My-Sew Dolly

My little girl loves to sew. She just turned 5 two weeks ago, so she is still beginning. I'm pretty impressed with how well she is able to manage and control her needle. She needs a bit of help working out the spacing and size of her stitches, however. I devised a little project for her to work on that would help with that, and allow her to have a nice souvenir when it was complete.

For this project, you will need:

Crafting felt in assorted colors
Scissors
Tapestry needle with sharp point
Embroidery Floss
Pen
Pillow Stuffing
Regular needle and thread
Yarn for eyes, mouth and hair
Pattern (below)






Click on the thumbnail on the left, and save the larger image of the pattern.

Print the pattern off, adjusting the size. You want approximately 7" tall.

Fold your crafting felt in half, horizontally and place your pattern so that you will cut out two identical pieces of felt.

I sewed a face onto the front of the cut pieces, so that my little one could have a better idea of what she was making. This is completely unnecessary.

Use the pen to draw dashes along the outside of the dolly, leaving the top two inches open. Make them as long or widely spaced as you feel will work best for your child.

Next is up to the little one!

Thread the tapestry needle with embroidery floss and instruct them to stitch along the dotted lines.

My girl did need some help, untangling or undoing her stitches if she made mistakes, which are inevitable.

The larger needles and thread are best for beginners, but eventually she did graduate to a regular sized needle and thread.

Look at those tidy little stitches! Mama was impressed!

I took out the face I had sewn on easily, and made a new one on the other side of the fabric.


Karlie did about two-thirds of the stitches at which point she began losing interest. I finished the last third for her.

       Adam likes to sew too!

I turned the dolly right side out, and helped Karlie put the stuffing in.


Then Karlie closed her at the top.

I stitched some yarn to the dolly's head to make hair, and she is awaiting her garments. I have a habit of making dolls, and losing interest or getting busy before I get to make the clothing. My kids are quite accustomed to naked dolls, they don't mind.

She has already started on a sister for her dolly, in purple. Without the dashes to guide her, the stitches aren't as neat, so I will clean them up a bit.

We will make a few more practice dolly's before I buy some muslin and let her make her own rag dolls like these.

I can see this becoming a rather rewarding hobby for her, the first of probably many.