Felt Doll Part 2- Measurements and tips

Hi everyone!

Welcome to my blog post on Part 2 of the Felt Doll. I hope you have checked out both my videos on the felt doll.

Pic 1: Dresses made for the doll

Now as I had mentioned earlier as well, it is not practical for me to make printable templates for the dresses I have shown in my video. This is because they need to be according to the measurement for the doll in hand. Now, there may be some of you who have followed my method to the T. However, there are still chances of variability in the measurements between our dolls because of the way in which the polyfill is stuffed or how much is stuffed.

Due to these reasons, it was more sensible for me to give you all an idea about how to take the measurements while making these dresses and how to make your own templates accordingly. You could choose to work without templates as well and draw these measurements directly on to the cloth you are using to make the dress.

I will like to clarify again that I will also not be giving you specific measurements of the length and width. I would rather be explaining to you as to what areas you should take your own measurements from.

Without further ado, lets move on to the explanations. I will also give you certain tips from my experience as always.

Dress No 1

Pic 2: Measurement summary for Dress 1

The picture above is pretty self-explanatory. These are the measurements that are needed

1. Dark blue line denotes the measurement to be taken across the chest area. You can leave a little gap around the arms. Do not take the measurement end to end. This measurement is noted for the front and back of the doll (can use the same length).
2. The pink semicircle denotes the arc that needs to be drawn below the arms from one side of the blue line in the front to its corresponding side in the back. The depth of this arc can be variable. But make it in a way that the arm fits comfortably into the arc. For the sake of symmetry, use the same arc measurements under both arms.
3. The red line indicates the length of the dress that you would like to make.
4. The blue strip denotes the measurement for the sleeves. You will need two strips of cloth, one for each sleeve. The length of the strip should be such that it is long enough to go over the shoulder from front to back. Add a cm on both sides so the edges can be folded inwards and are not visible. The width of the strips should be a few cms long so that it can be folded in a way that the edges of the cloth are not visible and stitched this way.

 Pic 3: How to fold the cloth for the sleeves

In the picture above, please note that the red/orange edges need to be hidden as they would be frayed. Fold the edges inwards in the sides first (the light green lines). Then fold at the yellow lines and finally at the light blue line. Pin it in this way and stitch it so that edges on all sides are hidden.

Note: The picture in my post here (Pic 2) is different from the template I used. My template was not so symmetrical. I just wanted you all to benefit from my errors. And I am totally honest about making errors. I have always admitted that I am an amateur and taking you through the experience of improving my skills and sharing this at the same time.

Dress No 2

Pic 4: Measurement summary for Dress 2

Moving on to the second dress, steps a, b and d from above are the same. The only variation would be in the length as we would be making it in two parts, the top separately and the skirt separately and then joining the two parts to make it a frock. The red line denotes the length of the top and the orange line denotes the radius of the quarter circle that is drawn.

Pic 5: Screen shot of the error as explained below

Note: I don’t know how many of you would have picked up from my mistake in the video when I was stitching the top and skirt together. So basically what I did was I inverted the top and skirt parts so I could stitch it together without the need to fold in the edges of the skirt. While doing so, I cut out a small line in the skirt near the zip and folded it and pinned it. Now remember the two parts are inside out, so for this fold I had to make sure that the zip came above, which I didn’t do. Thus when I made the dress the right way up after stitching it the zip was on the wrong side near the skirt. I corrected this mistake as shown later in the video.

In short, when you fold the edges near the zip make sure the zip comes up and the fold is below. This way when the dress is made the right way up, the end of the zip will not be visible.

Dress No 3

Pic 6: Measurement summary for Dress 3

I had intended for this dress to be made like overalls, but since my width was not long enough I could not make any stitch in the centre and it became a dress. The measurements are as follows.

1. Dark blue line across the chest area to be measured (same as above)
2. Light blue line at the bottom to be measured for the width. If you have a slightly longer measurement here, you can stitch it in the middle and make it like shorts.
3. Red line indicates the required length of the dress.
4. Pink strip denotes the sleeve. The manner of making is already explained above. However, for this dress I made a single sleeve and made it go around the sides to the back. Therefore, the length needed to be measured accordingly.

Shorts

Pic 7: Measurement summary for shorts

In my video, I have used a same template twice and landed up with too much material on the sides which needed to be folded inwards and stitched. Which is why in this picture I have two different types of templates, one with the sides and one without. Following are the areas where measurements need to be taken.

1. Blue line across the waist area
2. Red lines are the measurement on the sides of the legs
3. Yellow lines indicate the measurement across each leg

Note: Add about half a cm to each measurement (in all the dresses as well) while making the template or drawing on the cloth. This is to account for the edges that need to be folded inwards.

I hope these instructions help you all and you are able to follow the combination of this along with my video to make your own dolls and dresses.

I have in mind a plan to make dresses for standardized dolls as well like the Barbie doll. If I do so, then I will be able to share with you all the standardized templates for the same, since the measurements would not vary. Would you be interested if I do this? Let me know and I can work on it (right from buying a Barbie doll because I am too old to play with one and don’t have any kids yet to play with the dolls either).

If you haven't seen the video fully yet check it out here https://youtu.be/dTHjtdNqku8

Video for part 1 can be accessed at https://youtu.be/O3Ipwel0Qfg

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Stuffed Felt Doll- Tips and Tricks (template included)

Hello everyone!

Pic 1: The doll I made 

First and foremost, let me start of by telling you all that the video I have made on the DIY Stuffed Felt Doll is my own work but full disclosure that I did get the idea from another video on youtube! I followed some ideas from that video and added some of my own when I was making the doll. However, all the work I did on the doll was completely my own. I made my own templates from scratch and got started.

Pic 2: Screenshot of the video from which I got the idea (not linking here)

Check out my video on YouTube to see the method on making the felt doll. I have decided to upload the video in two parts. The first part includes the making of the main doll as such and the hair and shoes. The second part will focus more on the dresses and accessories. I will be sharing the templates only for the first video since I did not use any proper template for the dresses. I only drew some outlines but it is difficult to share these. You will have to measure your way around the doll to make the dresses.

Pic 3: The dresses which will be demonstrated in part 2 of the video

In this post I will be sharing some thoughts with you on why I did some of the steps in a certain way so you can choose to follow my example or modify what I have done.

Tips and Tricks

The size of the templates- Even though I tried pretty hard to get the right sized templates, the final one came out to be a bit smaller than the doll I wanted. This was due to the size restrictions of the A4 size paper. Also keep a note that you need to understand that once you cut the felt as per the template size you also need to account for the little bit of the edges where you would stitch.

Now you might find some templates on Pinterest which may be the right size when printed (I didn’t have much luck finding something that suited me). However, if you choose to download my templates and use them then it would help to leave a bit of a margin while drawing it out on felt as I have done in the video. You can do this with the body template and the face template (match the face template to see if you want it any bigger).

I would also like to mention that what you see in the video is the result of a third trial (the body). In the first trial I used a thinner, floppier felt which when inverted had too many loose strands and didn’t look very neat. In the second trial I used a single stitch to seal the edges. However, when I had filled in the stuffing it started splitting at the seams due to this and I didn’t want to go on and make a substandard toy since it was meant to be a gift. You will notice in the video that one or two parts would be from an earlier trial (The part where I am drawing the template on felt and where I am drawing the shoes- I had made much bigger shoes in the earlier trial than the final one)

Pic 4: Three versions to get it right

Due to the reason mentioned about my second trial, I ended up using double stitches to seal the edges of the body and the face. I initially did a running stitch to join them and then I sealed the edges again as you can see from the video. This was much stronger when I inverted the parts and filled with the stuffing.

The stuffing that I used was easily available in the local shop that I usually buy my craft supplies. I also used felt from the similar shop. I didn’t use the thicker felt that I normally use for my finger puppets. As this would be very difficult to invert as it is not very pliable. There are so many types of felt that are available in the market these days. You will need to use your judgement to decide on which kind to use. The glue I am using in the video is the fevicol all fix glue. Now its not the strongest type but since I am stitching all the parts again it is good enough.

 Pic 5: Since I get some comments about details of the glue I use

I have used little bits of pipe cleaner for the shoes. It was a last-minute idea I got as my shoe size was quite smaller in the third trial such that when I inverted it the front of the shoe totally vanished into the seams. If you make the front a little bigger in size as per the template then you need not worry about this step. If however, you do like this idea then please note that when you cut the pipe cleaner, the edges may be a little pointy. To avoid any problems adding a little glue to the edges would make it smoother so that it doesn’t hurt your child when playing with it. If you do so then the child will also have the additional fun of feeling the soft texture of the pipe cleaner.

So these are some of the pointers that I could think of which I thought would help those who would want to try out the doll. I am sure you can also try the same doll with cloth (like any old T-Shirts) instead of using felt.

Click the link to download the templates. I have included templates for the body, face, hair mainly.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13kNztSpi4ivoTsOuvtmmRZRibkv7hpQG/view?usp=sharing

To learn the process in detail, check out the link for the youtube video. https://youtu.be/O3Ipwel0Qfg

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Disney Princess Finger Puppets Part 2- Templates included

Hey there everyone!

I have some more disney themed finger puppet templates for you all. 

This time I have made templates for Aurora (sleeping beauty), Anna (from Frozen), Rapunzel, Merida (from Brave), Elena of Avalor (from the Disney Channel show) and Tiana (from Frog Prince).

The below pictures are details for the parts of the templates.

Don't forget to check your printer settings. I have set it to fit page like in the previous post. You can find a picture for this in the part 1 post earlier if you need further explanation on this.

For further detailed instructions on how to go from the templates to the finger puppets, check on the link https://youtu.be/Z_CoyidOQzQ.

To download the templates click on the link https://drive.google.com/file/d/15yCUuHbZq8IsUP-H0nHvdU_m3H42cD7p/view?usp=sharing

You can also follow me on my other social media handles

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/artsyaudiologist

Youtube http://www.youtube.com/c/ArtsyAudiologist

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/artsyaudiologist/

Until next time, Cheers!

Disney Princess Finger Puppets (Templates included for 6 princesses)

Hello once again from the Artsy Audiologist!

In my last post I had shared with you all some templates of animal finger puppets. I was happy to note that I got several responses from some of my mommy friends who said they would try it out. Now I am yet to receive feedback on how well or how bad the templates worked (since it was my first attempt to make them), I decided to also share with you some templates for the Disney princess finger puppets that I have shared on my channel. I have also added the link to this video at the end of this post.

Here again, the method is pretty straightforward to make the finger puppets. However, there would be a few more steps to it compared to the animal ones. In the animal finger puppets, you only had to draw the templates on to two layers of felt and add the detailing for it with smaller pieces of felt and stitch the edges.

For the princess finger puppets; the dress, body and hair would need to be made separately and slightly differently for each princess. For eg., the Cinderella, Belle and Elsa finger puppets have the dress as a single piece with a little part of the body visible and the hair to be added. On the other hand, for the Ariel and Jasmine ones the body should be slightly bigger as the tummy area would be visible. And finally, for the Snow-White finger puppet, the dress itself is in two parts. Another difference to be noted is that in these princess finger puppets, the finger is meant to be inserted only in the lower part of the dress. The upper part would be a bit too narrow and also in some of the finger puppets it would be fixed to the body and hence stuck. This is the reason I have made sure that the templates are wider in the lower part of the dress and not in the upper part.

The pictures below are self-explanatory so as to give you all an idea of the parts of the templates to be cut out. They are also coloured to denote the colour of the felt to be used. I have tried to use the closest colour to the actual Disney character. And I am also happy to note that my niece was able to guess which character each puppet was even though some of the ones I had made were a bit stouter than the princesses! Some ideas for Pinterest used a slightly darker coloured felt for the body part of Jasmine. But I didn’t choose to do so and used the felt I had readily available.

The printable version of the templates is not labelled and hence you will need to refer the pictures from this post and the video if you have any questions as to which goes where. I also would be happy to help you with any questions that you write in the comment section below.

Here again, I would like to request you all to make a special note of the settings while printing. This time I noticed that if I had the page setting to actual size part of it was getting cut out as opposed to when I had a fit to page setting. So I would recommend that you print out one page to assess which setting you would need to keep it. Another option would be to look in the preview window (marked with arrow) to see what setting works.

The link to the youtube video for the making is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXJ6J0a86Ro

To download the templates click on https://drive.google.com/file/d/1F01ffwjL4bOcOx5JKvSP_ep7b8Ww9tmh/view?usp=sharing

You can also follow me on my other social media handles

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/artsyaudiologist

Youtube http://www.youtube.com/c/ArtsyAudiologist

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/artsyaudiologist/

Animal Finger Puppets with Templates

Hello everyone!

I know I haven’t been doing justice to this blog. But I am going to make up for it with this post which has a free gift for all who are interested!

I had posted a DIY video to make animal finger puppets on my YouTube channel. Link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6Sw_zQE2TU&t=4s if you haven’t seen the video.

The video is pretty straight forward explaining how to make these finger puppets. The basic steps would be making templates (or using pre-existing templates), drawing the design from the template on to felt (two layers of felt), stitching the edges of the finger puppets and adding any details needed on the top layer.

This post is a follow up to the video. I thought I should do something special for my followers. I have made templates for the 8 animals shared in my video.

The pictures below are self-explanatory to explain the parts of the templates for each animal. The documents that needs printing itself doesn’t have any labeling and you would need to look at the pictures if you need any assistance and explanation. Following this, look at the instructions from the video and you can make your own finger puppets.

The templates from the document below are scaled in such a way that they can be worn on the finger of the adult as well as a child. This is because it is aimed at being used in a situation where the speech therapist or parent is playing with the child in a therapy session or at home. I have made the finger puppets with similar scaling for some of the sensory books I have made and used them in therapy with young children. I can assure you that they are not too big such that they would fall off their fingers. The picture below is taken from the hand of a 6 year old child. I have also used these finger puppets with 2 and 3 year olds.

Do you want to try making these finger puppets. All you need is some felt of different colors and some needle and threads. If you do not have access to the googly eyes like I have used, you can always draw the eyes with a black marker or pen. And I don't think you need the exact same colors of felt as I have used. Some variations should be acceptable. Download the templates by clicking on the link below.

To download, 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QF8ghbSiiGRABPjji7bXriOJnlolcx07/view?usp=sharing

It would also be a really fun activity to do with your kids. Depending on their age, they might need some little assistance in the steps. But surely, they will enjoy playing with these finger puppets more so if they have been involved in the process of making them.

I have tried my best to scale these templates correctly. In case of any discrepancies (if the smaller parts are slightly bigger than the main parts- as this is my first experience making templates), you will only need to trim a bit of the edges. Or else, you can trim the outline of the smaller parts from the main part.

Also, a small note to everyone. When you are going to print the PDF document, make sure you do so in the actual size and not fit to page (see picture below).

I hope you like my idea of sharing templates with you. Comment down below if you do. If I get enough encouragement, I might be tempted to make more templates of other finger puppets I have made (if you are curious to know which ones check out from my pages below).

If you want to see more of my work, check out my pages from the links below.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artsyaudiologist/

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/c/ArtsyAudiologist

I would really appreciate it if you like my page on Facebook and subscribe to my channel on Youtube. Thanks and lots of love.