Handmade Dolls: Handmade Doll Tutorial

Teddy Bear Tutorial

http://www.handmade-dolls.org

Being a small doll (15 cm tall) I have to warn you that this is not going to be an easy task. Small things are harder to create than you think.

Let's begin with what you need in order to handcraft this doll:

- a pair of scissors

- a ruller

- a pencil

- a permanent marker

- an A4 transparent transfer paper

- a piece of soft fleece ( 25/25 cm)

- a piece of cotton fabric for the dress ( as I call it " a happy one" - something flowery or with polka dots or even a simple one if you don't have anything else)

-thick black and pink threads for the eyes ( I actually used a pair of plastic eyes, but I usually sew them with black thread, it' s simple this way, too), nose and mouth

- thin threads ( matched with the color of the fabrics you use for the body and gown)

- some accessories ( a button, some satin bow, lace)

- a sewing needle

- a glue gun or some sort of non glue

- filling ( I use a non allergenic one, which usually is used for pillow filling, but if you don't have a pillow to ruin, you may use also some medicinal soft cotton (pads)

Here we go!

First take the transparent transfer paper and draw a 15 cm vertical straight line

and then, at the top of this line, draw a 6 cm diameter circle followed by a short neck (1 cm tall and 3cm wide)

attached to the neck draw another circle (5.5 cm in diameter) and attached to it draw two rectangles of 2,5 cm high; at the both ends of the rectangles draw two foot shapes (see the picture above)

On the top of the first circle draw two semicircles (1 cm high) which are going to be the ears of the Teddy Bear. For the hands draw a banana similar shape (5 cm high - 1 cm wide) ( see the picture above).
The dress has a trapeze shape (5 cm high, 4 cm small base, 12 cm big base). At the top, in the left and right side, draw two small semicircular shapes, as you can see in the picture above.

This is your pattern. Now, using the scissors, cut all the shapes you drew, in order to start working on the doll.

Take the body and the hand shapes, the marker and the soft fleece fabric (folded in two) and draw the body and the hands (two of them) - see below

Start to cut the fabric all around the shapes and repeat the process with the dress pattern on the flowery fabric

You should obtain something like this...

Now, take the needle and the thin thread and start sewing the body shape, attaching the two parts one to another ( leave a hole where to insert the filling)

After sewing, using the same hole for the filling, turn the body inside out, to look nice

Start filling the body with soft cotton and, in the end, sew the hole left, repeat the whole operation with the hands and

this should be the result...

I know it looks strange, but be patient, now it starts the funny part.

Using this ( glue gun) attach the plastic eyes, if you happen to have such a thing, if not...

take a thread ( a black one) similar to the pink one from the above picture and sew two round shapes

where the eyes are supposed to be placed ( do something similar with what I did with the nose)
Then take a pink thread a and sew the nose and the mouth as I did in the picture above. Using the glue gun or other glue you have, attach some accessories if you want ( I used a satin bow and a colorful wooden button)

Now start sewing the two parts of the dress one to another ( I suggest you to cut a straight line in the back side of the gown, in order to be able to dress the doll after the gown is sewed). In the end, using the glue gun, attach some lace at the bottom of the dress, as well as at the neck and at the arms.