Have a Handmade Christmas {Week 5}

 This week has been a flurry of sewing and gift making for our shoe boxes which we are hoping to drop off tomorrow.

    Have your been working on gifts too? If you have please tell us about it! I would love it if you would blog about it and then link it up for everybody to enjoy or feel free to tell us about it in the comments!

 One of my sewing projects was a soft doll to go in Megan's box.
To make it I used:

• White T-shirt for fabric which I dyed with tea. (Just make a strong black tea, let the fabric soak in it, then wring it out and rinse it and then dry it in the dryer.
• Thread
• Yarn
• Buttons for eyes.
• Stuffing
• Fabric for dress
• Elastic (thin and big and lacy for around the middle)
• Lace.
• Ribbon for fastening the braids.

Step 1. I made a pattern for the doll and then cut it out. (front and back)

 Step 2. I sewed hair on the back. I sewed a seam down the middle of it- later I added another row of hair across the top. On the front I sewed a mouth and sewed on button eyes.

 Step 3. Put right sides together and sew around the doll leaving the top of the head open for turning and stuffing. Be careful not to catch the hair in the seam.

 Step 4. Carefully stuff it. This was Megan's job.

 Step 4. Hand stitch the top closed.

 Step 5. Hand sew another wad of "hair" on the front. Then braid it, working in the back hair- like a double french braid.

Next she needs some clothes as she isn't all the beautiful naked!

I decided to make her a raglan sleeve dress.

 Step 1. Sew all the pieces together as shown above.

Step 2. Sew a small hem in the neckline and sleeve ends.

 Step 3. Stretch elastic and sew it by the hem on the sleeve and the neckline. So it looks like this:

 Step 4. Sew one side seam and sleeve seam. (Right sides together taking a small seam)

Step5. Stretch and sew elastic across the waist section. I used big lacy elastic on the outside but you could also use small elastic on the inside. Or you could skip this step if you so desire.

Step 6. Sew the other side seam.

Step 7. Hem the bottom and add lace. (If you don't want to put lace on the bottom you should cut the dress pattern a bit longer.

Step 8. Dress your dolly.

I have included the pattern I made if you would like to try making this doll too. Just click on the graphics below and print them out.

Now it is your turn!!!

Please link up your Handmade Christmas Projects!

When you link up please:

• Link to your specific post, not just your blog.
• Keep it family friendly.
• Link back to Proverbs 31 Living so more people will learn about the Handmade Christmas carnival and join in and then we will have more ideas to enjoy!