Rag Doll Tutorial

The photograph above shows a rag doll that my 9 year old daughter made with only a little help from me to attach the hair!  These really are very easy to make and can be done by hand in a couple of hours or by machine even quicker.  It took my daughter a little longer as she isn't very fast at hand sewing. I have written below a tutorial on how this doll was made.

Items needed:

• Fabric for the doll (I used white but it really doesn't matter!)
• Needle and threads
• Wool (for the hair)
• Stuffing
• Fabric pens (for the face)
• Fabric (for clothing)
• Bows/Ribbons/Hairbands (to decorate the hair if required)
• Clothes for the doll (you can make your own!)

STEPS:

Step 1: Find a doll template (many are free online) I used this one: dollchamber.com

Step 2: Print out all your pattern pieces onto paper

Step 3: Cut out your fabric templates

Step 4: Draw a face onto your doll (you could do this at the end but I prefer at the beginning!

Step 5: Pin the matching pieces together (eg: front part of head with the back part of the head). See my diagram above.

Step 6: Start sewing the legs and arms (eg. sew around the leg leaving gap at the bottom to insert stuffing and to attach to other body parts!

Step 7: Attach the legs and arms to the main body, making sure to leave a gap to insert the stuffing later. Turn the body inside out to the correct way. For the pattern I used there is a video you can follow, but I did it differently to the video as I didn't quite understand the video! Here is a link to the video showing you how to make the rag doll: dollchamber video

Step 8: Start inserting the stuffing into the doll. I used a blunt pencil to push the stuffing to the ends but anything that is slim enough to go inside will be fine.

Step 9: Sew up the gap and you now have the main part of your rag doll!

Step 10: Now you need to attach some hair: I found various tutorials online which show you how to make the wigs to attach to the dolls, I just used the easiest version because my 9 year old was making this doll. Decide how long you want your hair - then find something similar in length that you can use to wrap around your wool. I used a container and wrapped the wool around until it was thick enough for what I wanted. Remove the wool carefully and cut at the loops making the wool hair one length!
Step 11: Then place some wool around the centre of the wool hair and tie it securely.  Another option is to attach the hair in the centre to another piece of fabric and sew across securing the wool to the spare fabric. You then attach the fabric to the head and hand sew the hair onto the head this is a much more secure way but a little bit too much work for my young daughter.
Step 12: Then hand sew the hair onto the doll (I helped to do this bit as it was a bit fiddly for my daughter!)Sew only into the centre of the hair so that you don't see the stitches.
Step 13: You can cut some of the hair different lengths for different styles!
Step 14: Attach ribbons or hair accessories to decorate the hair.
Step 15: Add clothes or make your own. My daughter simply used a rectangle piece of fabric and sewed up one side to make a tube dress - very simple and effective. She used a scrap piece of long fabric for the dress belt.

My daughter loves her doll, she has made some more clothes and changes the style daily. She can't wait to show her friends at school!

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