Olive

My intention with this blog was to create a sort of inventory for my dolls. What will probably be of most interest to other people, is going to be my older, vintage stuff and (hopefully) the custom stuff I make. So it might seem odd that I start up with Olive over here which I made pretty straight from a pattern, but I really like her a lot, so much that she got me into making felt dolls, even though what I collect is fashion dolls (mostly Barbies and Monster High).

Olive is what inspired me to make other custom felt doll made to look like people I actually know, so I think she deserves her own spotlight. And now that I'm thinking about it, she makes a good model to review this pattern, for those of you out there that might want to make one.

I used Simplicity Pattern 1900, in case you didn't notice the big picture up there, and she was pretty simple to make so I can definitely recommend her as a beginner's project. I sewed her completely by hand. She has a few tiny curves in the hands and hair and I get easily frustrated by the sewing machine in these instances plus felt makes a very satisfying crunch as you sew it. I sew most things by hand but felt is by far the most enjoyable fabric.

A really good thing about this pattern is that the pieces are small enough that you can cut them out of those little felt rectangles that you can get pretty much anywhere  for about 35 cents each and they come in a great variety of colors. You can probably make the whole thing out of five rectangles, maybe seven if you want to make the clothes out of felt too, and still have bits left over for other dolls.

The only thing I changed from the pattern was that I used buttons for the eyes instead of embrodering them. I really like these tiny buttons so I needded to buy them. And then I needed to find something to put them on so I made Olive.

Here's one last picture of her sitting down which looks kinda weird but is the only other one I have and I'm too lazy to take new ones even though Olive and my phone are quite literally sitting next to me right now.