Wise Counsel and Baby Dolls

" Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed."  Proverbs 15:22

We were faced with two birthday parties coming up for two dear little three year olds we know and with the tight budget, I thought perhaps a nice handmade gift would be the ticket.  So, where to start?  Pinterest of course.  A quick search for handmade and girl gift came up with pin after pin of adorable handmade dollies.  Oh dear.  I do love to sew, but I am used to mending or cross-stitch, not dolls.  But the Bible teaches us to seek wise counsel.  So, I read about 300 different blog posts and watched a couple of how-to videos.  Then I dove in.

These are the materials I had to work with:  

A like new nightgown by Carters that our oldest outgrew and a pair of pink socks. 

I cut the socks into a head (the foot/toe section) 

and then used the other pieces to make the arms and legs. 

I figured the ruffle would make a great dolly skirt.

Here I sewed the ankle part of the socks into the feet.  One of the blogs showed how to sew off the  triangles to make the foot tapered instead of square.

 I used the sleeve of another pj set to make the torso of our doll.  Here you can see how I used safety pins to hold the pieces together while I sewed.  With a little one running around, these are much easier to keep up with than straight pins.

Then I got all excited with my progress, and forgot all about wise counsel.  

"The lowly will be exalted and the exalted will be brought low."  Ezekiel 21:26

As you can see in the picture, I tried just marking where I would put the arms.  Ignoring wise counsel I ran ahead of instructions and drew two very OFF marks onto our beautiful doll.  Oops. A little washing and return to wise counsel (in the form of a reviewed internet article) and I was back on track.

 Here she is with her head on.  I used my handy dandy tablet to wind the yarn around for her hair. I am a firm believer in using what you have on hand.  

 Then came my favorite part.  I found the most amazing and logical method of adding yarn hair to the doll.  You start by marking a line down the middle of the head where you will add hair.

 Then you take three strands of yarn at a time and use two strands (pull apart the yarn you have into two strings instead of the four you start with) to tack it in place.  

I sewed around two or three times for each batch.   

Just try to ignore the green sweat pants that my dear husband lovingly refers to as my "kermit-the-frog" pants. :)

 Next, you add another three strands across the head and tack those in place.  

I tried to overlap my sewing a bit to blend it in better.  

 Here she is with no eyes.  A little creepy.

And here she is all done.  I will tell you now, that as I finished her I did a squeal with joy at how sweet she came out.  NOT perfect by any means.  But a great little dolly.  Here's hoping the sweet-pea of a birthday girl likes it too.


More doll creations are listed in the second article in this two part series. 
Click the link below to read on.
http://biblelovingmomtothefourth.blogspot.com/2012/11/dolls-frogs-and-aliens.html