So I'm considering making a little cloth doll bride and groom version of her and her husband-to-be (she's cute and I reckon she'd like it). I've been doing some sketches and considering materials and this got me thinking about the dolls I'd already made...
This isn't my first foray into making cloth dolls see. My first one - a birthday present for a friend - was of the wonderful Eric Morecambe...
He is meant to be doing that famous skipping walk which he and Ernie used to do (his statue in Lancashire is posed in the same way).
(I don't know what was wrong with my camera at the time, for some reason it was really blurry)
To make Eric I drew my patterns onto bits of paper and pinned them to the material, before cutting them out and sewing him together by hand. He's stuffed with machine washable, polyester toy stuffing. I'm not sure that I'd bung him in the machine though! One of my favourite things about him is his hair. I used thick brown wool to make it look a bit thin on top. I don't think the photos properly show this, but more scalp shows through at the top of his head.
His shoes are blue because the only leather material I had (and still have!) is blue. But I think they look pretty cool anyway.
I actually cut out his glasses from black material and then embroidered all the way round them. It actually probably would've been just as quick to embroider them straight onto his face!
I had a lot of problems arise when making this chappy and learnt the hard way on a couple of things. Firstly NEVER use a thin material for a face. I had to double it up and still could see through it. So any bits of thread on the other side showed through - as did the pen I stupidly used (because I'm a complete moron) to mark out where I would be stitching features. ALWAYS use dressmakers chalk is the lesson learnt here.
The other thing I had problems with was his shirt. I insisted on using cotton shirt material for it - including the collar. Here's what I learnt...
- Cotton frays -
- Hemming a teeny tiny collar is difficult -
- See also: trying to make a miniature tie from cotton material -
Mostly I love him. I think he's ace. And he taught me a lot about making dolls....
The next one I made was the bloody marvellous Tommy Cooper. Unfortunately I only have one photo of this badboy I'm afraid! He was made in exactly the same way as Eric was - they were both entirely hand sewn - even though a machine would probably would have sped up the process somewhat.
This pose is meant to be him laughing, shoulders raised... but I'm still not that happy with the shoulders. The thing is that you have to over-exaggerate body parts and poses in the cutting stage because otherwise they can get quite lost when you come to sewing it together and stuffing it. Here is a fine example of me going a bit O.T.T. on exaggerating a pose! I'm dead happy with the legs though. Nice and chunky.
I *think* I used felt for his face, but to be honest with you I can't entirely remember. It may not be (the photo doesn't seem to be jogging my memory!), but I certainly can't remember having the same problems with the face as I did with Eric. I definitely used felt for his mouth and eyes which I was really happy with - as an added bonus it meant no pen marks too! I got some black furry material for his hair, which covers the back of his head and is actually sewn in under the fez. The fez was my favourite thing to make - I used black embroidery thread for the tassel, which I threaded through by hand - so it's made up of all individual threads.
The bowtie, collar and hanky were probably two of the biggest challenges on this one. At some point I will learn not to use cotton for these things (silly woman)! He also has three small buttons sewn down the front of his jacket - and lapels of course. Because I'm a crazy woman I insist on cutting out the front of the jackets as two separate pieces and sewing them together with one slightly positioned over the other - so that it looks more like a jacket opening rather than a jumper. If I was less pedantic then I could probably just use the buttons to show where the opening would be - or possibly sew a line down it.
Oh and you'll notice that he's got those same blue shoes as Eric! Must be a comedian thing :p
So at the moment I'm looking at ways of sewing a little bride and groom. I've drawn out some sketches already - the suit looks terrifying, I'm thinking of doing a waistcoat and cravat and a flower for the lapel and everything. I haven't even focused on what the dress will entail either. I was thinking about making them quite small, but knowing the amount of detail I will want to include this may be shooting myself in the foot.
If I actually get started with it then I'll take photos as I go.
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