This week, with all the lovely spring flowers out in the garden, Roy decided he would, again, like to do a craft to celebrate the season. Some weeks ago, in one of the Tingle Factor Item posts I had mentioned companion dolls which were sometimes made out of pillowcases. He loved making the simple Handkerchief Dolls earlier this year (click here to read about this) and thought a pillowcase doll would be a lovely craft to make, especially for a little girl or a baby. He also thought it would be a perfect way to introduce people to some simple embroidery stitches. So to celebrate the season Roy Creates a pillowcase doll with a flowery, embroidered skirt.
You Will Need:
- 1 pillowcase. Roy bought his from a local charity shop very cheaply. Don't use your Mum's best pillowcase, ask her to give you one!
- Embroidery cotton, of your choice, which matches the pillow. Roy used pastel shades.
- A needle.
- A water soluable marking pen, or if you don't have one a lead pencil
- A ruler.
- A handful of toy stuffing.
- A couple of pieces of ribbon.
- 2 rubberbands (if you were making this for a baby or a small child you would need to sew or tie where the rubberbands are used).
- Normal sewing cotton
- Some lace, extra ribbon and other embellishments, to decorate your doll.
Method:
- Using the water soluable pen or lead pencil, rule lines across the base of your doll's dress, just above the opening for the pillowcase. Roy used three lines.
- Now, choose two embroidery cottons which go well together. Roy chose a reddish pink and a light creamy pink. You will be 'whipping' (or twining) these cottons together, so some contrast is good.
- Strand your cotton. Embroidery cotton comes with 6 strands of cotton, all wound together but you will only be using 2 at a time. Cut a length of cotton (not too long because it will tangle otherwise), separate out two of the strands and, holding the rest of the cotton between your lips, pull those two strands out of the main group. Put the extra four strands aside for later use.
- If you need more help with the stitches than Roy has given here, visit a stitch guide, like Sharon B's In A Minute Ago.
- To start your cotton off, thread your needle and tie a small knot in the loose end of the cotton. Starting on the inside of the pillowcase, pull the needle and cotton to the outside of the pillowcase. The knot will catch on the inside and secure your cotton.
- To finish off a piece of cotton, leave a tail long enough to tie in a knot, separate the two strands and tie them back together with 3 or 4 knots.
- Thread your needle with the darker of the two colours and stitch small running stitches along your ruled lines. To do this, weave the cotton in and out of the pillow case, as Roy is doing below.
- When you have finished running stitches along your lines, take the lighter colour and wind it through the running stitches, as Roy is doing below. You just want to slide the needle under each running stitch and 'whip' the cotton (twine it through the running stitches)
- Next, you will be sewing lazy daisies onto the pillow, above your lines. Choose some nice shades of embroidery cotton and strand them as you did before. You want to leave the top third of the pillowcase blank or empty to make the head and arms of your doll, so only sew the lazy daisies below this point.
- Starting where you want the centre of the daisy to be, secure your cotton in place, as explained above. Now, push your needle back through the centre of the daisy, almost in the same hole as you originally used, but don't pull all of the cotton through with the needle. Leave a loop to make a petal. Now, bring your needle back to the right side of the pillowcase, just on the inside of the loop. This will stop it from disappearing. Now, to hold the loop in place, cross the cotton to the outside of the loop and push the needle back through the hole you made before. Bring the needle back to the right side in the centre of the daisy and repeat these steps until you have 5 petals.
- Sew as many lazy daisies on as you like!
- Next, take your stuffing, roll it into a ball and put it into the top, centre of the pillowcase. Gather the pillowcase under the ball of stuffing and put a rubberband around the doll's 'neck' to stop the stuffing from moving.
- Now you want to make your arms. Pull the top corners up towards the head and hold them between your fingers, like Roy is doing below. Still holding the arms, tie a piece of ribbon underneath the arms to form the 'waist' of the doll. Tie the ribbon into a bow at her back.
- Now, twist each arm around and around to make it look more like an arm. Bring them together in the front and use a rubberband to secure them and stop them unravelling.
- You can decorate your doll however you like. Roy made a bonnet, and to make one similar to his, take a piece of lace with holes which you can thread some thin ribbon through (it's called eyelet lace). Thread the ribbon through the holes, wrap the bonnet around the doll's head and tie the ribbon under her chin. If you wanted, you could tie a ladies or childs handkerchief or a piece of material around her head as a shawl - whatever works for you!
- To cover up her rubberband hands, find something for her to hold. Roy decided to make a little posy of flowers. He rummaged in Grandma's ribbon bag and found some braid made of flowers.
- He sewed this and some green ribbon into a flower arrangement and then sewed the arrangement onto the doll's hands, to cover up the rubberband.
- Often, these companion doll's were left without faces, especially in the Amish community who were well known for making them. Roy decided his doll needed a face though, so he sewed French Knots for her eyes and mouth. To make a french knot, pull the cotton to the right side of the pillowcase, and make a small stitch. Don't pull the needle out of the pillow, but instead wrap the cotton around it 3-5 times (depending on how big you want your French Knot). Then, gently pull the needle through and tighten the cotton twined around it. Finally, push the cotton back through the original hole, out the back of the head (this will stop the cotton from unravelling) and snip it off.
- You might like to sit your doll on your bed and hide your pyjamas under her skirt!