Today, you can walk into any store and find an abundance of toys, and all sorts of them too at a wide range of prices. But, in pioneer times, many could not afford to buy toys at the general store nor was there a selection like there is today. A doll in the 1897 Eaton’s Catalogue was between 10 cents to 75 cents and all the way up between $6.00 to $15.00 depending upon the type of doll purchased. Though that sounds quite affordable, the average wage was 90 cents per day which gave a family an average of $27 per month. An average yearly salary in the mid-1800’s was between $325 to $660. Families were often large and toys were not always affordable or practical. For this reason, most toys were handmade.
This project all started with my daughter, Holly, wanting to create a puppet. She drew what she wanted it to look like and we sat and pondered how we would attempt the puppet. She then created a template for the clothing for the puppet and from that, I created a template for the body and head, legs and arms! Much to our surprise, as we began to sew, we realized our puppet creation was turning into a rag-type doll.
Handmade toys are a great way to get children to take pride in what they create and appreciate the process in creating something they can play with and enjoy by hand. It helps foster a feeling of pride for what they’ve created and gratefulness for what we have available to us today while teaching them a bit of history. They can learn an array of skills from measuring to cutting a pattern, to trial and error, to clothing design to using their imagination and learning or improving sewing skills.
This sewing project can be done by hand or with a sewing machine. My daughters began learning how to sew just one year ago and it is amazing just how far they have come! Because we are a homeschooling family, it is great to see my daughters excel at something they take interest in.
Their dolls (pictured above) was a great project that took us about a half day, though the doll I created for this blog took me only 2 hours and 11 minutes to complete, not including the outfit! It is a wonderful project if you are needing to keep your family busy for a day! And children who enjoy creating may take longer to create an outfit for their doll that has meaning to them! And what is fantastic about these dolls is anytime you hear, “I’m bored” they can create another outfit for their doll! This is great for boys and girls alike.
Let’s get started!
We need about 14″ of material, but I suggest to get 1/2 meter (which is 20″). You will also need yarn for the hair, some pillow stuffing, a pencil to trace the pattern onto, fabric scissors to cut out the pattern on the material and regular scissors to cut the paper pattern.
Set the pattern pieces on the fabric and be sure everything fits before tracing. You will need 1 head, 1 body, 2 arms and 2 legs per doll.
Be sure to leave the fabric doubled so you have a front and back and only need to cut once.
Now you have all the pieces needed. Let’s start assembling.
Match good sides together so the backside is facing towards you. Start sewing, back-stitching all pieces as you go, to keep it a bit stronger. Each part, you will need to leave openings to flip and stuff.
Here, the body needs 4 openings – an opening at the neck so we can insert the head, an opening at both sides for the arms to be inserted, and the bottom for the legs.
To get it sewn nicely around corners, go slow and with the needle in the fabric, pick up the foot on the sewing machine and pivot material so stitches say nice and flat and do not pull, otherwise it’ll be too tight and will bunch.
When sewing the arms and legs, leave an opening on the side — it’s easier to flip and stuff and sew back up again.
The yarn hair can be attached in two ways. My daughters each did it a different way and it works perfectly fine either way. One way is the yarn hair can be glued on with fabric glue, after the doll is complete or it can be sewn in the top of the head. If you want to sew the yarn hair in, then leave a gap at the top. Also, leave a gap at the neck so the head can be stuffed.
Now all the pieces should be sewn and can be flipped right side out, like shown below.
Time to stuff and fold edges in to sew. The same procedure is done for the arms and legs. We use a bamboo straw to help stuff the stuffing in those hard to reach places — perfect for little fingers! You can also use a bone tool. This part, kids love to do. It can be stuffed as little as you would like or as much as you like, without over stuffing or it will be difficult to close. Leave a bit at the tops without stuffing so it is easier to sew in the arms and legs.
You can hand sew each part closed or on the sewing machine.
Hair time! I put one strand across and then lay the yarn hair out so I could tie it together to keep it as one, plus it makes the hair appear thicker. You can make the hair any length you like in any color you like. I cut smaller strands and placed them out first, then the rest of the yarn over to create bangs, or you can cut bangs after.
You can cut as much as you like, depending how full you would like the hair to be. I used half of a small yarn, about 40 to 60 pieces.
After I tied it together, I then folded it in half, making sure it was even so I did not sew the yarn in crooked. Lay flat and insert into the head.
Fold edges in so the raw edge is folded inside the head, so it looks neat. This part is a little tricky and I ended up with an imperfectly shaped head! That’s what makes each of our dolls unique – they are always a bit different.
Sew around top of head, to secure hair, back-stitching.
Next is to stuff the head. Again, we used a bamboo straw to push the stuffing to the top and sides. Once filled, it is time to attach the head to the body.
Now that the head is stuffed, time to attach it to the body. We attach the head first. I stuff the head into the body and fold the raw edges on the body in to create a nice edge. Sew together, back-stitching if using the machine.
Now that the head is in, we start attaching the arms and stuffing the doll as we go along! Stuff the shoulder area before attaching each arm.
Once the arms are on, it is now time for the rest of the body!
My daughters wanted to give their dolls a heart and so we did! We cut a heart out of fabric, sewed on the outside (to see the stitches) and stuffed the heart. We then ran through the following which we all loved doing! It just made it so much more personal.
Rub your hands together to warm them up. When your hands feel hot, place the heart in. Hold the heart tight so your doll always has a warming heart.
Give the heart a kiss so your doll is always caring.
Rub the heart on your heart so your doll always feels loved by you.
Smile a great big smile while rubbing the heart on your head so your doll always has happy thoughts.
Rub the heart on your tummy so your doll is never hungry.
Rub the heart on your legs so your doll follows God and your actions of kindness towards others.
Rub the heart on your arms so your doll gives you a helping hand when you need it most.
Rub the heart on your back, so your doll looks out for you.
Now it is time to stuff the heart inside. You can skip this step if you like.
Time to finish stuffing and attach the legs!
I leave a space at the bottom without stuffing which makes it easier to sew the legs in.
Once the legs are in position, fold raw edge in and pin, if needed. Sew, remembering to back-stitch.
Oops!! Looks like I have a few bubbly threads!
And there you have it!! Woohoo!! The doll is now complete!
We opted to leave our dolls without any facial features but you can create anything you like! Add facial features with felt, buttons, fabric or markers.
The doll is now complete and can be left as is but we decided to sew some clothes. This gave my daughters the opportunity to design an outfit bringing their imagination to life, cut it out, sew and problem solve any issues that arose. We had to adjust sizing and sleeves to make it work. It was a great way to use critical thinking in finding a solution to their clothing dilemma.
The clothes can be hand sewn, machine sewn or even put together with fabric glue. The clothes can be created out of felt, fabric or even old t-shirts and can be cut with pinking shears for a decorative edge along with using buttons, zippers, ribbon and anything else you can find!
You can easily make a family of dolls! This is where children, teens and even adults can have fun creating this doll into anything you like!! Make your doll old fashioned style like we did, turn it into a teacher, doctor, nurse, superhero, farmer… you really can create anything!
Let your creative side flow in designing and creating clothes, braiding hair, cutting bangs, making shoes….this project is absolutely open ended! But most of all — HAVE FUN!!
You really can create any outfit with any hair style you wish!! That’s what we love so much about this project — everyone’s personality can shine through!!
Feel free to share your rag doll creations with us!!
Questions? Contact us below or at [email protected]
You can find this month’s Creative Crafting Project FREE here:
enjoy from Our City Homestead to yours