Thursday 20 January 2011

Making dolls AKA "Bible Dolls"

So here goes an attempt at demonstrating the very simple process of making the dolls without confusing or making it seem complicated...You need: 2 pipe cleaners, 1 bead, cotton/ thread, felt, scissors and needle (a hot glue gun would also be very useful)
Fold both pipe cleaners in half, choose the one that will be the legs/ body and push bead on top.
Slide other pipe cleaner and over the body and position just below head.
Bring ends of pipe cleaner to meet in the middle.
Twist arms to secure and create hands (if you hold the "hand" between your fingers and twist it usually creates a good shape) squeeze to secure further.
Bend the end of the legs up (about 1cm) and then do so again (to create a rounded end and no sharp bits) and bend to a right angle to create feet.

The basic doll is now made, below is a simple costume. You of course can be creative with your costumes (I would love to see finished creations)
Cut felt into this shape by folding and then cutting so you have a perfect tabard. Cut a little slit (0.5 cm) on the crease. Remove the head and poke neck through the slit.
Sew up edges, I usually use a blanket stitch, but if short of time a running stitch or even a glue gun.
For simple head dress cut a T shape out, ensuring the top of the T is the same width "ish" as the bead.
Sew the right angles of the stick of the T to the top along the right angle >T. (Hope that makes sense can't make it sound obvious)
This is what the head dress should look like?
At this point you need PVA or a glue gun (defiantly preferable). Squeeze glue into the top of the head inside until a little ooses out of the hole, this will hold head in place. Then stick on the head dress, you may need to use a bit more glue on the sides of head but if using a glue gun the prior should suffice.

If you are not wishing to use glue I suggest you sew the head on several times to the clothes/ neck by sewing in and out of the bead hole. Then sew the head dress to the top of the clothes along the bottom of the head dress.

I hope you found this useful and not too confusing, feel free to contact me for questions. I'm sorry the picture quality is not brilliant. Happy making

1 comment:

  1. I greatly appreciate this! It is very well explained, and I am going to find some beads! Thank you!

    ReplyDelete