The Steps To Making A Miss Nettle Custom Order Doll Part 2

Now we are on PART 2 of making the Miss Nettle Doll custom doll project. You can see PART 1 HERE.

My fourth step is making the body.

As I stated in PART 1 the doll's head was going to be a bit top heavy so I had to make adjustments to her body design. I made her neck and shoulders wider and legs longer to help compensate for the bulk of the head.

Luckily felt and stuffing are very lightweight so it wasn't too hard to figure out the right body ratios

This isn't the type of child's doll that can be undressed and that made making the body so much easier. The torso and arms are the dress color

The torso is sewn together and stuffed, then the legs are sewn together and stuffed and sewn onto the bottom of the torso. Somehow I either lost of didn't take photos of this process, darn it!

 My fifth step is making the clothes and other details. 

I drew out the shape of the skirt once I had the legs attached and knew the length of the doll.

The character has a underskirt that peeks through in the front of the skirt.

 This was great cause it allowed me at do a double skirt, darker yellow on the outside and light butter yellow on the inside giving the doll more stability. 

After the skirt was made and sewn securely to the torso I made the doll's shoes and sewed them to the feet.

One of the last things I do on a doll is add the arms.I triple sewed them through the body they way you do for a button joint without any buttons since this child is so young.and the arms can be raised a lowered.

To finish her off I made her cape that attaches in the front and is not removable.  Because felt can stretch out of shape if pulled and I didn't want to add more bulk by lining the cape the way I did the skirt, I did the extra step of blanket stitching all the way around the cape to help keep it's shape.

There was one very last detail to the doll that I had to do at the very end after I finished the cape. Miss Nettle is a Fairy and has wings.

I designed a set of wings, cut them out of double pieces of felt, blanket stitched them together to give them some weight and allow them to curve giving a more wing like appearance. 

The doll's wings were triple sewn onto her torso and then I made slits in her cape and then hand button hole stitched around the holes so the wings came through the cape and the holes wouldn't get distorted over time. Whew!

The final step is photographing the doll.

If I were putting this doll in my shop I'd do a whole photo shoot for it but since it was a custom and the client saw work in progress pics along the way I just shot these in my kitchen, lol.
 
Introducing my version of Miss Nettle. I sent my client a video of the doll and all of her features and she loved it!

My mom was kind enough to hold the doll, yep in our kitchen, so I could get full shots of her all the way around. She's a good carrying around and snuggling type of doll. Her final size was 18 inches tall and off she went to her new home.

My client told me her son knew who the doll was right away, carried her around and slept with her that first night he received her! That made me so happy. There is nothing greater than making a child happy!

I hope you enjoyed this project in my Maker Series! More of these projects can be found if you use the search bar and type sassy packrat studios maker series.

 

The Steps To Making A Miss Nettle Custom Order Doll Part 1

I was approached by Facebook friend who owns one of my art pieces this month, asking if  I could make a specific doll for her son who was turning 4.

***Disclaimer: This is a OOAK doll and I only made one and only will ever make just that one. 

Her son loves the Disney show Sofia The First and his favorite character is Miss Nettle. Now since I do not have small children anymore and my grandson lives so far away I wasn't familiar with this show. Miss Nettle seems to be a misunderstood fairy, a lot like Maleficent but in a more happy Disney way.

My first step in designing any piece is research.

I hopped on my computer and did some research on the character, and then I thought sure I can make this doll. Also during my research I saw that no one makes this doll, even Disney isn't making a soft doll version that I could find.

So I pulled some pics of the character from the internet and watched some video clips of the character singing and moving around to get a sense of who she was. 

I wish this show was around when my kids were small, they would have loved it!

Then my client and I went over the details of pricing and size of the doll. 

My second step is ordering supplies.

I packrat felt like, well a packrat! So I do have a lot of felt but I'm slowly moving into using all wool blend felt which I only have a few colors of and none of the colors I needed for this project. So I made a list and ordered felt. 

My felt order came and I was happy with the dress and hat colors but not the hair color. So back to my computer to order more felt. I also got a swatch chart ( which I know I have somewhere but can't find since I moved my studio into this room ). Tip: Always get a swatch chart! It can be a bit expensive but it's the best way to make sure you are getting the color you think you are.

I have my swatch chart pinned to my bulletin board so I don't lose this one! 

Now the hair color (bottom) and the cape color (middle) are right. I originally intended to use one color for the hair and cape but changed my mind since I had to order more felt anyway.

The 2 colors in the first pic that weren't right are perfect for Halloween projects so I will absolutely use them.

My third step is getting down to the business of designing the doll. 

While I was waiting on the felt to arrive I started the doll design. Since this is a doll for a child and not an art doll, I approached the design steps very differently. Sturdiness, durability and recognizing the character were the 3 most important things. This being said, the final doll really ended up being a combination of child's doll and art doll.

This character has a very specific hair style which I had to figure out how to do without making her too top heavy. A real person with that much hair wouldn't be able to stand upright with such a tiny neck! 

I designed the head first because it was the most detailed part of the doll and would take the most time. Getting this part right would make the rest of the doll so much easier.

I used lower grade felt to do a prototype of the head so I had all the details and shapes worked out before I cut into my lovely more expensive wool blend felt.

Then I realized the body pattern I planned to use (the same as my fairy tale dolls) wouldn't hold up the to weight and size of her head, so I had to give her a thicker neck. Plus I had to re-design the torso 3 times before i got it right.

Once the torso was to my liking I had to increase the length of the arms and legs to keep the doll in proportion, all while keeping the agreed upon size in mind; partially for pricing and partially to fit in my custom sized shipping boxes.

The did the face in my own personal big eyed style. It's meant to give the idea of the character but not look exactly like the character.

I was originally going to do the hair like my fairy tale dolls (below), with the details stitched on very simply. And quite honestly that's how I quoted the price.

But I was feeling nostalgic about my son whose birthday is coming up and he's all grown up with a son on his own now and I just felt like doing more for this sweet little boy and his mom who wanted to give her son the doll he wanted.

I decided to make the hair more dimensional than I originally intended. I stuffed and stitched her curls to get the exact look I was hoping for. I also stuffed and stitched curls on the back of her head too. I'm glad I went the extra mile because the end result made me so happy! It also went a long way in making this doll look like the character.

In the original prototype design I planned on the hat being part of the head like this doll below.

But the character's hat is a very big part of her and an 3D version was the way I had to go. A lot more work but completely worth it!

I hope you enjoyed this post and in Part 2 I'll finish the doll.

The Making of A Felt Seahorse PDF Pattern Part 2

I hope you found something interesting in Part 1 of this series and will continue to do so in Part 2. Let's see, we left off at the seahorse pattern cut out of felt and waiting for details.

  

Making Decisions About The Seahorse Eyes.

 

My re-design of the seahorse had a very seahorse type of eye, bulgy and kind of weird looking. I really liked the realistic nature of it, well as realistic as a bright pink seahorse will ever be, lol. But then I decided that look didn't fit my style, so I went back to the large dark eye but made it round instead of oval-ish from the original pattern...see below.

Deciding On The Seahorse Details.

 

I liked the simple stitch detail of the original design above, but needed to clean it up and make it easy to do. The original was sort of a running stitch that I just did, I think. All of these sold so I don't have one to hold and look closely at, and this was a few years ago. My stitching technique is also so much better now, that I cringe a little looking at that photo.

I decided the easiest and nicest looking stitch for this detail would be the back stitch. I will have a stitch guide template for this that can be traced and used to help achieve nice even stitches.

I'm actually free handing my stitches here and am really liking the look of this detail.

After I added the detail to both sides, I simplified the detail by making one main line of stitching all the way down with shorter parallel lines crossing at even intervals. I really like the lighter colored tummy area in felt. I am going to leave the tummy area free of stitching, just don't think it needs any.

Then I added the white highlight to the eyes. This makes them "come alive".

Sewing all the way around and stuffing completes this re-design and making of the felt  seahorse prototype.

I have some small tweaks to make on this pattern and have at this point decided to make this pattern the original "plushie" size, because this size would be difficult for beginners and children to sew. In another post I'll show the size difference between the two.

Well I hope you found this short series about making a felt seahorse pattern interesting in any way and don't forget to check out the first post in this series.

I have another post about the making of a felt penguin pattern, that is more detailed on the terms and the physical making of a PDF pattern, that you might like too, which can be found here. 

If you want to know more about Sassy Packrat Studios, learn felt sewing tips, get special FREE access to my newest patterns, then become a subscriber member!  click here to join!

New Series: The Making of A Felt Seahorse PDF Pattern Part 1

Doing something a little different today. I get such good response when I show the process of making things that I decided to make it a regular feature.

In This Series, I'm Designing A Felt Seahorse Pattern.

So let's get started! I had an old pattern for a seahorse plush I used to make and sell many years ago. The design was simple, cute and people really loved them. 

When I was trying to decided what pattern to make next for my shop, I thought this would be a really good basic felt pattern that anyone, including children could sew.

 I could have taken this pattern and said o.k. I'm done and started to write it up, but I can never leave well enough alone, so I decided to make some changes to this design, basically update it.

Updating the Seahorse Pattern.

I dug through my computer files and found my original seahorse pattern. It was for my own use so the pattern is a little crudely done.

I was surprised to see that I had a back fin in this design, because at some point, I must have decided not to use it.

I sat and thought about what changes to make to this pattern to make it better and more user friendly. I also looked at photos of real seahorses and I looked at other felt and plush designs to see what I liked in their designs.

 Next I printed out the original pattern and drew on it the changes I wanted to make, scanned those changes into the computer and re-drew the seahorse. I use Adobe Illustrator to draw all my patterns.

I changed the snout/mouth a bit by enlarging and making it longer. I also changed the shape of the belly a bit and also the back of he tail, plus I added a fin to the seahorses back. Really tiny changes most people won't even see.

One thing I did like about some of the plush designs I saw was that the back fin was a different color than the body. In order to do that it needed to be a separate piece, so back to the computer I went.

 I also added a belly piece to give more color and dimension to the seahorse. And here are the pieces cut out to start prototyping.

Starting To Prototype The Seahorse Design.

I decided to reduce the size of the seahorse pattern to make the prototype. This will allow me to make several prototypes quicker too. I'm unsure what the final size will be, as large as the original or smaller pocket size, which seems to be the trend these days.

All the pieces are cut out using a really nice quality poly felt that I have drawers full of, but I can't get anymore. Love this stuff, so soft. When I shoot pics for the final pattern I'll use a wool blend felt, it's more durable and photographs better.

I'm really liking this size, 25% smaller than the original, but we'll see how it goes.

Come back for part 2 on the making of this felt seahorse pattern, for more behind the scenes of how it's done! PART 2 can be found here.

 If you want to know more about Sassy Packrat Studios, learn felt sewing tips, get special FREE access to my newest patterns, then become a subscriber member!  click here to join!

Part 3 Day of the Dead Chihuahua

Ok so we left off with the head finished. Then I started on the front legs. I saved them for last because I knew they would have to be strong enough to hold the head up so the piece wouldn't tip forward. I designed the front legs several times, beefing them up and making them longer before I added the markings and the embroidery.

I also enlarged the front paws. My chi Olive is super petite with tiny paws but my client's dog has bigger paws. I also needed a very small gusset for the bottom of the paws to what would be a wrist on a human and the bendy part on a dog's leg. I also added the color markings on the legs. On the inner part of the legs there isn't much hair so there is a light skin color to represent that area which you can't see here.

 Checking the size and fit of the front legs. Also checking the coverage of the embroidery. Is there enough? Does it need more?

Sewing the bottom of the front paws on. The entire piece was hand sewn from the inside, like you would on a sewing machine, except the front legs which were sewn from the outside. Teeny tiny stitches are my favorite. The bottom of all the paws have a small piece of cardboard so the feet lay flat and to give them extra stability. Also I added little black paw pads to all the feet. You don't really see them when the piece is sitting but I feel like it finishes everything off.

 I pinned the tail on and felt like the butt was too bare. This is an instance when I embroider on an already stuffed piece. It takes longer and was more difficult but I felt like the piece wasn't complete without it.

 Then I felt like the back of the head was too blank and added to that too. I used this material to embroider over since it wasn't flat and I needed a guide to keep things neat. I usually free hand embroider but sometime do it this way. I carefully tear off the material when I'm done stitching.

 There is embroidery on the front chest that I forgot to take pics of. This view really shows off that under belly gusset with the color markings. I needle sculpted the stomach area to give it that chihuahua look of a large rib cage to a smaller belly. Then I made a collar with a name tag.

 The flower crown itself took about 4 days. It's all hand cut and hand sewn. I wanted to make it removable but needed more time to work out how to do it, so ended up just sewing it on. There are full roses and also rose buds with leaves.

The whole project was about 5 weeks from start to finish. Huge project and such a challenge but I'm so glad I did it. If I do something like this again I'll start with the head and work out from there to keep the size down.

My client was really pleased and posted this photo of the piece with it's namesake.

  Hope you enjoyed my ramblings of the process. If you missed PART 1 and PART 2 of this process, make sure you click those links to see whole whole project.

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Part 2 Day of the Dead Chihuahua

I left off at working on how to attach the back legs. Once I figured that out I embroidered the designs on the legs. You can see my pencil drawings of designs I thought I might use for this project.

 The pads on the back paws were way too small and I ended up changing those later.

The head took the longest to make out of the whole piece. It was 2 steps forward and 3 steps back, scrap everything and start again kind of process. Below is a not quite right head with a too short snout. 

 

I had to leave it alone for a few days and step away before I decided to start a brand new head. It's really hard to give up so much work and start again, but it had to be done. See how short the snout is? Ugh! Lots of swearing.

 Gussets on the body made them a necessity on the head too for the proper shape and size. I made about 4 heads before I got the proper size and snout length. ( my art tends to have over large heads, so I did that here too) Then I had to figure out how to add the color markings. I made a black head with a tan under the chin gusset and then drew out the markings, cut them from tan felt and wrapped them onto the face. I stuffed the head to get the proper shape and sewed the markings on.

All the markings positioned and held by pins to check for fit.

Most of the markings sewn onto the head. Just needs her nose and ears and some face sculpting.

I gave her a little pink splotch on her nose but later took it off cause I felt it looked too cartoony. The giant needle sticking out of her face is a sculpting needle. It's used for needle sculpting cloth doll faces. I used it to further shape the top of the snout. I also added spots for the whiskers at this time.

Stay tuned for PART 3 HERE. If you missed PART 1 you can find it HERE.

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