Wednesday, December 17, 2008

dolly

I finally finished the dolly I was making for T's second birthday. I wrote about this in the book, but dolls are great for children to develop nurturing skills - and these shouldn't be monopolised by little girls! Instead of complaining and wondering why boys aren't as good at communicating and caring as girls, let's start giving them some tools to develop those.

This dolly took about three hours sewing. It's stuffed with real sheep's fleece, which makes it soooo much more cuddly. It's made with hemp jersey for the face and hands, but you can very successfully use a piece of cotton jersey from a t-shirt. If you need a more beige-y colour, dye it in coffee. The fabric for the sleeping bag is a small piece of stretchy corduroy that a lovely fellow doll-maker gave me, from when she made pants for her son. It's great to use corduroy or velvet for cuddly dolls, but be aware that the lie of the fabric will make it smooth as you run your hand one way and rough when you rub it the other. I made this so it was smooth as you run your hand down the front.

I used a pattern from a book called Kinder Dolls, here. The title rather cleverly crosses the meaning 'more kind' with the German for 'children'.

T had seen me sewing this, so when he was unwrapping it on his birthday and a little hand poked out of the wrap, he commented matter-of-factly, 'dolly hand!'.

I've asked, and apparently it is a 'he' and from that first day, enjoys first place in the cot with T.









1 comment:

  1. Cute! And I love the way you posed it ... her ... him!

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