Homemade African American Cloth Dolls

Homemade Cloth Dolls

• Numerous patterns exist for making cloth dolls. Some patterns require complicated steps with instructions on how to machine sew to sculpt the face. Others offer simpler options with painted faces, employing buttons for eyes. If you do not wish to purchase a pattern, you can make your own simple doll pattern with a pencil and some paper. Butcher's paper works well and comes in large sheets.

  To make your own pattern, simply draw a round or oval shape for the head and attach it with a small neck to a rectangular body. This will be your torso piece. For the arms, draw a longer rectangle, making the width appropriate to an arm width and finish the rectangle with a mitton-like hand. When cutting out the arms, you'll cut out one pair with the pattern one side up then flip it to cut the other hand in the reverse direction. For the legs do another long rectangle, ending it with a sock-like extension for the foot. As with the arms, you'll cut out the legs so the feet mirror each other.

  Use fabric that has the right tone of brown or black you desire for your doll's skin. Cut strips of black yarn for the hair and lay out the strips in a row across the back of the doll's head. Make many of these rows to completely cover the head. Sew down the rows until you have the back covered.

  Sew the doll's head and body together, leaving openings for where you'll insert the legs and arms. Be careful not to catch the yarn in the seam as the yarn will be on the inside for the sewing. When you turn the doll's body inside-out, the hair will be on the back of the head. Sew the legs and arms, leaving openings in the top for stuffing. Turn the limbs inside-out. Stuff the limbs. Stuff the torso. Insert the limbs and sew them into place.

Clothing

• For clothing, your African American doll can wear any clothing you like. If you made your doll to roughly the same size as commercially sold baby dolls or other cloth dolls, you can always buy and use that clothing.

  You might consider making your doll a simple garment reminiscent of traditional African clothing as you can easily find fabric with African designs. Simply make a basic T-garment, a garment that looks like a letter T. The sleeves form the upper part of the tree and the rest coming down forms the dress. Cut out a T (two sides) in your fabric. On one of the sides, cut the neckline to make a V. Sew the shoulders and the two side seams. Make a facing for the neckline and sew it into place. In lieu of a facing, you can use seam binding tape and sew that around the edge to give the neckline a finished look. Turn under the edges of the sleeves and tack them into place. Hem the bottom of the dress.

  You can add a matching headband to your African dress. Use a simple rectangle of fabric to wrap around the doll's head.