Use any of the methods previously described for giving your doll movement and articulation…or… simply stuff your doll without doing any of the above at the fingers, knees and elbows. This is your design and you choose how you want it done.

Stuff your doll’s arms and legs firmly. ...Note... Don’t fill the legs and arms to the top, Leave some un-stuffed so they will stitch on easily and hang nicely.

Pleat the arm tops and the leg tops in at each side, then stitch closed by machine.

If you have made high heel feet of either type, take great care to stuff down into the little heel. (your stuffing fork is great for this) Stuff carefully and smoothly into the toe area, shaping as you stuff. Don’t forget the arch and vamp of the foot.

Remember, you are shaping and sculpting as you stuff, and with a detailed, shapely foot/shoe, you can stuff it all out of shape, probably more easily than stuffing it into shape.

If you have made a foot with toes, be sure to stuff fully into the foot front, so when you sculpt the toes, they will be full of stuffing. If the front of the foot isn’t smoothe and full, you will end up sculpting just the seam allowance in places and the toes will be wrinkly. Note..Toe sculpting directions will be shown at the end of this chapter.

Stuff your doll’s body firmly, especially the neck, then stitch the arms and legs to the body using your favorite method. You have probably used several methods from making dolls from other designer’s patterns.

For example, you may want to sew the legs to the body front, then close the body, using the ladder stitch…or…you may want to close the body by hand or machine, then hand stitch the legs on the seam line. Again, this is your design and you choose the method you wish to use.

You may even want to cut slits at the shoulders of the body, and insert the stuffed arms into the slits from the right side, then stitch the slits closed from inside. This method works best with softly stuffed arms and a fairly large body, so you can get the arms inside.

The head is probably the most important stuffing job you will do. It needs to be smoothe and wrinkle free. This is a very simple head type to stuff, but do take care to get rid of all the wrinkles, especially around the jaw line.

After the head is stuffed, run a gathering stitch around the top and pull the stitches up tightly. Now look at the head and place it on the front of the tab on the stuffed body. Does it look too long? too fat? too skinny? for the doll YOU want to design. Sometimes this is the case, because of drawing around hair, and it is easily fixed. If it is too long, simply run the gathering stitch a little farther down, (1/4" to 1/2") remove some stuffing and close it up again. When you like the look, adjust your original pattern accordingly. If it is too fat, trim your original pattern a little narrower, with it on the fold lengthwise. Make a new head. If it is too skinny, add a little to your pattern on a new piece of paper, on the fold. Make a new head.

Just little adjustments like above can change the look of your whole design. The same body can be used with different heads to make lots of different looks.

The bodies can be fattened or thinned too, the same way the heads are, to give you even more designs.

Legs and arms can be made longer or shorter. Fatter or skinnier. Feet and hands can be made larger or smaller. The possibilities are nearly endless! The combinations are nearly endless! The fun is nearly endless!

The head will be stitched or hot glued in place on the front side of the neck. You can do it now or wait until you get the face done. Use your favorite method, or see a couple of ideas for head attachment at the end of the next section of this chapter.

The placement of the head on the neck will add more variation to your designs too. You can have a short-necked doll or a long necked doll. (You may need to add to the neck length on your pattern, if a very long neck is desired)

You can create expression by tipping the head to one side.

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