Making Faces...

Doll Created by Dressed In Hope

When we were in Orlando, members of our group took photos of the dolls that the "Dressed In Hope" group makes for older girls. We still want to make baby dolls for smaller children, but liked the idea of doing something different for older girls, too. This was one of their finished dolls.

Dressed In Hope Doll Faces

We also took photos of the doll faces they were making for their dolls. We liked these, but decided that we wanted to make our faces just a little different.

Brynwood Needleworks - Doll Face

Well, you'll never hear me bragging about my painting skills - unless I'm painting walls - so I was a little nervous about painting faces for little dolls. I surely didn't want to frighten any children with my dolls, so I painted a few before I was happy enough to ask our group for their feedback. 

"Do you think she looks scary?", I asked. The response was a generous, "Cute!" or "She's sweet", so I kept working on my first doll in the "Big Girl" design.

Brynwood Needleworks - Dressed In Joy Big Girl Doll

Here's my first Big Girl Dolly. Her "outfit" matches a dress I made in the same fabric. After she was completely assembled, I added yarn hair. 

I sewed the "part" in her hair on my sewing machine to hold all the yarn strands together, and then hand stitched the hair to the doll head on the part line. Once it was securely attached, I decided where her little pigtails would go and sewed the hair at that point, too. 

When I was all finished, I giggled. Although I know I have a long, long, LONG way to go before I'll call myself a "doll maker", I'm happy that a small child, who may never have seen a doll before, might love and play with those I make.

Brynwood Needleworks - Doll Faces

I painted four more faces that could dry overnight, so I'll be able to assemble a few more today. I decided that all their faces would be a little different, and each mouth begins as a small heart. When I pointed out my heart-shaped mouths to the other dressmakers in our group, some said they liked (and might use) the idea. (Yay!)

I'll share more dolls with you as I make them, along with the matching dresses I'm working on. You'll just have to wait a couple of days. Tag is up tomorrow, you know!