If you are just joining us now, we have already been in the process of creating our dolls! I will give you the links to the entire series, so you can catch up if needed. My suggestion is to start with a quick pocket doll, to work on your stitching and practice working with wool! Once you have completed that project, you can move on to getting your supplies, making your doll’s head, printing off your free pattern and sewing the body, and finally putting your blank doll together! Now comes the fun part, giving your doll a face!
You will start by drawing circles where you would like your eyes to be. Draw your circles smaller than you think you should, as embroidering them always tends to make them larger. You will need your long dollmaking needle, an embroidery needle and the floss for your eyes and mouth. You will need to get a length of floss (approximately 15 inches) and separate it into a single strand for the eyes. This is a huge tip, as many new makers try to use the entire 7 strands which makes the eyes very bulky and it is difficult to keep a nice shape with.
You will start by making a vertical stitch in the center of the eye, using the long needle, before starting any horizontal stitches. You do this to keep the eye from becoming too elongated, holding its circular shape better. Once you have tied off the vertical stitch at the top of the head, you will rethread your long needle, going back through the head, and start doing horizontal stitches.
I decided to do the rest of the eye embroidery as a video series. This is often the part of doll making that people find most intimidating and have the most trouble with. I uploaded three parts that I did while my kids were watching a cartoon on the computer so forgive the background noise! To view the tutorials, you will go to my youtube channel! Here is part 1, part 2 and part 3!
Once you have both eyes embroidered, it is time to move onto the mouth!
For this step, you will need approximately 8-10″ of your mouth colour, not separated. I chose a soft pink, since I decided this little one is a girl. There are so many shades of pink, red and nude that work great though!
Taking your embroidery floss, draw the floss up through the head (using your long needle) at one corner of the mouth.
Then remove your needle from the floss, and thread the opposite end of the floss. Now, draw the other side of the floss up through the opposite side of the mouth.
Tie your two ends of floss at the top of the head, pulling the thread taught to form a cute little mouth!
There! You now have an adorable face on your doll! Did you have any trouble? If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments! Or you can contact me through my faith & string facebook page!
The next step in our tutorial will be attaching your doll’s hair, which I hopefully will have available in the coming days! You will need to brainstorm what type of hair you would like. You can get some fairly inexpensive yarns at craft places such as Michaels, that will have a nice wool content. Or you can find some gorgeous handspun yarns at places like Rainbow Twist Shop run by an amazing handcrafter, Laura, on Etsy!
Can’t wait to see everyone again with the next step of my tutorial series!
~Cathy~
Wow Cathy,
I like your tutorial sooooooo much. Good work. Thank you for sharing with us 🙂
For my son i’d like to put a diaper on this doll, but i think this would be difficult. Do You have any idea or tips?
Daria
I will have clothing patterns and tutorials too! Hopefully the series will be complete in the coming weeks <3
Cathy Eklund,
I just want to say thank you once again. Your tutorials are so easy to follow and yet so detailed, that it is simple enough even for a novice like me. They are stock full of wonderful information. I cannot wait to complete a doll and share with you my accomplishments.
DeAyn Pair Greevers
Hello!
I just found you. Thank you so much for the tutorial series. You are very generous! 😉
Of course! why didn’t I think of doing one side of the mouth, unthreading and doing the other…..so obvious now I’ve seen your tutorial. I always struggled with getting the mouth looking good. Thanks for your generosity in sharing these tutorials…I’ve been making dolls for a few years, self taught from books mainly, and it’s always good to see how some-one else does it, there’s always that different way that works better.
You are amazing and so generous sharing with us this great tutorial. Thank you.
Hello just checking in to see if there is a part 6 as yet? Many thanks in advance.
I have just read your beautiful story of your premmie daughter and the beautiful doll you made her. I am touched and so thankful for your tutorial.
Thankyou so much for this tutorial I too was wondering if there is a Part 6.
Yes! Right here: http://faithandstring.com/making-waldorf-doll-part-6-attaching-hair/
Hi, Thank you so much for this tutorial! I have tried many different ones but this one is my favorite. Do you have any doll clothes patterns out? Thanks alot
Just have them in the works! They should be out soon!
I can’t wait to start this project for my granddaughter’s 2nd birthday but I can’t seem to find a link to the full tutorial. I’d prefer to have the whole thing printed out for reference.
It doesn’t have a full tutorial link, it was written in multiple posts, so you would have to print off each post separately <3
Would like to know how to make a doll and if you have a free pattern for me and thank you
Are you able to use buttons for the eyes?
Greetings from Germany,
Thanks a million for your tutorial at last I have found what I was looking for and I can now make some for my daughter, you are an amazing person and your boy looks cute holding the dolls. Be blessed and your family too.
Your post is really helpful… I have made a doll for my daughter from your tutorial…. It’s still not complete… Would love to see your completed doll…. Thanks so much for this wonderful post.
This is the first “true” doll that I have made. The tutorials were absolutely wonderful and just packed with so much knowledge and information! Thank you for sharing this! I kind of felt like I had a friend working along side me while I made this! I have a friend who works with children (development/trauma) and she was really desperate to find these dolls. With your wonderful tutorials I feel I can really help her out with this!