Waldorf doll

I made a doll for Goblin. 

Its a Waldorf doll, or at least its based on the principles used to make Waldorf dolls. (I think the actual term is trademarked). The principles according to 'the interwebs' are that "the doll is intentionally simple in appearance in order to allow the child playing with it to improve or strengthen imagination and creativity. It has no facial expression and its legs and arms are flexible to allow natural postures". 

I found a great tutorial for a Waldorf doll's head on The Silver Penny. But I didn't want the doll to have a baby's body, so I used the body instructions from Echoes of a Dream. 

I used carded wool from World of wool to stuff the doll. And I found the jersey fabric at Fabrics and Wool on ebay. 

Top Tip: What ever you do, if you are looking for jersey material for a Waldorf doll, don't search under Waldorf doll making. The shops I found online selling flesh coloured jersey material specifically for doll making seemed to be marked up at three times the price of generic beige jersey material. 

I didn't take loads of photos while I was making it, but here are a few. 

 These two show how I fixed the arms to the neck. I'd actually made the arms too long so i gathered them a bit at the neck to shorten them - I hadn't appreciated how much the arms would stretch length ways when I stuffed the jersey material.

 Here is a shot of the body before I stuffed it - you can see from the before and after that again I didn't account for stretch.

 Look how much the legs grew!

 I searched the internet for a tutorial on doing dolls hair. I hadn't decided whether to do long or short hair. I couldn't find any info on how to do short hair (I'd still like to try so if anyone finds a tutorial please let me know).  Hublet pointed out that Goblin has long hair anyway, so I decided to go with that.

I found a good tutorial on Crafty Sheep. I didn't follow it religiously because I used 5 point yarn which is so thick that I only needed one layer. I made it really long and then trimmed it up after I'd stitched it on.

 Hublet had just thrown out some old pyjamas - he has lost so much weight on our diet that they were falling off him. I grabbed them and used them to make some pyjamas for the doll. I snipped the corners off the collar and sewed them onto the front of the dolls pyjamas - reusing the piping. My thinking was that Goblin might like a dol that has daddy's pyjamas.

Goblin was not overly impressed when I showed it to him. He threw it on the floor because I'd left it sitting in "mummy's seat" on the sofa. So for now it is sitting in the pram with his other toys. I'm hoping, like most of the things I make Goblin that eventually he will notice it and start to play with it.

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