A Doll Experiment

A few months ago on Etsy I asked for help on creating a cloth toy pattern for a demon. I can easily experiment with yarn with crochet, if I mess it up or I don't like it, I pull on the string and the mess is undone. However, with cloth I've always been frustrated with patterns and what seems to be a limited amount of creativity available with them. Patterns, in general, disagree with me. But one very nice etsyer pointed me in the direction of Patti Medaris Culea (http://www.pmcdesigns.com/) and Susanna Oroyan.

Both of these women have authored several books regarding the creation and design of cloth dolls. I remember I experimented with cloth dolls when I was younger, but I didn't like my doll. It was floppy and without personality. At the time I didn't understand why I couldn't get the result I wanted. The answer is my total lack of imagination when it came to fabric.

Both Culea and Oroyan do a breathtaking job of directing you on how to make a doll and make it your own. I thank both of them for this, because I finally have a good excuse to not only buy fabric, but use it.

The first doll I made is from Culea's book Cloth Doll Making, found on page 22. I didn't paint my doll liek Culea did, but instead I added wings and a dress I crocheted. I understand I still have a quite a ways to go with making dolls, but I am really pleased with my first one. She's 18 inches long, which is bigger than I thought she would be. I made the mistake of sewing her arms and then trimming the fabric (muslin) too close to the seam, which made parts of her arms "blow out" while I stuffed them. I stopped that by hand sewing them closed, which is not the most attractive way of fix a doll. The other option was to remake the arm, but I wasn't willing to start over when I had such momentum behind me.

I drew her face using Culea's instructions, and was pleasantly suprised with my end result. Since finishing this doll I've invested in fabric pen and experimented with more face drawing. I made a silly pincushion, and I'll post that soon.

I also found my very first favorite crafting blog. It's by doll artist Mimi Kirchner, and I've been pulling a lot of inspiration from her blog (http://mimikirchner.com/blog/). Her blog is so easy to read because she takes pictures of her creative process and describes what she does. She also has an etsy store: mck254.etsy.com.

All right, I have to go be productive by cleaning my house or something....