Tuesday Tutorial

Kaaren of The Painted Quilt has graciously agreed to share a tutorial with us this week. Take some time to read over the tutorial she put together:

I love a challenge.  So out came the sketch book and the preliminary drawings were made.  I fussed around a bit and finally came up with a pattern that turned out to be quite workable.   I didn’t want the pattern to be too large so I designed it to fit on a 9” x 12” piece of paper.

The first step was to make two photocopies of the pattern because in order to fit it on a 9” x 12” piece of paper, I had to overlap some of the elements.  

I then cut out the pattern pieces...

pinned them to some muslin fabric from my stash…

and then cut them out.

Before sewing the pieces together, I used my light box to trace the face onto the right side of the fabric.  Then I sewed the pieces together, turned them right side out and stuffed them with polyester fiber fill.

Next came my favorite part…bringing Prudence to life.   First, I painted her facial features.  I am an artist by profession and although I’ve never painted a face on fabric before, I found out that it was not much different than painting on canvas.
I wanted Prudence to look kind of primitive and demure…

because after all, she lived in the mid 1800’s. 
Once the face was created, I attached her legs and arms.

I then painted her hair and boots…and of course  gave her a ♥.

I started to make her clothing and to dress her when I remembered to add her name and to sign and date it on her back.

I have never made any kind of clothing before, so I was really out of my comfort zone now.  What I did was have a close look at how some of my other doll’s clothing was made and proceeded from there.

She was a lot of fun to make, especially since this was my first attempt at something like this.  I never did play with dolls much as a child so I guess I’m trying to make up for lost time.  *wink*

If you would like to download the PDF file of pattern that I designed and used, just click  here.

Would you be interested in a step-by-step tutorial on creating her face?  I’d be happy to comply.  Honestly, it’s not as difficult as you may think.

Come back next week, to see how Kaaren creates the doll's face.

Legal Stuff: There's been a whole lot of pirating going around these days and unless we all live in a bubble, let's keep in mind that infringing copyright laws is a crime!!! Kaaren has so graciously allowed us to post her tutorial but with certain restrictions:

We may use the tutorial and the patterns provided they aren't sold for profit. What I mean is that a person cannot reproduce my patterns, instructions and photos and call them their own. Similarly, they cannot alter my patterns and take photos of their finished product and call them their own. That is a blatant copyright infringement, no matter how little an original pattern or design is altered.

If the gals want to use my tutorials and patterns to make as many dolls as they would like to sell, by all means go ahead. Then that's a different story, as long as they don't claim the designs as their own...even if they are altered.