You sew the left arm on, the left arm off...

I have been laid a bit low with bipolar problems, but am feeling a bit better today.

The first thing to say is that I LOVE the Swiss body fabric for Waldorf dolls. At about £15 per metre it isn't cheap, but it is so forgiving. Head, feet and arms have been sewn on, taken off, repositioned, sewn on again...and the fabric isn't damaged.

So, I started by removing the Jelly Baby's head. I then put the nice head in the body cavity and wondered how I could make it work.

Step 1:  Remove the hair

This immediately put things into better proportion, because there really was a LOT of hair.

Step 2:  Take extra wool stuffing out of Jelly Baby's head and be amazed that this little compacted pile

could be fluffed up to this great big tower of loveliness

I do not know how I can have lived this long without sheep wool in this state. It looks, feels and smells wonderful. 

I needed the extra stuffing to improve the body shape and also to give extra neck and shoulder shaping. After 4 - count them, 4 - lots of pinning, stuffing, top sewing and then unpicking, I was finally happy with the way things were looking, other than stunted legs.

Back to the internet. I saw how many doll makers do separate feet, so, voila:

It's hard to tell from this angle, but the feet make the legs a good length.

I found a free pattern for shoes from Little Jenny Wren (her last auction doll went for $1,600!

I also gave my doll little knees.

My next task is to knit a little pinafore which will go over the top of her sewn clothes. The wig will have to wait because I want to watch the episode of The Great British Sewing Bee that I have recorded, and I can do that whilst knitting, but not whilst wig making!