a doll for my niece

This summer the boys and I checked out a gorgeous book from the library called Kiki and Coco in Paris. We sat on the porch swing to read it, which we love to do on stay-at-home mornings. Jack announced, "Hey, that's Skylar!" (his cousin).

 

I immediately became fascinated with the exquisite doll and looked up the dollmaker, Jess Brown. Her creations are absolutely magical. I love the elongated limbs, the embroidered star eyes and button shoulders, the fabulous materials and vintage French aesthetic.

So I got to thinking. Since spending $200 on a doll, no matter how lovely she may be, is out of the question, could I make one for Skylar?

A few months went by and one day on a fall tromp through the leaves I mentioned it to my uber-crafty friend Kirstin, who sure enough came up with a tutorial on her design blog. 

That decided it. This past week, working into the wee hours, I made a doll and all the clothes. The boys had fun helping me pick out fabric, and they even made a tiny necklace with embroidery floss and bells. I set myself a limit: I had to use only materials I had in the house. I wasn't sure I could manage, but sure enough, with cast-off shrunken sweaters, fabric remnants, a spare pillow to unstuff, some new snowflake cashmere socks, and a random assortment of lace, yarn, floss, and ribbons, I was able to pull it off. I even stuffed her with lavender flowers.

Without further ado, here she is! The yet unnamed doll. I sure hope Skylar likes her.

 

Since it was my first go and since of course in classic style I researched and compiled five different tutorials then cobbled together my own design, I had to re-do several steps.

The ruffled dress probably took the most amount of time. I had to cut the crocheted lace out of a pillowcase, sew it onto other fabric pieces, make the ruffles and figure out the design.

The hair was also pretty time-consuming. I couldn't figure out how to make pieces from Daniel's shrunken sweater look like hair. I wanted to give her a 1920s look with some little curls on the side of her face.

Of course every doll needs cashmere bloomers...and a few dresses.

I love the black thread on the white linen. And the button shoulders.

Daniel teased me in the midst of the ruffle-assembly to say, Do you realize you're grinning right now? It was so much fun. A few hours later, he asked (with a wrinkle in his forehead), Is this your way of telling me you want a girl?

I told him not to worry, I'd probably just end up making dolls for all the little girls I know.