A doll and a wardrobe

Sewmamasew is organizing the six weeks of love for softies. At the start of the six weeks they featured a Bamoletta doll. I checked up on it and loved it. The faces are extremely inviting. I was intrigued by the nose, where did that shape come from. I found out the doll is a Waldorf type of doll and the head is first shaped and later covered with jersey. Bambolettadolls has uploaded a few YouTube movies showing how such dolls are made and the internet has many other resources as well, so I wanted to give making one myself a try.

I tried to make it work with materials I had at home, I own a lot of everything. I dyed some  jersey from a plain white shirt with tea to make the jersey skin colored. I used the book My own rag doll to create the body. Earlier, I made a doll from the book and the result was not that great. I didn't do a satisfactory job om embroidering the face and I didn't understand how to to the hair. Sewing the filled limps on the body is a challenge. When I did that step for this doll, I had learned that the best result is reached if you leave the back almost totally open (the bottom should be sewed for two centimeter, the rest up to the neck has to be open).

For the head you should use wool, but I  just used pillow filling. I took a stocking and filled it with a round ball of filling and created a size which I thought that would work. The next step is tying some thread to create the eye line and nose. I sewed a head shaped jersey sack and pushed the head in there. Following the Bomboletta instructions I embroidered eyes and mouth. The hair instructions from Bamboletta are also great. I used plain yarn for the hair and I tied the hair in two ponytails.

Due to the fact that wool has more body and recovery, my doll is missing a chin. But even without chin, I am still satisfied, especially because my kids love her. If I make another, and my eldest would love me to do that, I will also tie some thread at the bottom of the face to shape a chin.

An important part of playing with a doll are the clothes. A good doll has a great wardrobe. I looked through my never ending pile of  jersey scraps and at random choose a few. To make my life easier I decided to go for reversible dresses. In reversible clothes it unnecessary to separately bind the neckline, arms and bottom hem, which can be a pain for these small clothes! I made two dresses but these count as four dresses. The drew the pattern for these dresses based on the dolls body template.

Ivy and Kim you were both interested in the kam snaps, please send me an email (inspinration (at) gmail.com) and we will discuss how to make you both happy.

I love to hear what you think of my creations. Feel free to leave a comment in the language you prefer (although Google translate might have to assist me if you choose something different than English, German, Dutch or Hungarian).