zz. Quirky Decor Dolls: Sonja & Maisey-Jane ・ClearlyHelena

Here they are, the quirky decor dolls. They think they are The quirk of the quirk. They think they are hip. They think you think there are 3 of them. They don’t think so.

Quirky Decor Dolls (CH0357)

There are just 2 of these brash gals: Sonja and Maisey-Jane. (But then, Maisey-Jane has enough personality for two! More of that later ..)

Now it is so much easier .. and fun-ner to make decor dolls than to talk about making them. But I guess I better do that as well. You may not need it but my woosy brain will later on down the line.

Let’s just concentrate on Sonja first. Sonja thinks so too. After all, was she not first-born?

How to Make Decor Dolls

As you can see, decor dolls usually need a head. There are various ways of making a doll head. I will just briefly mention a few.

Doll’s Head

For the doll head, I start off with a core polystyrene ball.

Get some stretchy material (or felt – which is also a bit stretchy).

We want to cut a square from the material. To determine the size, wrap material around the head with 1.5 to 2 inch overlay. These are all approximate of course. That will be the length of one side of the square. Cut the fabric square.

To “stick” the material onto the polystrene ball, you can layer the ball with glue and carefully glue on the fabric as smoothly as possible. Then neatly trim off excess from the sides.

Alternatively after gluing, instead of trimming off excess, you can tie up the “neck” tightly with rubber bands.

I did the latter. But using glue is not my preferred method.

1. It gets very messy.

2. The glue makes it harder to sew (on head) later on, should you wish to do so.

Alternative Doll’s Head

As an alternative, you can also needle felt directly onto the polystyrene ball. It takes longer. It is my preferred method because:

the decor doll has spongy head which makes it easier to embellish
depending on the finest and color of the roving (wool), you can leave as is or easily cover with stretch material. No need to glue down. Just rubber band/tie the neck as per above.

Doll’s Body

If you know me by now, then you know “recycle” is a pleasure word for me. The fabric for the doll’s head is recycled material. Well, it was new. But people chucked it away. And I salvaged it. That’s recycle, no?

And Sonja’s body is definitely recycled. Here I used an empty plastic vinegar bottle. Cut across it.

Note: just make sure that the top straight part of the bottle is longer than than the bottom straight part. Otherwise the top part will just sink in, unladylike, into the bottom section. (Refer to pic below where A is greater than B.)

Stick the top part of bottle into bottom half. Stick in the doll’s head. This is the time to eye your doll-becoming. Is she in the proprotions you want her?

When happy with decor doll’s proportions, securely tape body. But remove the head. The head, if affixed, will just get in the way. Nothing as surreal as working with a headless doll!

Now we need to get some “skin” onto the doll’s body. First the dollie’s bottom.

With WS (wrong side) of fabric facing upwards, trace around bottom of doll’s body. Cut around; leaving seam.

Then apply glue within traced outline. Firmly glue onto bottom of bottle.

Then apply glue to seam.

Smooth glue seam upwards onto sides. Press together excess fabric. These should glue to each other nice and tight. (Tip: smooth done fabric to body as much as possible including right up to where the excess fabric’s “horns” are.)

When glue is dry, neatly trim off “horns” (excess fabric). It should virtually not be visible once it has been trimmed.

To cover main part of decor doll’s body, the easiest way is to use strips of slightly stretchy material. Glue & wrap round the body snugly.

Tip: do not glue all the way. The glue will make it very hard to sew on. Just dots of glue at periodic intervals.

After this, go ahead and embellish and dress up your decor doll however you like.

When the body is almost done, fill weights into the body via the “neck”. (I used glass beads. I have a lot of them. And they make a pleasant sound. No need to fill all the way up. Towards the top, I stuffed in cushion stuffing to prevent the weights from moving around too much and upsetting dollie’s balance.)

And after many hours of dressing, beading, and hair do … all those girly-girly things, Sonja is done.

Sonja has flouncy skirts with sequined flowers. She is randomly beaded (& sewn-on body); spouts a silver rope crochet thick necklace. Has curly to woolly hair. And has been swept away to a new home.

: Quriky Decor Dolls – Sonja (CH0357)

“Split” Decor Doll: Maisey-Jane

Now Maisey-Jane is no ordinary decor doll. If you were unkind, you might say she has split personality. But that would not be strictly true. It is less of a mental condition than it is of a physical condition. The girl can’t help it if she has two faces, can she?