Saturday, January 19, 2019

A new family member: softie adventure 2.0



I mostly sew clothes for our kids, but I do sometime like to sew something else, like softies. Our kids do no need any extra softies, but I just like the challenge. Sewing softies appeals to my need to create and to learn new techniques. Almost four years ago, I created this doll, and it seems that I have moved up on the learning curve. After I created these two adorable animals in the summer, I deemed myself capable of trying this really awesome doll pattern that I had bought a while ago, but did not dare to start.



In the fall the designer of the pattern created a sew along, and this was just the push that I needed. This time, I actually bought the required supplies, so not like the previous doll just use something that is around the house. I have to admit that things do become better with better material. I took it slow, did only a few steps on one day, but in the end the doll did not take that much time as I feared.



We have quite some dolls in our house, and two years ago I bought two 18" teen dolls. The dolls look great, but in that product line there are only girls. Our son sometimes feels a bit left out in our house full of girls, so I decided that the doll that I was going to make would have to be a boy. In case our son wants to join in on our girls' play. We try to raise our kids relatively gender neutral, but we do see that our son prefers to play with "male" characters, so for example we also have a bunch of male ponies from the my little pony line.



This time I am actually satisfied with the face and embroidered facial expression,. With hindsight, I should have made nose a bit bigger, but it is so much better than last time. I also learned that you should not "draw" the nose with a dark marker, I used purple and that remained visible. I tried to wash it out but now he actually got a pink nose. The kids love this element, so I just let go of my frustration about it. For the hair I used a piece of upcycled fake fur, that I used for these boots as well. So hording this stuff sometimes does pay off.



A doll of course also needs clothes and by our son's suggestion I created a bear onesie. The main requirement is that you can put it on the doll, it does not have to be comfortable, so I was fine with winging it, and it actually fits great.




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