putting your ragdoll/softie together part 3: sewing limbs, stuffing and finishing

This post has been a long-time coming. My apologies! Today we are going to finish up making our rag dolls or giraffe; well later I'll post on making the yarn hair for the basic doll. We have already made a pattern (pattern making), cut out our pieces and sewed the head to the torso (part 1), and embroidered the face of the doll (part 2).

Now we're ready to sew the arms and legs, stuff them, attach them to the body and finish our doll!

we'll add some yarn hair to this doll in the next post

For the limbs of the basic doll above, you fold over your fabric (RST) so that it is doubled. Then trace the limbs on the folded fabric with a disappearing marker (I used pencil for the pictures here). Then I pin the fabric together and sew with a small stitch (1.6 on my machine) directly on the traced lines, leaving the base of the limbs unsewn so I can turn and stuff them later.

trace limb pattern on folded fabric

pin the fabric together

sew directly on traced lines with a tight stitch (I used 1.6 length)

limbs sewn

For the giraffe, we have to sew the felt (for the hooves) to the fabric for the rest of the limbs. I cut an 11 x 11 inch piece of cotton fabric for the arms/legs, and 2 pieces of felt measuring 2.75 x 11 inches. Then I pin the felt pieces to the fabric (one on top and one on bottom of arm fabric) like the picture below. I sew the felt on to the fabric where I've pinned, using 1/4 inch seam. Then press the seam and fold the fabric over in half (RST). Now I can trace my limb pattern pieces directly on the fabric and sew along my traced lines, leaving the base unsewn to turn and stuff.

for giraffe, pin felt strips to fabric to create the limb fabric

press the seams

fold the fabric in half, right sides together

line up the seams

trace pattern pieces on fabric

pin the fabric together

sew on traced lines, leaving base unsewn

sewn on the traced lines

cut out with pinking shears

Turn them right side out

After the limbs are sewn, cut them out with pinking shears, or make little notches close to the stitches on the curves. Then turn and press them with an iron. I stuff them firmly then with small tufts of poly-fil stuffing, leaving about an inch unstuffed at the base. Leaving the base unstuffed will make it easier to sew it on with the machine later.

leave about 1/8th inch seam allowance and cut out notches with pinking shears

turn the limbs right-side-out and press them with iron

stuff the limbs with stuffing, leaving an inch unstuffed at base

With the limbs stuffed, we can now add them to the body. We're almost done. Exciting! Attach/pin the limbs to the front of your doll (with limbs going towards center of body) as shown in the photo below, then baste stitch them on to the front of the doll. I start with the arms and then attach the legs.

pin and sew the arms on to the front of body with the limbs toward the center of the doll

attach the legs in the same manner, with the legs going up towards the head

Here are some pics of the same procedure for the giraffe doll (attach the horns and ears to the head as shown):

With the limbs now attached to the doll, we can sew the back of the body on. On the wrong side of the back piece of the doll, I like to draw my seam allowance (1/4 inch) all the way around. This helps me sew more accurately around the curves. It comes in handy when sewing the more curvy giraffe pattern.

optional: draw a line for your seam allowance on the back of the doll piece. I leave a little more than 1/4 inch on the bottom where the legs will be attached. 

Now I pin the back of the body to the front (right sides together). I leave the legs out at first and don't sew that portion yet. If I pinned it all together at once, the fabric would get all distorted and would be difficult to sew. I stick one of the arms out of the little hole in the back to make the fabric lay more flat to sew. Then I sew from the base (near the legs) on one side--with my stitch length at 1.6--to the base of the other side near the other leg. I sew over again the portions where the arms are attached to make sure they are attached securely.

pin the front and back of doll together (RST) as shown

After that part is sewn, I stuff the arm back in the body, and fold the legs up inside the body (one is sticking out the back hole) and sew the base of the doll. I sew over the legs again as I did with the arms to make sure the legs stay securely attached.

sew the legs up inside the doll

BEFORE turning the doll right side out, it is very important to clip the curves and take a notch out at the neck close to the stitch so that it will lay right once it is right-side-out. I use sharp scissors for the triangle portion taken out of the neck, and use the pinking shears on the rest.

cut a triangle out of the seam at the neck. Use pinking shears to clip close to the stitches on rest of doll (see picture above).

With the curves notched and clipped, you can turn your doll right-side-out through the hole in the back. Ta-da!

doll turned right-side out

Now using tufts of poly-fil, stuff the head of the doll fairly firmly and work your way down to stuffing the body. Once the body is stuffed as firm as you'd like, you will hand sew the back of the doll using an "invisible" stitch (also known as the ladder stitch). This helps the seam lay nice and flat and it's hard to tell that you've hand-sewn the back shut. You can use a whip-stitch if you'd like, but that will show more. 

Pin the fabric together where you will hand stitch

the back all sewn up using the invisible ladder stitch

For the basic doll, you are all done (except the hair)!

For the giraffe, you will hand-sew in the tail (see how to make the pom-pom tail in this earlier post: pom pom tail for giraffe) at the base of the hole you are sewing up in the back. Now add a small amount of stuffing to the nose and hand stitch that up. And the giraffe is done!!

pom pom sewn in the base of the hole at the back of doll

Congratulations! Now go make another or two. Or experiment with making more patterns of your own. It's fun.

Ta da!

putting your ragdoll/softie together: part 2 (embroidering face)

We left off in the last rag doll post (see here for previous post on putting together your rag doll, and here for free pattern for basic doll) of this tutorial at getting ready to embroider the face of the doll or giraffe (depending on which pattern you are using). If you have never embroidered before, don't be intimidated by this pattern. The embroidery is rather simple, and you can totally do it.

So grab your partially assembled doll and let's go. You should already have the head pieces and the body pieces sewn together and pressed. To embroider the face, you will need:

• Six-stranded embroidery floss (DMC) for the eyes 
• DMC floss for nose/snout (use 4 of the 6 strands) 
• DMC floss for the mouth (use 4 of the 6 strands)
• embroidery needle (I used size 5 needle)
• Disappearing ink pen
• Optional: small embroidery hoop

For the basic doll, grab the pattern-piece for the head and place your front-head/body piece over the top of it. You should be able to see the face from the pattern through the fabric. Using the disappearing ink pen, draw directly on the fabric, tracing the lines showing through the fabric from the pattern piece.

Once you have the face drawn on, you are ready to embroider on the lines you traced. Thread your needle with about 18 inches of floss for the eyes, using all six strands. Knot the end of the strand of floss. If using an embroidery hoop, put it on the head-piece now. Beginning on the right side of the circle, and about half way up one of the eyes, bring your needle up through the fabric on the line you traced. You will be outlining the eye using the embroidery stitch called the backstitch. Find instructions from the DMC website here. You will be stitching from right to left, or counter-clockwise. 

image from dmc-usa.com

The last stitch in outlining the eye will go down into the fabric directly where you began the needle. Do not tie-off the floss because you will fill in the outline using the satin stitch. Use the dmc link above again to read about the satin stitch. It is a stitch used to fill in spaces. Make sure to stay-stitch at the end. 

Repeat the process for the other eye. 

In stitching the nose and mouth, you will only use 4 of the six strands of the embroidery floss. Stitch directly on the lines you traced, making sure to stay-stitch at the end. You can use the backstitch again, but I prefer to use the split stitch. It is similar to the backstitch, but you bring the needle up in the middle of your last stitch, which splits it.

image from dmc-usa.com

After the face is embroidered, I like to press it with the iron. This will set the stitches and also press your fabric flat again after it has been in the embroidery hoop. 

I like to add pink cheeks to the doll-face. I don't know if this is how other doll-makers do it, but I'll tell you how I do it. I use a pink pastel-chalk; I bought it from an art store. I color the tip/pad of my pointer finger (on my dominant hand) with the pastel. Then I smear my finger on the fabric in a circular motion. I usually have to do this a few times to get the shade and even color I want. 

Now your doll has rosy cheeks!

If you are making the giraffe doll, you will embroider the snout piece first (felt). Using the disappearing marker, draw the nostrils on the snout piece of felt. For the snout, you will use 4 strands of your choice of colored embroidery floss. Start by cutting a length of floss about twelve inches long. Separate two of the strands from the 6, as you will only be using 4 strands (like in the basic doll above). Stitch the nostrils using the split stitch. I used the split stitch on the snout for the nostrils and for the mouth, using 4 strands of floss on the mouth as well.

After the snout is embroidered, place the snout on the front head piece, using your pattern as a guide of where to place it. Pin it in place. Then thread a needle with either matching thread or embroidery floss (two strands) to hand-sew  (whip-stitch) the snout on the face with about 1/16 inch seam allowance. Leave about an inch un-sewn at the bottom of the snout to stuff later, but make sure you end with a stay stitch still. Press with an iron to set your embroidery stitches.

With the snout sewn on, now add the eye patches (once again using the pattern piece as a guide) and pin. I use the machine to stitch them on the face, but you can hand-sew those on too if you prefer.

Now that the eye-patches are attached, it is time to embroider the eyes. Using the disappearing ink pen, draw the eye shape on to the felt eye-patches. I use all 6 strands of floss and use the backstitch (see above) to outline the eyes, and the satin stitch to fill them in. I then embroider (using all 6 strands of a piece of white embroidery floss) a french knot in the upper right portion of each eye. Here is the link again to the embroidery stitches: http://www.dmc-usa.com/Education/How-To/Learn-the-Stitches/Embroidery-Stitches.aspx

image from dmc-usa.com

This makes the eye seem to sparkle a bit. You could add it to the basic doll face as well.

The doll is starting to get a little personality of it's own! Doesn't that make you happy? It makes me happy.

In the next rag-doll post here, I'll go over sewing the limbs, stuffing them, and putting the doll together. Yay!!

putting your rag doll/softie together: part 1 (head and body)

Once you have your pattern for you rag doll, it's time to get started in making your doll! If you want to know how to make your own pattern, see this earlier post. If you would like to use a simple rag doll pattern I created, you can download it here. Here is what the basic doll will look like from my pattern:

The pictures I will be showing in this post are mostly of my giraffe pattern (available here when my etsy shop is open). While your pattern might not be a giraffe, it will still go together in the same manner.

So first things first, print your pattern pieces if you are using a free pattern. I like to then cut out the pattern pieces and place them on cardstock/poster board/stiff paper so that I can trace directly on my fabric. Then take a look at the pattern pieces you have and gather your fabric. Medium-weight cotton fabric works well. For the giraffe and the basic doll pattern, you will cut out the head pieces, body pieces, and ear pieces (for giraffe). You will not cut out the arm, leg, or horn (giraffe) pieces yet as they will be sewn directly on folded fabric later.

Plan out how many different fabrics you will be using. Will the body and face fabric be the same, or different? What fabric will you be using for each piece?

When cutting the head pieces, I double up the fabric with the wrong sides together, trace my pattern on the fabric, pin the fabric, and cut through both layers of fabric on my traced lines. That will give me the front and back of the head.

head and body pieces for giraffe

For the body, I cut one piece using the body front pattern. Then for the back pieces of the body, I fold the fabric on itself, wrong sides together, trace the back pattern piece, pin the fabric together and cut the pieces out. This will give me two mirror image back pieces. For the basic doll pattern, you can use the same fabric for the body as you will be using for the head if you will be making clothes for the doll. But I find it easiest to find a cute fabric to cut the body out of; that way the clothing is already partly done on the doll, and all you will have to do later is add a skirt or pants.

Folded fabric, wrong sides together

If your pattern has ears (like the giraffe), cut those out of fabric as well. Here I have folded fabric on itself with wrong sides together again. I need 4 total fabric pieces cut out for the ears (2 pieces of body fabric, and two pieces of the head fabric since the inside of the ear is a different fabric than the outside). So I will fold the inside-ear fabric wrong sides together as well and pin and cut out.

Now that I have the head and body pieces (and ears) cut out, it's time to use the sewing machine. Pin and sew the 2 back body pieces together (right sides of fabric facing each other) with 1/4 seam allowance. However, leave about a 3-inch gap un-sewn (it is marked in the picture) so you can stuff the doll later.

Leave a 3-inch gap. Mark on the fabric if it helps you to see it. 

Make sure to backstitch when beginning and starting your sewing here. It is most important to backstitch when ending/beginning your stitching where the gap will be, as there will be some stress placed on the stitching there when you pull the toy right side out and then stuff through that gap.

Then press the seam open with your iron. You can see from the picture that there is a nice gap. And having that seam pressed will help when hand-sewing the back shut later.

see the gap?

With the back of the body sewn together, now pin and sew the head pieces and body pieces together (right sides of fabric together), using a 1/4 inch seam allowance. The basic doll pattern and the giraffe pattern both use 1/4 inch seam allowances unless I note otherwise. After it is sewn, press the seams down towards the body pieces (see pic below).

head and body pieces pinned right sides together

sewn together, with seam pressed facing the body piece

If you are making the basic doll, from here we will move on to embroidering the face. That will be included in the next post, so stay tuned!

For the giraffe pattern, let's sew some ears and the little horns. Pin the ear fabric pieces together (right sides together) with one inside ear piece, and one outside ear piece pinned together. Then sew along the outline with 1/8th inch (or less than 1/4 inch) seam allowance. I go really slow here and often pick up my presser foot with the needle down and adjust the fabric. Leave the base of the ear unsewn so that you can turn the ear right side out later.

Ears pinned right sides together

Sew 1/8 inch seam allowance, starting at the base of the ear. Leave base open (not stitched)

Now this next step is important before you turn the ear right-side-out! You need to clip the curves. What does that mean? Well, if you want your fabric to lay nice and smooth without puckering after it is turned right-side-out, you need to cut little notches out close to (but not through) your stitches on the curves. Often I use pinking shears for this, but you don't have to. You can use small, very sharp scissors and clip little notches out, focusing especially on the steeply curved edges, like the tips of the ears.

clip curves on ears using pinking shears 

After it is clipped/notched on the curves, go ahead and turn your ears right-side-out. I like the use a chopstick or pen (with the ink-ball pulled in) or dull pencil to run along the seam from the inside after it is turned. Then press the ears with the iron.

Ears right side out

Then with the inside fabric of the ear facing up, fold the two sides of the ears until they meet in the middle at the base of the ear. Press with the iron, and pin. Then sew along the base of the ear, using 1/8th to a 1/4 inch seam. This is to baste the ears in this folded position. Set the ears aside for now.

Ears folded, pressed, and pinned. Ready to be sewn

Lastly for today, I will show how I make the horns for the giraffe. I make these out of felt; I use two 3x3 inch pieces of felt, or you can use a 3x6 inch piece folded over on itself. Since it is felt, there isn't a wrong or a right side. However, if you want to make the horns out of cotton fabric, which would work just as well, you would have the pieces of fabric right-sides-together. Then trace the pattern (twice) directly on the felt, and pin the pieces of felt together. Rather than using a seam allowance, sew directly on the lines you traced, leaving the base of the horns unsewn so that you can turn and stuff. Before you sew, turn your stitch length down on your machine to 1.6 or 1.5 (whichever your machine will do). This is because the horns are going to be stuffed, and it will hold up better. This stitch length will be more important later when sewing up the toy as well. Ideally you would use a matching thread (blue here), but I used white in the picture to show the stitching.

pattern traced directly on the two pinned-together pieces of felt. 

sewn directly on the pattern lines

Now that the horns are sewn, cut them out carefully with pinking shears (like for the ears). Once again, if you don't have pinking shears, it is not a problem. Use small, sharp scissors to cut notches. In the picture shown below, I have clipped one ear with the pinking shears and one ear with small scissors.

Top horn is cut with pinking shears, bottom horn is notched with scissors on curve, and clipped (hard to see) down sides

Then turn the horns right-side-out. You can see that there is no discernible difference between the one clipped with pinking shears and the one clipped with scissors.

the one on left was cut with scissors, the one on the right with pinking shears

Now add some stuffing (poly-fil or the like) to the horns. Use very small tufts of stuffing, and pack it into the tip of the horn with the chopstick, dull pencil, or pen (not with the ink-ball out though). Leave about 1/2-3/4 inch unstuffed at the base. Leaving the base unstuffed will make it easier to sew to the doll later, so that there is not too much bulk under the presser foot. Then sew along the base (1/8th inch seam allowance) of the horns to keep the stuffing inside.

And you're halfway there to having your own handmade, cute toy!

Upcoming post: how to embroider the face and make/sew/stuff the limbs and put it all together. Yay!

See part 2 here: http://ahappycarrot.blogspot.com/2015/05/putting-your-ragdollsoftie-together.html