How to Make a Cloth Baby Doll

If you have basic sewing skills, you can make a cloth baby doll for a special child in your life. This doll may not have the detail of some commercial dolls, but it will still make a great playmate for a young child and should hold up to years of love.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Soft fabric in a flesh tone
• Embroidery floss
• Needle and thread, or sewing machine
• Poly-fill or natural fiber stuffing
• Contrasting fabrics for clothing
• Fine yarn for hair
• paper and pencil
• tapestry needle

1. Use paper to draw a simple outline of a human body, similar to a gingerbread boy. It's hard to get too much detailed anatomy into a cloth baby doll. Draw a second outline about 1/2 inch outside the first (this will be your seam allowance) and cut the pattern out on the second outline.

2. Fold the body fabric in half and use the pattern to cut a double-thickness body, still on the outer line.

3. Use embroidery floss to sew a few stitches for a face on one of the body pieces. A small stitch or two for each eye and several for a smile may be sufficient, but you can get as complicated with this step as you like. It's much easier to do this step before you put the doll together.

4. Line the two body pieces up on top of each other, with the right sides together. Starting with the torso, sew around the entire body, about 1/2 inch from the fabric edge, leaving a gap of an inch or so.

5. Turn the body right-side out, using the back end of a pencil or something similar to do the limbs if necessary. Stuff thoroughly with stuffing, keeping in mind that it will probably compact with wear and tear. So make the baby doll nice and fluffy to start with.

6. Fold the edges of the gap in and sew them closed, using small overcast stitches.

7. Add hair. Do this by cutting pieces of yarn about twice the length of the hair you want, using the tapestry needle to pull them halfway through a bit of the scalp, then knotting the two ends near the fabric. You can cover the doll's entire head with hair, but this is the most labor-intensive part of the project. Alternately, you can attach hair just around the edges of the scalp, then pull it together into a ponytail that roughly covers the head.

8. Keep your original pattern to make doll clothes, but add another 1/2 inch or so of extra room when tracing so the clothes can fit over the doll's skin.

Tips & Warnings

• If you aren't familiar with embroidery, you can also use paint to create the face before or after the doll is stuffed. Use thin, non-toxic acrylic or fabric paint and a fine brush.