Beginner Doll Preview

Here's a preview of my Beginner Doll Pattern that I'll be selling soon in my Etsy shop, LuParisDolls.

The idea for the doll came from when I first started making dolls and learning the names of all the different stitches and being very confused on one in particular: the dreaded (or perhaps beloved) ladder stitch. Now that I've got a few dolls or a hundred under my belt I don't mind the ladder stitch, but just starting out I had a really hard time with it. Especially using the ladder stitch to attach doll heads to necks. My heads would always be wobbly.

The Beginner Doll bypasses the need for a ladder stitch. In fact, the only stitches you really need to know to make her are blanket stitch and back stitch. To make her body you only need two pieces: the front and the back. Her arms, legs, and head are all one piece so you simply embroider her face using back stitches and then blanket stitch her all the way around her body, stuffing as you go along.

Her hair is sewn to her head the same way I always sew hair to dolls' heads: wrapping the yarn around a shoe box lid then back stitching across the weft. Then to attach the weft to the doll's head, pin the weft in place at the top of the head and back stitch again across. Then form a layer of yarn at the back of the head from the weft and back stitch again, this time across the back of the head. It's a really simple method, and one that doesn't require glue. Not that there's anything wrong with glue; I'm just too lazy to get my glue gun out and at that point the thread and needle is sitting right in front of me still so might as well stitch the hair to the head!

Her boots are also blanket stitched and should be easy to slip onto her feet. The only difficult part for beginner sewists could be the dress. The dress is made of felt, same as the doll and her boots, and doesn't require hemming, but does require seam allowance. In fact all the clothes I make use seam allowance simply because I like the way it looks. Simple back stitches are enough for the dress, though. There are no complicated pockets or sleeves. The dress is highly customizable though if you would like to add some ribbon or bows to it.

Hopefully I'll be posting this new pattern to my shop soon, like within the next couple of weeks. I'm still hard at work on my monster girls and rainbow girls dolls, as well as a few other patterns I plan to add to my shop and a free bear pattern I want to add to my blog.

Link to my Etsy shop: https://luparisdolls.etsy.com