Choosing eyes for your softie creation! Have a look through the different options Larissa provides and you’ll see that each choice alters the overall personality and expression of the bunny. For the most part, you could try different kinds of eyes after the softie has been sewn up and stuffed - the only exception is when using the plastic safety eyes as these need to be inserted before these steps.
Ellen Lumpkin Brown is an extremely talented doll-maker. Not only does she create an amazing range of dolls of different ethnicities, she also makes their outfits, and hand draws/paints on their faces.
Ellen has also published a book - “Doll Fashionistas” - that provides step-by-step instructions on how to make her dolls including excellent tips on stuffing, materials, and construction. The book also provides further detail on creating the doll face and how-to’s on an excellent range of doll outfits.
Melly & Me have started a fantastic little series on their blog called “Tips & Tricks Tuesday“.
Their first tip/trick addresses one common softie-making question: “How do you sew and turn out those small softie parts?“. This includes parts like ears, little arms or legs, feet, horns, etc. that are easy enough to sew up but can drive one to instant insanity when it comes to turning them right-side out.
Melly provides a very clear tutorial accompanied by excellent pics.
Rice Babies provides a great tip on how to use animal silhouettes to make forest-themed stuffies/softies from felt. She used these as giveaways for her child’s birthday party:
Tantehilde makes extremely cute rag dolls. She shares a very helpful and clear tutorial on how to make a doll’s wig from knitting yarn, and how to attach it to a doll’s head to get this kind of hair style:
Elise of Zippypops recently contacted me to let me know that she had some tutorials up on her blog. Elise is a very talented doll-maker and you can view and purchase her beautiful creations from her shop.
In this tutorial she shares how to make a doll’s wig using synthetic hair (purchased from a craft shop or costume store) and how to attach it securely to a doll’s head creating this two-bun hair-do:
Here is an excellent tutorial by Crafty Sheep on how to create a gorgeous thick head of hair for a doll (not just for Waldorfs - you could do the same for any kind of handmade doll):
When I started making softies a few years ago, I found it fairly easy to cut them out, sew them up and stuff them. What really stumped me was the the bit at the end when the instructions would say: “Use a ladder stitch to sew up the opening” (that was used for stuffing).
I had no idea what a ladder stitch was. I searched the internet and found lots of diagrams and as great as they were, I just didn’t get it!
Finally, someone had to show me how to do it. And wow - it is the perfect stitch for closing up softies as it ends up being invisible (hence also known as the “Invisible stitch” :-)). I’ve found, in my own experience, that the trick is to keep spaces between each ‘rung’ small and even, and to pull each stitch through tight.
If it is a complete mystery to you too, just watch this clip and hopefully it will make sense!
The steps and accompanying pictures are very helpful. In my almost obsessive search for good yarn hair how-tos, I think this is one of the easier methods and actually seems very do-able - still time-consuming but at least you don’t need to know how to crochet or knit to make it. I also like the idea of using different types/colours of yarn.
Copyright of free patterns remains with the respective Author so please use the pattern to make the softie as a gift or for yourself but do not make softies to sell. Thank you!
