Fabrics and Tools of the Trade

There are many many different types of fabric you can use for the body of your doll. Every quilting shop has flesh coloured cottons in many many different shades of body colour and many different qualities. If you actually go into one of these shops and place these fabrics next to your skinyou will be amazed at how dark in tone your skin actually is! My PET HATE is people who use white fabric or undyed Calico ( muslin) for faces and body skin. It makes the doll look terrible and I just hate the look. Remember we come in lots of different colours from almost black to chocolate brown to a lighter brown with a yellowy tinge to beige and anything in between as well.

Experiment and play, try all sorts you will find some that you love and others that you absolutely hate! Some people just must have a very close weave and others like a tiny bit if stretch in their cotton fabrics. I love to use good old Calico ( Muslin). I tea and coffee dye it in the microwave to get the colour I want.

To Tea and coffee dye your fabric

Instructions To dye your fabric

I just use calico and tea and coffee dye it in the microwave. What I do is cut or rip off around 1 metre ( 1 yard) at a time . I fill a plastic bowl ( LGE) with hot water and add about 12 teabags and 4 or5 tablespoons full of strong coffee. I stir to dissolve, then squeeze out the teabags and discard them. I wet my fabric well first in warm water then squeeze out the excess. Next I plunge it into the bowl and cook on high for around 10 mins. I then rinse carefully using tongs ( very HOT) and rinse lightly, squeeze the excess water out, and throw it in the dryer. It will come out of the dryer very screwed up so when it is nearly dry I steam iron it. Then it is ready to use. I always keep a few metres on hand for when I need it and I also keep some undyed Calico ( Muslin) just in case.

I also use a fabulous Flesh coloured Italian Nylon Lycra at times. This is very stretchy.so you wouldnt use it for a body unless you are after a very big round character doll, like my EMMY.

Quite often, when I am sculpting a face I will use nylon Lycra. I have a supply of the best quality Italian flesh coloured nylon Lycra which I love to use for faces. These day, I nearly always use it for the hands of the doll because it makes the sewing and turning of those tiny fingers, so easy that I don’t know if I’ll ever use Cotton again.

My doll Emmy is made entirely from the nylon Lycra. I must admit the fabric does have its limitations to make the complete doll with but for Emmy this fabric was perfect. To see Emmy go to

http://www.clothdollpatterns.com.au/gallery.htm

These days a lot of doll makers are using Doll Velour.my friend Jill Maas uses this for her dolls. Doe suede is another used a lot.

Probably the best advice I can give about body fabric is that if you have money to spare, and can afford to try lots of different ones do so, but if you are watching your budget then stick to the Calico (Muslin) to start with.

Tools of the Trade By now you will probably have realised that my favourite tool for almost any doll making job are my haemotstats. I just love them. I find them perfect for turning for smoothing for stuffing and more.

To start doll making, I believe you only need a minimum of tools. If you really want to experiment and try everything then of course, feel free, but in my opinion you only need a few things and they will probably last for many years.

I would recommend that you buy two sets of haemotstats one being a small set and the other being a medium one. I use my medium set almost everything, but occasionally, I find that I need a small set and I think you will be glad that you have them. I don’t recommend the stuffing forks as I fond its very easy to pop the seams of the doll with them especially if you are new to this. I also dont find that they do as good a job at getting the stuffing in smoothly as the haemostats.

You need a good fabric eraser as normal eraser doesn’t work on fabric very well. ( leavs a nasty smudgy mark on your fabric)

I have a small pair of snips that I wouldn’t be without, these don’t have the handles like a pair of scissors, and they are very quick and easy to use.

Sculpting needles are very very important in my view, they are also known as number seven darners and Piecemakers put them out. I use sculpting needles for most of my sewing, for most of my hand sewing any way. Most sewers would laugh about this I imagine.

Of course you do need a sewers tool kit that basically has the usual sewing bits and pieces in it, for instance a good pair of scissors and matching thread for all your fabrics.

As far as colouring faces is concerned, this is another area where if you like you could experiment. I am happy to list the products that I love and that I use for my faces.

Crayons! yes ordinary kids crayola or any make of crayons work well for eyes and for blush once you have worn the tip off them. Use them on their side to get a blended look.

Prismacolour Berol Pencils work really well for most colouring. They are a lovely soft, oily pencil that is just perfect for fabric. You can start with a soft line of colour and build up the layers to get the look you want. They work well for shading and for sharper lines as well. I use these for eyeshadow and blush.

I use Lycra mostly now for my dolls heads (the sculpted ones) and the old Micron Pigma pens that were recommended for dolls faces are no good at all for drawing on Lycra. I have now discarded all of these pens as they run dry so easily and block up and I really hate using them at all now.

I am now using gel pens for all my face outlining. I like the Pental hybrid ones best and I use a soft brown or Brownie pink shade as well as the black. I have a favorite purple on that I love to use on lips. When I draw flowers or hearts all over my dolls faces I love to colour them in with bright coloured Gel pens then add some glitter at the end

These are available at most newsagents, arts stores, and also the big chain stores. Make sure you get the best quality possible.

I also like the Y & C fabricmate coloured felt type pens… I use these pens in my fun funky faces pattern, but you must be careful when first using them and when they are new as they tend to spread colour further than you have drawn. In other words don’t take the colour right to the edge of your lines and see what happens

I LOVE my GOLD tulip glitter so much…this stuff really make the dolls faces come alive. This is a dimensional glitter product that I just use very small amounts of at a time. I smear a tiny bit on my finger and carefully put a small amount on the bottom lip in the middle, on the bottom of the pupil in the eyes and also just below the eyebrows. Don’t rub it in hard or you will get a dirty mess. You wont see the finished effect until after it has dried, then it looks lovely. This is readily available at Michaels and Hobby Lobby.

I also would not be without my White acrylic tube paint for the whites of eyes and the highlight.

For a while I tried to use a white gel pen but I found it seemed to soak into the fabric and fade away. I like the white of my dolls eyes to be very white it seems to make them stand out a lot so I recommend the acrylic paint. A tube lasts foreverJ

I have a fine good quality paint brush to go with this.

Water colour pencils are worthwhile buying to play with. I have not perfected using them yet but I have recently heard of a way of blending a white watercolour pencil in with another bright coloured pencil for the actual Iris of the eye.

Hope this entry helps you get started.

Have fun

Di