Handcrafted Beauty

When I was young, my mother made a cloth doll for me with yarn hair and an embroidered face. It had a wardrobe of dresses, pajamas, and even blankets to keep it warm. I had a little crib in my bedroom where she lived. I still have the doll and all her accessories, but her yarn hair is well frazzled and her clothes washed and faded.

I have to admit that I never really played with dolls. So, when we discovered our 4th child was going to be our first girl, I wondered...would she? I found myself hoping that she would. I found myself with uncontrollable urgings to make her things. Dolls, booties, fancy dresses. Things that would set her apart from her rough-and-tumble brothers. I wondered...would she embrace her God-given role as nurturer? Or would she, like me, prefer books to Barbies? How long would we have to wait for these traits to emerge?

To my delight, I have not been disappointed. She is ALL GIRL, and there is no question...she WILL play with dolls. She loves dolls, and, thanks to Christmas, her collection is growing.

But she needed a SPECIAL doll. A cloth doll with yarn hair and an embroidered face like my mother had made for me. So-o-o-o...

Here's the doll I made for my daughter for Christmas '08. I used Butterick pattern #6993 (it's an older pattern - may be out of print?) I hand-embroidered the facial features using DMC perle cotton. The pattern called for the embroidery to be done after the head was stuffed, but I preferred to do the work on the flat piece in a hoop. (You can click on any of the photos for an enlarged view.)

Another view of the face. I love the eyes. The shading is very realistic. I tried to match the doll's colors to my daughter's features. I used Homespun yarn for the hair...almost a whole skein...it ended up being a lot of hair, but I wanted good coverage over the entire head. You can see a little bit of the dainty cotton lace trim I used on the collar...also on the sleeves and hem.

View of the entire doll. The dress is made of white cotton tone-on-tone print I had in my stash, and the pinafore is a medium-blue fine-wale corduroy with tiny fuschia flowers from Jo-Ann Fabrics. I made my daughter a matching jumper. The pocket is from a pink wool sweater that I felted. I found a tiny bunny at a large chain store that fit perfectly in the pocket. The cream sweater was an infant-sized sweater I found at Goodwill. I crocheted the fuschia blanket using Carefree Cotton yarn that I found on clearance at Wal-Mart. The blanket pattern was originally for a dishcloth, I made it 1 1/2 times the size, and because I used a heavier yarn, the finished piece is quite a bit larger. It is very soft and just perfect to keep dolly's lap warm on these cold winter days.

To complete her outfit, I will be making her some slippers from the pink felted sweater. I purposely made her dress plain, so that we could change her look with just a new pinafore. And I'm sure we'll make more matching outfits in the years to come.

I have a new appreciation for playing with dolls, and my favorite is a newly-turned 2-year-old real-life "dolly" with her daddy's blue eyes and dimpled chin. She's the most precious doll of all!