A few months ago I found a cool website http://www.swap-bot.com/ and since then have been swapping handmade thingummies like mad. One extremely popular item to make and swap on this site is "dotee dolls" which are legless, armless persons, made of fabric and highly decorated. (See the original Dotees here: http://dotslifeandart.blogspot.com/ ) I have to say, the Dotees are very, very cute, but after I made my first one, I was a bit over the dotee craze. So I thought how lovely it would be to have a swap for any kind of dolly except Dotees, and I started the swap, only to find out that I was paralyzed by the fear of having to make something without knowing I was good at it.
The deadline for the dollies to be sent to our swap partners is March 15, which as you can see was drawing dangerously close. So this week I finally got down to business and got to work on my dolly. Once I got started, I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I made her completely by hand although I hardly ever do hand sewing. She was so tiny I thought it would be better to sew by hand than to do it with a machine and have a bigger seam allowance to stuff inside. I also drew her face on and knit her a little purple ruffled skirt and a matching sweater.
I still need to work on my skills as far as face drawing and hair attachment, but I really do like her. She has personality, and like me, remarkably unruly hair. I suspect that she also likes raspberry sherbet, going to the mall, and reading Russian novels. For a first attempt, I think she's very satisfactory, and I'm so glad to have gotten beyond my fear of the first attempt. I have another dolly swap coming up in May or June, so we will see what I come up with then.
The basic pattern for this dolly came from here: http://dollmaker.nunodoll.com/mini/mini.html
The skirt and sweater were "designed" by me, although it was more of a fake-it-till-you-make-it process than a design process.
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