And it’s back to Miss Jolie – lesson 2 today!

If you missed lesson 1 click here.

This is where we left her last week …

Today we need to get her some arms I think – and maybe even a little bit of clothes – I cannot have her sitting around like this … tsk tsk!

I should warn you though – you remember how I thought there might be tears along the way? Well, this is the post where I got very very close to tears (well, not really but if I was ever to get close to tears this is the post where it would happen!)

So let’s hop to it shall we!

I’m sure that thinking through what she’d be wearing would be a smart thing to do BEFORE you start doing a cloth doll but really me – I just do as I go along – which is why you’ll eventually see that the black torso wasn’t needed – I could have saved on the silk and just done a skin tone all the way through – oh well – It taught me a little about sewing silk.

However, I decided (totally on a whim!) that her arms should be red – so I got some red silk out, followed Barbara’s instructions on how to sew the skin tone and the chosen sleeve color together. – Notice how it tells you on the paper cut out where to sew the two fabrics together?

This is where I was being silly first – I didn’t change the thread (which you’ll be able to see when the arm is stuffed!) – and didn’t give the silk enough seam allowance which you’ll see once I start stuffing the arm – it almost ripped (well really it only stayed together by the thinnest of threads!) and I had to hand stitch it to make sure it didn’t break entirely!

I cut the arms out after sewing – as Barbara instructs – and then I turned them!

Love this picture … thumb sticking out!

It was fairly easy turning her arm inside out but look at that – no no no no NOOOO!

I didn’t think to match up the sleeves when I stitched the arms together – dang!!!

Oh well, live and learn … won’t do that again next time. I wasn’t about to redo – I am sure some of you would have – but remember this is my first doll, and I’m just learning how to do her and what NOT to do – or what to remember for next time – this is top of the list at the moment!

Ok – moving on!

Time to draw some “fingers” on those hands – and I’m not sure I told you about my “Purple Pen” but it is brilliant because the ink disappear after a bit of time – so you can draw and not worry about it showing later!

Kudos to whomever thought that one up!

Nice little lines there hey?

And then I hand stitched those lines – and forgot to take a picture … duh … but you can tell in this next picture how I did the stitching – and see that little tiny bit of pipe cleaner lying there smiling at you … well that one needs to find its way into the little finger pocket!

Now – with tools I believe this is a fairly easy process – without tools this is a fairly frustrating process!

I ordered all my tools weeks back and I’m still waiting … but there was no way I was going to sit there looking at these hands for another week or two waiting for tools to arrive so I just did it … this however, is where tears might have been very close to popping out – I contained myself but ten of these little guys … finding their ways into little itty bitty sockets with nothing but my patience and guess-work to where they were inside the hand … “interesting” could be another word used here!

I did it though and I felt relief and a lot of happiness when I was able to bend and form her hand – look at that!

Again – missing tools … because the next thing is to stuff the fingers – around the pipe cleaner. Let me tell you that there is no way in hell that you can do that without these “stuffing forks” that I have no idea what looks like but that I’m waiting desperately for.

After having tried with any tool I could think of – even got out my grandmothers crochet needles – I gave up and decided that Miss Jolie was going to have skinny fingers!!

I mean – if you think of a pipe cleaner – it is slightly hairy isn’t it? – And with them in the pockets she kind of looks like she has nice slim fingers … please tell me you think so too!

I stuffed the hands and arms – I tied her arms by the elbow – kind of what I did with the legs at the knees.

She does have a pipe cleaner in her arm – half under the elbow, half above – so that when tied by the elbow she is now able to bend her arm – very smart and super simple.

Nice hands right?

Well the observant reader would have already noticed that the hands are the least of my worries … did you check out top of the left arm (as you’re looking at it) … again with the no no no no NOOO!

Remember what I said about the seam allowance and not having given it enough as I cut out the arm … well look at that – it is coming apart!

More tears almost ready to pop – still didn’t do it though!

What to do? What to do?

Well I didn’t do anything to the arm yet …

I went and put some clothes on Miss Jolie first – because I was a bit discouraged about the arm bit …

This bit was super easy – cut a rectangle – sew it together, fold it over at about 1.3 cm (see the crease line?)

and then pop it onto Miss Jolie …

Stitch by the shoulders – stitch by the tummy – and “voila” … Miss Jolie now wears a pretty shiny red top!

And then really all that is left to do today is to sew on those arms – and while doing that I just hand stitched the bit that was almost coming apart at the top of that left arm (as we’re looking at it!).

as you can see though – I need to give much more seam allowance because you can see the white stuffing in her arms there on the left …

Annoying – yes, but good in that I won’t forget next time.

Also I will be changing the thread color too. I was being lazy and stayed with the skin tone thread on the red silk (see second photo) … bad idea – I should have used red on the red – these things really matters!

This lesson was a lot more trying than the torso and legs – but I learned a lot more.

And in the end – look at this … she is even cuter with arms.

Also – I’m sure you can tell that it is still daylight – so no wine yet … although I really needed it after those arms!