Baby Dolls for Boys (and Girls)

When I first started sewing for my son, I was really excited about making him little stuffed animals. I made a handful of toys, but what I really wanted to make were dolls. I deliberated over this for a while, since he is a boy, but in the end I decided that I would make him one. I had fun putting it together, and making a tiny boy wardrobe. He named him 'baby'. I can't say he loves his doll as much as his cousin loves hers, but he almost always cuddles with him at night.

Fast forward a few years. I still had doll sewing on the brain, and I was looking for another excuse to make one. I needed to make a special gift for a friend, and I thought this would be the perfect chance to finally make a girl doll. I wanted to say 'thank-you' in a big way, and I knew that they would appreciate the time that goes into a handmade gift.

These pictures were obviously taken before there was 11 feet of snow on the ground, since you can actually see the sidewalk. And it just looks warm, doesn't it? I miss the sun.

I used the Kit, Chloe and Louise pattern from Wee Wonderfuls. By the way, have you checked our her site? It's adorable, fun, and she is really talented. I highly recommend this pattern, as well as her other patterns, if you are interested in sewing a little doll for someone small.

My doll body was made from two layers of quilting weight cotton, and her hair was wool yarn. The dress was made of a really nice chambray fabric, and trimmed with yellow satin ribbon. Her shoes were handstitched out of brown wool felt, and have tiny wooden button fasteners. I also made the most adorable pair of light blue and white striped bloomers, but it seemed a little indecent to post pictures of my girl in her underwear. Just know that they were really cute!

As much fun as it was to sew a little girl doll, I knew that my second son should also get a little doll 'baby' to cuddle with at night. I really love the shape and size of the Kit, Chloe, and Louise pattern, but it's just for making girl dolls, so that left me some room to improvise. When it came time to put hair on this little man, I cut out 'locks' of hair from brown wool felt, and individually sewed on each piece by hand. I'm not going to lie to you, this part took me quite a while, and was a little fussy, but I love the way it turned out.

The clothes were all patterns that I drafted. The pants are tiny denim jeans, with top-stitched details, and little back pockets. His shirt has an envelope style neck opening (to fit over his disproportionately large head) that was sewn from red and white striped knit ribbing. And his sweater was cut out of an old felted wool sweater, and has functioning buttons and button holes. When I finished making this doll's outfit, I thought, "this looks like something I would like to wear".

Well, do you want to hear a funny story? A few weeks later I spotted the prettiest blue vintage wool cardigan at my local thrift store. I just had to have it. It wasn't until after I got home and put it on, that I noticed I had just bought an adult version of this doll's cardigan. And here is a rather embarrassing photo of me wearing the exact same outfit as this little doll. Let's play "who wore it best". My vote is on the doll!