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How to Make a Baby Doll With a Porcelain Face, Hands & Feet

With the wide assortment of pre-made doll supplies offered in today's craft market, making a baby doll with a porcelain face, hands and feet has never been easier. With moderate sewing skills, or purchased plastic cables, you can assemble a doll in a few hours. Sew the fabric body to the porcelain pieces, or use plastic cables to secure. Whichever you choose, you'll discover that creating a baby doll is not as hard as it may seem.

Things You'll Need

Porcelain doll head with neck flange
Porcelain hands with flange - 2
Porcelain feet with flange - 2
Pre-sewn cloth doll body
Polyester fiberfill
Unsharpened pencil
Needle
Button thread
Scissors

Instructions

- 1
  Thread needle with 48-inches of button thread, knotting ends together.
- 2
  
  The flange is a narrow "gutter" around the doll part for anchoring into the body.
  
  Insert the neck flange of the porcelain doll head into the neck opening of the cloth body. The flange is the "gutter" around the doll pieces that enables you to tighten thread or cables around/through cloth over the doll part. Cloth bodies are available at online retailers, craft and fabric stores.
- 3
  Insert the needle ¼-inch from the neck opening edge through a side seam, and sew two stitches, locking your thread.
- 4
  
  Sew a running stitch around the cloth body opening.
  
  Bring the needle/thread up through the fabric, inserting it back into the fabric approximately ¼-inch from the first stitch. Sew a running stitch around the opening, which is a continuous in-and-out stitch enabling you to pull the thread to gather the fabric. Continue sewing around the neck opening until you return to your starting stitch.
- 5
  Pull the thread, tightening the opening until the fabric closes around the flange. When the opening is tight, sew three stitches through the fabric, locking the gathering around the flange.
- 6
  
  Use an unsharpened pencil to push the fiberfill into the body.
  
  Scoop a handful of fiberfill, and insert it through a leg opening a little at a time. Use the unsharpened pencil to push the stuffing up toward the neck. Continue stuffing the body, arms and legs until the body has a full appearance. Do not over-stuff. If your seams are stretching, remove stuffing to release tension on the seams.
- 7
  Insert a hand flange into the wrist opening of the body. Make sure you have the correct hand in the correct cloth arm. Gather the fabric of the wrist opening around the wrist flange in the same manner you gathered the fabric around the neck flange. Follow the gathering instructions in Steps 3 through 5 to gather the fabric around the wrist flange. Repeat for the other hand.
- 8
  
  Gather the fabric around the flange, and pull the thread tight.
  
  Insert a porcelain foot/ankle flange into the ankle opening. Make sure you have the correct foot in the correct leg. Follow the gathering instructions in Steps 3 through 5 to gather the fabric around the ankle flange.

Dolls