Sewing a doll from an upcycled baby vest and some clothes from baby clothes

Make it and love it recently posted a tutorial with pattern pieces for a doll. The post has lovely pictures of the three dolls she made and her children who received them, along with a detailed tutorial. I have a waldorf doll in the make since Luath was six months old, partly as craft time has been very limited.  When I saw these dolls I thought I could make one quite quickly.

I have been going through Luath’s baby clothes and a few have seen better days – some have been through a few other babies before Luath.  I thought one of the stained long sleeved vests would make perfect material.

The full sized pattern pieces would have been too big so my pattern is slightly smaller.  I also printed two copies so I could have a complete head and body.  I decided to attach the arms to the pattern.  I cut the legs from the arms of the vest.

I made my own hair shape from felt and cut the felt at the back and sewed them onto the head.  Next I attached the legs to the body piece, which was a bit fiddly and then sewed around the doll.  I am a beginner sewer so the corners were a little tricky   I finished the doll with coloured pencil drawn eyes and mouth.
 
It is far from a perfect doll, her head/hair needs a bit of reworking and doesn’t look much like the original but I am proud that I have actually finally made Luath a doll.  I would like to make another, perhaps more like Ashley’s dolls.

I left the doll out so that Luath would find her in the morning.  She instantly was drawn to the doll (great how she didn’t notice any imperfections) and happily went to the bathroom with her in tow.  I quickly made a dress for the doll from a baby skirt.  I seam ripped, sewed two hems and added a popper set (from the vest).
 
Later I made a nappy from an old bib.

  

Pants/shorts from a pair of baby pants (once that sometimes come with a dress), we never used these as we use cloth nappies, so the pants are never big enough.  Using half of one leg hole,   I used the other half of that leg hole to make a matching skater style skirt.  Great when the elastic is already done for you.

Luath goes through fads of which of her “guys” is the favourite but today doll enjoyed a trip to the mobile library, a walk, hide and seek .and a pretend party.
     
(Luath is 25 months)
 
Shared with Eco Kids via Organic Aspirations