This Little Place Here: Easy Gift for Little Girls

Earlier this year, I came across this tutorial for making cloth 'paper dolls'. I thought it looked like a great Christmas present for both K3, who is 3 1/2, and my niece, who turned 4 at the end of September. So I downloaded, then printed off, the templates. And then I thought, what if I made them even simpler, using felt, because honestly, the girls won't care and felt would stick to itself, making the extra sewing of cloth to fusible interfacing and velcro unnecessary. Quicker, cheaper, and for the same level of enjoyment at the preschool age.

So I went and bought several sheets of felt in different colors and even a few with printed designs. Then I got to cutting things out.

For each doll, I cut two of the body pattern, and sewed those together just to make the doll more substantial. I also sewed on the hair, golden blonde for K3 and a dark brown brunette for my niece.

I raided my stash of colored Sharpie markers for the appropriate colors for the eyes, and then drew on the eyes, nose and mouth of each doll.

Then it was time for the fun stuff: making the wardrobe. Basically I just took each piece of colored felt and decided if it should be a dress, a skirt, pants, shorts, a t-shirt or a long sleeved shirt. Then I pinned on the right paper template for that item, and cut it out--in duplicate of course, since I was making two dolls and thus needed two wardrobes.

One particularly large-printed piece of felt I used for nightgowns and slippers.

When I was done 'making' the clothes, I found and purchased a hinged plastic case of the right dimensions to store the clothes and the doll without folding any of them. And voila! an easy gift for the little girls in my life.