Saturday, February 2, 2013

A Doll for a Doll

I made some uber-cute fabric doll stuffies for my swap partner in a recent swap on Blythe Kingdom.  This idea could be used to make a "mini-me" for any toy, and it would surely delight a child to receive a mini-me of him- or herself!

The theme of the swap was "Dolls for our Dolls".  While browsing on Pinterest, I saw a picture of a Blythe holding a small copy of herself and I knew that was what I needed to do for this swap!  Read on to see how I did it.


First, I made two dresses that would be part of the swap package and put them on two of my dolls.  I photographed each doll, front and back, standing against a white background.  I wanted to put white hair on one mini doll (to match one big doll my partner has) but none of my Blythe's have white hair, so I put a white hat on Candy for the pictures.


On my computer, I edited and re-sized the photos until they would be right for the mini doll.  Then I printed the photos onto white fabric.  (I used commercially prepared fabric that was already stuck onto paper so it would feed into the printer easily, because I had that on hand.  Applying freezer paper to fabric yourself should work just as well.)


After peeling off the paper, I traced around the outline of the doll with pencil to mark my sewing line on the reverse side of the fabric .


All sewed!  I left an opening on top of her head for turning; the hair will be covering that up later.


Here she is, turned right-side out...


 ...and here she is stuffed and ready for hair.


I sewed the hair on by hand.  It was a learn-as-you-go process!  The one thing I was not happy with, was the way the white hat still shows around her neck.  If I did this again, I would use yarn to match the doll's actual hair color (as I did with the orange-haired Penny).


My favorite thing about these mini dolls is that they are complete on the back too!


I am very happy with how these mini dolls turned out, and my swap partner is thrilled with what I sent her! I wouldn't have tried this without the "push" the swap gave me.  That's what I like most about craft swaps!




10 comments:

Hongse said...

this is just awesome ! ;) where can you buy this fabric? ;)

Sara : ) said...

Eeep! So fun!

Kay said...

This is just amazing, your creativity knows no bounds.

waggonswest said...

Wow! Looking at the first picture, I was very confused. I figured you did an amazing job with the fimo faces, but even reducing the print on the dresses!?! Then I read on... Not at all disappointed. Just a testament to the mad skillz I know you have. What a great project. They are fantastic!

Leslie Andersen said...

Thanks for all your great comments!

Hongse, I just posted more info about the fabric sheets I used; scroll up to the post dated 2/4/13 and you can click on the link to find the product.

Unknown said...

Leslie - that is just GENIUS! I applaud your creativity!!!

LimeRiot said...

What an incredibly fun and clever idea, Leslie!! They really turned out cute.

Giulia said...

Absolutely adorable!! <3

xoCIGARS.com said...

A special thanks for this nice cute doll. I love your Blythe and just ordered my 15th Blythe at PIJ :D
http://bit.ly/blythejp

voyance gratuite en ligne par email said...

I enjoyed reading it and I think other readers might enjoy reading it as well.Thanks.