Upcycled Dollhouse Doll Tutorial

Here is the little photo tutorial I promised for upcycling a Melissa and Doug dollhouse doll into a "new" doll :) Forgive the photos... I encounter most of my craft projects after dark, so they aren't too great but you should be able to follow along.

1. Start with some old bendy dolls, you will also need either some kind of stretchy cotton knit (I'm recycling a holey t-shirt of my husbands for this piece, you could also use tube gauze... probably the smallest you could find), cotton string, knit interlock fabric (doll skin fabric, which I bought at A Childs Dream website), and some wool to stuff the head. I also use a bit of hot glue or glue of your choice, and wool felt for clothing.

2. Undress your bendy doll. It takes cutting and pulling. Remove the head. Their heads twist off pretty easily. Probably not a good idea to let babies and toddlers play with these! If you would like an easier project, you can keep the wood head. You can sand the face off with some sandpaper, and trim the hair as short as possible to glue the new hair on top. I chose to go with a cloth head on these dolls though so if you are keeping the wood head just skip down past the head making.

3. Cut a square of your knit fabric. My square was really uneven! About 4 inches by 4 inches should do it...

4. Roll up a nice ball of wool for the head. I like to use something firm inside like a little ball of scrap cotton, and then lay the wool batting in sheets over top so you get a nice round head. You will want a little tuft of wool at the bottom as well to help secure the neck.

5. Cover your wool ball with your knit fabric and compare it to the wooden doll head if you would like to get the correct proportion. 

6. Try to smooth out as many lumps as possible, wrap the string around the neck tightly a few times and tie it off!

7. If you would like to shape your head somewhat, you can tie a string tightly around the middle to make an eyeline. you can go further to make a chin line if you like and even add a nose. I think the "young" dolls look best without a nose, and the grandparents look best with a nose! There are tons of doll head tutorials online so I'm not going to go into details with all these! You can search youtube for videos as well!

8. Plug in your glue gun to warm up and  then cut some little pieces of your knit interlock doll skin to cover the hands. They don't have to be too big... I think these were about 3/4" by 1.5". Then stretch them around the dolls wooden hands and tie them off at the wrists.

9. Attach the head to the body. I add some glue at the neck, and then I glue down the extra knit fabric all around the dolls body so it's nice and secure. Ths head won't fall off. You can also glue down and trim the extra fabric around the arms. 

10. Sew a thin tube of the knit interlock for the head. It should be just a bit narrower then the doll head. Flip it inside out to sew it.

11. Pull that tube around the doll head and attach it! I sew around the shoulders, back, chest, and secure it to the white knit fabric that I already glued down. Then close off the top of the head. Pull it back a bit so you are working more toward the back of the head. It doesn't have to look pretty as you will add hair to cover it later. 

12. If you would like the doll to have a face, now is the time to embroider it on! Go in from the back of the doll and knot between each new features. There are more tutorials online for the head and face instructions if you haven't done it before and need more help!

13. Now your doll is ready to dress. Arms up! I like to do the bloomers first on the girl doll! Pick your fabric and measure it against the doll. 

14. Bloomers are very simple! I like to pull them all the way up to the chest of the doll since these will be attached to the body. You can see how wide I cut the fabric for this particular pair. This will make them nice and puffy and you can later gather them at the hem. Cut a slit down the very middle for where the legs will be... don't cut it higher than the doll's body!

15. Fold the pants around the leg and stitch up the middle. Then stitch the front closed! This doll looks like a weight loss advertisement right now. 

16. Use a gathering stitch at each ankle and pull it tight to make the hem of each "pant". 

17. Gather around the waist and sew the pants to the knit fabric around the doll body!

18. Here is the shape I cut to make the dress. I ended up trimming it a little more before the end of this one, but the is the shape I used for the full dress on the grandmother doll. 

19. Stitch under the arms, and then I gathered at the waist on this one aross the front and stuffed a little wool in there for a bosom, since she is the mother doll afterall. You can leave that part off if you are making  a girl!

20. I trimmed the wool because I changed my mind about the dress shape part way through, and made her a little A-line dress. The brown is the shape I cut to make her a cute little apron so she looks like a kindergarten teacher!

21. I added a pocket to her dress, and needlefelted her hair on with a little bun. You can use some glue to help keep it on! You can also add a little rosiness to her cheeks which I forgot to do before the picture. I like to color on my finger first with a red beeswax crayon, and then rub it onto the doll cheek next. It takes a couple times to get it dark enough but it's better than putting TOO much on drawing directly on on the doll. All done!

Still working on the family for upcoming stories. I added a little boy to the mix! I love how his overalls turned out!

And the squirrel friend was made with the Squirrel pattern from DelilahIris on etsy. I love all the little animal patterns in her shop. They are so easy to follow. I plan to make a full sized one too, but this one is only about 1 inch tall because I wanted a tiny one!

Here is the little doll family so far! I hope the tutorial helps you create some of your own dolls! Grandpa, Dad, and maybe another Brother are next!