A proper doll for Sofia

When Sofia was born many people wanted to gift her dolls. At that time I said no thanks as I wanted her to come into a love of dolls on her own and not be forced into loving dolls over other toys. Plus I really wanted her to have a proper handmade doll, made from natural fabrics and not plastic.

So back in January when she started showing an interest in dolls in our favorite natural toy store I considered getting one of the Waldorf style dolls they had. Only one set back, it was $98.99. Whoa! So I went home and made her a rag doll of sort from scrap fabric I had, until I could figure out how I was going to go about making my own Waldorf style doll. After looking at a few of my favorite online natural toy stores I came upon Weir Crafts who sells natural crafting supplies and best of all Waldorf style doll kits. Unfortunately after that I got lazy and didn't order the doll kit until two weeks ago. When it arrived this past Wednesday I got right to work on it.

The kit as you see above is fantastic. It has everything except for the needles to sew with. Though you can add those into the kit at an extra cost. I choose to give the doll ginger hair because Sofia has a recent obsession with Ponyo.  That night I worked for 3 hours constructing the head and stuffing the body. Then yesterday I sewed the head to the body and put in the eyes and mouth and sewed on the wild and crazy flame red hair.

For some reason Sofia really loved it while it had no hair or face. She's warming up to it slowly. I think she related to the hairless version because she herself has really short hair. She's warming up to the finished version in anycase. I'm happy with my first go at making a proper doll. I think it turned out well.

Since we are leaving on vacation in two days the dolls clothing will have to wait until we return, but in the mean time I used one of Sofia's 6 months T-shirts as a dress. Eventually before Viola arrives I want to make a little sling as well so Sofia can carry the doll like I will carry Viola.