Adventures in Cloth Doll Land
You know one of the most freeing parts of my doll making journey? Making friends or sidekicks for the dolls. I simply can’t get enough of them and they push my creativity out of the box.
Let me explain.
Very soon I will ‘properly’ introduce Miss Mary Shelley, but for now we can discuss Little Frankie. As I mentioned on Instagram, she was actually Mary’s grandmother’s doll. Mary's grandmother got a lovely doll at a specialty toy shop during one of her many Italian holidays. She cherished this doll like nothing else and made sure she was kept in the family.
In due time Mary inherited this little doll. She wasn’t as posh and pretty anymore as when her grandmother received her, which she named Francisca, but Mary now lovingly calls her Frankie.
Frankie has seen many mendings over the years, and her skin is now a somewhat dull green. She used to have big golden curls hanging from the side buttons but those locks are gone...
Mary does not care about Frankie's appearance as she is her most beloved toy. In time, Frankie will inspire one of Mary's greatest novels, about a crazy scientist called Victor Frankenstein.
In having this story as the background for Miss Frankie, I got to work on a “larger” doll for Mary. As you will see from the below photos, I normally don’t make dolls for my dolls using the same skin fabric.
To me, the dolls are ‘alive’ in the skin tone, therefore their ‘toys’ should not be made of the same fabric. It ruins the magic for me.
I prefer to craft them out of linen, muslin or cottons. Every now and then I needle felt a friend or make a pet out of mohair or alpaca. This creates (at least in my mind) a discernible separation between my doll (which is alive) and their doll (which is their toy). Raving mad I tell you. Raving mad.
I don’t use patterns for the most part. I draw and craft most often right on the fabric, except for complicated animals with lots of parts. For those I do try to keep things symmetrical and matching seam lengths. I don’t want to be deprived of all my marbles. Not yet.
So I made Miss Frankie using a piece of vintage linen (which I recently purchased at a lovely antique’s market) that I dyed (quite happily) with walnut leaves from the tree in my backyard. I seem to be living in a true cornucopia of dye plants so I am trying my best to explore and provide the dolls with suitable natural colours.
The colour is a vintage green, rather sage-y. Perfect for an old doll, of Frankenstein persuasions. She is sewn with black thread (for dark contrast) and stuffed with wool, as is a must in our house.
I found the wee buttons merely by chance and what a serendipitous occurrence. Frankie looks positively perfect with them, as they look rather like old transistors, or ancient electrical parts, don’t they?
So now Miss Frankie is ready to assist Mary in going through her childhood and adolescence and inspire her greatest literary work. I will soon share Mary with you all but in the meantime, let me go through reminiscing roads and talk about some of the toys and dolls I have made for my dolls.
See here? How when the dolls are made of the same skin tone, even if one looks more ‘human’ and the other one more like a doll, they both look the ‘same’? With these two it doesn’t matter as they are even wearing matching clothes! Aibreann and her sidekick Sunny are two-of-a-kind…is that even a thing?
Bonker ideas. By the way, now that I see this I am craving some delish hand-dyed Malabrigo and some gorgeous Japanese linen. Who is with me?
Ainur and Magnus are a more recent doll experience, and making Magnus the deer was such a delight. This is one of those times I really strive to make a ‘working’ pattern before I go cutting into my precious mohair or alpaca fabrics. They come with an eye-watering price and we must be careful.
He is made with furry fabric (all natural of course) and the belly and antlers are made with repurposed wool. He is the most adorable deer I have ever, ever made. I stand by my words.
A long time ago we made this gorgeous child, Aspen, who needed a rat pet friend. Back then I was feeling the needle felting bug so I went for it. I am actually surprised the little rat came out so cute and they looked quite perfect together, don’t you agree?
Who can forget Little Cedar, the wonderful kitty friend of Carolina? Made with Mexican thick muslin (we call this ‘manta’) and with removable clothes. She even had a hand-knit hat!
I digress.
Then there is one of my very favourites: Calabaza, the little pumpkin-ey friend of Greta. She is more of a ‘primitive’ doll style as she doesn’t even have arms the poor thing, but rope instead, which comes in handy when she tries to hang from door knobs or wooden pegs on your wall.
Calabaza was an exploration of painting on fabric. I was in love with the results and I am quite surprised I haven’t tried this again. I should remedy that stat.
Then there is little Ealhswith and her doll Flossy. These two are so adorable together. For Miss Flossy I decided to tea-dye the fabric with Orange Pekoe tea and the colour is this lovely shade. Maybe you can try it next time?
There are, of course, no words for this pair of rascals. Jonna and Bjorn. This wee little bear wearing a bunny bonnet, stole the hearts (and minds) of many, including mine. He is one of the most complicated little creatures I’ve made because I wasn’t used to turning body pieces this minute, nor working in this size.
Now I have a few more years under my belt, so expect more #tinydollshenanigans from yours truly.
Then comes with pomp and celebration Little Thursday, the genious sidekick of Miss Wednesday Addams. She is a ratty little friend with lovely mohair braids, painted eyes and a somber outfit.
I had so much fun exploring gothic-ness with those two and hope to keep growing my clothing repertoire in that regard.
Geneva (actually Marie Louise Geneva) or Ginny as we called her here, needed a spring doll. We were short on time but not on cuteness when we came up with this veggie friend to spend Easter with.
Carota was made as a dollmaking tutorial for my Patreon peeps so if you want to check out how I made her, you can visit her here: Making a Carrot Baby.
Miss Thora and her bunny friend live a most pampered life, if I may say so. These two were made in a lovely collaboration between friends: Juliane from Notes from Bjorkasa and Winter from Winterludes Dolls. We sent each other fabrics to inspire ourselves with the same palette and see what the other two made.
We each wrote stories for our dolls and it was a beautiful experience. Maybe I should try to have one or two collaborations with other dollmakers next year. Something to dream about and ponder.
I hope this brief and small sampling of the dolls, sidekicks and toys I’ve made over the years for my dolls, warm your heart and bring a smile to your face. If one of them inspires your creativity, the more the merrier! See you soon 😊
