Welcome to the See Kate Sew doll sew-a-long day Three!

Yesterday we constructed the ice cream and the full skirt for girl doll.

Today we are going to construct the girl and the boy dolly and stuff them ready to be played with.

Day Three - Construct the dollies

Start by locating the arm pieces. The boy dolls have little sleeves, the girl dolls do not. Ensuring the sleeve edges line up nicely place right sides together and pin. This time the gap for stuffing will be at the top of the arms.

 

Machine stitch together using a 1/4 inch (6mm) seam allowance. Take care to sew a nice curve. Once you have stitched just take a quick look on both sides to ensure your stitching is on the printed part of the arm - not the white seam allowance. If your stitching is sitting on the seam allowance then you will see white edges when you turn your arms right side out. If this is the case just do a quick row of stitches inside your last row, ensuring you are sewing on the printed part.

Snip corners, ensuring you do not cut too close to the seam line. Turn arms right side out and press.

Next, stuff each arm with the toy stuffing, ensuring a nice even filling with no lumps or over filled sections.

Your arms should be looking something like this. 

We are now going to add the arms to the body. Pin the arms to the body 1/2 inch down from the chin. It is neccessary to cross the arms over as shown below to ensure that you dont accidentally catch the arms when you are sewing the body togther. Once pinned I quickly tacked (basted) the arms onto the body using the tacking stitch on machine. Alternatively this can be tacked by hand.

Lay the back panel on top of the front panel, as below - double checking your arms are well out of the way. Pin in place.

Machine stitch together leaving 2 inch gap at the side of the torso. Trim seams and clip at corners e.g in between legs.

Turn right side out and press seam allowances under.

Stuff the doll. When I first made this doll I over stuffed the head massively. Her head was so heavy it was always toppling over. Take care to stuff your body evenly with no lumps, gaps or over stuffed areas.

Pin opening together and hand stitch to close.

Repeat process for girl dolly and finish with skirt.

When she is finished you can either stitch the hair bows directly onto her head or make hair bands.

Option 1 - Stitch bows directly onto head

Option 2 - Make hair bands

My daughter loves to remove clothes and accessories from dolls so I am going to put my bows onto elastics so they are removable. Cut a length of elastic and form a ring - turning raw edges under. Attach to bow, repeat for other side.

Your dolls and accessories should now be complete and ready to play with.

Thanks for joining me for the sew-a-long!

If you have any questions please comment below.

Faye x