A Day in the Life of a Prim Doll Maker

Today I am making a new doll....My studio/puter room is a mess...can't find anything...Where is my Muslin anyway?I finally find it...then can't find the design I want to use...so onto another search...Got it!!....Now once I find a pair of scissors I will be good to go.

I lay out my muslin, trace on my pattern, and cut the pieces of her out...Now she has a round head...so I have to carefully sew six sections of fabric together to make her head....Whew...finally got it done...but it does not seem even...so I tear out the stiches and do it all over again...

OK....now it looks like it should I think. So I finish the rest of her body...minus the legs,which I have to hand paint....and decide to do her head first...I firmly stuff her little round head, stitch on her eyes,and nose...and decide to needle felt her wool hair in. I cut about forty strands of yarn,

and start felting...ok...she looks good...BUT......I have holes in my fingers...from the needle,but I do this all the time. Oh...forgot to blush her cheeks....so I get out my blush,and start to dab...

and somehow...I smear some blush too high on her face....What am I going to do now????

Being someone who just knows I can fix it (LOL)I also notice there are still marks from the disappearing ink pen I used to trace on where I wanted her nose and eyes...So I wet a rag...

a wipe the lines....looks ok,til it starts to dry...and then she has big blotches of water rings on her face.....NOW what?? I know...I will just add some more stain to her head...(Not a good idea!)now she looks like she was dipped into a mud bath...in spots!! I go to pick her up,and notice her hair

which I thought was felted in good...is coming out in clumps....At this point....I rip the rest of her hair off her head...and SCREAM......and pull off her button eyes.... Here is what remains...

So I start all over again...cut out the sections,sew her head,making sure it is perfectly even and round...and this time I stitch all her hair on...forty five strands of yarn.stitch her nose,eyes and mouth...and very carefully add some blush on her cheeks...Grubby her face just a tad with cinnamon this time.

Now I get her legs,draw on the "socks" and start painting...and (You guessed it) smear the paint..Maybe I should not have started a doll today....Soooo I cut out a new leg,grubby it,and CAREFULLY paint on the socks. Bake them to dry them and attact them to her body...She is starting to look so darn cute!

Now...time to make her dress and apron...I decide on what fabrics I want,cut out the dress...

stitch it up, and put it on her....YEP...the dress is too big.....so I take the dress apart,cut it smaller,and put it back together....Now its time to add rick rack to her dress hem,sleeves,and apron...Did you know that rick rack has a mind of its on when your trying to sew it??? Mine did...

kept moving on me...of course if I pinned it on first that would not have happened,but hey...was tryin to save a little time...already had about seven hour spent on her...so out comes my seam ripper,and after sticking myself twice,I got the rick rack off..and then PINNED it on before

stiching it....Straight this time (amazing!!) So far so good! Put on her dress...puffed her sleeves

with fiberfill...and added her apron...Whew..I think she is done! Nope...wrong...have to make her Loons....was gonna put rick rack on the loons,but decided not too...we are now going on 8 1/2 hours......Finally she is finished...So...9 hours later...some sore fingers,and a headache...

I have my newest creation....Rosie....Which my 81 year old Mom named for me..and here she is.

She really was worth it after all!!