There’s been an initiative taking place in the UK called “Small Beginnings, Great Expectations”, which I discounted when I first heard of it because it seemed that I needed to be in the UK to participate. Once I had all the details I changed my mind and had a chat to Jill, the organiser.
I decided to source my own small garment, as our op shops are full of tiny baby clothes which are difficult to rehome. I noted that the finished work did not need to be wearable, but needed to include some stitch and explore memories and emotions. I had initially thought I’d make a bag or a bowl from whatever I found, but was keeping and open mind.
I visited a local church op shop and they had two drawers of tiny clothes – one for boys and one for girls. I was with a friend and we had a fossick and came up with this little outfit which is for a 3 month old baby. It didn’t look like it had ever been worn.
It had snaps on the crotch and buttons down the back. This would not have been easy to put on a tiny baby!
The underneath layer was knit and the top two overlays were fine cotton lawn. This is how it looked once I had deconstructed it. I saved everything including the threads which I harvested from the unpicking.
At this point I still had no real idea of what I was going to make although the knit did remind me of a doll body. I just couldn’t get my head round having a hot pink doll! I went to Instagram and asked for an opinion. I had some great suggestions, but in the middle of the night I decided to paint the body!
I need to mention that I made a practice doll of a similar coloured knit to test my painting theory. I learned a lot from this doll, mostly that I had attached the legs incorrectly, and put the head on upside down – see the strange chin on the left? I took the head off and turned it round. Also note the seam lines on the arms – all the seams looked like this and needed painting over at the end.
I also tested my dress pattern but discovered that I didn’t have enough fabric for this type of dress.
Once I’d made the test doll, I took a deep breath and started laying out the pattern on the pieces of the outfit. This was much trickier than with the test doll as she’s made out of a whole piece of fabric. I had many false starts!
After I had drawn the pattern onto the fabric, I sewed the pieces and then painted. This seems backward but they are sewn together before they are cut out, which meant that I didn’t have any seams which weren’t sewn properly. I’m doing all my dolls like this in the future, it made a massive difference to my unpicking quotient! I did wonder if the paint would stick the sides to each other so practiced on a leg stuffing it with plastic. It turned out that this was unnecessary and the paint didn’t go through.
I tried several different colours, lightening up the pink with white and then using a colour called “portrait”. I used GAC900 to keep the paint soft and learnt (the hard way) that the paint goes on better with a damp brush. I tried to minimise the paint layers so the doll still felt soft. My first doll feels much more plasticky than the final doll because I used so much paint trying to work out the best way of getting the colour right.
I drafted some boots and knickers/shorts and was pleased that they fitted. The arms are ariculated. The only new elements I’ve added to the doll are the hair, the paint, thread and the elastic for the shorts and the skirt These elements all came from my stash, so the whole doll cost $1 which was the price of the outfit.
My sewing table has been a mess for a couple of weeks now. I probably would have made this doll in a day but the responsibility of the precious fabric and where she’s going to end up weighed heavily on me. The clothes were the biggest problem. I procrastinated, slept on it, faffed about and finally decided that enough was enough and I was just going to cut into the fabric and if I ruined it, then so be it.
I made the little top using the snaps from the crotch. There were four snaps divided by a seam, so the top has two down the back. I took this photo before I tidied things up.
Just a note that my white heat erasable marker doesn’t erase with heat!
The skirt is made from knit leftovers. I pleated the top and didn’t hem the bottom. I added some fold over elastic to the waist to make it neater. Compare it to the photo above.
I initially sewed the little heart on the bottom of the skirt using pink thread but it disappeared so I went over it with orange thread and added some French knots.
I had to piece the back of the skirt as I was getting short of big pieces of fabric.
At some point I began calling the doll Ruby as a nod to her rather rosy complexion. She’s now had two hairstyles and two faces.
It’s a bit hard to see here, but her hair took up too much room and her face looked a bit undefined.
I used the four short ribbons removed from the outfit. I joined two together for each side of the hairdo on the left, then joined all four together for the one on the right.
You’ll notice the flower in her hair in the photo on the right. This was fashioned from the thread I harvested from the unpicking plus some tiny scraps of knit that had conveniently curled. I had originally fashioned a cat from the thread and was desperate to use it but it was fragile and I didn’t know where to put it.
I didn’t use the thread as part of her stuffing, which would have been my normal behaviour, as I wanted it to be an obvious part of her personality.
I made her a duster to go over her tee shirt and skirt. I was able to utilise the original buttonholes but discovered a hole I obviously made when unpicking. I simply sewed the label from the garment over the top.
The entire duster is fully lined. I used the striped fabric for the back and part of the sleeves and the pink lawn for the fronts (with buttonholes) and the other part of the sleeves. My drafting of the sleeves was less than perfect…
The coat is lined with the remnants from the pink lawn layer. I had to piece it but feel as though it’s quite neat. I had two extra buttons so sewed them to the front of the top.
I still had scraps to use so I made that little heart for the skirt, and I made her a heart brooch, which I pinned to her duster. I used several layers to give it a 3D feel, but it was a bit thick for me to sew easily.
I still had scraps left so made her a little backpack. I was able to use the last two crotch snaps and just stitched scraps randomly to a piece of fabric to create some structure for the backpack. The straps are made from scraps which I rolled up tightly and then sewed pieces of fabric over the top.
I was in two minds as to whether to include it, but it sits fairly neatly on her body. It also includes a little tag from the original outfit, which I rather love.
Finally it was clearly approved by son number two, although he did point out that she needed more stitches to hold her head on. Sigh. I did do this and she’s now quite sturdy.
Now all that is left is working out where to send it. I’m sure I have an email somewhere with the details. I’ll be honest though, she’ll be hard to part with!
I thought you’d be amused to see the way Miss G thought my shrug should be worn. At one point she had her head through the armhole which looked hysterical. She thinks it’s a very strange garment indeed!
