This is how it all begins

A length of wire about 13cm long wrapped tightly around itself, then needle felt a ball. In my mind I’m thinking ‘Who is this going to be?’ I have ideas in my head of a little girl, dark skinned with big brown eyes, a mass of gorgeous curls.

This is a couple of hours work, adding layers slowly and felting firmly, listening to podcasts. I use 3 different needles from Heidi Feathers, the red end for deep stitches and the black and blue ends for finer detail.

Then I when the ball is about 24cm in circumference I start to shape the head. This is my method – which maybe a little odd, but it seems to work. I put a picture of the side and front view of a dolls head up on my monitor (this one was I found using a google search). Then using pins I line up the nose, ears and the top of the head. Then by eye I add more wool so the shape is the same.

First the chin, then the nose and the cheeks, it all looks a bit scary now and you wonder will it come together! Have faith…..keep going

Next you add the lips, and they don’t need to look like real lips, and they are surprisingly near the nose – everything changes when you put the ‘skin’ on.

I have a practice skin which I apply then. A while ago I got as far as adding freckles to a doll and putting the blush on the nose and lips, but I really wasn’t happy with my results. So this became my practice one! If you look carefully you can see those freckles – they now seem to be over the eyes…….that fabric really has been stretched! So here is the next doll with paper eyes, freckles on her eyelids and a bit of a smile.

There are a few tweaks needed but I’m pretty happy with the result.