the fat quarter with some shoe patterns, a picture of the completed doll and templates for the arms and legs. Later we put out a fat quarter with a quintet of dolls by limiting the choices of faces and omitting the extras.

The dolls are the same on the two fat quarters and require instructions for my book Sewing for Mini Dolls. Pattern on my Etsy shop.

At this season some doll makers find themselves making multiple dolls for craft shows and charity give-a-ways. We find that some crafters are purchasing whole yards of the quintet on Spoonflower. They are apparently planning on sewing up not just a trio or a quintet but a whole chorus of dolls! For those ambitious sewers we got the idea of providing a PDF file with a whole page of templates so that they can easily print extra copies of the arm and leg templates on printable freezer paper. The freezer paper method should be used to apply the templates. This method is described as an option in the pattern instructions. For your sewing pleasure, the TwinkleTemplates is here for a free download. Be sure to select print full size when you print the templates and check the ruler printed with the templates before using them.

Printable freezer paper is available at sewing and craft stores and on Amazon.

Christmas Sewing, my patterns, Uncategorized Making Six and One Half Inch Dolls

Today I am going show the two finished dolls that I have been working on for the last few weeks. Kitty is eighteen inches ( 46 cm). Her pattern is found in my new book, Sewing for Large Dolls. Twinkle is six and one half inches (16.5 cm). Her pattern is found in my book, Sewing for Mini Dolls. If you are interested in finding out more about these books you can read about them on My Books page by clicking here.

I gave both dolls two ponytails instead of braids. I sewed Kitty’s wig following the instructions in my book. After I sewed the yarn to the doll’s head, I made two pony tails instead of braids out of the long loose yarn.

To make each small curl for Twinkle, I wrapped a knobby yarn five times around a medium size knitting needle. I cut the yarn and sewed each curl together with matching thread. I then sewed the curl to the doll’s head. When her head was covered in curls, I made each ponytail by wrapping several loops of yarn around two fingers. I then sewed the ponytails in place. Here are my finished dolls.

Christmas Sewing, My books Making Eighteen Dolls, Making Six and One Half Inch Dolls

Last week we discussed joint safety, while  my cloth dolls Kitty and Twinkle waited for their arms and legs. Kitty is eighteen inches ( 46 cm). Her pattern is found in my new book, Sewing for Large Dolls. Twinkle is six and one half inches (16.5 cm). Her pattern is found in my book, Sewing for Mini Dolls. If you are interested in finding out more about these books you can read about them on My Books page by clicking here.

I used freezer paper to sew the arm and leg templates, and left the freezer paper on the fabric until I had cut them out.

I then removed the paper from the pieces and turned them right side out. I am proud of the instructions in the Kitty pattern for making fingers and toes on her hands and feet. Twinkle also has tiny  optional fingers and toes. When I had constructed the toes and fingers and stuffed the arms and legs to the beginning of the stuffing opening, it was time to join the limbs to the body. First I followed my directions for inserting the joint bolt into the arm or leg and then into the doll’s body. After the plain washer has been placed around the joining shaft, it is time to insert the lock washer. In the past, I have found that it takes a lot of strength to add the lock washer to the joint assembly. To make it easier to push the lock washer down the locking shaft of the doll joint I use a trick that I learned from CR’s Crafts catalog. I put a cup of water in a microwaveable bowl and heat it in the microwave for about 30 seconds. I put the lock washer that I am about to use in the water and heat it for another 30 seconds. I leave the water in the microwave oven to use with the next lock washer and remove my first washer with a slotted spoon. I place the washer on a folded terry cloth towel. When the washer is dry and cool enough to handle, it slides easily down the locking shaft. After all the arms and legs had been joined, I finished stuffing the arms and legs. Then it was time to stuff Kitty’s body.

With my method of stringing arms and legs, Twinkle’s body was stuffed before her arms and legs, but the stringing buttons were inside the limbs and so I finished stuffing them after I had joined them to her body. Now all my dolls need are hair and clothing.

Christmas Sewing, My books Making Eighteen Dolls, Making Six and One Half Inch Dolls

At the end of last week’s discussion, my cloth dolls Kitty and Twinkle were waiting for their arms and legs. Kitty is eighteen inches ( 46 cm). Her pattern is found in my new book, Sewing for Large Dolls. Twinkle is six and one half inches (16.5 cm). Her pattern is found in my book, Sewing for Mini Dolls. If you are interested in finding out more about these books you can read about them on My Books page by clicking here.

I blogged about the safety of doll joints once before, but I think that the topic is worth more discussion. I looked up choking hazard size on Google. In the United States a cylinder tube that is 1.25 inches in diameter and between 1 and 2.25 inches deep is used to test toy safety. If an object fits inside the cylinder, it is considered unsafe for children three years old and under.

An assembled 35 mm doll joint will not fit into the cylinder and so it should be safe for a young child. Here is a doll joint that is about to be assembled.

I did not push the lock washer down the shaft, because I would not be able to get it off again. Here is the doll joint before it has been assembled.

The washer and the lock washer are both choking hazards. I have never been able to disassemble a doll joint once I had pushed the lock washer down the locking shaft. I have had to cut the joint apart using wire cutters when I incorrectly placed a leg on a doll. I believe that doll 35 mm joints are safe if they have been correctly assembled in the doll.

I used 35 mm doll joints to connect this Kitty’s arms as well as her legs, even though my pattern called for 30 mm arm joints. The 30 mm joint would be a chocking hazard even when it is assembled. I am going to explain doll joints to the parents of Kitty’s future owner. If they are concerned, Kitty will need to wait a few years to become a play doll.

Twinkle is a choking hazard and should not be given to a young child.

This discussion took longer than I expected. I’ll show you the assembled dolls next week.

Safety Making Eighteen Dolls, Making Six and One Half Inch Dolls

I am continuing a discuss that I started on September 8 on making two of my cloth dolls. Kitty is eighteen inches ( 46 cm). Her pattern is found in my new book, Sewing for Large Dolls. Twinkle is six and one half inches (16.5 cm). Her pattern is found in my book, Sewing for Mini Dolls. If you are interested in finding out more about these books you can read about them on My Books page by clicking here.

Kitty’s head is made of five cloth pieces, not counting the ears, which are optional. The much smaller Twinkle has a two piece head.

I am very proud of my method of attaching Kitty’s head to her body. I think that it is easy to do. In the book we have a diagram for matching the head to the neck. For this Kitty doll, I asked Tech Support (husband) to take photos. The head and neck will be sewn right sides together. The top of the head will go inside the body and the chin dart will be matched with the neck at the center front seam.

The chin dart is pinned to the center front seam. The raw edges of the head and neck are pinned together.

Here is a close up of the head pinned to the neck.

After the head and neck are sewn together, the head is pulled out of the body and the backs of the head are sewn together. Then the head/body casing can be turned right side out. Kitty’s head is stuffed before the arms and legs are attached to the body with doll joints. After I stuffed her head, I removed the stuffing to show you how much the stuffing compresses in a firmly stuffed doll.

I then replaced the stuffing and added a little more. Kitty’s body will not be stuffed until her arms and legs have been attached.

Twinkle’s head was sewn on by hand using the ladder stitch. Directions for the ladder stitch can be found in my free download Tools, Tips, and Techniques. If you are interested in this booklet, you can find it on my Patterns Page by clicking here.

Twinkle’s arms and legs are attached to her body by stringing, rather than doll joints. Her body is stuffed before her arms and legs are attached.

Next week we will attach the dolls’ arms and legs.

Christmas Sewing, My books Making Eighteen Dolls, Making Six and One Half Inch Dolls

I am making two cloth dolls, eighteen inch ( 46 cm) Kitty and six and one half inch (16.5 cm) Twinkle. I am using the patterns found in my two new books, Sewing for Large Dolls and Sewing for Mini Dolls. If you are interested in finding out more about these books you can read about them on My Books page by clicking here.

Recently I decided that the freezer paper method is my favorite way to sew using a template. I explain this method in Sewing for Large Dolls. The large doll book suggests sewing the arms, legs, and ears as the step after coloring the face. The arms and legs will be used later in the construction, but the ears are needed when the head is sewn together. I decided to sew Twinkle’s arms and legs while I was sewing Kitty’s arms, legs, and ears. I used two folded pieces of fabric for all my templates. Here is how they looked after I sewed them.

My Bernina sewing machine has a knee lift for its presser foot. I find this feature very helpful when I am following templates, because the process often requires raising the foot to pivot the fabric on the needle. My new Brother machine has placed the hand lift for the presser foot conveniently at the side rather than the back of the machine head. I was pleased to find how easy it was to follow the template lines without a knee lift.

I cut out only the ears before I began work on the dolls’ heads. The arms and legs were cut out later, when I was ready to use them. I find it easier to cut out each piece if I leave the template on the fabric until the piece has been cut out.

Next time we will look at constructing doll heads and attaching the heads to the bodies.

Christmas Sewing, My books Making Dolls with the Brother CS60001 Sewing machine, Making Eighteen Dolls, Making Six and One Half Inch Dolls