Jammin' to Jamaica

This is a little doll I made for one of the Material Girl's church group who are going on a mission trip to Jamaica. The club filled about two suitcases with dollies for kids.

I started her during Hurricane Ike. Didn't have any power and was going crazy, so I wanted to see if I had the patience to sew something by hand. So the majority of her is sewed by hand by candlelight.

See how lopsided her head is in the first picture? And that's after I had the power back. Hair covers a lot of boo-boos. Plus, I'm an impatient stuffer. I either overstuff or understuff. Lumpy lives here, man!


I followed the instructions in Patti Culea's Creative Cloth Doll Faces for her face; the pattern was club member Annette Money's; had trouble attaching the legs. Had trouble making the bodice. The clothes are sewn on the doll -- not removeable.

I like the way I did the hair - again, it was in Patti Culea's book. I got yarn, wound it around a hanger, put a piece of typing paper underneath it and sewed it. Easy peasy. My sewing machine doesn't mind sewing freaky things as long as there's paper on the bottom to keep things stable. Good trick.

Every time I make a doll I learn something or get a little more confident. I like her. I made her just-in-time, as usual, fur flying at full-tilt to get her finished in time for the trip. I gotta go to Savannah for a week for work, so it was this weekend or not at all.