pom-pom tail for the giraffe

I wanted to show you how I make the pom-pom tail for the giraffe soft toy. I experimented with time-lapse photography. While I can't guarantee that the video is beautiful, it is interesting to watch. Sorta. Here are directions and time-lapse video to show you how to make the pom-pom tail for the giraffe rag doll/softie. Or you can just make a bunch of pom-poms and hang them on things. That's fun too.

 How to make the pom-pom tail:

1. Cut two identical circle donut shapes out of cardboard or cardstock (use a craft knife to cut middle circle out). If you want your pattern to last longer, use cardboard. My donuts are about an inch and a half in diameter. Make yours larger or smaller depending on how big you want your pom-pom.

2. Cut 3 pieces of yarn about a yard in length each. With the two cardboard donut pieces together, begin wrapping all 3 pieces of yarn through the hole and around the outside of the pattern pieces. Continue wrapping all the way around the circle. 

3. After the yarn has been fully wrapped around the two donut circles, use a small pair of sharp scissors to cut the yarn. Cut it along the top edge of the donut, in between the two cardboard pieces. Do not take the cardboard pieces off yet.

4. Cut three 18 inch pieces of yarn from the skein. Take one strand and fit it into the space between the two donut cardboard pieces. Make sure you have an even amount of yarn on each side of the pom-pom (9 inches ). Tie the yarn tight once, and then double knot it. Repeat with the second and third strands of yarn.

5. There should be six (9 inch) strands hanging off the pom-pom. Combine the strands so that you have 3 pieces made up of two strands of yarn each. Braid the 3 together until you have a braid 2-3 inches long. Double knot the end of the braid and cut off the excess yarn. Now you have the pom-pom tail!

And that's a wrap!

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

making your own pattern for a soft toy (softie)

Making your own soft toys is not too difficult, and it is fun to see something that you created come to life. Not literally come to life (unless you’re a Toy Story believer of course), but something that came totally out of your own head coming to fruition can feel rewarding. Or….in the early stages, sometimes it can feel defeating. Drawing pattern pieces for your own softies is a trial and error, sometimes hit and miss experience. But with each new pattern, or tweak of a pattern, you learn something new.

I am going to show you the first pattern I ever made for a soft toy (a rag doll)……all so that you don’t feel too deflated if your toy doesn’t turn out how you imagine. I drew what I thought would be cute: a head, a face, a body shape and arms and legs. Here is the pattern I first drew on paper, and then glued to poster board and cut-out. I mistakenly thought that my first pattern would work out just as I imagined in my mind. Boy, was I wrong.

Finished doll can't be that bad, right? Or  maybe you can tell better than I can how horrible this is going to be...

And here is the finished doll:

 

Eeeeeeeek!

I know!!!!!!! Hideous!! I didn’t even bother to finish sewing her up. In fact, I thought I had thrown her away, but she showed up a little while back. Apparently my toddler found some redeeming qualities in this doll, because she still will carry her around and hug her at times. So currently this poor creature lives in the toy-box, and is pulled out pretty much daily: a constant reminder of where this process started.

For your own pattern making, all you need, basically, is a head pattern piece, a body piece, and limbs. If you’re drawing an animal, sometimes you might need ears, tail, or other body part. Look at images online (of animals if you’re making an animal), or doll faces that you might like. Or you can rummage through the recesses of your own creative mind. There are lots of ideas in there, I’m sure. The important part is that all of the pieces need to fit together. So the head piece needs to fit exactly to the top of the body piece, as they will be sewn together. So if the bottom of your head piece is 5 inches, the top of your body piece needs to be 5 inches.

You also want to draw in seam allowances. I have used mostly quarter inch seam allowances in making my soft toys. So in drawing a pattern piece, sometimes I will draw the shape that I like, and then draw ¼ inch line around that to account for the seam allowance, which will change the shape of your pattern some. Keep in mind that once a pattern is sewed and stuffed, it will be a different shape and size than the drawing on your paper. For example, I’ve found that if you want a round head on a doll, the pattern piece needs to be more of an oval shape, with the long part of the oval spanning across the cheeks (meaning an oval on it’s side horizontally, rather than a tall, narrow oval).

You can see that the finished product doesn't look exactly like the pattern, but pretty close

I have also found that having extreme angles or sharp curves in a pattern doesn’t work with rag dolls. You want to mostly stick with gentle curves. Sharp curves can create puckering on the finished doll, and can make it look funny. There are methods that can help with avoiding some puckering, however, and we will discuss this when sewing our dolls.

In first drawing the pattern, I free-hand draw on a piece of white paper. I start with the head piece; all other pattern pieces I will draw to fit this head piece. This is not going to be perfect at first. It’s important to initially get your idea down on paper. Then you might get a ruler out to make straight edges straight (such as where head and body meet), or a plate or something else round to make your curved edges less bumpy.

I draw the face right on the pattern piece to see where I want to place things. How big do I want the eyes? Do I want them close together, or far apart? Do I want to make them round, almond shaped, or some other shape? Do I want to add eyelashes, eye brows, freckles or other facial features? I am partial to embroidering the features of the face, but there are of course other options: buttons for eyes or noses, or even hand drawn faces on the fabric using colored permanent marker or other marker. It all depends on the style you are going for.

the giraffe on left is from my first pattern (almond eyes), and the one on right is my current pattern (round eyes). The last giraffe is my sixth variation of the original pattern

Once I have a face and head that I like, I will cut it out with scissors. Then I fold it in half from cheek to cheek. I do this because I want my pattern to be symmetrical. This is important in making pattern pieces line up. I guess you could technically make an asymmetrical head if you wanted: if you’re purposefully going for that type of look for a zombie or monster doll or something. Anyway, once the piece is folded in half, I can see where edges might need to be trimmed to make both sides the same/symmetrical. An alternative to this is to originally draw only half your face on a folded piece of paper, so that when you cut it out, your head/face is automatically symmetrical.

Here I am drawing the head on a fold by using a plate

I have added a neck and seam allowance

I cut out the head pattern and with it still folded, held it up against a window to trace the eye, nose, and mouth on other side

Now I place this cut-out head piece on another piece of paper to draw a body piece. If you’ll notice on the pattern above, I have added ¼ inch on the bottom of the neck, and ¼ inch on top of the body piece so that those can sew together nicely (i.e. I accounted for the seam allowance in drawing my pattern). I use the same process for the body piece: draw a shape I like, and make it symmetrical, remembering that the finished piece will be at least ¼ inch smaller on all sides (even smaller when stuffed).

I drew the body here on the fold as well

Now I draw arms and legs in shapes I like. 

drawing arm using the body as a guide (paper under the body piece)

Drawing leg with body piece as guide. I also mark placement guides on the body piece as to where I want the leg to be attached

Technically you only need one arm and one leg pattern piece each since you want them symmetrical. Now here you have a decision: do you want to sew your doll together with the legs and arms already stuffed (in which you will leave the end of your arm and leg piece open where they join with the body), or do you want to stuff the arms and legs after the doll is sewn together (i.e. you’ll have to leave a section on length of each arm and leg open—when you sew it—to stuff after and then hand sew shut). There are pros and cons to each:

Pre-stuffing Arms/Legs:

•  Pros: has a more finished look when done (because of less hand sewing), and there is less for you to hand sew.
• Cons: It is harder to sew  around stuffed arms and legs when you are sewing the front and back together of the doll; making it more likely that you will sew over folded/distorted fabric.

Stuffing Arms/Legs After Doll is fully assembled:

• Pros: it is much easier to sew the doll together when you do not have the added bulk of stuffed arms and legs inside.
• Cons: it can take more time to hand sew each limb, and you can often tell where the hand sewn stitches are, making the toy look less polished. 

  

  hand stitched leg after stuffing: granted, I could have used a better stictch to hide it, like the ladder stitch

  
  

  

  I also hand stitched the opening between legs closed, and the legs are a little farther apart to leave space to pull doll right-side out and stuff

The pattern that I have been making in this tutorial is made with the intention of pre-stuffing the arms and legs. When first making rag dolls, I was partial to stuffing the arms and legs after the doll was assembled, but have moved to pre-stuffing the arms and legs. I also leave an opening in the back body piece of the doll where I stuff (this means my back pattern piece—you can see it pictured in the giraffe pattern—is two pieces that I sew together with a ¼ inch seam allowance, and leave 3 inches un-sewn in which to pull the doll right side out and stuff from the back). When I made my dolls in the method of not stuffing arms and legs first, I left an opening on the seam in between the legs of the doll in which to turn the doll right side out, and to stuff (see the rag doll picture). That meant that the legs had to be far enough apart to leave a space to turn the doll and stuff it, which affects your design of your doll. By placing the opening in which to turn and stuff on the back body pattern piece, I can make the opening to stuff the doll larger and I can place the legs of the doll close together if I want (like I did with the giraffe).  So this affects whether or not you mark a place to leave open on your pattern pieces for the arm and leg.

Here I am using the body piece we already made, folding it back in half, and placing it on a paper adding 1/4 inch to the inside for the seam allowance. This makes the back of the body pattern

back of body pattern with seam allowance. This pattern piece will make two sides of the back if placed on a folded piece (or on top of two pieces) of fabric. I wrote on the pattern the section that I do NOT want to sew so to leave an opening

Also, I draw my arm and leg pieces without a seam allowance. What?! Why would I do such a thing? I guess technically you still could (i.e. draw the shape you want and then add ¼ inch all the way around it), but when I trace the pattern on my fabric (using pencil or disappearing ink), I sew directly onto the line I have drawn (because the fabric is folded over on itself so I am sewing two layers together to create one arm or leg). After I sew directly on the lines, I cut the sewn piece out around the sewn line usually with pinking shears. But you can do it either way. I just like seeing the line I am sewing on directly because it helps me sew more accurately, making the arms and legs look better.

Here is an example of sewing right on the lines I drew: this is the giraffe arms and legs

So there are the basics of making your pattern. Make other pattern pieces as appropriate (i.e. ears). Here is the finished simple doll pattern we made today: 

Yay! Now we can make this little cutie

Of course, there is a time and place for making your own pattern and adjusting it, and sometimes you want a pattern that has already been tested and the problems have already been solved. If that’s the case, you can always find cute patterns online for purchase, or some are free. If you like the giraffe in this post, I will post a link to the pattern here (in my etsy shop) when the pattern is available.

I hope this has been helpful! We didn't address the issue of adding hair to a doll here, but if anyone wants that, I can post a tutorial later on putting yarn hair on a rag doll (like in the rag doll pictured above).

Upcoming post: a tutorial on putting the giraffe/rag doll together! (with lots of pics)