A fairy doll

Way back in January, I began working on designing a cloth doll. I didn't want just any cloth doll. I wanted a fairy doll. One that would be in the same world as my critters. Not only that, I wanted a fairy doll to be an actual fairy with wings quite firmly attached. None of this wings attached to the clothing or wings like a Halloween costume.

I began with a basic Waldorf type doll based on a book I'd purchased. I liked the concept of cotton skin and wool stuffing. I have kept that part in my doll making. I found that making the head wasn't easy. I have an easier solution which I will share in another blog post. When I was done with the doll, I realized that it was not what I wanted. Little tiny dots for eyes spread too far apart and another little bit for a mouth. I understand the philosophy and reasoning behind this. But, it didn't ring true for me. I also wasn't happy with the mitten hands and club feet.

I began to think of what I would want in a doll. I started by experimenting with the facial features. I added a bump for a button nose, pulled the eyes closer together and made them bigger, and made a longer mouth. My embroidery skills are great, but I could not embroider bigger eyes on the knit fabric. I've got many, many eyes on heads sitting in a box, along with other body parts. :) I decided to go with something I had tried years ago when I couldn't afford to buy plastic safety eyes for a stuffed bunny I was making. I created eyes out of felt and embroidered them in place. It gave the doll that innocent wide eyed look I wanted. Then I added the delicate pointed ears. That made me happy.

Addressing the arm attachment and lack of fingers was the next step. I made several attempts and have arms sitting in that box along with the heads. It isn't perfect. I wish the hands and fingers were just exactly as I envisioned them. Alas, the fabric will only allow so much because it's a stretchy knit. But, the doll has fingers. That makes me happy too.

The leg and especially the foot came to be even more challenging than the fingers. More body parts got added to the box as I worked out just how the leg and foot should be made. As I worked through each step in the process, I became certain I was done, only to find out that there was another issue to be addressed to see my vision into reality.

There was the slight curvature to the back and darts at the hips to make a nice curved bottom. The hair was yet another issue. Some of the more complete dolls in the box of parts have interesting heads of hair. And I'm still not entirely pleased with how the hair has come out. I will continue to work on that.

I thought that the last issue would be designing and attaching the wings. I was wrong. The wings were a challenge, but not the last one. Actually, designing the wing itself was fairly straightforward. It was attaching them to the doll that was the challenge. And they are not exactly what I had in mind because the wings can be removed from the doll. However, sewing the wings directly to the doll, they did not lay correctly across the back. The snaps work well and keep the wings attached to the doll.

The final issue, which I didn't think would be hard at all, was clothing the doll. The upper part of the clothing has to be able to fit around the wings. I thought that would be easy. It's just doll clothes with an opening in the back to accommodate the wings. HA! It also took time to figure out.

At last, months later, it has all come together. While there are dolls that came before her, she is the culmination of all those months of work. I give you Nerine, the fairy doll in pink.

She is available in my Etsy store now and waiting to find a new home that needs a bit of fairy magic. There will be other fairy dolls in the near future.