The Dolls of the Valley—Part 3

It's about time to conclude the crocheted dolls post. Actually had my younger grandkids here for a while today, and the granddaughter did get out the dolls for a bit. The younger grandson was busy showing me where different countries are on his tablet. They did some drawing as well. It gets lively, but I love to sit nearby while they are playing and listen to their chatter. It takes me back to when my sons were that age.

But this is about doll creation. I have a few more pictures to share.

This is a doll I wanted to make because all the others had been caucasian. We live in rural communities that have very few people who aren't white, and I wanted to reinforce that humans come in a lovely array of skin tones. You have to forgive once again my not-so-skilled embroidery, which is not easy to do on crochet anyway. I do love the safety eyes, I get them in assortments on Amazon or whenever I'm in a craft shop and see some. Buttons will work too, I've done that at times. Just in case we have a younger child visit (as sometimes happened pre-pandemic) these are hard to pull out once installed properly. We don't want any choking hazards!

Next the doll was assembled, with all the parts sewn together. Head to body, and the arms and legs are all separate. This uses the same basic pattern as the other girl dolls I did. These are front and back views—a little hard to see because of the darker backdrop. But you get the idea. 😉

The hair was the next thing I tackled. I did the wig cap first, sewing that down to the head, and then added the kinky curled dreads afterward by sewing them onto it. I love the way the hair turned out and so does my granddaughter.

Yes, she can sit down—sort of. With that hair and expression, the name 'Caroline' just popped into my head, so that's what I call her. I'm sure Terralyn has her own names for her. Doesn't matter, she gets played with, and loved a lot no matter what we call her.

Now it was time for some clothing. Her skin tone cried out for bright colors, which is great because I have a lot of odds and ends of hot shades of yarn from other projects. This is a front, back, and side view of the dress. Yeah I just fudged this one together too. Buttons is another thing I have a good stock of, these are just for trim because the dress pulls up easily enough. The thyme green and bright orange work pretty well together. All the dolls share clothing so Caroline and her friends tend to dress as the mood moves whoever is playing with them.

Caroline needed shoes to go with the dress. Luckily there was enough of the thyme colored yarn left to make her a set of Mary Janes. Those are little orange flower buttons on the side, and I sewed them on with a matching green thread. Can you tell I had some some fun with all this? The shoes just slip on, the buttons are strictly for decoration. These are the parts you have to worry about as choking hazards, so we don't let the small fry get too involved with that. When we have other children here, I watch them carefully. The little ones tend to gnaw or tug on things, so you can't be too careful.

One one of the playdates, it was mentioned that Caroline wanted to go swimming but didn't have a bathing suit. So grandma got busy with that, and by the next visit she did have one in a hot peony pink. The bikini bottom was easy, it was done in the same style as all the doll undies. Fashioning the bikini top front wasn't too hard, but figuring out how to make it easy to get on and off was. These dolls' heads are very big and with hair and all, not easy to get something over them. Yet the body isn't that big, so it had to be something that could be tightened up once it went around the area it was supposed to be in. And it had to be something easy for a impatient child to get on and off. My granddaughter changes her dollies' clothing numerous times. I finally settled for ties, one set around the torso, the other around the neck. A little messy looking, but it worked. The kids are still learning to tie bows, but that's something any adult in the room can do, and they are easy to get off when a quick change is needed. I might try something with buttons next time, but for now, this will suffice. 

These are all simple dolls, though sometimes a challenge for me to design and dress. I don't mind because it gives me something else to pass the time with. I write most days, and so crocheting or other crafts are a change from that, yet still a way to keep busy and be creative. I mostly work on this stuff while watching TV in the evening. I am not the couch potato type who sits slack-jawed staring at the tube, and I don't snack in front of the TV, so doing something else while watching has been my habit for a long time. It's also relaxing for me. I have very severe arthritis in my spine and all joints, so I deal with chronic and sometimes debilitating pain. This takes my mind off that as well, and when I'm done I have something to show for it. Win/win!

I have a small handful of other dolls I've made. These three live mostly with the stuffed critters because they're not dressable like most of the others, so they're not quite as popular. They do get played with at times. The clothing is part of the doll, and everything is sewed on.

I pictured this one as a little sister or friend to one of the other dolls. Terralyn says she is a baby. The scarf was an afterthought and does come off, the hat doesn't. I don't think she has a name yet, but I am leaning toward Cyndi. Basic pattern came out of an E-book and I fudged the rest.

Same E-book had fairy dolls, so I made one of those as well. She's got no hair, but a big old hat. Nobody much plays with her, but she makes me smile so I don't mind. I call this one Rosey-Posey. Just because...

This is Gno Me, named after a character a friend once played on an online bulletin board years ago. I have a handmade Swedish Tomte I bought and wanted to make something similar. It took me a good two weeks to design him, working out the dimensions as I went along, getting all that hair and beard rooted, unplied, and fluffed out. I usually have him out around the holidays but mostly he lives in the overflowing  basket that holds the crocheted stuffed animal collection. He does have arms, you can just barely see them sticking out behind that luxurious beard. 

Well thanks for indulging me by reading down this far.  As I've said before, being an empty nester with family nearby, I like to keep busy, and making things for them is one way of doing that. Crochet is a something I'm very comfortable designing and working with, so I find it easy to fashion things in yarn that I can't manage in other fiber crafts. Can't sew for beans, that I'll admit! While I do make other things as well, crochet is my main crafty indulgence. Now and then I will have more to show here of my finished projects. With today's smart phones and digital cameras, it's far easier to document some of that progress in pictures, which gives me some visuals to share here of what I've been doing 'in my spare time'.

Now you go out and be creative too,
~NANCY