ladybug love!

In case you can't tell by now, I have a thing for rag dolls/plushies/softies or whatever you want to call them. They're my favorite. But some things don't translate well into a doll....like bugs. How are you supposed to make a bug look cute?

The Bean has this bunny book with pictures of bunnies galore in it. But her favorite picture in it by far is one of a tiny ladybug on a tree trunk on the side of one of the pages. Whenever we read the book, it's the first thing she must find.

So I wanted to make a ladybug doll for her. I constructed the body out of soft fleece to make it huggable. It was my first time sewing with fleece, and I liked the cuddly results. I also liked that I could give it a quilted look (which I used on the tummy of the doll).

The arms and legs are made out of cotton fabric (that has a little design on it...hard to tell in the pictures). I used safety eyes on the face because I thought that would give the doll a more "buggy" look. This is one of the only times that my first rendition of a pattern has worked to my liking. However, I forgot to add the little tufts of hair in my original design to the finished doll. I got a little too ahead of myself in sewing it up last night. The tufts will be in the next doll, though.

The tufts of hair are inspired by the Bean, who has hairs sticking out around her face when she puts on hats

The Bean met her ladybug friend when she woke up this morning and exclaimed loudly: "Ladybug!" It was love at first sight.

Perfect for cuddling, and apparently kissing!

This little bug is cute in her own buggy way.

I'm sure at some point one of these dolls (and pattern hopefully) will make it to the etsy shop. But for now, this little doll is one of a kind.

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!

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!!