WIP Wednesday October of 2026

 

Making a Felt Dollie

I got myself a doll pattern. One I have been admiring for years. Just look at this cuteness The Den Tree is creating. The Den Tree: Website, Instagram, Etsy. Her dolls are adorable and feel very cryptid in nature. I love it. A sewn felt doll with needle felted hair and polymer clay horns. The pattern even came with instructions and example images. Delightful!♫

I've been wanting a doll for some time now. And over the past few months I've been actually actively looking in to how to get one or how to make one. In the past I've attempted doll sculpting a couple times, but life at that time was erratic and it's hard to keep the consistency you need to learn new skills when nothing is stable. But I've got a lot more stability where I'm at right now, so I've got some space to explore and that's sort of what I've been doing with my designs. But first let's finish talking about this doll I'm working on.

I don't really know much about embroidery & I've never really worked with felt as a fabric. I wasn't sure I would enjoy actually making a felt doll, but so far I have loved every step of it. I've had to stop myself for food, sleep, and managing my hand pain. Almost any time I have free time my brain is like, "Work on dollie?!" The embroidery and the needle felting even feel a little dangerous in the "oh no I have new hobbies" kind of way. I spent a lot of time and effort figuring out exactly which clay to use for the horns. I'll tell you more about that in a bit though. It took some time to get the tools for the needle felting. I picked out a single needle with this really nice wooden handle from another shop on Etsy called GreyFoxFelting. Etsy The handle functions as both a holding container and the handle for a single needle. And I'm very happy with it; I am planning to get more supplies and tools from that shop.

For felting I decided to start with the inside of the ears. I thought it would be the easiest part to replace as if I messed up on an ear I had extra pieces cut out that I could use if I messed up on the head that was a lot of work I would have to redo. It turned out well and I loved it. It was so much fun. Every part of this doll has been so much fun. All of the experiments and all the new skills I'm learning I'm so excited and I have so many ideas bubbling inside of me.

I even figured out how to curl wool yarn with homemade curlers. I took some straws and cut them into pieces half of them left solid and half of them slit up one side so that it easily locked onto the outside of the other. I basically treated the hair the same way I wet curl my own it seems to hold quite well. So we're going to see how that works out. The little dollie has half her hair so far and I still need to sew her limbs onto the body. I am planing to make some buttons for that rather than searching for ones that will work. The last steps will be attaching the head to the body after all the hair is on and then making clothing. 

 

Sheet Ghost

I love making little figurines and earlier this year I worked on a new design. A miniature unicorn planter. I love how it came out, but it was a 4-hour sculpt. Definitely have to plan a day around doing another. In October I thought of making a sheet ghost. I did an initial test of the concept of making a sheet of glow in dark polymer clay and gently pressing and ruffling its edges over some aluminum foil. As a first, and rather slap Dash, attempt it turned out quite well. I needed to get some firmer translucent clay to mix with the soft glow in the dark before I can do my next attempt. I'd also like the next attempt to be a little taller as the initial one was a little stout for my taste. It needed to be just a bit taller. I might also put a small hole in the top so I can hang it with a string and bead inside. Imagine a little Halloween mobile.

Dollhouse Mattress Design

In other designs I have one that I started work on years ago and ended up setting to the side because I had such an awful experience trying to do it. And that's a 1:12 scale mattress. A lot of times in doll houses I've seen the bed mattress is just the foam cushion. Which honestly functions well as a mattress if you're going to cover it with the bedding and won't be displaying it unmade. But I love getting into the details and I really love functionality.Five years ago I drew up a pattern and tried to hand sew it around a cushion I had cut for the project. It wasn't working out and I switched to a stretchy fabric. I managed to finish it, and it was very functional, but I had no desire to do it again.

Part of the problem is that it is much harder to craft while you are contorting yourself to have the work visible to a camera. I do not have a workable set up for that and I don't film all my work anymore. Small clips of filming and a lot of still images along the way. It makes it much easier to fall into the work too.

Sometimes you just got to chunk a project to the back of the closet until you are ready to look at it again. I'm ready to look at it again. I've studied the pattern design of a fitted sheet. Not particularly difficult. I could do it with something like muslin fabric, which I have plenty of. And instead of adding the elastic to the edges as you would to get the sheet to fit as it were. I can attach it instead to a rectangle of canvas; which will make a very sturdy mattressbottom. To be frank this actually seems like a good plan for making a box spring. Most of the mattresses I have seen are reversible. But In a dollhouse you don't really need to flip the mattress
over. The other part of the design plan is that after sewing the mock fitted sheet to fit over the foam innards I will take some simple beads and sew them into the top of the mattress. Through the muslin cover and the foam then back through both to meet the bead again. I wont cinch it all the way. I just want to create a divot and button like you would on tufted mattresses. then after the grid of tufts are in place sew on that canvas bottom.

After working with the felt I am also realizing I could make the mattress with felt and create the edges with a close stitched blanket stitch. Though that level of hand sewing seems like more than I want to do at the moment and I am excited to try the canvas and muslin design.

Carved Pumpkin

I'm rather good at sculpting pumpkins. I've probably been making them for 10 years now. But I'd like to see how far I can push the design. In October I made my first attempts at a carved one. No face, just the top carved off and ready to go back on. Not very well, but it can be put back on. I have a few tricks in my arsenal to make this work. And there are more things I'd like to try.

I'd love if I could get it to look like it is in the process of being carved with seeds and guts. I was thinking I would use embroidery tread to make the stringy guts, but knowing I can wet set curls into wool yarn gives me some ideas to work with.

Horns for Dolls

Let's talk more about the doll I'm working on. The doll, as I said, has horns and I wanted to test out which clay to use to make the horns. Each brand as well as each line behaves a little differently. I was particularly pleased with the initial test that I did in Pardo. It takes a long time to get Pardo conditioned, but once you've got it it is beautiful to work with as long as you don't force or bend it too quickly. And it's translucency is gorgeous. The most translucent on the market.

Then I was very sad to find out from my clay vendor, Poly Clay Play that Viva Decor is no longer shipping to the US. Given the tariffs and the unpredictability of them I'm not particularly surprised. Though I don't know if that's the reason. The particular translucent clay I have isn't available anywhere! ToT I was able to get some of the colored translucents from my clay vendor. So I'm happy about that but sad because I very particularly liked Pardo for the horns.

The next clay I tested was Cernit. Cernit is also very translucent, not as much as Pardo but fairly close. Whereas Pardo translucent is extremely difficult to condition the Cernit translucent was easy to work with immediately, to the point of actually being difficult to sculpt with. I'm sure someone who uses different techniques than I do might find it glorious to work with, but I was getting incredibly frustrated and the parts where the horn was sitting on the surface in the oven is flattened and there are several fingerprints all over it. I will have to do some other tests with Cernit to see how I like it as I don't remember the doll clay being that soft.

I also did a color test for Premo in the two different translucent colors they have as well as Fimo. Fimo was rather nice to work with the color is very nice it's not as translucent as the Pardo but I did like the color and how it held up to my particular sculpting techniques.

When it came to the color test on the Premos I made a tragic mistake I had to move them and I had had them labeled and I picked them up thinking that I would remember which was which. I did not remember which was which. Immediately lost track of which color was which and it was too difficult at that time to tell them apart. I will do the test again at a later time.

Now in these initial tests I was most definitely biased. I was looking for what clay I wanted to use for the doll I was working with and I was very particularly attached to the look and texture and quality of the that initial Pardo test. However I'm not going to be able to get more Pardo until they start shipping to the US again or I somehow move to a country where they do ship. So I'm going to have to play with the different materials to see what I'd like to use going forward. Because some of them like the Fimo worked very well. And I did a failed color test for the Premo, but didn't actually sculpt horns. I have sculpted a lot with Premo though. Most of my snailsare made with it. But yeah, more tests are in order. Horns are kind of fun. I might try making antlers too.

Pattern Scale

So the felt doll I am making is from a pattern right? I have a question. Now in these initial tests I was most definitely biased I was looking for what clay I wanted to use for the doll I was working with and it was very particularly attached to the look and texture and quality of the that those initial Pardo tests. However I'm not going to be able to get more part of until they start shipping to the US again or I somehow move to a country where they do ship. So I'm not to play with the different materials to see what I'd like to use going forward. Because some of them like the female worked very well I can see using those and I did a color test for the Premo but didn't actually sculpt some horns. There was definitely sculpt all the things out of Premo. So I will have to do more tests to see what I'd like to make horns out of going forward because I do rather like making the horns and have some ideas to try and make antlers too.

 Okay, remember that doll I was talking about that I'm working on? The one with the pattern from the den tree? I have a question. I want to know if I can sew that same pattern at 1:12 scale. And for what it's worth I've already printed it at the scale I would need. It wasn't hard to run the numbers. I did an initial number run based off the size estimates before I had much of the doll made and then I ran an additional set of numbers after I had enough of the doll made that I knew for certain how tall they were going to be. 70%. I just need to print the pattern at 70%. But the question is does it work at 70% scale? As I'm still working on the hair of the initial doll I haven't gone any further, but I have all of these delightful ideas kicking around in my head that all hinge on if I can sew the pattern at 1:12 scale. A five to six inch doll. Perfect for a dollhouse.

I have a lot of ideas bouncing around in my head. Different kinds of horns or even switching out the head shape for something different. I've already started playing with possible limb shapes. But like I said it all hinges on if it even works at that scale. So I can't do too much until I do that initial test. And I don't want to get too far into it while I'm still actively working on this doll.

New Hobbies That Work with my Current Ones

Well. . . I have some new hobbies. I'm very interested in making dolls, especially if I can make them for the room boxes that I like to design and build. I would no longer just be asking myself who lives in this place I would be able to make a creature or person who lives in that place. I've seen people talk about rooting hair in dolls and a lot of the particulars seem unfun, but this felt method I am very much delighting in. I think I am comforted, more so than distressed by the fact that I now have new hobbies, because they slot so well into the ones I already have. It's just a larger more expansive hobby. I'd like to see where these hobbies go and how they evolve. But for now that's all. I hope you're doing well. I hope you're having fun. Tata.