Waldorf Doll Making Frenzy

One does not ordinarily associate the words "Waldorf" and "Frenzy" together.

.  However, every holiday season I get wrapped up in making many Waldorf dolls in a short period of time. It isn't because I love dolls; in fact I was definitely a stuffed animal person as a child.  When I had children of my own, I decided that those plastic headed dolls were just too gross and bought Lila a waldorf doll.  Then Aunt Mary made her one.  Then I decided I too could do this...and made six dolls; three for our kids and one for each of my brothers daughters.  Then I thought, hey why not try my hand at this "commercially" and my Etsy shop "Wee Faerie Folk" was born. 

 I do really enjoy making these dolls for the children who receive them.  It is a very personal thing because each doll is custom made to their parents specifications.  They choose the skin tone (with 6 shades to choose from), the hair and eye color, hair texture and length, and favorite colors for clothes.  The dolls are stuffed with clean carded wool that I purchase from a family run mill (I used to use ours but there isn't enough from our one white sheep!).  The hair is mohair, and sometimes is handspun by me.  Last year I had a request for pink hair (she turned out very cute!) which I handspun and dyed.  The skin tone fabric is 100% cotton interloc.  Clothes are made from 100% cotton, though it is hard to find trim that is made from natural materials unfortunately.  Sometimes I find lovely old cotton lace at resale shops which I incorporate into the clothing.

These two dolls were custom made for a woman in Ottawa Ontario who wanted the dolls to look more like babies than toddlers.  The only pattern I have for a babydoll is a button jointed doll and I've found them to be much easier to tear apart than the traditionally sewn doll so I don't make them anymore.  So I needed to modify a pattern I usually use for these two.  I made their limbs and trunk chubbier and their heads slightly larger and rounder so they proportionally look more like babies.

These two dolls went to two sister in British Columbia.  It has been a pink dress kind of year!

This is one of my favorite pink fabrics.

The trim on this dress is some lovely old cotton lace that I scored at a thrift store.  I think I had about twenty yards of it to start with and I paid $2.00 for it.  It is priceless and I only have a few yards left.

I typically do about ten dolls each holiday season, which is just about all I can handle and then sometimes more than I can handle!  I've sent out six already, finishing up two right now, and have two more to go which are being hand delivered locally (fortunately).  Needless to say, I haven't been spending much time at the spinning wheel!