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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