How to make a doll in five days

So this my friend was meant to be having a baby shower today so I decided to make her a home made gift of a Disney Princess Jasmine doll, as that’s what she was naming the baby. However she had the baby early so it’s a good job I got it finished last night as I'm seeing her today.

I thought given I've started a blog and I love watching D.I.Y tutorials id do one of my own on this mini project so……….here's my HOW TO MAKE A DOLL IN FIVE DAYS step by step.

Start off with your tools your going to need, i had Toy Stuffing (about £2.50), black wool (£1.99) coloured material (all different fabrics came to about £5.00) and some accessories e.g. ribbon (30p) and then of course a sewing machine, threads, scissors, pencils and a stencil you can print off online as well as a helper (my sister) .

My fabric was from Abakhans its really cheap!!, here is the website
https://www.abakhan.co.uk/
The stuffing and wool can be found online or i got mine from
St Johns market in Liverpool

My sister assisting me with fiddly bits

Here is the link to the template i used also the lady whose
site it is has useful information on making dolls
http://www.dollchamber.com/?page_id=31&lang=en

The first step is to cut out your stencil design in your fabric, here i have the head and body attatched, a seperate bit for the back of the head two pieces of the back (the exact same as the head and body attatched only the head is seperate and the body is split in two) two arms and legs both doubled and a small circle for the nose. Then you must sew the two sides of arms and legs together so it is double the thickness but MAKE SURE TO LEAVE A GAP (preferably on the sides of the arms and legs as its easier to sew up later), this is to stuff it later!

 The body must also be sewn but only the semi-circle as shown on the white stencil, to do this fold the material in half and draw on the semi circle then sew it together. This creates the neck. 

 Once all these pieces have been sewn up its time to put it all together. So step one is to turn the arms and legs inside out so the messy sewing is on the inside. Then pin both arms and legs onto shape 1 with the neck you have sewn facing inside (neat side on the outside as you will be flipping the whole thing inside out) i have drawn a red line as to where to pin. IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THE ARMS AND LEGS SHOULD BE SEWN AS IF THE DOLL WOULD BE IN A FOETAL POSITION not like a normal doll or your arms and legs will be stuck on the inside! Then sew up pieces 5 and 6 together (via the blue line in the middle of 5 and 6) straight down the middle and pin along the outer edge to the back of piece 1. Do the same with the back of the head BUT LEAVE THE NECK UNPINNED! , so only pin around the outside of the head (piece 4).

Then you are ready to sew! follow the entire body line of shape 1 and sew along this edge all around so all pieces will be held in place. This is shown in BLUE.
Then simply remove the pins and turn inside out via the gap you've left in the neck! then its time to stuff!!

I just used the back of a pencil to put the stuffing in the arms and legs and to push down the corners to create a bum. Once the doll is fully stuffed sew up the gaps. The neck may have a bigger gap than intended if so just cut out a piece of material big enough to cover the gap and hand stitch. Now you have your basic doll.

 The next thing i did was the hair. Because i was making a Princess Jasmine doll i used black wool but you can choose whatever colour for your hair. I did this by getting a magazine (any A4 sized notebook would work) and wrapped the wool around it. then cut it across one side to create lengths of hair. Then its a long process of sewing it on by hand one at a time.

Be patient with this it will take a while.

Then decorate how you wish. I tied up her hair with green ribbons made from strips of fabric and created her headband from a strip of fabric, a circle of gold ribbon and a circle of green velvet.

Then i made the clothes and accessories. I added a gold thin piece of ribbon as the necklace, Gold cotton as the earrings and the green velvet fabric sewn on with a gold ribbon trim for the shoes. For the clothes this was a little more tricky as i had to ask my work colleague for help. So For Princess Jasmine its not your average dress Disney princesses normally wear, she has hareem pants and a crop top. Firstly for the top i cut out a square larger than the dolls body and used an over locker to elastic-ate the arms and neck line (I use an over locker at work so an industrial one was easy access, however if you cant find one of these you can elastic-ate the fabric by pulling a piece of cotton through the fabric to rouche it. Also my work colleague has a sewing machine which is able write letters so i had her sew Jasmine on the top.

 I also created a belly button by sewing a brown piece of cotton. Next i made the pants. These were a little trickier than expected so i would recommend trying this out on a piece of scrap first.
Firstly cut out two pieces of fabric for both legs (so four) a lot bigger than the dolls legs (about 3 x bigger), when cutting out be sure to do an R shape (as seen below) then sew the edges leaving the crotch unsewn. If your pants are patterned sew on the non patterned side. After this turn the right leg inside out so the messy sewing is on the inside then put the left leg inside this on.  Simply finish it off by sewing the crotches together and turning the left leg inside out so you have a neat seam. I added elastication on the bottom of the legs and top and sewed velvet green on the top in order to give it a bit of detailing.

here is a link on how to make regular pants
to understand what i mean
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xZNDJ-wUnI

Then the final bit to do is the face, i wasnt entirely sure how to do this so i just thought id go for it. firstly i used the circle you cut out of the fabric you used for the body put a small amount of the stuffing in it and then sew around it in order to create a small ball. Then sew it on, this is the nose. Once you have a central point to work with its time to do the rest of the features. I got a picture up of Princess Jasmine off google and drew a rough draft of her eyes and lips. I chose a heart shape for her lips and went on to repeatedly sew red cotton into the shape and then used a black thread to make a smile right across the heart. Next was the filling in of the eyes for this i used white, black and dark brown for her eyelids. Finally i created the eyebrows as though they were peeping through her hair. Its up to you how you create the face depending on what you want your doll to look like. You could even do a Scouse Brow if you wanted haha.

I added a personal finishing touch by sewing LOVE LAURA on her bracelet made of ribbon and a small heart so baby Jasmine will know who made her dolly. I hope she likes it and this step by step was useful to some of you. Id love to see some of your creations too. you can tag me on instagram with your creations @theukelelady http://instagram.com/ukelelady