Rag dolls best when made off the cuff

For years, for no other reason than the simple pleasure of messing around with fabric, needle, thread and ideas, I made myself a rag doll each holiday season. I made so many, they filled a trunk.

I used commercial patterns for some of the dolls, and for others I used patterns from needlework magazines. But the dolls I like best are the ones I made from patterns I drew myself. The dolls are primitive in look and technique, and that was precisely what appealed to me. I love making things up as I go along.

The dolls began with a sheet of typing paper, which I folded in half lengthwise. Beginning at the top of the page and on the fold, I drew a half profile of head, neck, shoulder and torso ending at the hip. This I cut out and when opened up was a full pattern for a doll torso. I drew patterns for arms and legs, which were little more than elongated U-shapes, the arm shapes a little shorter than the leg shapes. Before I cut out the patterns, I factored in seam allowances of 1/4 inch.

I cut the pieces from fabric I culled from my scrap bag – OK, stash – flour sacking, inexpensive muslin, an old white sheet – which I dyed in strong tea or coffee.

I seamed the body parts together on the sewing machine and turned them right side out. At that point I didn’t much like what the parts looked like, but I figured the doll would evolve as I worked on it.

In the past, I had used polyester fiberfill for doll stuffing, but that just didn’t seem right for these new dolls, with their deliberately rough edges. I enlisted the aid of a family member and he found some fine sawdust at a sawmill in Bingham. I poured the sawdust into the doll parts, whip-stitched openings closed, attached arms and legs as if I were sewing on buttons, and voila! There was my doll ready to be dressed, to have a face embroidered and “hair” applied.

I wish I could give readers precise directions for formulating a doll’s dress and the finer points of embroidering a face or attaching yarn atop the head. But I really can’t because all I did was to get out the scissors, find some odd pieces of fabric I couldn’t think of anything else to do with and started cutting. Once I had what I thought would pass for a dress, I sewed it by hand with a simple running stitch, trimmed it with some scruffy looking cotton lace, also sewed on by hand, and called it good. I put the dress on the doll, made it fit by tacking it here, tucking it there and tying a piece of narrow blue silk ribbon around the doll’s waist.

I used a backstitch to embroider the doll’s face and a couching stitch to hold down strands of yarn to serve as hair wound around the doll’s head. I named her Zulema.

I liked Zulema so much I made two sisters for her – Agatha and Emma. Now, they loll around on a bookshelf gazing blankly into the distance. I have no idea what they are thinking – contemplating the meaning of life, perhaps.

Here’s my point to this ramble: If you want to make a doll, or anything else, don’t let a lack of patterns, or the “right” materials or what you perceive to be a lack of skill stop you. Switch back to childhood mode and remember when you’d grab a crayon and draw stacks of pictures without thought for whether or not you knew how to draw. That same force of spontaneity can be put into action for any creative endeavor, including making dolls. The result is truly a reflection of you, your ideas, your likes and dislikes – and what lurks in your fabric stash pile.

Best of all, the doll you make will be as unique as you are.

Snippets

Friend Memorial Library in Brooklin will exhibit the work of eight knitters and one spinner from the Brooklin-Sedgwick area during January. To learn more about the exhibit, call the library at 359-8587.

Ardeana Hamlin welcomes comments, suggestions and ideas. Call her at 990-8153, or e-mail ahamlin@bangordailynews.net.