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I have a nibling on the way! Let's make them a doll.
Intro:
Intro:
One of my cousins is expecting her first child, and is having a baby shower in two weeks. I decided to make a special doll to reflect my excitement for her baby.
Considerations for a doll for a baby:
It can't be fluffy, tiny, or in any way a choking hazard. (This WILL get put in their mouth if possible.)
It should be washable/ok with being dribbled on, and durable. (Make out of cotton!)
It should have parts that are easy to grab with small hands. (Things like ears, fins, necks, legs, etc.)
It should be cute and colorful. (So baby and Mama both like it!)
I knew I wanted to do something with scrap cotton fabrics from my stash, but I wasn't sure what. At this point, I googled and discovered that this baby will belong to Generation Beta (who ever heard of such a thing?!). So of course I decided to make a betta fish doll. It would work well in colorful cotton, and I could design the shape to meet the other requirements.
Here's a rough photo blog of the process. I didn't plan this project particularly well, so feel free to take inspiration rather than instruction from what I've shared. The final product photos are at the bottom. :)
I pulled out a selection of fabrics from my stash, and sketched a shape I thought would work.
I colored my sketch to decide which fabrics to use where, keeping in mind that I had a limited supply of most colors.
I sketched the rough shape of the fish on the light purple fabric, wrong side up.
Then I squeezed two of the same shape on the right side of the darker purple fabric.
The three body pieces (disclaimer, I had no idea what I was doing, just winging it).
The top two pieces sewed together fine, mostly
Then I sewed on the bottom piece.
And for some reason this twisted up like crazy. Sewing curves is hard, ok?
I flipped it right side out through the small gap I left, and stuffed it with cotton scraps from my scrap bag.
I sewed up the gap. At this point, it was a little twisty but looked like a workable fish body!
I cut out shapes for the side fins, leaving seam allowance.
I cut out the top fin. At this point I realized that I should have waited to sew the body together until I could include these.
I sewed the sides of the fins together, including a thin layer of cotton batting for extra thickness.
Finally, I made the tail using wedges of fabric.
This is one side, then I did the same again for the other side of the tail, and assembled them with batting in the middle just like the fins.
I quilted the fins, ripped open the seam on the body, and hand-sewed them in with a whip stitch.
Then I did the same for the tail, following the twist of the body.
Finally, I drafted a shape for the face of the fish, constructed two of them exactly like the fins, and hand-sewed them in place, leaving the rounded "gill" shape at the back open so it gapped a bit. I drew on eyes with a sharpie.
Final Result:
Final Result:
Final thoughts:
I am very pleased with this! It meets all my requirements, and I think it's adorable. I asked my three month old niece to product test, and she found it easy to hold, and fun to look at.
What I learned is that you can wing a project like this, as long as you're willing to rip out seams and do some hand sewing to fix your mistakes. I could have done this entire project on machine if I'd planned a bit better or done a mockup first. Overall, I found myself enjoying the twistyness of the final product, as it felt much more fishy than if it had been flat and well-behaved.
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