Making a Father Christmas Doll - Part 2

Body shape before stuffing.

In my last post I blogged about making the face for the Santa figure.  The three faces I made were geared toward making a primitive face rather than a well-sculpted face.  I like the old-fashioned handmade look.  There is a lot of information on the internet about how to make doll faces, and there is plenty of information on how to make much better faces than the ones I made.  There are even tutorials on how to make eyes from polymer clay that look like they are made of glass.  I don't have time to make the eyes for this doll, but I think that I would like to try it on a future doll.

Body shape after stuffing.

Before I get going, a couple of corrections:  first off, I spelled Belsnickel incorrectly in my previous post.  I meant to correct the spelling and did not get back to it.  I am mentioning it here in case anyone was trying to do an internet search for more information on that type of Santa.  The other correction was on the dates of my books.  I said that some of my craft books predate the internet, and that is certainly true.  However, my doll-making books come from the mid-1990s, so the internet as we know it today had been around for a few years.  Commercial internet providers started up in the late 1980s.

Now, on with the show.  There are many different ways to make a doll.  I am using a very basic doll form for this doll because there is only a small amount of time to get this doll made before the holidays.  This doll will not have legs.  The doll will be an elongated bell shape that has been stuffed to hold its form.  This type of doll works well with an old-fashioned Santa because of the doll's long robes.  In more modern books this type of doll is sometimes called a bottle doll because the base was sometimes built around a liter soda bottle.

The pattern I am using is in a book called Making Old-Fashioned Santas by Candie Frankel and Beverly Karcher.   The instructions called for using pre-quilted fabric for the body.  I think the pre-quilted fabric is used because it gives the body more structure.  The fabric has three layers: the top layer, batting, and backing fabric.  The quilting lines also add a decorative element to the fabric.  Unfortunately, styles of fabric change over time.  I went to a big chain fabric store, but the choices of fabric available in quilted fabrics were few.  The store had quilted fabric in red or white, but that was about it.  I did not care for the quality of the cloth.  There was one or two other selections in the outerwear department.  It was a nicer looking material, but it was very expensive.  I am going to have to find something to do with the leftover fabric because it was too expensive to let go to waste.

Basically, the doll body is a bell shape that is about one and a quarter inches (31.8 millimeters) at the narrowest point, four and a quarter inches (107.32 mm.) where it widens to the shoulders, and five and three quarters inches 146.28 mm.)at the bottom.  (Metric calculations were 1 inch = 25.4 millimeters and rounded up on the last digit.)  This amount includes a quarter inch (31.8 mm.) seam allowance.  The seam is sewn from one side over the top to the other side.  The bottom is left open and is stuffed with polyester fiber fill.  Before stuffing, take the time to clip the curves as close to the stitching as you can get without cutting through the stitching.  If you neglect this step, the fabric will pull and distort in places when it is being stuffed.  I'll get to more about the base in another post.  For the moment, the base is stuffed and the bottom is pinned to hold the fiberfill in place.

Before this post gets any longer, I should say something about the technique for stuffing a doll.  When a doll is stuffed, you want the stuffing to be firm not soft.  You can't just grab a few handfuls of fiberfill and stuff it in.  There are some techniques to stuffing dolls.  The techniques used depend on the size of the doll.  Depending upon size, you want to take a bit or a handful of stuffing and fold it over and over into the tightest ball you can make it.  For a small doll with very tiny tight spaces you will fare better if you clamp the ball of fiberfill with forceps clamps and use the clamps to maneuver the ball into position.  Once the fiberfill is in place, you poke it down as tightly as possible using the flat end of a skewer or chopstick.  (Don't use anything with a sharp pint because it could poke holes in the fabric.)  For a shape the size of this doll body where you can reach your whole hand inside, you will be grabbing as much  fiberfill as you can, then folding it firm and inserting into the body.  After tamping it down with the skewer or chopstick, hold it in place with your other hand or a clothes pin while you are getting the next handful of fiberfill.   The best description of how to know if you have stuffed the doll firmly enough was given in a book some years ago.  I don't remember who wrote it.  The description said that the body or limb should feel like a ripe tomato.  I have never been able to find a better description.  You may also have to roll and knead the piece to help the fiberfill look smooth instead of lumpy.

Anyway, that is about where I am at the doll at this point.  I am sure you have noticed that there are not arms.  I will be blogging on how the arms were made in this coming Sunday's blog post. Normally this would be this Thursday's  blog post, but it has been posted early.  The next post will be on Sunday.