Shoes, socks, hats, collars etc. to finish your doll's outfit are easy to design and make. The way you accessorize your creation can really add personality and originality to your doll.

Of course you can buy shoes, socks and accessories for you creations from a doll supply catalog. CRs crafts catalog is a good source for these items. You were given their address in your supplies needed information. I use a lot of “real” doll wigs and shoes for my dolls.

One way to make shoes and socks is to make the legs of your doll from a different fabric from the body. Make the legs from a color to co-ordinate with the clothes you plan to make for your doll, then paint simple shoes onto the foot with acrylic paint. You can add ribbon bows to the front of the “shoes” for a fancier look. This type of shoe is especially nice for a play doll, because children always loose the shoes when they come off.

I like to paint high heel shoes on too. Unless I can buy high heels that fit the doll I am making. High heels are not easy to make. With the more advanced High Heel foot you were taught, the painted high heels look just like shoes.

Socks/stockings can be made from the top of a child’s thin anklet, rib knit or stretch lycra (swimsuit) fabric. Swimsuit fabric is my favorite for socks and stockings. It is very stretchy, and you can make the socks/stockings quite narrow and they will still go on. They fit very snugly, and hug the shape of your doll’s legs. Swimsuit fabric is readily available in most fabric stores.

I like to make stockings very long for most of my dolls, clear up to the hips. They look like tights

To make a pattern for socks/stockings, lay your doll’s leg down on a piece of paper. Draw a tube shape the length you want the sock/stocking to be, holding your pencil straight up and down. Draw a curve towards the toe.

The front edge is straight and the back edge can curve like the leg does.

Put the straight edge of the pattern on the fold of the stocking fabric, and cut the stocking out. Sew the back seam curving it at the foot area as illustrated.

Turn them right side out if they are long stockings. Leave them wrong side out, if you are going to turn them down for anklets. That way the raw seam doesn’t show when you turn them down, and the shoes cover the raw seam in the foot area.

Shoes are a little more complicated to design, except for the simple 2-piece style. You may want to buy real doll shoes for your dolls. They come in lots of styles and will help your tightly jointed dolls to stand alone, because they have hard soles.

I will simply illustrate pattern making for a high button boot and a simple slip on shoe for a rounded foot doll. You can add a strap to the slip on shoe to make Mary Janes…or…ribbon ties.

To make a shoe pattern for a shoe with a soft sole, first, cut a strip of paper towel long enough to fit loosely all the way around your doll’s foot, and wide enough to reach the ankle. Pin it into your doll’s foot at the heel seam, overlapping the ends.

Now pleat and tape the paper towel in the front, until the vamp of the shoe lies against the foot front.

Un-pin the “shoe” and lay it flat, mashing the paper down til it lays flat. Draw around this paper towel pattern, evening it out. The pleats you made will have a zig-zag edge. You want to draw a nice smoothe curved line.

Now draw around your doll’s foot, with the pencil held STRAIGHT UP AND DOWN. This makes the shoe sole.

Add 1/8” all around the shoe sole. It’s best if it is a little too big for the top to fit onto. That way you can see the sole as you are sewing the top onto it.

Cut the shoes from felt for the first test pair. Sew the heel seam. Sew the top to the sole. Trim the seam around the sole. Turn the shoe right side out and try it on your doll. This method almost always results in a nicely fitting flat sole shoe. Add a strap if desired. Add trim to the front, a bow or flower perhaps.

You may want to refine the pattern a little after making the felt shoe. Perhaps curving it in at the instep a little more, or rounding out the toe a little more. Test each refinement by making a felt shoe before you make any shoes from lightweight leather.

A hat is often the crowning touch for your doll. Check out the craft stores and CRs Crafts catalog for a variety of hats, from baseball caps to velvet look bonnets. Very nice straw hats come in every size from miniature to human size and they are fun to decorate to match your doll’s outfit.

Let me show you how to make an easy Sun Hat or Picture Hat, using ordinary household objects to draw around, like cups, saucers, plates, lids etc.

First, measure around your doll’s head. Next, find something like a glass or cup that measures the same size around as your doll’s head. You will use this item to draw around in the center of the big brim circle that you will make. Don’t draw anything yet.

Now decide how big around you want the brim to be. It will be a circle too. Usually a plate or saucer will be the right size.

Draw around the chosen plate etc. on a piece of paper. This is the brim pattern. Now you need to make the head sized hole in the brim pattern. Put the item you selected that was the right head size for your doll, in the center of the brim pattern, and then draw around it. Cut the brim pattern out, and cut the hole out of it.

Now cut another circle from the brim pattern, without the hole cut out, for the crown pattern.

Cut the brim from doubled fabric and cut one brim from interfacing. Cut one crown from a single layer of fabric. Sew all around the outside edge of the brim and interfacing “sandwich”. Turn the brim right side out. Press, and then top stitch all around the outer edge.

Gather the crown piece all around the outside edge, and then, fit, pin and sew it into the hole in the center of the brim. Turn the raw edge to the inside and top stitch. Decorate the hat with flowers, ribbons etc.

This easy hat is pretty on both child and adult dolls.

Another easy hat is a Tam ‘o’ Shanter or Beret. It too can be made from a simple circle. Use the crown pattern you made above, and cut the circle from mid weight fabric of your choice. Cut a 3” long slit in one edge of the circle. Measure your doll’s head, and cut a strip of fabric that long plus 1”, and twice as wide as you want the hatband to be.

As an example, 10” long by 3” wide. You will fold the hatband lengthwise, and then sew the hatband to the gathered edge of the circle, starting and ending at the slit. Sew the slit and band seam. Turn right side out and you have a dapper Tam ‘o’ Shanter.

Collars will add lots of variety to basic clothing patterns. You will use the bodice or shirt pattern that you made for your doll As the guide for designing collar patterns.

Place the bodice front at the fold edge of a piece of folded paper. Place one bodice back in place, as illustrated, matching and overlapping the shoulder seams.

I will illustrate some collar shapes that can easily be designed this way, and each one will fit the bodice pattern that you designed from.

You will have to free hand the parts that are under the bodice…or…place the bodice pattern UNDER tracing paper…or…pencil the back of the bodice pattern, and then you can draw right on it and it will act as a carbon, and your lines will be transferred to the new paper.

Collars will be cut from double fabric, and usually interfaced. Sew collars around the outside edge, then turn and press. When you make lined bodices, collars will be sewn in place around the neck edge of the bodice, on the right side. The lining will be sewn around the neck edge and down the backs over the bodice with the collar sewn on.

I hope you have enjoyed this designing class and are well on your way to feeling fairly confident with venturing into more doll designing variety! Keep doing it and making different kinds and styles of dolls. Be adventuresome and take a chance with different fabrics, different techniques, different combinations and just have FUN with it.

• A doll with striped legs and arms, dotted body and checked skirt.
• A doll that is all green, in a black robe, made from the tunic design, and a cape too.
• The upper part of a doll in the neck part of an animal, how about a giraffe body with a long skinny doll in the neck area.
• A doll with huge hands and feet, perhaps wearing real kid tennis shoes, long skinny arms, legs and body and a little head.
• Dress it in a T-shirt and shorts, give it a basketball and ta-da your favorite basketball player.
• A short, chubby baby in a gown made like a high waisted dress or from the tunic design (no zig-zags)
• A jester, think long stockings and tunic
• A young girl, think pretty and pastel
• A fat funny elf, think natural fibers and frayed edges
• A dainty fairy, think soft and flowing – A 50s era girl, think poodle skirt, sweater and ponytail.
• A pioneer, think muted colors and a full skirt.
• A clown, think bright colors, baggy clothes and outsized hands and feet.

I hope you have enjoyed the designing ideas and methods that allow a non-designer and non-artist, become a designer and make all kinds of doll designs and things with the use of a few mechanical, visual and household objects. For many of you, the use of these “crutches” will soon enable you to design without them, as practice and use demystifies the mysteries of design.

As you become more adventurous with your designing, and let your drawing flow, your designs materialize, and realize that there is not just “one” way that is “right”, your designing will blossom!

Practice and observation will make the seemingly impossible or difficult, take on a whole new aura. With each doll you design, the process will become less difficult. You will find the ability down inside to stretch your designs, and freehand things you never thought possible.

HAPPY DOLL DESIGNING AND DOLL MAKING!

JUDI

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