Lola Dollie

This is my first Lola

And this is the story of her birth

   In the past few weeks I've dedicated my time to learn everything I can about fabric doll making. I found SO MANY pretties that I'm still recovering from the cuteness. Among all, I found out about Waldorf Dolls which I think are very interesting and really cute, but making them is out of my budget for the time being. I just started wandering into the doll making world and I don't know if it will work for me but for now I'm just enjoying it. It's so rewarding.

   Everything started with this doll by Amy from Lots of Pink Here, which she blogged about here:

Go see her awesome Blog!

   I saw it and couldn't stop myself from going to the pattern shop and drooling over all those pretties; after a little thought I finally bought a pattern . I researched Etsy and found so many cute patterns that I couldn't decide, but I loved Beth's super cute glasses and braids.

   I must say I have mixed feelings about my first doll making experience. I had real issues with the skin fabric, it frayed like crazy and the doll basically came apart when I was stuffing it so i had to handstitch it back together. I guess it was not so bad because I tried my best to make very small stitches and used matching thread. The other issue I had was with the face embroidery. I couldn't figure out how to transfer the face template to the fabric so I winged it (it was also the first time I ever embroidered). I think the outcome was very cute in spite of all the trouble. The bad news is that I can't show you the pictures because of the changes I made to the original pattern, I would be infringing the terms of use policy. :*(

   That was my first doll and I love it so I had to get more. I decided to give it a try and make my own dollie pattern. So I did and I must say that it was a draft. I wanted big head, big button eyes, small mouth, felt hair, and a small body. I printed the pattern and made the doll. It turned out her head was TOO big for her neck so it was wobbly, her arms were too long, her button eyes were not safe enough and her body too skinny for my taste. So I redrafted it and came up with Lola's pattern, smaller head with embroidered eyes, thicker neck than the previous doll and chubbier body. I'm still thinking of designing her feet again so they're chubbier. But this is the result, I hope you like it and sorry for the babbling.

   I made her this pillowcase dress but I'm not happy yet, I want to trim it with bias tape. The shoes are made from handstitched purple felt.