The New Improved Crochet Doll

If you’ve bought the My Little Crochet Doll pattern from me, hopefully you’ve made your doll and are happy with the result.

Over the years of making dolls I’ve come up with a few ideas and ways of making dolls better and better. Most recently I’ve been working on updating the pattern, changing a couple of tiny mistakes, cleaning up the hairline of the doll and as new techniques have come about I’ve added them into the doll.

The difference between the first and last dolls are clear to see.

My first doll had a bit of a basin haircut and a pasty skin, his neck was prone to flopping about, but like Bagpuss, we loved him.

Since then I’ve been busy dyeing wool, sourcing as much of the doll as possible from as local a source as possible.

I’ve sourced Bluefaced Leicester fleece from British flocks, washed, carded, cleaned, spun in a Yorkshire mill.

Dyed with a dye manufactured in Sheffield and hand dyed in my kitchen in Leeds.

The lambswool stuffing comes from British sheep.

The pipe cleaners in the arms comes from a Huddersfield textile mill thats been going since 1893.

The buttons come from a small manufacturer in York.

I’m close to my goal of producing a doll made entirely of local products and perhaps in the future made entirely of natural materials.

The latest doll has a much better hairstyle and a painted face, his neck features a little secret that keeps the neck strong enough for the head to not wobble.

All in all, the hours spent making and making dolls (and bears) have been well and truly worth while.

So what’s next?

I’ve just finished a series of video tutorials, made in my usual home made style. They’re available on YouTube and the first one starts here:

The Videos take you right through the pattern (you still need to buy the pattern though) and show you all the little techniques I use to make my dolls.

I’ve made some kits for painting the faces and some little packs of the toggle buttons because I only know one other shop that sells them.

The updated pattern should be available very soon then… Wow, what will I do once the doll is finished?

If you want to see the dolls in person I will be at the Pudsey Doll and Bear fair on the 8th October, at Pudsey Civic Hall.

And at some point in the future I will be doing a little workshop at the Leeds branch meeting of the Knitting and Crochet Guild on doll and bear techniques.