Q & A, D - F, Craft Tales

Doll Pattern for Ceramic Doll Parts

Gwen's Question - I have ceramic heads, feet and hands for a grandma and grandpa doll. Do you have a pattern for a cloth body to stuff so that I can attach the ceramic head, hands and feet to the cloth body? I would say the finished project would be about 19".

Crafttales Answer - Hi Gwen, Thank you for asking! You can probably use the pattern for the cloth bead doll project on the Craft Tales website with a few alterations. The bead doll is 20" tall. Artistic proportion for the human figure is based on 7 to 8 heads tall. You can substitute your ceramic head for the cloth one in the pattern.

Print out the pattern, cut it out and pin it together. Tape the pinned pattern to your head, hands and feet, to see if the pattern is workable. If you would need to shorten the pattern by 1", take a 1/4" fold in the body and a 1/8" fold in each upper and lower arm and leg prior to lay out on the fabric, or you can print the pattern at 95 %. If you cut the pattern out of paper towel, you can actually sew it together using a long gathering stitch and lightly stuff it for a full effect!

You will need to change the neck on the pattern so it will fit over the neck on the ceramic head, as the pattern is the other way around. You will need to do the same for the arms and the feet, changing the pattern in the appropriate places so the arms and legs remain the same proportion as the original pattern after any alterations for height.

If you do not want bead joints, substitute string instead. If you do not want any joints at all, lay the lower limbs on top of the upper limbs where the joints meet when laying out the pattern onto the fabric. Cut them out as one piece. Sew the upper legs directly to the bottom of the body after the body and upper legs are stuffed and sewn closed. Cut off the shoulder extensions on the pattern prior to cutting out and sew the shoulder closed. Stuff the body. Round out the top of the arm and stuff and sew closed. Sew the arm to the shoulder.

You would, of course, want to make separate clothing.

Hope this helps you. If not, please do not hesitate to let me know and we'll see what else we can come up with.