How to make a rag doll


When I heard my good friends where expecting their first born child I felt I wanted to give them something special, what that thing may be was still a mystery. I knew I wanted it to be a hand-made gift. A painting or something made of clay might nice but could a baby do with that? Perhaps I should go for a knitted sweater or a baby blanket? And then it hit me - a hand made rag doll! I have never made anything like that before and I didn't have a sewing machine, but I did have the right kind of motivation and I plenty of time. The process is brought here before you, let me just say this was a fun project and my friends loved their gift.

So let's start at the beginning:

  1. Get some friends.




  1. Wait for one of them to be pregnant.



  1. Think long and hard of what could be the proper gift and come to the inevitable conclusion that a hand-sewed rag-doll is the thing !

  1. Get to work: Make a few sketches and keep it simple. Try going for straight angles, this is important and will make your life easier if, like me, you’re going to sew the whole thing by hand. To avoid getting a “square doll” cut out a little triangle on each side of the head so that the corners may be used to make ears.

  1. Copy the layout of your design on a big piece of paper; make it about a 1/3rd bigger than the actual size you want, after stitches and stuffing the doll will appear smaller in size. Cut out the paper layout and trace it on the fabric of your choice. I used a pillow case to make the body of this rag doll.

  1. Cut the layout and start sewing…. and sewing… and sewing…. make sure to turn the whole thing inside-out so that the stitches will be on the inside. I used a different fabric to make the hands and legs, (don’t attach then yet) and of course here too I kept all stitches on the inside.
    It helps to stop and stuff whatever body parts you have at this point because only after doing so can you begin to see how your creation will really look. This is the time to make changes, fix things that need fixing and, well, it’s just encouraging to see it come to life.
turn the doll inside out and make all stitches on the INSIDE

    stuffing away...


    stop, and assess


    1. The temporary stuffing helped me to see something was missing and I decided to add this bright red thread around the edge of the body. Other than nicely framing the face and body of the doll it also maked the whole thing extra strong.






    1. Time for a face ! This is the place to go wild so just have fun with it.


    making a nose was a bit tricky



    1. Before attaching the limbs and ceiling the deal, try to put everything together with safety pins and see what need to be added. In this case I thought some hair would be nice so I used braided yarn and sewed it to my doll’s head.
    O.K. what's missing?


    hair added - front

    side back



    1. O.K. final stuffing, make it as stuffed as you humanly can, the doll will deflate in time. Attach arm and legs to the body, cut off any lose ends of thread and… THA DHA !
    it's alive....







    1. Play with the new doll, take your picture with it and post it on FB, and when the time comes and the cake is out of the oven – introduce them to each other, hey, for all you know this can be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

    Soooo, you come here often?