The One Thing Not Found On The Internet

A thought has been nagging at me for a couple of months.  I searched the internet to find a tutorial or some kind of tips on how to make dolls for my girls using my own hair.  There was nothing to be found.  After a comment from my brother-in-law saying, "You may have just found the one thing that is not on the internet!" I thought, well someone needs to put it on the internet.

Most of my crafts have been done elsewhere.  I get a lot of my ideas from Pinterest, but I usually put my own twist to them.  So I thought I'd create a place where I could share my successes and failures for others who are searching for tips on their own creative projects without having to make my private journal entries on my family blog public to the world.

So without further ado, here is a tutorial on how I ended up making real hair dolls for my girls for Christmas.

I started out with about 11 inches of hair braided in two sections, then cut.  For those of you who might think this is a waste not to donate it to Locks of Love, which I might add, is a wonderful cause to support:  I couldn't donate it there because I had highlighted it, which is too damaging to the hair to make a wig.  So the next best thing was to reuse it in my own family.

One of my 3 year olds begs me every night to lay down by her until she falls asleep so that she can play with my hair.  It's been her comforter her whole life, which makes for some nice cuddle time, but also ties me up many evenings when I have other things to do.

My solution was to sew the hair onto a doll's head so she could snuggle with the doll every night and have the same comfort of my real hair.

As I mentioned, I couldn't find any examples to go off of, except the description of a friend whose daughter had a similar doll.

So I created my own doll pattern, tracing a round head, then folding the paper in half to make sure the arms and legs would be symmetrical.

I wanted a fabric that was easy to clean so that the dolls wouldn't look dingy.  However my first attempts using a smooth polyester fabric ended with me melting the fabric trying to attach some interfacing behind the face.

I lack the equipment to do an embroidered face, as I was envisioning, so I bagged that idea and bought some fabric markers to draw the face on.  I tried the markers out on a corner of two different types of fabric before I pre-washed them to see if they really would be color-fast.  The markers faded and blurred on the flannel I tried, so I went ahead with a thicker polyester because the marker was so vivid after the washing.

I also debated long and hard about what glue to buy for the hair.  I finally decided on a fabric glue that was both washable and flexible.  I had no idea there were so many options when I checked out my local fabric store.

I cut a long strip of fabric for each doll and glued the hair onto it, folding the fabric over it so it was holding it in place like a barrette.  I let it dry overnight then sewed overtop of the hair back and forth several times with a small zigzag stitch.

Next I carefully pinned the fabric strip to the face side of the doll fabric so that the hair was hanging down towards the feet.  I sewed close to the edge of the fabric, then a second row along the hair so that the stiff fabric didn't poke out along the top of the head.  And finally I just sewed up along the arms and legs of the doll, leaving a hole along the side of the stomach for stuffing it.

I used some shredded memory foam that I had on hand for the stuffing, so they are nice and soft.

My fabric strips were a little too long for the size of head that I chose.  I should have made the dolls a little bigger so that the hair fit nicer along the top, but overall they were a big hit.

For the clothes I just grabbed some scraps and cut them out at a half inch larger than my original pattern and sewed them up.  I stitched the shoulders together first, then hemmed the neckline and sleeves before stitching the two sides together and finally finishing the bottom hemline.

They were a huge hit Christmas morning and have been much loved ever since.

An alternative look to the gingerbread man pattern would be to sew arms and legs individually and then sew them onto the body in more of a Lalaloopsy doll look.