My Sewing Projects: Poppet Dolls aka Dummy Fairies
Our twins are four years old. Actually, four and a half years old. They’ve been going to nursery for two and a half hours a day for just under a year, and they’re starting school in the next few days.
I think it’s fair to say that it’s time we ditched the dummies. In fairness the girls rarely have one during the day, although M does have a habit of asking me many times during the day for one in an attempt to wear me down, which on occasion I have given into!
Come 5pm though and that’s usually the time they have a dummy. They go to bed around 6.30 and are usually asleep by 7pm.
I’ve wanted to introduce the idea of a dummy fairy to the girls for a while now, and I have mentioned it to them on the odd occasion.
It wasn’t until fairly recently though that I decided to take action. I love sewing. That’s certainly no secret, and in particular I really enjoy making toys from the Dolls and Daydreams range.
I’ve made a variety of dolls from ballerinas and superheroes, to mermaid and knights, to elephants, guinea pigs and a unicorn!
One pattern that I’d had my eye on for a while was the Wendy Poppet and Peter Pan Poppet dolls.
Essentially the doll is the same pattern, but I bought both because I wanted the shorts and t-shirt pattern for Peter Pan doll, as well the method to do this hair, and the dress pattern and hair method for the Wendy Poppet doll.
I knew that I wanted these dolls to be special so I really took my time with them, and really thought about what I wanted to do with them in terms of customisation.
I’ve learnt a lot since starting to make dolls. I know how to do a ladder stitch, stem stitch and many other things I didn’t know how to do before. I’ve also learnt that the face patterns that come with the dolls aren’t compulsory and you don’t have to use them!
For these dolls, I really wanted to hand embroider their faces to give them some character. The previous week I attempted my first ever embroidery using a kit that I’d bought. It went quite well so I drew out a face pattern and went for it!
I’m so pleased with how they both turned out! The next thing I needed to do was decide on a hair colour. I fell in love with this ‘Elderflower’ yarn!
Unlike other dolls I’ve made, I didn’t need to cut out the body pattern first. Instead I drew the pattern onto the fabric, sewed it and then cut around it. A new method, that I hadn’t tried before, but one that I like!
After I’d made the bodies and attached the dolls heads, I made their hair wigs and sewed them on, before giving the dolls a hair cut. In hindsight, if I were to start over, I’d probably give the boy doll a bit more of a fringe, but I’m still pleased with how he turned out!
Next up – clothes!
I knew that I wanted to make a few different outfits for the dolls, as well as a pair of super cute pyjamas each!
I made the boy dolls two pairs of shorts and t-shirts, as well as some fleecy blue pyjamas.
I made the girl doll two dresses and a pair of shorts (at M’s request, as she caught sight of the shorts for the boy doll!), as well as some pink fleecy pyjamas.
I also made both dolls a hat and pair of shoes each, as well as a pair of attachable wings each.
I then decided that I wanted to make the dolls their very own sleeping bags each. My first attempt didn’t go very well, so I slept on it and then the next day I managed to knock up two sleeping bags!
I think they look pretty good seeing as they’re 100% my own design! I even sewed Velcro onto the back of the pillow so that it can be stuck on meaning it hopefully won’t get lost!
As I sat back and looked at my creations, I realised that there were rather a lot of different pieces which could easily get lost.
I then whipped up a quick (in no way perfect!) drawstring bag each to keep everything in!
Then the time arrived to present them to our girls. I gave them the drawstring bags and asked them to collect all their dummies. They then hung the bags on their chest of drawers and when they woke the next morning, the dummies had gone and been replaces by the dolls clothes, wings and a special wooden box containing one brand new dummy which is only to be used at night, along with a small bottle of fairy dust!
On top of the chest of drawers the girls were amazed to find the two dolls fast asleep in their sleeping bags!
The girls got started straight away in changing their dolls out of the pyjamas into their clothes, and then back into their pyjamas again!
Both girls did open the bottles of fairy dust and spill it everywhere, so after a brief warning of not to do it again, their dolls ‘magically’ produced another bottle! (Good thing I bought a few!) They’ve promised not to open them again!
Out of all of the dolls that I’ve made them, the girls have never really bothered with them. Now and again they’ll look at them. R on occasion will take some to bed, but these new dolls have become firm favourites!
We went to the farm that very day, and the girls brought their dolls with them. They refused to put them into the backpack and carried them all day! They even took them to bed and have been attached them to every day since!
It’s so lovely seeing the girls enjoying the dolls that I made them! Maybe they’ve enjoyed these ones more than others because I went to extra lengths to make them extra special with the customised hand embroidered face (which took 90 minutes per face), along with the different outfits, sleeping bags and accessories etc?
Let’s just hope they help them give up the dummies!
2 Comments
hannah
November 3, 2016 at 11:13 am
I love the dolls you made, they look great. The designs are fab too x
Kerry Norris
November 4, 2016 at 11:07 am
I love the unicorn one. You’re so talented to be able to do this. Wish I could make things like this for my girls but I’m useless x