Doll Making = A Success

A friend of mine introduced me to a site called Child's Own Studio, where a talented lady makes custom plush dolls to match children's drawings. I was blown away the first time I saw the dolls. How incredible would it be to have a actual plush doll of something you imagined and drew as a child! But the lady has waiting lists miles long. She is no longer taking orders for this year. In fact, I don't know who gets these dolls she makes because I've never actually seen her take any orders... Regardless, in looking through the photos of her creations, I got the crazy idea that maybe I could do this. I've dabbled in enough sewing I could maybe try this out. How hard could it be? Kids don't draw perfectly symmetrical things, which works for me since I hardly sew in a straight line...

Although Sofia's drawing is getting better every day, she's not quite at the draw from imagination stage yet. Most of her drawings are still abstract scribbles. Well that or she really likes Jackson Pollock's work...

Well I do have to give her a little more credit. She can draw a great smiley face...

So for this experiment, I enlisted the help of my niece, Mia, who is a few years older than Sofia. I asked my brother to send me a photo of one of Mia's favorite drawings. I didn't tell him why I needed it though. He said Mia loved drawing pictures of herself and her family so he sent me this beautiful self-portrait. 

I went to the store and bought fabric I thought best matched Mia's drawing. And then the fabric sat in my closet for about five months while I waited to "find the time" to sit down and work on the doll. Luckily that time finally came on Saturday night when I mistakenly thought it would be a good idea to drink a cup of coffee after 6 pm and therefore could not sleep when bed time rolled around. Kids asleep, husband at work, I guess I'll sew... 

Don't ask me how I did this. I really have no clue. My original intent was to print out the picture and use it as a pattern of sorts, but that didn't really happen. I just did everything free hand trying to stick to scale as much as possible. Some four hours later, this is what I came up with. 

Hey! Not too shabby! Actually... this is pretty awesome! I'm so impressed with myself. Don't look too closely. It is by no means perfect. I should have used something other than felt for her hair because it picks up the fuzz from the dress. And the dress isn't fully lined because I ran out of fabric after I made a mistake sewing the first dress. And one sleeve wasn't quite large enough so it's a little too tight and doesn't puff up the way the other sleeve does. And I didn't really think about how I was going to get the dress on the doll after I started sewing it together so I had to sew her into it a la runway model at Fashion Week. But for my very first time making a plush doll, I think this turned out quite well. 

The doll is now lovingly wrapped up in tissue paper and on it's way to my niece thanks to the postal service. I hope she likes it. I can't wait to see what Sofia and the boys' imaginations will come up with.