Doll Making Tips

Doll Making Tips

Just wanted to share a few tips I have learned along the way.

While stuffing doll body parts roll the doll parts between your hands to distribute the stuffing. Or roll the pieces on a table.

To hide your knots. Tie your knot then put the needle through the same hole. This makes the knot hide in the stuffing. I do this several times so that I know the knot is secured.

Moisten the fabric before stuffing the doll. This helps you stuff firmly and helps keep the thread from breaking.

Use upholstery thread for hand sewing doll body parts or for needle sculpting. I have heard that dental floss works great to but have not tried it.

Thread keeps knotting while you hand sew. Pull the thread over bees wax before using.

Needle doesn’t want to go through fabric. Press the needle tip into a bar of soap.

Use pencil for drawing faces and other details on fabric. When moistened this will usually wash off. Or erase if fabric is dry.

It is easier to sew the doll parts and then cut them out of the fabric. Rather then cut the pieces and then sew.

Various sizes of hemostats work great for stuffing. Also get some curved ones to.

I used to use muslin but have fell in love with Osnaburg fabric for primitive doll making. If you paint stain your dolls you will find that the painted surface does not scratch as easy.

Various sizes of needles are a must. Long doll needles are necessary tools for thread jointing.

Finger turners are a great help.

Freezer wrap makes great patterns. You can even iron the shiny side down onto your fabric and sew. People like to use this technique to try to get the exact size as the pattern. Often the patterns increase in size when you draw around them.

This is just a beginning of a list. Please add your tips for doll making here.